02
Feb
What we say versus what we mean.
The craziest part of the ridiculous photos people put on Instagram is actually the captions they include. It’s in the captions where we tell our biggest lies. It’s where we cover our tracks and try to justify or ignore our real motives for posting a photo. Case in point, my friend Donald Miller had given me and the 1,200 other people at his conference a sample from his new book, Scary Close
. His New York Times Bestselling book Blue Like Jazz sold 1 million copies and he’s definitely an author I look up to.
I thought for a minute about posting a photo of the pages with the caption, “So proud of my friend Donald Miller. Can’t wait to read his next book!”
That’s a noble caption at first glance. Look at me celebrating a friend! Look at me helping drive more book sales! I am such a giver!
04:00 /
Character
17
Jan
The perfect way to respond when you don’t get nominated for an Oscar!
(This is a guest post from Casey Lewis. He is awesome and regularly contributes to this site!) Last week we found out that The Lego Movie did not get an Oscar nomination for best animated movie in 2014. Now I personally haven’t seen this movie yet. My 6 year old has, but I just didn’t make it to theaters for this one. As the news broke about this film not getting a nomination, the internet went crazy. Apparently this is a pretty good movie and director Philip Lord was snubbed. While it’s hard to know what exactly happened here, I love Philip Lord’s reaction.
05:00 /
Uncategorized
14
Jan
3 signs your ego is making your decisions.
A few weeks ago, I told myself, “I am going to Internet so hard in 2015!” That wasn’t an official goal, but more of a statement you yell at your laptop in coffee shops full of suddenly terrified people who don’t want to sit near the guy who yells at laptops. I thought I was going to blog daily. I was wrong.
05:00 /
Uncategorized
09
Jan
3 lies you’ll hear about successful people.
At least once a week, someone tells me the “successful people myth.” The names change, but the general story is always the same: “Did you hear about Jimmy? He launched an online course/sold a business/raised rabbits in his backyard and made a ton of money. He’d only been doing it for like three weeks. Why didn’t we think to do that? It’s so easy!” The result of that conversation is always the same, I feel like a huge loser. I have arms and legs just like Jimmy. I have access to the same Internet he has access to. Why didn’t I do that? I’m so dumb. There’s a huge pile of cash that everyone knows about except for me. I’m an idiot. Maybe you don’t feel that way, but I promise you’ve heard the “successful people myth” too. It’s not a bad story, but there are three lies hidden in it. Let’s kidney punch each one for a moment:
08:08 /
Uncategorized
06
Jan
2 reasons you shouldn’t compare yourself to other people.
At what age do you stop having nightmares about college? Because I'm apparently not that age yet. The details are always the same. I've skipped class all semester but suddenly showed up for the day of the final. And it's one of those classes where 100% of your grade is based on the final. I start to sweat and run to the administration building to drop the class, but I've missed the cutoff. It's too late! Then I wake up. Have you ever had that particular nightmare? The other one I sometimes have is about writing research papers. When I was in college, nobody had personal computers, instead we had personal hells called "Computer labs." These stress chambers were rooms, often located in windowless spaces in the library basement, that contained the most temperamental computers ever built. You never knew if they were going to work or if the printer would jam or worst of all, if you'd actually get one when you showed up in the lab. The worst feeling was walking through that door and realizing all the computers were already taken by other people who were better prepared than you.
08:45 /
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