Are you getting everything you can out of this life?
A self-less, feel-good blog about love, life, and work by career coach and existential adventurer, Cliff Flamer
I tend to wake up with a song in my head. Usually a pop song. Not a slow one, a fast one usually. I bop my head to it while I go to the bathroom.
I wonder what it’d be like to sing it out loud. I’m thinking it would perfect, like filling a glass of fruit punch all the … Read more...
An ex-girlfriend once said to me that my voice makes her want to lie down.
(I guess that can be taken several ways.)
From what I can tell, she meant my voice relaxes her.
Total compliment.
But there are drawbacks to eliciting relaxation. I notice sometimes when I talk to people, they… Read more...
Are we innately driven to be kind? Or do we have to work at it?
Is kindness linked to some greater purpose or is it just another goal.
Why am I so obsessed with it?
Where did it come from?
My parents are certainly kind. My mom was a nurse, not just in profession but in her heart. She… Read more...
Me and my friend Jesse had some pretty awesome adventures in Europe in our twenties.
Probably one of the best moments was sneaking into The Most Elite Club in Denmark. That’s how it was described in our travel book.
The Most Elite Club in Denmark. Don’t even try to get … Read more...
My daughter calls it “Talking about the world.”
Daddy, can we talk about the world?
This means she wants me to pick something she doesn’t know about and explain it to her. And she doesn’t want kid things. She wants adult things. It started when I needed to e… Read more...
My dad is black and I’m mixed race but I look white, which, I’ve come to realize, means I’m not really black. If you’re a mix of things and wondering what you are, just look at the way the world holds you…
(If that’s too obtuse, think of the cos… Read more...
I arrived to pick up my daughter at after-school-care at 6 on the dot, which means Hazel was the last kid left. She was cleaning off the tables with the 3 teachers. It was a peaceful scene, a real contradiction to my own hurried state.
The program coordinator stopped her sponging … Read more...
I’ve always struggled with telling my kids about Santa Claus. I have to look away when I answer their questions, and I try to layer in at least a shred of truth.
I don’t know how he does it. I guess it’s magic.
I’m not thrilled about this.
It’s the only… Read more...
I listened to a 15-minute podcast yesterday about two men hugging in a hallway.
They’d both lost their moms.
One was a young man, a high school student who had shut himself down in every way. The other was a football coach who “didn’t normally do that sort of thin… Read more...
I’m a pretty chill guy, but one place I always lose my shit — where I literally end up shouting at the top of my lungs at a decibel that makes my daughter cry — is when I’m on a call with a customer service agent.
It’s my Achilles heel.
Try as I might,… Read more...