I’ve just been reading a wonderful online book by writer and traveler Chris Guillebeau: 279 Days to Overnight Success. (You can read it free at ChrisGuillebeau.com). Here’s a remarkable observation I found on page 29: I’m struck by how, except when you’re young, you really need to prioritize in life, figuring out in what order you should [...]

A while ago, the New Yorker surprised me with a provocative article about procrastination–or maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised. Writers are notorious procrastinators, so it’s a subject the author (James Surowiecki) knows well. (So do I!) He offers some conventional (and useful) advice about overcoming procrastination, including the superb advice to break overwhelming projects [...]

One of my friends has spent a large chunk of the last six months looking for her Inner Child. Persistent struggles with emptiness led her to books by Alice Miller (Drama of the Gifted Child) and John Bradshaw (Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child). It has been a healing time for her. Her childhood [...]

When I was growing up in New York, there were only seven TV channels, and a federal law blocked broadcasts of up-to-date movies. So I spent a lot of time watching reruns of old movies like Yankee Doodle Dandy, Follow the Fleet, and The Gay Divorce. It took years for me to realize it was time [...]