The Dragon Slayer's Guide to Life

Thoughts on Legacy

You are responsbible for who you are becoming, no matter what anyone or anything has done to impact your life to this point. Become someone worth modelling.

Kids need much better role models.  I don't care if you have kids or not. We are all responsible for the next generation.

If you aren't familiar with singer, song writer and Dragon Slayer of the highest order Ani DeFranco and you need one more in your face source of inspiration to help you stand up in your every day life for what you believe, in an every day bold and courageous way, head to Righteous Babe. This is from the million you never made

don't tell me what they did to you
as though you had no choice
isn't that your picture?
isn't that your voice?
if you don't live what you sing about
your mirror is going to find out

Killing a Sacred Cow

"I Declare, This Space is Now Clean."

It started with a lovely book recommended by dear friend and fellow coach, Chris Johnson. I was sitting in a coffee shop reading Twyla Tharp's "The Creative Habit" and totally getting in to it. So refreshing to read someone who makes NO apologies for having high standards and who has made the choice to give herself over to her art, continually immersing herself in the world to uncover the most compelling stories to tell. Commenting on which of a composer's works she selects for a dance, she writes:

"You only go around once, so I'm not interested in creating dances to their minor works."

Ooh...how many of us give ourselves permission to simply say, "I'm not interested in this, it simply isn't worth my time." Especially you women out there. I mean that isn't very nice, is it?

As for the habits which feed creativity, she's very pragmatic and makes no bones about it. You won't accomplish anything worthwhile in life if you don't show up to the task of creating it and you have to show up every day.

Right on, Twyla.

So, I was reading about how she approaches projects from an organizational point of view and since my own system needed tweaking I got the bug to reorganize my office.

That's when it started.

Warning: Home Movies and Denial Don't Mix

It was, by far, one of the low points in my life. My sister thought it would be fun to make some home movies when I was in Portland a few years ago. Fun-filled days at the ocean, romping with the kids, family and friends that had moved away from Chicago years earlier. I was not prepared for what I saw on the TV screen when we watched the movies later.