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
Why is HAPPINESS so hard to obtain when it’s the thing we all want in life?
There’s no shortage of it and we have the gift of free will to track it down and put it in our pocket, yet most of us don’t get the experience of emptying it out onto our nightstand at th… Read more...
I’ve gotten better at rejection.
I realized this last night when I poured my cocktail down the sink. I’d spent a while making it but it didn’t taste right and, over the course of stirring and sipping, I guess I realized I didn’t want to be hungover the next… Read more...
My client mentioned she is good at having difficult conversations, and that this is something that makes her a good leader. A lot of people I work with say this.
It’s not so hard to be part of a difficult conversation if you’re the person in power – the boss, the… Read more...
When I’m sick I have what I call “Bare Minimum Days.” This means I set out to do just the bare minimum to get through the day: eat, sleep, poop, email, and 1 or 2 phone calls – the bare minimum amount of work possible to keep my life from running off the … Read more...
Transitions are hard.
Like a trapeze artist suspended in the air, immediately after letting go of one bar and reaching for another, it’s a matter of time before we start to fall.
It’s scary. Take away that second bar and it becomes downright terrifying, which is often w… Read more...
The smartest person in the room is the one who is talking the least.
It’s a simple calculus:
Listening is how you gain knowledge. If you’re talking, you’re not listening, therefore, as the math plays out, those who choose to listen collect more knowledge than thos… Read more...
Staying in the same job for several years can almost be like falling into a depression.
It swallows you up and that’s all you see. It’s not so much whether the job is good or bad; it’s just that you can easily lose the ability to compare your surroundings to thos… Read more...
If you’re having trouble getting started, you’re probably starting too big.
Take a page from reporters and novelists. When telling a story, they usually start with tiny details: the doorway of a building, the button of a jacket, a word, a name, an action. Big themes ha… Read more...
I found an incredible deal for a TV, bought it, and then returned it because it had a crack in it. While waiting to hear back from the company, I started to second-guess my buying decision. I went to Best Buy and looked at 50 other TVs, read their little tags, talked to an overze… Read more...
Most employers want specialists.
Because of this, most people want to be specialists and yet, after years of interviews with professionals, I can tell you that most people are generalists (even the people that are seeking to hire specialists!).
The most specialized specialist out t… Read more...