The View from Fifty Feet
Three pieces with a common theme. Observing a shift in perspective toward three aspects of work now that I'm doing my own work in a different way. Climbing the mountain of work-life balance pausing to take a look back from a modest 50 feet up. Answers not outnumbering...
Be Here Now
Once, soon after starting a job at an office I walked around the office's interior courtyard during my lunch break to stretch after being confined in my cubicle all morning, and I noticed little placards on everyone's desk that read: Be Here Now. I'm a sucker for that...
Get a Life.
The world was cruel and cold and unforgiving. He had very little. What he had was worn and worthless and dirty, and he had to fight for every tiny bit of it - for every pathetic bit of what he had, and he had next to nothing. A tanned, manicured hand with a delicate...
My Joe Rogan Experience
"Then why was he eating horse paste?" The email was the latest in a series of back and forth emails between myself and a friend. This is the level of argument of two rational, educated individuals. Our discussions have gotten to the point of tension. And no one needs...
Two Men Walk In The Woods
Two Men Go For A Walk In The Woods This joke came to mind when I was trying to come up with something to write about. Here it is… Two friends go for a walk in the woods. At one point they spot a hungry grizzly bear charging down the mountain from above them. One guy...
Early Lessons of the $1000 Challenge
Take Aways From The First Week of the $1000 Challenge This week I lived with the commitment of a promise to do more of MY work at the risk of losing $1000 if I failed to produce. I think it's appropriate to just comment on the commitment to actually DO the creative...
I Don’t Need a New Year to Set a New Year Resolution
This year I did what I always do, I set a New Year Resolution on January 1. It's the same one I've been setting for the last several years because I always give up on it. This year would be different, I told myself thought I didn't have any real plan at the time. I...
Farewell to The Professor: Remembering Neil Peart
I'm a Neil Peart fan. Friends and family have been offering me condolences as though he were my family member for the past few days after the surprisingly ubiquitous news of his death has been permeating the media. I didn't post something on Facebook or anywhere...
The Gift
A while ago I wrote about how to cope when you're a freelancer and the phone isn't ringing. But I never considered how you cope when the doorbell rings and suddenly an abundance of work spills in. So, what do you do when something good happens? If you're a planner...
Why I Work On Vacation
First of all I LOVE my work. Don't tell my clients, but I would do it for free. (And, I often do.) So, vacation without work would be like vacationing without getting up early and going for a run. It would be like vacationing without sticking to my keto diet. It would...
Walking Meditation
I love walking almost as much as my dog loves walking. So, after a long day of impatience and non-productivity I leashed up my dog who'd been very patient with me that day. We both needed a walk. But as we headed out down the sidewalk in our historic,...
Find Flow by Taking The Keys Away From Your Monkey Brain
Flow: (Also known colloquially as being in the zone, is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is...
Not Noticing When We’ve Arrived
I began this blog, ADayOn.com, 10 years ago to encourage myself to quit my job and embark on a new way of making a living... and a life. I was trying to teach myself how not be afraid to step off the conveyor belt of job after job after job and into, what then seemed,...
Is Virtual Reality the Cure for the Common Commute?
The other day I saw a well-researched article by Greg Rosalsky titled: The Economics of the Office: Why Do We Still Commute? The article set up the problem alongside a possible solution. Even though the personal computer was supposed to liberate us, we still find...
Double Your Income Now!
I stopped in to see my friend the other morning. He owns a little shop in the downtown where I live. He seemed rushed and reluctant to shoot the shit with me. Usually he welcomed me into his shop and and we would sit and b.s. until the first customer had to knock on...
Never Go Back To Work After Vacation
The worst part of vacation is returning and heading back to work. I just listened to the audiobook, Vagabonding by Rolf Potts. It's a philosophy book disguised as a travel book. As I drove my family to spend a week in Chicago I listened as Potts described...
Make Starving A Game
So, I've been eating a Vegan Diet for the last week now. It's a little difficult and it requires thought. And that's why I love it. I used to work for a guy who was on a diet so restrictive that it actually made the dieter's body temperature drop a couple...
Need Motivation? Write Your Own Obituary!
A great story about artist's motivation comes from the life of the artist Salvador Dali... or, maybe it was some other genius. Really doesn't matter - we'll just say it was Dali. It seems that, in his family, Salvador was actually Salvador #2. Salvador...
I’m a Minimalist… So, Why am I Worried About Money?
Minimalism! What a concept! I just realized that the term "Minimalist" might just describe my natural drive to separate myself from the unnecessary. Not just clutter on bookshelves, but fundamental things. Big things. I made a list of some of the biggies that I...
Caring
Sitting in a Chicago cafe looking out the window at a young man sweeping the sidewalk. He's getting each and every tiny piece of trash and cigarette butt out of each crack with his small, black broom to get every tiny crumb and fragment of paper. I'm impressed by both...
Location, Location, Location – Are You Paying Too Much For Your Life?
Let me ask you a question: What's it like where you live? Does where you live inspire you? Why are why not? I thought about this when I heard Steven Chou from MyWifeQuitHerJob.com talking about helping his audience make an extra $1000. "There's a lot of people out...
Finalizing a Rough Draft Life
It occurred to me that I'm a Rough Draft guy than a Final Draft type. I'm someone who prefers thinking of himself as an idea guy, a concept person but who has trouble digging down to the details. For example, I've come back to edit this post and others months after I...
I Went From $100,000 to $40,000 Overnight… And You Can Too!
Look, I'm not going to tell you it sucks to have a full bank account. A large sum of money in the bank almost always beats no money in the bank. And being stoic about low funds gets old. But, here's what happened to me and here's what I learned... I was a regular guy...
Sitting Sucks: Redefine Your Sitting Solution
Sitting: Finding a Healthy Alternative So, while we're rethinking how the world fits us and how we fit the world, let's get real basic. Many of us make a living sitting in front of a computer and now that the medical experts of the world have determined that the...
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@ggreenwald Sam's a smart guy, but sometimes he gets a little swept away with his own certainty., - . @copelandmusic Something tweet-worthy just occurred to me this morning. How come #StewartCopeland never used a ti… https://t.co/A0CbLylsec,
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