• Louis C.K.’s decision-making rule Making decisions is a theme on this site. It’s a theme in my life as I grapple with the confidence, laissez faire-ness, certainty and surrender inherent in good decision-making. Today I share brilliant US comedian Louis C.K.’s approach. He, too, grapples with the descent into despair that decision-making can induce. He’s developed a 70 Per more
• Sometimes we just have to circle like a dog You know how dogs do that thing where they circle around and around looking for the right place – seemingly the perfect place – to sink to the ground?  I watch them do it and wonder, What exactly are they seeking? What is their perfection? That said, I do the same thing. I circle before more
• What Steve Jobs’ perfectionism has taught me It truly is an oddity. It’s become a talking point among friends. A joke at first.  I can’t buy a couch. And it’s come to hold up a mirror to a few fundamental sadnesses about life. Indeed, I’ve never owned a couch. I’ve inherited old ones when I’ve moved into the various rentals I’ve traipsed more
• today I’m wearing a dirty white T-shirt Today I woke with a plan to wear my white long-sleeved T-shirt. I’ve worn it twice already in the past fortnight and it has a little bit of makeup on the inside neckline and a little bit of a lived-in smell to it. Today I’ll be riding on my bike between meetings. A slightly uncrisp more
• how to make your decision the “right decision” (a lesson I learned at Cosmopolitan magazine) Decision making. It stumps me. It stumps many. Can I share with you today an approach I was taught by my publisher Pat while I was editing Cosmopolitan? Pat wasn’t really a philosophizer, and I’ve kind of repackaged her thoughts for present puposes. But Pat could certainly make decisions. I’d asked her to sit down more
• Here’s a trick: use your body to make decisions As many of you know, I can get very indecisive. I can be walking down the street to do something nice and languid, like have a tea in the sun. And I suddenly stall in my tracks. Where to go? What cafe? What tea? Sunny or cosy cafe? Such painfully indulged innocuousness can render me more
• are you all dress rehearsal, no play? It’s hit me just recently: this is the rest of my life. This awareness has arisen because I’ve had to face a few realities lately. I’ve led my life thinking it would look a certain way: high school, uni, work, husband, house (that I’d build with a view into bushland), things to own, kids with more
• my interview with Nicholas Sparks on what makes love work This week in Sunday Life I discuss The Notebook If you ever find yourself in the laundry at a party skewered against the tub of stubbies by some eye-glazing, go-nowhere conversation, try this tactic. Ask everyone’s thoughts on The Notebook. In my experience everyone has a take on this 1996 novel, turned into a film more