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 sing songs to my daughter as part of her nighttime ritual.
My wife does it too.
She sings show tunes.
I sing rock ballads and alternative – Aerosmith, Poison, Radiohead.
I don’t get the lyrics right but she doesn’t seem to mind. The music quiets her down more than… Read more...
You put it on because it felt good at the time: that giant velvet cape with the impenetrable, high-grade nylon on the outside. It’s comforting. It protects.
But when you walk around the corner — usually the same corner — where the sun drops down and the wind kick… Read more...
We get overwhelmed, not because we don’t know what to do, but because we have recently learned exactly what we need to do and we can’t yet see the best way to do it.
We feel the weight, the sharp edges cutting into us, and it interrupts our decision-making.
So we don&#… Read more...
I was helping my daughter put together her pinewood derby car for Girl Scouts. We were laying on our stomachs lining up the nail to go through the tire at the exact right angle. As I was explaining why it was important to make sure the tire doesn’t rub the wood she surprise… Read more...
I have a dream.
All the greats said that.
I think dreams get a bad rap. They’re usually portrayed as wispy clouds in the sky, nothing you can hold onto, a thing to revere from a distance.
But don’t be fooled by the floating. If you examine a cloud closely, you’ll s… Read more...
My Psychology teacher ignored the beginning and endings of chapters when he was lecturing. As soon as he finished preaching Chapter 1, he’d move right into Chapter 2, even if there were just 5 minutes left of class.
“What?!” he’d reply, with fake incredulou… Read more...
Accomplishments are food for us humans.
That’s why we cheer out loud when a baby walks or when our friend crosses the finish line. It’s why we pass around videos of special needs adults beating their best time on a treadmill.
We do it for them but we also do it for us. … Read more...
When I’m excited about something, I make machine-gun noises with my mouth. If I’m really stoked, I’ll cup my hands to my mouth to make the noise louder, and then move my head from side to side in a sweeping motion as if I’m spraying the room with machine-g… Read more...
We’re all in need of the same thing:
Acceptance.
In love, at work, with family, with friends, in the presence of God. We’re hoping our jagged little pieces will make sense to someone else, that they’ll fit into something important and prove our life’s work w… Read more...
There I am, as new as the sun coming up over the edge of the earth, reflecting on the magnificence of the river.
Ignoring time, I instinctively jump into the river and let the current take me, it doesn’t matter where I go and I don’t care that I left my shoes behind. I… Read more...