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A friend approached me for career advice.
She wanted to help people become more joyful, so she was hoping to create a business as a happiness coach.
It’s a nice idea. And coaching sounds great — like being a therapist without all that pesky education. But at twenty-four, without a lot of credibility and experience, where could she begin?
Read MoreOn a recent episode of WTF with Marc Maron, the host interviewed good old Jerry Seinfeld.
Jerry loves to be prickly and contrarian. Often, when Marc would ask him a direct question, Jerry’s answer would be simply, “No.” Reluctantly, he’d elaborate.
No, Jerry doesn’t believe comedians need to reveal anything about themselves. They just need to be funny.
No, they don’t need to have had crummy childhoods. They just need to be funny.
Read MoreIt’s difficult for many of us to make behavior changes that will benefit us in the long term.
From sticking to an exercise routine to keeping a healthy diet to saving money, we must prioritize the future ahead of our immediate circumstances in order to follow through. This can be very uncomfortable and unnatural, but the payoff becomes evident down the line.
After awhile, we’ve built a new habit and gotten used to this cycle. We learn to associate eating healthy food with feeling good. We come to enjoy the feeling of virtue that comes with following our budget or our exercise plan.
Read MoreYears ago, I moved to a new city with only the slimmest of job prospects (that was crazy decision number one).
I managed to find a part-time, temporary gig as an assistant teacher of music classes for older adults. We were teaching them how to play keyboard instruments, but the goal was really to sell them fancy home organs so complex that their array of buttons and dials resembled the cockpit of a 747 (the price was similar to that of an aircraft, too).
Read MoreA band that I listened to obsessively in my twenties was Belle & Sebastian.
By the time I discovered them, standing mesmerized at a listening station in a Tower Records store in Nashville, the Glaswegian band was already well into their long career. Back then, you had to actually buy the music you wanted to hear; I made a deal with myself that I could buy another Belle & Sebastian album only when I felt really down. For better or worse, I amassed their entire back catalog within two years.
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