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Your Story Matters: leading and living your creative best
Welcome—so glad you’re here. Do you, like me, want to work more creatively, lead lightly, be productive, and design the life you want to live? Are you curious about how storytelling can help you can engage others and shape meaning? If so, I hope you enjoy these posts and I look forward to hearing from you!
Find Your Inner Porpoise
The books written about Purpose or "Finding Your Inner Purpose" on Amazon have it almost right. They just spelled it wrong. Change a few letters and you'll have more fun. Finding a purpose can feel heavy. A porpoise is buoyant. Just to be clear, I think having a deep...
When Paris Burns: Finding the seeds of resilience
Last Monday, as I stumbled past my husband on my way to bed, he looked up from reading on his Ipad and announced, "I have bad news." What now, I wondered. Isn’t constant bad news the new norm? “Notre Dame is burning, and there’s been a lot of damage. The spire has...
Images of imagination
This week, I've been thinking about the power of imagination, especially as we age. Imagination provides a spark for creativity. Creativity feeds the soul. Filmmaker David Lynch says that his best ideas come through daydreams. Others find space in nature. In space and...
How to keep your attention in an age of distraction.
Your attention is precious. Me, I could always use more. I need it to write, finish reading a book, plan a project, and any work that requires sustained concentration. It is so damn easy to lose focus with interruptions, as I wrote last week. We're in the age of...
Attention! Yours is at risk!
You know how it starts... You’re trying to concentrate on the computer, perhaps reading an article, writing a document, thinking through a problem, or searching for a recipe. After five minutes of concentration, a text pops up. You think, Might be a family member or...
When you’re feeling the weight of the world
Another week, another tragedy. I was up before dawn to drive to a conference when tragic news, from the far side of the globe, jolted me awake. If you ever wonder if we're all connected, notice how fast bad news travels. Remember John Donne's poem, written in 1621...
What are you devoted to?
Remember the Everly Brothers hit "Devoted to You?* Darlin', you can count on me Till the sun dries up the sea Until then I'll always be devoted to you. Although they must have been singing to a girl, we can be devoted to whatever creative endeavor we most care about,...
How to Do More by Juggling Less
XDo you ever feel as if you have too many balls in the air?We all have our limits. Ever watch champion jugglers? As their audience applauds, they add object after object to their juggling mix. The crowd watches in awe and anticipation, knowing that if the jugglers add...
How to rebound from rejection
Got Rejection? One of my writing buddies inspires me with her ability to not let rejection stop her. We're part of an online writing circle, where she regularly shares about disappointing rejections from potential agents and publishers–as well as the occasional...
A midwinter’s night pause
My article for the winter issue of 3rd Act Magazine is out: "A New Leash on Life: Fostering senior dogs" – and it's a topic that is VERY close to my heart. If you want an "all natural," almost sure-fire way to beat depression, I highly recommend fostering or adopting...
Marie Kondo, Will you be my Valentine?
Dear Marie,I know my invitation may come as a surprise after all the snide comments I made about tidying in this blog. You have every right to be offended.I read your book once, standing up, in the bookstore. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of...
What does real accountability look like? (It might go beyond what you think…)
What does it mean to be fully accountable, taking responsibility for one's actions as well as for one's legacy? The business world approaches accountability as a virtue, a buzz word that's synonymous with good performance as in, “Yep, I got it, I'll do it...
Improve your day a click at a time
What if one click of acknowledgment could reinforce the skill, craft, or project you're working on?Why not reinforce the best of what you do, while letting the rest, well, fade away?The limits of willpowerIn working alone on my book, blog, or podcast, I sometimes need...
Is Your Story Fact or Fiction?
When the waves of change are high, stories help us navigate.Still, we need to be discerning and recognize bad stories when we hear them.I’m not just thinking of the 1964 film The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies that earned a...
Create a daily oasis with ordinary rituals
“We humans remember trauma better than pleasure, it's the way we're built, so ritual helps to inject the significance of this moment into us. “ Lorene CaryEvery year as December fades into January, I celebrate. My rituals, whether a gathering on New Year’s Eve, a...
Cultivate kindness in small doses
Don’t we all need a little more kindness sprinkled through our lives–both kindness we receive and kindness we give?I don’t mean large-scale, heroic kindness, but more of the small-scale embellishments that can put smiles on faces, give courage to persevere over the...
As the earth rises in 2019, we’re still in this together
We’ve just closed out 2018. I, for one, wasn’t sad to see it go. During much of the year, the world seemed off balance, with political craziness, environmental disasters, and expressions of cruelty and greed. I also faced a few personal challenges. 1968, fifty years...
Welcome back the light
"There is a crack, a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."Leonard Cohen, "Anthem."We're almost at the Solstice and not a moment too soon in my book.I've been so hungry for light that I pulled out my old lightbox from the attic to begin soaking up some...
Fill with joy and arrest the stress in the holidays
Does it ever feel to you that someone is tightening the gears on life in order to speed up time, especially during the holidays?Years ago, I had the opportunity to visit the Boeing Commercial Aircraft factory in Everett, Washington, where the new 777 jetliner was...
Taking the small steps back to thriving
What do we do when we keep getting clobbered by bad news?Find our way back to thriving.This week, I'm continuing my survival guide to pulling a little hope from tough times. Hopefully, you don't need it, unless, of course, you made the mistake of listening to the...
Your blog is an ongoing tonic for the soul, and a reminder of what’s possible.
Stephen SilhaWow! You keep writing the most pertinent, passionate, and clear articles I have the pleasure to read. Bravo!
Doug LipmanAs always, Sally, I am dazzled and inspired by the elegance, eloquence and relevance of your writing…
BIll Veltrop
Meet Sally
She’s an inspiring communicator, an original thinker, she weaves big ideas and practical examples together to help her clients take their next big step forward. She teaches leadership presence by modeling it.
She is visionary and practical, vulnerable and solid, accessible and real. A perpetual learner herself, she’s not afraid to take risks to develop the talents of her clients.
Engaging Presence
