Inspiration

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi shaped & influenced the lives of many students, including me.
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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi shaped & influenced the lives of many students, including me.

Thirty years ago, I was bored and directionless in a Ph.D. program at the University of Chicago. My father had just died somewhat unexpectedly at the youthful age of 57 and I committed from that moment on, I would ONLY do work that was fun, juicy, and creative.  After a couple of months spent grieving…

an ode to Jacob Needleman
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an ode to Jacob Needleman

The brilliant philosopher Jacob Needleman passed away one year ago today. Needleman is the one who famously said, “We’re built to serve something greater than ourselves.” In a letter to the president of the Fetzer Institute, Needleman wrote something else that has continued to inspire me throughout my career: “I believe that the group is…

We need art because to change our world, we need what is alive.
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We need art because to change our world, we need what is alive.

When I work with clients, it’s so apparent that deep creativity is not of the head or thinking mind. It’s coming from an entirely different place. Their creative visions are coming from a place that’s ALIVE. We need art because to change our world, we need what is alive. Click here to read the full…

The desire to create certain outcomes hampers transformation
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The desire to create certain outcomes hampers transformation

The desire to create certain outcomes hampers transformation. No matter how much we push, intend and effort, it’s clear that we don’t often have all the answers that we seek. But Something else does. We humans are brilliant when we align with Something greater than ourselves. When we loosen our fixation on what we think,…

You don’t need to find your words, you need to find your image. Images help us find our depth.
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You don’t need to find your words, you need to find your image. Images help us find our depth.

During the many years that I led creative writing workshops, I noticed something interesting about the thing invited deep writing. Some writing prompts–often involving words or newspaper headlines–kept people entrenched in analytical thinking and… their subsequent writing was heady and dry.  Their writing might have been slick and witty, but it was rarely deep or…

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