9 Negative Emotions And What They Mean
There are 9 common emotions that are uncomfortable, unpleasant and just darn nasty. Fear, Hurt, Anger, Frustration, Disappointment, Guilt and/or Reget, Inadequacy, Overwhelm and Loneliness. I think most of us have felt these in our lifetimes, and perhaps even on a...
What is the most destructive question that everyone asks themselves?
“What’s in it for me?” This is the underlying question almost everyone has running in the back of their minds. Someone makes you an offer and you automatically ask it. “What’s in it for me?” Parents ask a variation, “What’s in it for my child, my family?” It’s...
How To Make Images With Only Sound
A Sound Design Project For Theater I just started working on creating sound design for Fordham University's theater department. It's a mainstage production of the play Magnolia, by Regina Taylor, which is a re-telling of the Cherry Orchard in 1963 Atlanta, Georgia....
The magic power of asking with expectation
In a recent post, I talked about the power of questions to design an exceptional life. But there's more. There is magic in the Universe. And you can tap into that magic with questions. Here's a few more magical questions to start your day. I wonder who I’m going to...
What are you going to be when you grow up?
Try as he might, he just could not sway us. We all turned out to be true creative people. My brother, sister and I all turned out to be creative types in advertising, music, dance and photography. My Dad (and to a lesser extent, my Mom) tried to brainwash us kids to...
What Is The Iceberg Principle Of Successful People?
People are like icebergs. What we can see is only its tip . There’s a whole lot going on underneath where we can’t see it. There is a principle that successful people know. I call it the “iceberg principle.” Success means a lot of different things to people....
A great question to ask someone when you first meet
I wasn't comfortable speaking to people. My whole childhood was trying to fit in. So I didn't really want to be noticed for being unique. I was too unique. The only Asian kid in a whole community. Over time, I began to get some comfort. Awkwardness fell away and...
How To Design An Exceptional Life
Are you feeling stuck? There's a way to take control of your life. Whether you are looking to increase your wealth, health or happiness, this will make a difference. You can design an exceptional life. And you can get started right now. To begin, let’s clear the...
How To Stop The Mental Focus Deprivation Torture
A Kafka-esque World Everyone’s racing around trying to get more done. Faster. More, more, more. It's a system of torture kind of like a Kafka-esque world where we don't know why we're rushing around but we know it's important. We are becoming shallow and it's all...
The surprising struggle with composing music for media
For the past twenty or so years, I've been involved as a composer for theater, film, television and other media. In the past, I have done projects for commercial advertisers pushing products and services that I didn't always believe in. That's tough. Because there's...
I Was Fired
I was fired. It was a dream job. Or what I thought was a dream job. The pay was awful but the perks were amazing. That’s the paradox of the music business. All the free records, CDs and t-shirts you could possibly carry home daily. Oh salary? You want to get...
A new mantra to smooth out your day
What is a mantra? A statement or slogan repeated frequently. Many times, the words I hear in my head were not consciously chosen. They just keep cycling through. Things my Mom said or my Dad told me. Sometimes they are not so good and I really need to excise them...
What favorite quote has changed your life?
What favorite quote inspires and uplifts you? Do you have a favorite quote you live by? Mine comes from a Zen Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh. It has resonated throughout my being for decades now. “My actions are the ground I stand on.” It is so powerful yet simple. ...
Do you know how to hear the secret chord?
“Well I heard there was a secret chord That David played and it pleased the Lord” - Leonard Cohen, Hallelujah I’ve been listening for that chord. It haunts me. Just when I think I hear it, it slips away like a distant echo. A foghorn on the black lake in the mist....
Chris Cornell asked me this question in 1990
I heard the terrible news about Chris Cornell’s suicide. I was laying sick in bed with a horrible cold and had spent a few feverish nights. It was something Chris said to me that echoed through my head for decades. Back in the late 80’s, I was working as a freelance...
How Do You Know If You Are In the Season Of Yes or No?
What Season Are You In? The Season of Yes Or the Season of No? So many times, you and I, we get stuck. We get stuck in the details. You say you’re going to create a new project? But then, you look around and see that it’s already been done before. Or something...
A surprising new way to eat – no lectins!
I've recently begun cooking, shopping and eating in a new way. It all came from a book, The Plant Paradox - the hidden dangers in healthy foods by Steven R. Gundry, MD which I learned about from Peter Diamandis. All Roads Lead To The Gut While I've been very much a...
A Foreign Country – a very short story
“Hey, your friends are over there.” “What? Excuse me?” “Your friends. I just saw them over there.” I was completely confused. Here I was in a completely foreign town in the middle of Wisconsin, in a shopping mall I had a never been in and this stranger says, my...
Displaced
At age 7, I used to lay on the grass lawn of our suburban home, head cradled in my hands, staring at the clouds drifting past. I was acutely aware of the sounds reaching me and they would begin pulling pieces of me to their sources; the dog behind the house barking,...
The Mindset of Successful People: 5 Secret Beliefs
1) Negative emotions are change signals. When you are feeling negative emotions, it’s like a warning light on your mental dashboard for a change. Something needs to change, whether it’s an action you are taking (or not), the environment you are in and the people you...
Breaking Writer’s Block By Making Inanimate Objects Come To Life
A strange story prompt that can really get you outside of a rut, is to write from the point of view of an inanimate object. Bring it to life. Anthropomorphize a mailbox, a building, an elevator, or a tourist attraction. The latter was the prompt that led me to this...
A Funny Thing About Commitment
If you commit yourself 100% to a project, it becomes effortless. There is no friction. It’s all or none. You do not battle yourself of whether you should or shouldn’t. You don’t prioritize, you just do. It’s when you’re at 95% when there’s trouble. At 95%,...
You’ve Got To Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive
Everything in life can be viewed in one of two ways, positive or negative. Re-reading the classic book The Magic of Thinking Big, by David J. Schwartz, I came across this wonderful passage where he talks about having an internal broadcasting system. "View it this...
Writing Prompts And Stimulating Your Writer Brain
There's a funny paradox about creativity. It's more difficult to create if you have all the options in the world available to you. You know how they always say think outside the box? Well if you don't have a box to start with, then you have no focus. When I worked...
Cinnamon and Sparkles
“There’s cinnamon in there…sparkles and cinnamon.” M laughed. I rolled over onto the New York Times Sunday edition spread out on the floor. The sun was streaming in and M was staring at me with a look of wonder. “Your eyes are dusted with cinnamon and...
Awake at 3am Questions Arise
Questions What do you call the time between midnight and dawn? Where do all the questions come from? What are you working on to make a difference in the world? What is holding you back? Is it a mislaid remark from your childhood, that has grown into a thorny cage...
Process of Writing A Novel: Keeping A Story Bible
So working on my novel, tentatively titled Akamaea, I’ve come across the idea of a story bible. This what Orson Scott Card advises in his book Characters & Viewpoint. “Keeping a bible helps make you aware of the decisions you’re making. The very fact of jotting...
Creating a Fantastical Setting For A Story
I'm working at being more open on my process. As I've realized that what I most enjoy reading about my favorite creators, whether they be authors or composers or painters or designers or filmmakers, I love to hear how they arrived at their solutions. So...gulp...I'm...
