Published inForge·Feb 18, 2020Member-only3 Ways to Set Boundaries Around Your CreativitySaying yes to your best work means saying no to others, including your pesky inner critic — If you’re someone who does creative work, unless it’s bringing in a reasonable paycheck, you probably treat it like a hobby. Is it really a big deal if you didn’t write today? Your family needed clean laundry. So what if you didn’t paint this afternoon? Your sister called to vent…Creativity5 min readCreativity5 min read
Feb 4, 2020The Next Right ThingA Two-Second Mindfulness Trick To Battle Writer Overwhelm Like anyone who juggles multiple roles in a given day — author to coach to wife to teacher and back again — I’ve got a lot on, and it’d be pretty easy to feel overwhelmed. Our super computer brains are revving and…Writing3 min readWriting3 min read
Jan 30, 2020Creative Transformation Through MeditationThis writer goes from Meditation Skeptic to Mindfulness Evangelist The writing life is hard. (And beautiful, expansive, wondrous — all the good things, yes, but right now I want to talk about why it’s hard. Bahhumbug). I’m a Californian by birth, a New Yorker by soul. Meaning, I’ve always been…Writing5 min readWriting5 min read
Published inForge·Jan 28, 2020Member-onlyHow to Grab a Seat at Your Industry’s Table (Even If You Were Never Invited)While the guest list is rigged, you still belong — So you want to be in the room where it happens. Maybe that room is your firm’s conference suite, where you envision yourself sitting at the head of the table as the lead on a major project. Or perhaps it’s an Olympic soccer field, a stage at Lincoln Center, or…Work4 min readWork4 min read
Published inForge·Nov 6, 2019Member-onlyWhy You Feel So Unsettled When Your Big Dream Comes TrueIt comes down to how you manage your expectations — “If I could publish just one book, I’ll die happy.” This was my mantra for most of my adult life, and a good part of my adolescence, too. It’s what kept me going through years of rejection, failure, and those dark stretches when I considered throwing in the towel on…Life Lessons5 min readLife Lessons5 min read
Sep 19, 2019What A Big 5 Publisher Will Tell You About Marketing Your Book(But you probably have to ask.) I confess: I’m using my debut author husband as a guinea pig. His first book just came out this summer: my eighth book comes out next April. Since I had to learn the publishing ropes myself — and made a lot of mistakes on…Writing10 min readWriting10 min read
Sep 10, 2019Hurt InkIf you want to write the hard stuff, write for children. I want to talk about hurt. How many of you write for children or teens (or both) because you were hurt as a kid? Because those wounds from so long ago still hurt? Or because you see the hurt so many teens and children endure, a hurt that is so…Mental Health5 min readMental Health5 min read
Sep 3, 2019The World Doesn’t Need Another WriterIf you need permission to quit, consider it given. — Whenever I encounter a student or client who needs me to hold their hand and walk them to the page, someone who views the act of writing as artistic waterboarding, I will at some point say these magic words to them: You don’t have to be a writer. The response is crickets, because it’s pretty much the…Writing7 min readWriting7 min read
Aug 30, 2019Creating From Stillness“Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.” – Khalil Gibran, The Prophet The sound and fury of our modern world can sometimes make writing impossible. As if our phones and the constant streaming music and just one more video to watch on YouTube isn’t…Meditation4 min readMeditation4 min read
Aug 29, 2019Are You A Fraud Coach?Coaching is the Wild West of the self-development industry, making it easier than ever for dreamers to get taken advantage of. A friend of mine, meditation teacher Liza Kindred, threw a quote up on Twitter that got me thinking about many of the coaches I’ve been encountering these days: “If…Coaching5 min readCoaching5 min read
