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
People often come to me thinking in black and white. They say…
I need to figure out if I want to stay at my job or get the hell out…
I’m not sure if I want to manage people or remain an individual contributor…
Should I keep my career in software or try aviat… Read more...
We have this ornate wooden bookshelf in the hall. We call it the Chinese Shelf. It’s come with us across 3 houses and is always used in the same way: to display the things we brought back from traveling the world. Or rather that my wife brought back. She’s the one who… Read more...
You’re out with friends and someone buys a round of cocktails. Everybody drinks up and comments on how great the cocktails are, but you’re thinking everyone is crazy, there’s way too much alcohol in here, or maybe it’s too spicy, or lacks any flavor at all… 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...
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...
I’ve always been afraid of RAGE, namely my own.
Somewhere around 10 years old, I created a place inside me just for RAGE, put it in there and decided to never let it out. But RAGE is a wily one and it put a hit on me from the inside… it got SADNESS & NUMBNESS to s… Read more...