How to nurture creativity

How to nurture creativity

Creativity thrives on kindness and self care. According to career and success coach Tama Kieves, that’s one of the biggest things she personally had to learn after ditching her job as a lawyer. She was a Type A, ambitious, and driven linear thinker. When she first left law, she figured...
Mom on a mission

Mom on a mission

A mother puts her own spin on fitness. Lisa Druxman was a new mom when she had one of those aha! moments. All moms are looking to get back into shape after having a baby, she realized. And they were also looking to connect with other new moms. “I decided...
Set a big, hairy, audacious goal

Set a big, hairy, audacious goal

You may not have heard of Jack Canfield. But you have no doubt heard of his “Chicken Soup for the Soul” books. Forty-seven of his books have landed on The New York Times bestseller list, he says. Canfield has sold over half a billion books. Besides earnings from speaking engagements,...
When doors open

When doors open

“When the door cracks open, kick it in.” Whether you’re just starting out or pursuing your fifth, tenth, or fifteenth job, that’s a good rule of thumb. I heard that comment at a conference put on by the Association of Health Care Journalists this spring. At the session, which was...
Early signs of LBJ’s future in politics

Early signs of LBJ’s future in politics

Long before years of wheeling and dealing etched deep lines into his face, Lyndon Baines Johnson displayed a preternatural ability to cozy up to those in power. In college, his first job involved picking up trash, chopping weeds, and raking small rocks and lugging larger ones off campus, according to...
Introducing Project Otter

Introducing Project Otter

Whether you’re just starting out or looking for a second or third career, we’re here to help you find your way to work that feels like play. If you haven’t figured out what your ideal work would be, Starting Out will help you narrow down your options, by seeing how...
When Burt Bacharach branched out

When Burt Bacharach branched out

It’s a mistake to assume that people who are standouts in their field were destined to become the stars we know now. The route we take to the work we like best may involve twists and turns. A final destination may not be clear at the beginning of the journey....
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Work habits of the creative class

Rene Descartes, the French philosopher, slept 10 hours a night. He would wake mid-morning, linger in bed thinking and writing. By 11:00 a.m., he was usually done with work for the day. Unlike many other creatives, he believed idleness was important for good mental work. It’s a position I endorse. Apparently he made sure never...

From the life of an intellectual polygamist

Carl Djerassi (1923-2015) did not like being reduced to one label. He is best known for synthesizing a hormone that became the main ingredient in the contraceptive known as “the pill.” In fact, he was just one of several scientists who worked on creating the chemical roots of the pill. But Djerassi, a self-proclaimed intellectual...

Writing on the side

Never assume anything. I used to think anyone who did something well had to spend all his or her time doing it. Someone like Emily Dickinson comes to mind. All she did was sit around in a room and write. But not everyone has that luxury. Now I’ve begun to think that if I assume...

Should you ditch your job?

On a recent episode of “Real Biz with Rebecca Jarvis,” I heard Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-hour Work Week, spell out five things to consider if you’re wondering whether to quit your job. Create a dreamline. This is basically a timeline of your goals and dreams. What do you want to have, do, and...

The route to Car Talk

Tom Magliozzi, 77, was a co-host of one of my favorite public radio shows, “Car Talk.” He died this week. He was known for his infectious laugh and his ability to suss out the real issues—sometimes related to relationships or moral quandaries—that brought callers to his show. I think parts of his life story may...

On another person’s inner voices

I recently heard something that gave me pause. At a panel on freelancing at the Asian American Journalists Association meeting in Washington, DC, a writer who has a nonprofit job by day, but does travel writing on the side implied that she wasn’t a full-time travel writer, although she loved doing it, because it wouldn’t...

Can’t we all just slow down?

This summer, time has been on my mind. Or rather, the lack of it nipped at my heels. At my day job, I never seemed to have enough of it. Days quickly melted into nights. My reasoning desperately sought to squeeze more work time out of the day, despite diminishing marginal returns.  If I left work 15...

On the power of music

If you’ve ever had one of those days or weeks when you feel blah or a shadow of your more energetic, productive self, consider the power of music to speak to your inner core. Not only can it wake you up and change your outlook, it might even get your inspiration flowing again. If you’re...

Listening to nudges leads to new path

Andrea Kay has always been a visual artist. But it was never her main work. By day, she is a career consultant, writer of a syndicated career column, and author of 6 career-related books, including Life’s a Bitch and Then You Change Careers. She is also a radio host and appears on TV. About 10...

Elements of a quarter-life breakthrough

Two years ago, Smiley Poswolsky was wrestling with a brutal quarter-life crisis. When he went home and told his roommate that he hated his job and wanted to move across the country, write, and support social entrepreneurs who were going after their dreams, his roommate would say something like, “Dude, everyone hates their job. That’s...

The case against playing it safe

Avoiding risk in your work life could be harmful to your health. We’re so focused externally on what’s going to sell, what’s hot, what will move, and what somebody else wants that we don’t listen to ourselves. We lose touch with who we really are and what we can give, said career coach Tama Kieves....

How to acquire charisma

It may sound strange to say, but charisma can be learned. At least that’s what Olivia Fox Cabane says. She’s the author of the book, The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism. Charisma, she notes, can determine whether: 1) your projects get implemented, 2) your ideas get adopted,...