Friend, I tell you this because I think you need to hear it: You have to make yourself. We all do. Everyone has to grind it out in places that don’t get what we do or why it matters. Even the greats…especially the greats! But the ones who ultimately succeed don’t wait around for someone [Keep Reading…]
Problems Cannot Survive in the Present
We had been under sail for the last hour, at meager speed, hugging Point Loma. Just as we passed the point and finally crossed over from San Diego Bay to the Pacific Ocean, we picked up a lot more wind and we were soaring. As the wind changed, so did the waves. Big rolling waves [Keep Reading…]
What the Mind Alone Can Never Know
An excerpt from my dialogue with Paul McAleer on our podcast Designing Yourself, Episode #12: High on Life (originally aired April 7, 2014), with minimal editing for readability. “Your body language shapes who you are.” Amy Cuddy is a researcher, and she speaks with the science rhetoric. What her study found and the way she [Keep Reading…]
Recap: Designing Yourself – Season 2
For many of us, deeper understanding comes only in conversation with another. That is often the case with my friend Paul McAleer and me. After meeting at the 2013 IA Summit, we immediately realized that many of the same topics were on our minds and questions in our hearts. We started having some pretty spectacular [Keep Reading…]
I am a Writer
An excerpt from my dialogue with Paul McAleer on our podcast Designing Yourself, Episode #8: Sam I Am (originally aired September 24, 2013), with minimal editing for readability. I was a Professional Writing major in college — after I switched from Computer Science and before I picked up Human-Computer Interaction as a double major. Writing [Keep Reading…]
Going back to the cave
John J. Locke, in a comment on Where in the World is Whitney? San Diego posted January 16, 2014. I can relate to “going back to the cave” to regroup and reinvent yourself. Life is a series of stages. We never *really* know what’s going to happen next, although we try to plan it. I [Keep Reading…]
Confidence on the Inside
I don’t want to be invulnerable. I don’t want to be in a state where I can’t be penetrated, where I can’t be influenced, where I can’t be molded in some way. I want to be vulnerable. I just want to be at peace with that vulnerability, and that’s something I haven’t been able to [Keep Reading…]
A New Perspective
Shifting your perspective isn’t only necessary to offer empathy to others, but it gives your own views much more depth. Here’s an excerpt from my February post for The Pastry Box, published today: On our first day of class, the teacher led us out of the building and brought us a few blocks away to [Keep Reading…]
Empathy for Ourselves
We’re in this situation where we have a finite period of time, we really need to pay close attention to this person. We need to concentrate. We need to focus. And we need to go into it with the intent of gaining understanding, of challenging our assumptions, of teasing out the problems and needs and [Keep Reading…]
I Love Fear
I love fear because confronting my fears has allowed me to get to know parts of myself that I was denying. There is something very important about who you are based on the things that you fear. I used my fears to avoid things. That’s what we’re taught: Fear is a good thing. It keeps [Keep Reading…]