You & Improved

- - - | written by Jason on 3/15/2020 | - - -

From March Madness to Cornovirus Craziness

Do you see them?I’m not talking about the side effects of the havoc wrought by COVID-19, aka the Coronavirus. Of course you’re seeing them; they're easy to spot: the cancellations, the economic upheaval, the scarcity of toilet paper. Adultitis is at an all-time high, spurred on by fear and uncertainty the likes of which I haven’t experienced since 9/11, almost two decades ago. I’m asking you to look a little more closely. Do you see the helpers? Fred Rogers is famous for saying, "When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. …

- - - | written by Jason on 3/8/2020 | - - -

How to Bigify Your Life

We didn’t see them at first, because they were the same size and color as the stones. But then some of those stones started moving. First one, then seven, then hundreds.We were vacationing in the Pacific Northwest, renting a home on Discovery Bay, and the rocky shoreline was covered with a thousand small tiny crabs.The kids were fascinated, by the crabs, and by the fact that the shoreline itself seemed to grow and shrink throughout the day. And it was, because even though it looked like one of the lakes we are accustomed to here in Wisconsin, the bay was connected to the nearby ocean, and the …

- - - | written by Jason on 1/26/2020 | - - -

Time Machines Are Real (and How to Make Them)

Last November I took a retreat at a monastery. I brought a box of old journals, some almost twenty-five years old, and read through them. I jotted down things that struck me. I call it "reverse journaling," although I’m not sure that's the best name. It’s basically journaling about what I’ve journaled before. Pretty meta, I know.But surprisingly useful.People say there’s no such thing as time machines. I don’t know about that. Re-reading my old journals brought me back in time to events and feelings I’d long forgotten. And I uncovered a few instances where my past self had written insights …

- - - | written by Jason on 1/19/2020 | - - -

How to Change the World

Over the holiday break, my family bought a cow, two goats, and four chickens. No partridge, but we did also buy a fruit tree. In what has quickly become my new favorite tradition, after a turkey dinner on New Year’s Eve, my family sat around the table to discuss how we’d spend money we’d be donating to Compassion International. When we started our business twenty years ago, I knew I wanted it to have a charitable component. Most companies give from their profits. I didn’t know how long it would take us to be profitable (spoiler alert: seven years!), so I came up with a different plan. …

- - - | written by Jason on 1/12/2020 | - - -

How Weird is Too Weird?

Many fruits have a similar vibe. You get some variations in color and texture, but "round" is pretty much the regular shape. Even the tomato, which I grew up being taught was a vegetable, wants to get in with the fruit group. And upon a quick glance, we say, “Sure, whatever, you seem to fit the description." And then there’s the pineapple. Compared to most fruits, pineapples are weird. Unfortunately, weird isn’t usually a compliment. Before I take the stage for a speech, at the very end of my introduction, there is a passage that talks about me "spending time with my beautiful …

- - - | written by Jason on 1/5/2020 | - - -

Here Goes Something

“Here goes nothing.” It’s a phrase we often use when we’re not sure how something will turn out. In fact, since it tends to come from a sense of desperation, we use it to admit that there’s a pretty good chance of it not working. It’s our little way of softening the psychological blow of failing. It makes me think of the pass play in football referred to as a “Hail Mary.” The team with the ball is losing, and time has nearly expired. They need a touchdown but they’re so far from the goal line that their only hope is to launch a long pass into a sea of waiting defenders. It’s a …

- - - | written by Jason on 12/29/2019 | - - -

Why You Need More Cowbell

This video is a collaboration I did with American Family Insurance about 3 rules you should totally break if you are serious about achieving your dreams. Inspired by my book, A Chance of Awesome: How Changing the Way You See Changes Everything. In the early 2000s, a comedy skit turned the phrase “more cowbell” into a cultural phenomenon. And although it’s considered comedy gold, it’s also a good metaphor for looking at things from a different perspective. …

- - - | written by Jason on 12/20/2019 | - - -

3 Rules You’ll Need to Break to Achieve Your Dreams

This video is a collaboration I did with American Family Insurance about 3 rules you should totally break if you are serious about achieving your dreams. Inspired by my book, Penguins Can't Fly +39 Other Rules That Don't Exist. Although a little bit of structure is good when it comes to planning out your future and working towards your goals, certain ‘rules’ can hold us back. Think about it, who says you have to go about your life a certain way? Who says following the rules is the recipe for success? Remember, everything is impossible…until it’s not. …

- - - | written by Jason on 12/15/2019 | - - -

Outgrowing Our Sense of Wonder

Remember alphabet soup? I ask you to remember because the last time you had it probably wasn’t yesterday, or last week. It may have been a decade or four. Something about alphabet soup brings out a sense of wonder and curiosity in us as kids. We stir it around to see if any secret messages emerge randomly, like a vegetable fueled Ouiji board. We use our spoon to carefully arrange our own words, spell our name, a simple sentence, or maybe a dirty word...Just me? But then we outgrow alphabet soup. Why? Are we afraid our sophistication will be challenged? That we’ll be considered …

- - - | written by Jason on 12/8/2019 | - - -

Hope in the Desert

When Kim and I started this adventure, we were optimistic. Very. When we decided to abandon my career as a freelance illustrator and designer, we felt very strongly that my comic strip Kim & Jason was going to hit the big time. We planned to live on Kim’s kindergarten teaching salary, which we knew would require sacrifice, but we were fairly certain that within a year, Kim & Jason would take the world by storm and we’d be exchanging phone calls with Oprah and her people. We had no idea it would take five years before we’d be able to earn a living with our …

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