"Boss Lady" by Jason Kotecki. 6" x 8". Oil on canvas. Original is SOLD. Limited edition canvas prints available here. This little bird is the boss, but I’m not talking about her title. I’m talking about her attitude, her fabulousness, and the way this winged wonder enters a room like she owns the whole building. You might be surprised to learn that she wasn’t always this way. She was shy, not all that confident, and cared way too much about what other people thought. She was a bird who blended in. Oh, she wanted to be bold, chase her dreams with unabashed determination, and let the birdseed fall where it may. But she wasn’t sure how. She wasn’t certain that she had it in her. Then she bought these glasses. As you can imagine, she gets lots of compliments on them, but she doesn’t wear them for the attention. She wears them for herself. While wearing them, she somehow feels more fun and adventurous, like a bird who doesn’t back down from fear, a bird proud of who she …
Enjoy the Climb
"Enjoy the Climb" by Jason Kotecki. 16" x 20". Oil on canvas. Original is SOLD. Prints available here. If you were to place your nose really close to this canvas and focus only on one of the goats, what would you see? A mountain goat on a snowy mountain. The environment around them is boring, plain, cold, and possibly treacherous. I was reading some old journals the other day. I was struck by how concerned I was about details of projects and initiatives that are no longer relevant to our current business model. Problems that needed to be solved, or else! Pitfalls that seemed like backbreakers. At first, I felt disappointment that I had wasted so much time on things that in the end, didn’t matter at all. But then I realized, that’s how life works. You struggle through, doing the best you can with the information you have. And hopefully, you learn from your mistakes, grow, and move forward. I realized that in ten years, a review of the journal I wrote this morning will probably …
Why You Shouldn’t Throw in the Towel Just Yet
When kids start to talk, they’re bad. Like, really awful. They’re mostly unintelligible and can’t even string more than two syllables together. Compared to a great orator like Martin Luther King, Jr., they should be ashamed of themselves. But they’re not. A grown-up sure would be, though. We chastise ourselves all the time for not being good enough. If someone sees our feeble efforts, we apologize profusely. Not kids. They just keep on going. Part of the reason we struggle so much with learning a new skill or implementing a new system is because we know what mastery feels like. We’re pretty good at doing it the way we’ve always done it, thank you very much. At the start of this year, I took the plunge into Bullet Journaling. It’s a system created by Ryder Carroll that has been embraced by people all over the world. Its biggest feature is that it eschews digital tools in favor of a good ol' analog notebook and pen. I decided to experiment with it for a few reasons. It …
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Hippoposterous!
"Hippoposterous" by Jason Kotecki. 20" x 20". Oil on canvas. Original is SOLD. Prints available here. This is a tiny hippo in a bowl of Froot Loops. Or is it a normal-sized hippo in a giant bowl of Froot Loops? I don’t remember. Either way, it’s preposterous. Most serious people don’t have time for the preposterous. They have much more important things to concern themselves with. Of course, there’s a good chance that these people are also riddled with Adultitis, make terrible leaders, and will never change the world. Consider the smartphone. It is a device on which you can look up any fact in the world or talk to your friend on the other side of the planet via video. And you can use it to order a hundred melon ballers that will arrive at your door by tomorrow. Just think of all the elements at play that make this thing work: microchips. The internet. Wi-Fi. Facial recognition. Speech recognition. Rechargeable battery. Unbreakable glass. (Oh, wait…) Now, imagine …
Tami Schroeder, January 2019 Adultitis Fighter of the Month
An Adultitis Fighter is someone who rallies against rules that don't exist and engages in ruthless, senseless acts of silliness that undermine Adultitis and its unadventurous version of adulthood. Once a month, we shine a light upon the most remarkable among us, holding them up as a dazzling example of what we should strive for in this epic battle against a formidable enemy. If you’re looking for a “Professional Adultitis Fighter,” look no further. You’ve found her – Tami Schroeder. Tami makes people happy for a living...talk about Adultitis-fighting! Yes, a summer job sculpting balloons turned into enrolling in the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown College, and then eventually touring the country with this world-famous circus. When the circus adventure came to an end, she decided to start her own award-winning family entertainment business called Funny Faces Children’s Entertainment, where she specializes in delighting people of all ages, giving them fun and creative ways …
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How to Use Your Imagination to Beat Fear
