These are challenging times. Many of us are living, working, and creating in unexpected, new ways. With a third of Americans now showing signs or clinical anxiety or depression according to the Census Bureau, it’s more important than ever to work and play and rest in ways that fill us up. Last week, I proposed lowering your standards. Today, I … Read More
Pandemic productivity hack #1: Lower your standards
Life has changed for many of us—rapidly and radically. You may be overwhelmed by grief, facing unexpected swaths of free time, or consumed with far greater demands of family and work. Whatever your life is like today, chances are good there’s something new to solve. Your old systems and strategies may not apply. And whoever you thought you were just … Read More
The Art of Asking for It
There’s so much in life that’s out of our hands. One variable we are (mostly) in charge of is ourselves. If you want to turn what stalls you into what accelerates you, adjusting your attitude and approach can take you there. Let’s start with something you are likely to have plenty of: dissatisfaction. Most of us express our dissatisfaction by … Read More
What is your one, true thing?
A few years ago, I was presenting to a community of writers. A woman asked, “I have 12 projects, I’m overwhelmed, and I don’t know what I should be working on at any given time. What should I do?” “That’s what the middle of the night is for!” I joked in response. I knew then from my own experience that … Read More
Yes, no, and what really matters
It’s that time time of year when many of us are reckoning with how 2016 went down while also anticipating what 2017 will be. Here at Sage Headquarters, I’m appreciating a practice I’ve adopted this year that makes this process a bit more streamlined than usual. It started like this. When I turned 47 this year, I promised myself that … Read More
There is a crack in everything
I believe we don’t live in our lives; we live in the stories we tell about our lives. What happened is far less significant than how we interpret what it means to us—and how this leads us forward. Which is why I have dedicated a lifetime to studying the possibilities of language, poem, and story. One of my great teachers … Read More
Gerri Ravyn Stanfield on story medicine and revolutionary healing
I first discovered Gerri Ravyn Stanfield when a friend forwarded her newsletter to me. Poems are my medicine, and I felt inhaled by the poem Ravyn had shared–and then breathed back into the world more awake, more aware, more myself. This led me to acupuncture treatment with Ravyn, through which we restored some of my core stories and foundational strengths. Ravyn … Read More
Mantu Joshi on writing and living fierce
Mantu Joshi wrote me in 2014 to tell me that my book The Productive Writer had helped him believe he could write a book. In two hours a week for two years, he wrote that book. And now it was published. He invited me to his book launch reading for The Resilient Parent, which happened to be in my city. I attended. I wept through the entire reading. This … Read More
Raise your set point
How would you act if you were sure you deserved the writing life you want? I ask this question in a chapter titled “You’re Worth It” in Fierce on the Page, my latest book from Writer’s Digest Books. In it, I propose that if you don’t think you deserve success, it doesn’t matter how many great productivity strategies you’ve tried. … Read More
Honor every completion
We all recognize that a project or goal is complete when we cross the finish line. And I love breaking through those big ribbons of ultimate triumph as much as the next person. But I think when we are intent on that Big Finish, we can lose sight of all of the Little Finishes along the way. I believe this … Read More