Fulfillment
Seminar: How to make your 20s count
This seminar will show you how to make the most of your 20s so that you can set yourself up for an engaged, fulfilling life. We’ll have four days of live video sessions with chat from June 10-13 at 9pm-10pm est each evening. The cost is $195.
Sign up now.
The most important thing to do in your …
How to know if you’re in a good job
One of the things I had to do as an adult was learn to see what makes a good job. Some people intuitively know how to find a job that feels good. Most of us spend the first half of our lives trying to learn what feels right and the second half of our lives …
Read More...How to get the guts to buck a trend
For the last three months I’ve been working in my garden about six hours a day. I dug up an acre of land.
The first thing I did was plant a vegetable garden that is 50 yards long and 10 yards wide. I planted everything I had ever seen people grow in my area. Next I added …
The career passion myth and how it derails you
You do not need to have a life full of passion. What is that life, anyway?
You probably don’t even know what passion is. But if you really thought about what you were aiming for when you talk about passion and careers, eventually you’d get to the idea of engagement.
This is not a controversial thought: that …
How I decide where to focus my energy
Melissa’s in China, which means I have to wake up at four in the morning to talk, which means we have no phone calls, and her emails are unsatisfyingly delayed.
I miss her. She is with Steven, who I think is buying her a ring.
Going to China with Steven was a good idea because men love …
Read More...My review of Seth Godin’s new book, Stop Stealing Dreams
Seth Godin just published an e-book about education called Stop Stealing Dreams. He talks about how schools stink, but that even though homeschooling appears to be a rational response to terrible schools, homeschooling is inefficient and unrealistic for most parents.
When I first saw this, I was stunned. Seth has built a career on telling people how to push past …
Investors fund mostly men, which is fine for women
This post is cross-posted at TechCrunch.
We need to get more guys who are running tech startups to decide instead to be stay-at-home dads.
What do you think of that? Stupid, right? That's what it sounds like when anyone suggests that we need to get more women doing startups.
If you are worried that women don't feel capable …
The Value of Fresh Perspective
It is the night of the new nanny. She is maybe a nanny or maybe a Spanish teacher. It is unclear. She is a blog reader who told me she could help me.
Lots of people offer to come to the farm and help me get that mythic work-life balance that no one really has. But …
Living Up to Your Potential
I confess that I don't feel like I'm working to my potential. And it makes me feel sick. I know the signs. It starts with me not being able to cope with my to-do list. It all looks too overwhelming. So I scale things back: I take out everything that has to do with starting …
Read More...Make your work more meaningful
This post is sponsored by the American Cancer Society.
Take a look at Steve Martin’s business card. I love it because it brings to light the lack of meaning we often feel during the daily routine of work life.
When I was new to the workforce, I saw two ends of a spectrum. On one end, risking …
Read More...How to find a job you’ll love
My homeschool blog is mentioned in the New York Times. It’s a small mention, but it’s a big deal for me, because lately I’ve been obsessed with how people learn, and what makes a successful adult. It’s appropriate that the Times would link the day I wrote about what my day is like trying to …
Read More...When It’s OK to Take a Pay Cut
The farmer is separating his farm from his parents’ farm. To say this has been a summer full of drama would be a total understatement. I would say that the drama has gone from his larger family, to our little family, and now, to the economics of the farm.
This is probably where the drama should …
Surviving 9/11: Ten years later
During the year after 9/11 I went to counseling for post-traumatic stress. I went to a group that met weekly. The counselors explained that if we told our story over and over again, the story would have less power over us.
So I have been telling my story for ten years. I am lucky to have …
Get good at social media. Now.
The second start-up I did was with a guy who had great data about city governments but didn't know how to turn it into an Internet company. So I wrote a business plan and got it funded.
It turned out that he also had no idea how to use the Internet. He had a secretary, Laura, …
How to look like things are great
Look at this picture. I love this picture. I am carefree, pulled together, and a little bit like a farmer but not too much.
I keep thinking I want to put this picture online. And then I think, I can't. I'm too sad. I need a picture of me moping.
This feeling reminds me of when …
How to compete with Generation Z
I’m convinced that the biggest impact Generation Z will have on the workplace is in their schooling. They will be lifelong, self-learners, who take more personal responsibility for their ongoing education than any generation in history. I am not talking about graduate school here. I am talking about a more creative, independent way of learning …
Read More...Keys to getting unlost
My garden is full of vegetables that I never would have guessed I could grow. There is so much that I am not sure what to do with it all.
Because the acorn falls close to the tree, my son decided he wanted to sell rhubarb at our local farmers market. To be clear, a farmers …
How to find satisfying work
Today is the first hay baling day of the summer. The farmer is used to making huge, round bales, with big, loud machines. This time, though, he did smaller, square bales, and he found a way to include our son. And the dog.
I spend part of each day counseling people who don’t know how to …
Read More...How to quit every job and still have a good resume
Melissa is back. She stayed with us on the farm a little while over the winter, telling me to shut up, and playing with me in the snow.
I think by now you get the picture that Melissa is one of those people who breaks every rule and lands on her feet. One of the things …
Good luck to William and Kate!
Melissa is back from Italy right in time for the Royal Wedding. We stayed up all night, but at 2am, we went over to my neighbor’s house, because they have a huge TV.
Melissa fell asleep. My neighbor, Kathy, stayed up with me. And it was so cozy to sit on the sofa in the early …

Don't do what you love
Don't go to grad school
Blueprint for a Woman's life
Choose sex over money
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