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
Her church was the first to call.
“She’s forgetting things.”
It was sort of blamey, at least that’s how I took it — me, one of two sons, 22 hours away. Or two flights and a long shuttle ride, which has to be coordinated ahead of time.
The last time I we… Read more...
“Hey, just checking in. How you doing?”
Man.
So few words, so much impact.
So much love around you in an instant.
Whether you’re good or not so good, you feel seen, remembered, and held.
And if you haven’t gotten one of these sweet sweet checkins in a while, th… Read more...
What if Love was actually Science…
…Our minds subconsciously and frenetically working to line up our own idiosyncracies and aspirations with those of another, resulting in an explosive neuro-chemical overload, caffeinated synapses, an emergency signal to the body to br… Read more...
I was just about to sit down and look up the latest political nightmare when I got the text I’d been waiting for.
“Okay. We’re back.”
I threw on my shoes and ran down my steps. As I hit the sidewalk and saw their dusty car sticking halfway out of the garage … Read more...
Nothing can amplify or transform a mood like music.
John Coltrane can lull you into a trance. Taylor and Olivia can help you feel less alone. Nirvana and Alice in Chains can work you through a bout of angst you can’t shake. Michael Franti can turn a tired day in the hammock … Read more...
We were deep into it; I was talking with my hands, sitting there at our wobbly table on the sidewalk amongst the other wine drinkers at dusk.
Three young women, no more than 20, with hip, baggy clothing and patches of skin showing here and there, approached our table, one of them … Read more...
He preferred to fish from the shore, his toes in the mud, the whole of the lake in front of him. His rod didn’t change much over the years. And why would it? He was the best fisherman in town, perhaps the country.
Then came the nets.
The first one pulled out thousands of fish… Read more...
Perhaps the goal shouldn’t be to have more happy thoughts.
Instead, maybe we should aim to hold onto our unhappy thoughts a little less tightly.
Self-criticism is necessary for growth and transformation. It’s a genetic tool to keep us evolving. But we often forget that … Read more...
I finally got rid of my college anxiety dreams, the ones where I can’t find my class on the first day, or where I lose my schedule and don’t know where to go, or how I failed to realize I enrolled in a class and still had to sit for the final exam…
It was hard to… Read more...
I often say inappropriate things. I can baffle and offend. I confuse people.
My mind skips around. I connect strange dots. It’s a blessing and curse.
To be odd and unexpected.
Still, I speak freely. Less analysis upfront means less stress in conversations and more brain power … Read more...