“Were we to meet this figure socially, this accusatory character, this internal critic, this unrelenting fault-finder, we would think there was something wrong with him. He would just be boring and cruel. We might think that something terrible had happened to him, that he was living in the aftermath, the fallout, of some catastrophe. And we would be right.” -Adam Phillips

1: “Inspiration is for amateurs – the rest of … continue reading

1: “I vividly recall the moment I realized I’d been overcomplicating my son’s fifth birthday party, which had come to feel like a significantly stressful undertaking,” Oliver Burkeman writes in Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts.

“What the stress really signaled, I saw, was that I cared about the project,” Oliver writes, “which is entirely different from saying that it … continue reading

1: Author and podcaster Sam Harris was at lunch with a friend.  

He remembers “moaning on about the various problems he was confronting in his work,” Oliver Burkeman writes in his book Meditations for Mortals.

Sam’s friend interrupted him mid-flow. “Were you really expecting to have no more problems at some point in your life?” she asked.

Her question was jarring. It suddenly occurred to him that he “had … continue reading

1: When couples divorce, one of the main reasons they give is, “I didn’t feel appreciated.”

If creativity were our love partner, do you think it would feel appreciated?

That’s one of the provocative questions Gay Hendricks asks in The Genius Zone: The Breakthrough Process to End Negative Thinking and Live in True Creativity.

He encourages us to examine the relationship we have with our creativity.  We can ask … continue reading

1: Author Oliver Burkeman was anxious.

He was waiting for the subway at the Union Street station in Brooklyn “fretting in my customary manner, this time about the logistics of a forthcoming move between apartments, although it could have been anything,” he writes in his terrific book Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts.

What was he worried about? He was … continue reading

1: “We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience,” said the educational reformer John Dewey.

Our ability to think, to reflect, to “think about our thinking” is integral to our ability to learn.

The term used to describe our ability to be aware of our thinking is called metacognition. 

Which author Anne-Laure Le Cunff calls “the forgotten secret to success” in her book Tiny Experiments… continue reading

“If you don’t know where you are going, you might not like where you end up,” David Bach tells us.

The calendar is getting ready to flip over. A new year is around the corner.  

A chance to start again.

I’m a big, BIG believer in goal-setting.

Why?

Because setting thoughtful objectives for the coming year can transform our lives.

Reason #1: When we get clear on a goal, our … continue reading

1: Getting better at getting better is what RiseWithDrew is all about.

Monday through Thursday, we explore ideas from authors, thought leaders, and exemplary organizations. On Friday, I share something about myself or what we are working on at PCI.

This week, we’ve been exploring some of the powerful lessons from Steven Kotler’s wonderful book The Art of Impossible.

If we want to “chase the impossible” in our … continue reading

1: Getting better at getting better is what RiseWithDrew is all about.

Monday through Thursday, we explore ideas from authors, thought leaders, and exemplary organizations.  On Friday, I share something about myself or what we are working on at PCI.

Sitting in traffic stinks.

The research backs up what we all know to be true: “Our study shows that the longer people spend commuting in cars, the worse their … continue reading

1: Remember the 1980s TV show MacGyver or the hilarious Saturday Night Live send-up of it?

The show’s central theme involved MacGyver’s creative ability to solve complex problems.

Turns out MacGyver’s creator Lee Zlotoff was also an excellent solver of problems himself. 

“To write episodic TV,” Lee explains, “I had to produce an enormous amount of creative material under very tight deadlines.  There was no time to get stuck.” 

Lee … continue reading