You & Improved

I recently gave the most nerve-wracking talk of my life. It was in front of my peers, at the national conference for professional speakers. It's sort of like performing open-heart surgery on another heart surgeon while hundreds and hundreds of other heart surgeons watch.In other words, tough crowd.At my first convention fifteen years earlier, I was awestruck by the speakers on the main stage. They were polished, poised, and really, really good. I decided then and there I wanted to be on that stage someday.This past July, I had my chance.The theme was Radical Relevance, and Kim and I were …

[Read more...] about The Best Way to Deal with Your Worst-Case Scenario

Long before COVID-19 emerged on the scene like poop in a punchbowl, there was another pandemic that had taken hold of our society. The pandemic of loneliness. We are supposedly more connected than ever, with the little internet-enabled devices we carry with us everywhere. And yet loneliness, depression, and suicide are at all-time highs. Kim and I noticed this phenomenon well before COVID, but the pandemic has exacerbated the problem bigly. This leads me to think about the connection between two seemingly unrelated movies that came out the same year: the wonderfully uplifting A …

[Read more...] about Combating the Pandemic of Loneliness

It’s a natural human tendency to compare ourselves to others, especially to people who are in the same field we’re in. Comparison isn’t necessarily a bad thing if it leads us to discover areas where we can improve. But when it shifts into envy or jealousy, that’s a problem.  I often attend the annual convention for the National Speakers Association. I always have to brace myself for the “must be nice” game. In the speaker world, it goes like this: Of course he gets booked all the time, he’s a former NBA player. Must be nice.  She’s got so many connections from working all …

[Read more...] about What’s Your Must Be Nice?

If you wear dress socks to a Zoom meeting.If you think the dictionary should be made into a movie.If you were disappointed to learn that Fifty Shades of Gray was NOT a home decor manual.These are signs that you might have Adultitis. We like to have fun with it, but Adultitis is no joke. No one would willingly drink poison guaranteed to destroy their health, strain their relationships, and sap the joy from their life. But that's exactly what Adultitis does, and yet, most adults are infected with some form of it. Why? How do we get stuck in its vile clutches when it's obviously preferred to …

[Read more...] about Why We Fall Prey to Adultitis

This is not a medieval torture device. But it is one of my favorite new studio tools. It has one job, and that's to squeeze all the paint from the tube. And it does it very well. After using it a few times, I can finally rest assured that from this day forth, I will get my money's worth out of every tube of paint I buy.A flattened, used-up paint tube is quite a contrast to a fresh one.There is something about brand new tubes of paint that makes artists giddy. Fresh and unspoiled, they are loaded with potential and brimming with exhilarating possibilities.On the other hand, the used-up tube …

[Read more...] about The Fears and Aspirations of a Paint Tube