Month: March 2010

have a sweet weekend March 19 xx

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It’s Friday and sunny. Who’s to complain? I hope you STILL have no plans for Sunday.

And that you’re paving your own road out there, perhaps through a green field??!!!

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Me, I’m off to a wedding in Perth. My mate James Thomas, a reporter on Today Tonight, is getting married. Finally. James was the first person in the world to visit me in hospital when I was born (he’s a few months older than me; his mum and dad are best friends with mine). As he announced at his 30th birthday, after I gave the speech, “we tried kissing once, when were about 18, but it was like pashing my sister”. Which is what a brother would say, right! Ooooh, but in different circumstances. OK, I’ll climb out of that hole now…

Anyway, some nice stuff to share over a glass of pinot grigio in the autumnal evening glow, perhaps:

1. Know you’re not alone when you Just. Don’t. Feel Like being a grown up. (But learn to go there anyway): I love this quote from Julius Erving…

“Being a professional is doing the things you love to do, on the days you don’t feel like them”.

Kind of spurred me on this week to get real about what I’m doing. When you work for yourself you can find all kinds of sabotaging excuses for not getting stuff done on off days.

I also emailed back and forth with Seth Godin during the week. Which excited me no end. The guy is a genius.

His post “I don’t feel like it” is a reminder to pull you finger out if you really want to create great things. Seth’s new book Linchpins touches on the importance of pushing through “the resistance” and fighting “the lizard brain” so that you can deliver your artistic gift.

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watch for the signs (and a great video…scroll to the bottom)

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I have a little rule: three signs and I act.

I feel strangely compelled to take note if someone’s name pops up three times in a day. I have to call them. My meditation teacher, for instance. He was mentioned to me by three different people. Finally I called him – his name’s Tim – and he instructed me in a technique that’s changed my life. Quite literally (more on this soon).

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I’m not a “universe told me to” type. But I do think we steer our lives toward things as we need them. Subconsciously, or perhaps just on a feeling level, we “lean” toward what we know we need or want. We draw things towards us, so our rational or conscious self can get the directions it needs.

In the past I’ve needed multi-level neon billboards before I’d take notice. I was so closed. But as I started to open myself to this kind of thinking, more and more signs came forth and steered me to the right place.

Signs can also warn and teach lessons.

What about this: when I was sick a few years back I got all panicky about being idle and tried to plan a travel writing gig to the Solomon Islands to dive with sharks. Because diving with sharks is usually the best way to jerk yourself from a rut, right!

But everything went wrong. Flights, commitment from magazines etc. My meditation teacher Tim told me I should stay put. Moving about was bad for my energy levels and for my “vata”, he said. I needed to rest. 

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sunday life: in which I try out the new way to travel

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This week I travel lightlyspaceball sunday life: in which I try out the new way to travel3289380117 f05bc51c38 sunday life: in which I try out the new way to travel

spaceball sunday life: in which I try out the new way to travelspaceball sunday life: in which I try out the new way to travelIn the next two weeks I have to travel to Africa, Perth, the Gold Coast and Melbourne for work and a wedding. My feet are already puffy and my olfactory bulb awash with the carby stench of inflight fruit buns in dreaded anticipation.

I hate travelling. Years ago I loved the world of complimentary acrylic travel socks and miniature soaps. And I once cited “playing Tetris on long-haul flights” as one of my favourite pastimes. But novelty fades. And now I find being in transit unnerving; my whole system (my bowels, my sleep) grinds to a halt in protest. However, given this is a travel issue and my brief with this column is to come up with better ways to do life, I was compelled this week to find a cheery slant to the caper.

Making travel as efficient as possible is one approach. In blogland, countless sites are dedicated to this pursuit. Onebag.com shares tips on the best way to pack a Samsonite.  Airlinemeals.net meal-spots plane food so you can plan your airborne dining. You’ll never be caught off guard by creamy cauliflower again! Tripit.com gets most travel pundits totally frothing. Email through all your pesky flight, hotel and car hire confirmations and – whoosh! – Tripit magically consolidates them into one itinerary.

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have a sweet weekend: 12 march xx

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This week was surreal and round-abouty. I interviewed Mitch Albom and Deepak Chopra and was contacted via my blog by Dan Buettner who did the Blue Zones study about how to live longer that I wrote about recently.
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Mitch Albom and I...he asked me to not tell you I was actually bending my knees in the shot and doing my best to look smaller. MY GOD I LOOK HUGE...!!!

The interaction started off stand-offishly (him giving me a ribbing for a comment I’d made about his study) and ended with our becoming e-mates, connected by shared mountain bike travels, a love of Spain and a general wariness of being corralled into living a life by numbers. I like meeting people who question the conveyor-belt and step off it to get a better look every now and then. I’ve done this all my life. Every few years I throw things in and wander for a bit…So does Dan. When he’s not being a National Geographic explorer.

Not to drop names.

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4 connect-me-sweetly people-watching blogs

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I’ve noticed lately the frothing forth of a bunch of blogs that simply observe humanity going about its quirky, often banal thing. They generally make – or imply – gross generalisations. Which can make me balk.

But generalisations exist for us to better understand the world. They don’t have to come with judgment. In fact, when we strike with a generalisation, without hesitation or apology, without critical voice, we are celebrating beautiful patterns of humaness. Our need for patterns, to adhere to patterns, is so vulnerable. At this point we connect and like each other.

I like these ones:2010-03-01_1850

1. Coverspy: This cute site (above) posts observations about New Yorkers on the subway. The site describes the person, where they’re heading (and presumably live) and what they’re reading. The picture painted (or implied) so often perfectly confirms a generalisation you might hold about people who read Dan Brown or wear Doc Martens or both. I like how the girl reading Flow is wearing a white skirt.

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So, I’m having a cup of tea with Mitch Albom…what would you ask him if you were me? *plus* book giveaway!

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Mitch wrote Tuesdays with Morrie, the most successful memoir every published in the world. He’s in Australia this week and I’m meeting with him tomorrow to talk about, well, I’m hoping you might be able to help me out with what I ask him because I’m not in the most insightful mood today. Suggestions? UPDATE: … Read more

sunday life: in which I quit the sunday afternoon email catch-up habit

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This week I reclaim my SundayOliver-Burkeman-Sundays-011

Sundays are sad. So says a Swedish study just out. It found the Sabbath the most depressing day of the week because (and I just love how big, important studies have an uncanny knack for pointing out the bleeding obvious) it’s the day before school and work starts. It also found the mood plunge is particularly profound among married couples and East Germans. (I could venture a theory on this, but I fear it’d only make things bleaker.)

Me, I’ve often found Sundays mood-sinky. When I was a kid, they were Dickensian-grim. As the sun set and the dam snap-froze over for the night, Dad would haul me and my brothers out to the back paddocks to chop wood for the week. Then Mum would line us up on the verandah to scrub knees and cut toenails. We’d catch the last bit of The Wonderful World of Disney before dinner. Then bed, the dread of first period clinging to us, prickly and restrictive like a Fair-Isle jumper in the rain.

As adults, you’d think we’d find a way to address this. To make Sundays sunnier. I know some people head to the pub on Sunday nights by way of a final hoorah to the weekend. This was a fad for a while and I hear it put off the inevitable quite effectively.

But I’ve noticed more recently that Sundays have taken on a panicky, catch-up quality. There’s not enough time in the week to get everything done. Certain tasks – wading through long emails, finishing that advisory report, filling out health insurance forms  – can’t get done in the Monday-Friday flurry. So we set aside “just a few hours” on Sunday afternoon to “get on top of things”.

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