"The Greatest Showman" by Jason Kotecki. 16" x 20". Oil on canvas. Original is SOLD. Prints available here. The absence of fear is not bravery. The absence of fear is a terrible life. If you stay exactly where you are, and never try anything new, you may be able to avoid fear. Maybe. If you want your life to matter, however, fear comes with the territory. You’re going to have to figure out how to tame it. The good news is that our fear is never as ferocious as we make it out to be. Most adults don’t consider themselves to have a robust imagination; that's the realm of children and fairy tales. However, there is one aspect where most adults actually have an over-active imagination, and that’s when it comes to our fears. It doesn’t require any effort at all to picture our portfolio going belly up, our project crashing and burning, or ending up penniless, homeless, and living in a van down by the river while eating Spam out of a can. We can picture all of these things …
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Willing to Relocate
"Willing to Relocate" by Jason Kotecki. 24" x 24". Oil on canvas. Original is SOLD. Prints available here. When Kim and I decided to move to Madison after we got married, neither of us had jobs, or job prospects for that matter. I’m sure some people thought we were crazy. Kim and I didn’t have to leave home. It was fine and it offered opportunity. But we wanted an adventure to call our own, and suspected that the life we wanted to live would require a change of scenery. And so we were willing to relocate. We had to leave behind that which was familiar in order to grow into who we were meant to become. We picked Madison, but in our case, the need to move away from our comfort zone was more important than the actual location itself. Sometimes we have to be willing to relocate in order to make our dreams come true. Of course, that might mean moving across town, or across the country. But it might mean moving into a different group of friends. It might mean moving …
Leap
"Leap" by Jason Kotecki. 20" x 16". Oil on canvas. Original is SOLD. Prints available here. Why is it that so many of the people who have found success in America are first-generation immigrants? One big reason is that many of them came from a place that is not so great. They saw America as the Land of Opportunity and they pursued it with a definitive focus and relentless persistence. They were willing to leap from the known to the unknown. A big reason people don’t chase their dream is because where they are now isn’t half bad. They give up the dream and settle for the dreamsicle. A dreamsicle is sweet and alluring and very tempting. It’s the option most people go for, with its safety, comfortability and surface-level perks. Because of that, you wonder if you’re crazy to even consider abandoning it. The dreamsicle is the lifestyle that ensures you need to keep your current job for as long as possible. It’s the boyfriend who checks all the boxes except for the one …
Dan Paulsrud, December 2018 Adultitis Fighter of the Month
An Adultitis Fighter is someone who rallies against rules that don't exist and engages in ruthless, senseless acts of silliness that undermine Adultitis and its unadventurous version of adulthood. Once a month, we shine a light upon the most remarkable among us, holding them up as a dazzling example of what we should strive for in this epic battle against a formidable enemy. If Dan Paulsrud were a Care Bear, he would be a wonderful mashup of Funshine, Tenderheart and Harmony Bear. He has a playful, kind heart and it shines through the minute you meet him and see his generous smile. His childlike approach to adulthood is a gift to those around him and undoubtedly impactful and contagious. His personal journey of changing his career 15 years in is a courageous example of wisdom that many do not learn until much later in life. He is a leader in this movement and many are inspired by his intentional and harmonious approach to fun and family. In recognition of their efforts, Adultitis …
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Thoughts On Missing Loved Ones During the Holidays
In my book Penguins Can’t Fly, I wrote about the story of a young man I knew who had leukemia, and how his family and friends moved up Christmas a few months so he’d be able to celebrate his favorite holiday one more time. Well, unbeknownst to me, one of my speaking colleagues was good friends with Kevin’s mom. One day, shortly after the book came out, my colleague read her the passage in my book. Through the tears, Kevin’s mother expressed her great joy in finally have something new to share about her son. “My friends are always telling me new things about their kids," she said. "How they graduated with honors, got married, had their first child. I never had anything new to share. Now I do.” The other thing this mother told my friend was how sad she was that no one ever brought up Kevin in conversation. Oh, she knew it was because they were being sensitive and didn’t want to upset her. “What they don’t realize,” she explained, “Is that I want to talk about my son. I want to …
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