In a Yoga class, recently, I was stretching as far as I could (or so I thought). Then the teacher explained that with a deep inhale and exhale I could actually move farther, beyond my original perceived limitation. I took that breath and was surprised to discover that she was right. I moved incrementally deeper into the lunge, without forcing or pushing – it was all in the breath and the willingness to try it another way. If you’re anything like me, you’re facing new challenges all the time. My life seems to be more complicated this year than last. The truth is, I’ve been taking on new projects, stretching myself further than I previously have. The goal ... Read more

The other day I flipped through the TV channels. That might sound like a pedestrian statement to you, but to me it was a BIG DEAL. I’m a serious TV watcher (after all I’ve had acting and writing work on “the tube” and I have many friends who are in the industry.) So I watch television with intention: to see what the professional landscape looks like. To that end, I’m a believer in “appointment television”: I watch when something is on TV that I want to see. As a rule I don’t channel surf. I set my TiVo and I watch what I’ve planned to watch (and yes, that often includes commercials). So the other ... Read more

Does this happen to you? You’re working on a project (a play, a painting, a book, a job-search) and you think: “This will never work. I’m not (smart, talented, influential) enough to do this. It’s hopeless.” Then, rather than sit down and focus on your project, you take up some distraction and fritter away the time? Sound familiar? It’s familiar to me. I’ve done it and I’ve worked with clients who’ve done it. I call it Adding Up Your Life With Negative Numbers. Actually, let me rephrase. I’ve done it and I still do it. As I commit to upping the game of my life in all my creative disciplines, those negative ... Read more

It might be a coincidence that I’m covering gratitude in today’s blog, or it might be the fact that I’ve got some professional thank you notes that I have to write. Bottom line, it occurred to me that it would be a good idea to take a break from exploring the 12 strategies to cover this item that didn’t make it to the list. The strategies are about what we can do – while gratitude is a quality of being that we can cultivate, but that we (perhaps) cannot switch on and off. I believe we’ve all seen artists who are just not able to see that anything good is happening to them. We’ve probably ... Read more

That’s the big question. If you’ve ever asked yourself if anyone cares about your art, you’re not alone. We live in a creative culture that emphasizes attention. If your acting work is on national TV and shows up on IMDB, then the culture seems to validate your work. The same is true if your writing is produced in a national venue and newspapers review you, or if your paintings are hung in the top galleries around the world. In that instance, it seems that large numbers of people care about the work. And there’s the tendency to believe that if people care – the art matters. If that’s true, the next question seems obvious: Without ... Read more