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
In 9th grade, I was generously forced into journaling by my English teacher. In college, I eventually found my way into a short-fiction class, and was sold. I wrote all the time, was working on stories all the time, daydreaming about my characters, while real-world people talked … Read more...
How noble is it to fight for the status quo, when you’re the one who is benefiting from it the most?
How courageous is it to follow the ideas, the rules, and the body you were born into?
Isn’t it braver and more admirable to walk into the wind, to stand up at the dinner… Read more...
They say the squeaky wheel gets the oil.
I guess that means I get no oil.
That’s okay.
When I’m looking for a gutter cleaner or a floor refinisher, I try and be as nice and accomodating as possible.
Have to call me back? No problem. Can’t fit me in this week? That&#… Read more...
When I was in first grade, I spent hours making Valentine’s for the class — big red hearts, topped with square black top hats and a clever message running across the brim in glitter glue.
In college, I baked cookies and passed them around campus.
Then someone told me th… Read more...
The people that you love, they know you love them.
But for some reason, no matter how well you know them or how long you’ve lived with them, saying those words out loud is like a lightning bolt to the heart.
I’m not talking about the “I love you” at the end … Read more...
To me, from a car window:
Hey, is that a poodle?
I had just got back from the lake. It was 6pm, dark, I had on my mask and my headphones, listening to a podcast of my favorite French marriage counselor.
Like most people on walks during a pandemic, I was deep into my internal world. … Read more...
It’s counterintuitive.
The more intensely you search, the more you underscore that achy feeling that something is missing.
It’s like when you misplace your keys…
It can ruin your morning.
You would have been much better off not knowing they were gone.
Or at least not… Read more...
It was our mom’s idea:
to lug the sofa-bed mattress out of the living room, through the kitchen, and out onto the back porch.
The porch was small (before the renovation), so the edges of the mattress curled up against the railing and house, rolling me and my brother to the c… Read more...
Boat trips, hotel suites, and private beaches are nice but it’s moments like these that make my heart full and put me at ease.
ACT 1:
[Husband and wife in kitchen, standing around table.]
I guess we could make the salmon.
Yeah, it’s gonna go bad.
[Man pulls out salmon. Put… Read more...
I believe you should get an award just for playing.
I believe “E” is for Effort, and Effort is the beginning of everything.
Why wait to be extraordinary?
Take your wins now. Celebrate often.
Whenever you need it.
I got out of bed today.
I made lunch.
I cleaned the dog yard.
W… Read more...