Are you getting everything you can out of this life?
An insightful, feel-good blog about work, life, and the elusive balance between the two, by career counselor, award-winning resume writer, and existential adventurer, Cliff Flamer
I meditated so deeply today that my body disappeared.
And I floated up out of my chair, up out of my office, leaving that small square of darkness behind. As I floated up I could see all the rooms, my daughters sleeping, my wife shifting in our bed, the dog by the window, the empt… Read more...
Humans are strange. Our way of dealing with stress is to summon more of it.
When we’re caught in a tough situation or we get a cold or our luck is different than usual, we tend to say something like:
“This kind of stuff doesn’t happen to me…”
“I&#… Read more...
It’s okay that you’re tired at the end of the day.
You’ve worked hard. It takes a lot. Mentally. Physically.
You’re human!
Up and down is our way forward.
Just because you’re tired, doesn’t mean you have to rethink your life.
Instead, when you recog… Read more...
Us older folks have the advantage in life:
We’re closer to death.
Nothing creates a desire to live fully like Fear of Death. You can ponder this idea in your younger years but until you circle the sun enough to feel it in your body, Fear of Death can’t go to work for yo… Read more...
I wake up with my throat on fire, my body and eyelids heavy.
My phone beeps with bad news, it’s still dark outside, exhaustion balled up in my chest like compacted cement, layers formed across months.
I get up only because I know it will be harder if I don’t.
So heavy, s… Read more...
You’ve been diving in the same place for a while now.
With time, you’ve collected the prettiest of all the rocks. You keep them underwater because you don’t like how they look above the surface.
Your rock pile.
Each day, when you submerge, you notice (and have come… Read more...
I’m the hero of my dreams.
I’m talking about anxiety dreams, the ones we all have and talk about in the waking world. You know the ones…
The naked-in-public dream: I beat that one by giving up the search for clothes and just being naked. Fuck it. I even started to… Read more...
It took a while, but it came.
I thought I was immune, but no one is.
There is a tree with thick, knuckly roots driving into the soft green earth. Its branches do all sorts of interesting things: hold nests and tire swings, block the hot sun, reach into other trees, click against on… Read more...
We talk big when we’re trying to convince someone of something. Big words, long sentences. Multiple paragraphs.
The other day, I was talking with a friend of a friend about something important — national politics or smog or something. We were both taking turns making o… Read more...
I had a dream where I got robbed.
It was a clever plan. I was the only one home and they lured me into the driveway, then one of them went into the house and took stuff. It seemed to happen so quickly.
They left with only my food – frozen bags of things, some fruit, one of t… Read more...