If focusing was easy, everyone would being doing it.

This is where a lot of motivational ra-rah fails us: “Just focus. Zero in, prioritize, it’s easy when you …just focus.” True, things do get exponentially easier when you hone in on your objective. But the actual choosing of what to focus on can be excruciating. It sucks to delay great projects. Pacing yourself is a drag. It can feel downright masochistic to say no to juicy opportunities.

When we recognize the fact that focusing can hurt, then we can face it directly, make better decisions about where we’re directing our energy, and move on more quickly toward success. The act of focusing requires contraction, ruthlessness, and deafening resolve. Wince. And then come the sweet relief.

Medicine tastes bad. Swig it back.
It hurts to say goodbye. Your plane is leaving.
Focusing can be painful. Make your choices.

focus.

1. Grieve for your ideas, the ones that will never see the light of day. Pruned. Aborted. Not meant to be. Under-resourced. Not as shiny as all your other ideas. Bye bye idea. You made me feel more creative, sassy, sexy. Thanks for passing through. Some ideas are only meant to flirt with you — quick confidence boosts on your way to lasting passion.
2. Bow respectfully to time, like it’s your honorable Jujitsu partner. Einstein said, “Time exists so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” What a beautiful, agonizing truth. Because when you’re on fire with ideas and things to make-do-build, don’t you wish it could all just happen at once? Time and gravity. Part of the human deal. Inescapable, really. Thankfully. Sometimes.
3. Put some ideas in escrow. They will wait for you. Patiently ripening.
4. Trust your muse. She may like to blurt stuff out at you at 4am, muses tend to be impulsive. But she also knows that one nuked idea will lead to another that is destined to be manifested.
5. Get off on the pain. As in it hurts so good to focus. When it sucks to set ten ideas aside and choose only one, relish in the agony, like an athlete loves the burn. You are getting ahead.

focus.
essential.
friction.
infinitely illuminating.

An even greater feat of creative swiftness, Geldolf pulled LIVE AID together in about seven months. It was one of the largest-scale broadcasts of all time, with a global audience of nearly 2 billion. In terms of production planning, it happened at the speed of light.

One of the greatest portrait painters alive, Francesco Clemente, says that if he can’t finish a painting in a day, he’s not that interested in it. Jack Kerouac believed that his uncorrected spontaneous prose, “visionary tics shivering in the chest,” were the most artful.

Fast can make something that lasts.

HOW TO ACCOMPLISH GREAT THINGS QUICKLY

1. Let yourself be moved. Swept up. Spurred. Taken.
Geldof saw a report on Ethiopian famine on the nightly news and sketched out the LIVE AID plan that night. Don’t hold yourself back. Do not censor your passion. Fuck being practical. Do not be logical. You do not have to know how you’re going to pull it off. In fact, it’s better if you don’t. Think of all the greatness-makers who have said, “If I knew what this was going to take, I wouldn’t have started.” Just be seized. Go with it. This wave of “I gotta do this!” will lead you to a strategy.

WhiteHot backup, read: On Bright Faith And Why Falling In Love Is Totally Uncool

2. Simply believe that you CAN — and will — do incredible things in a very short amount of time. Not all the time, of course. But more often than not. Creativity doesn’t need to be a process that is drawn out — contrary to what a lot of perfectionists and self-sabatogers think. Hell, sometimes it doesn’t even need to be thought out well. You just need to get it out. This requires that you…

3. Trust. Trust hard and trust strong.

WhiteHot backup, read: Open up anyway.

4. Be on the watch for for synchronicities.
When you fully commit to pull something amazing off in short order, angels hear the alarm and slide down the cosmic fire pole to give you earthly assistance. Trust that people will be placed on your path and they will get you where you need to go faster than you could get there by yourself. Think of crazy deadlines as compressed magic time.

5. Set seemingly impossible deadlines. I did it for The Spark Kit. I wrote/filmed it in 11 weeks, it lead to a book deal, which we sealed in a few days time. And Your Big Beautiful Book Plan — which is massive. We pulled a team together to launch in 8 weeks. In both cases, I announced the launch date before I’d started on the projects. Mo.ti.vat.ing.

WhiteHot backup, read: Time Kills Deals and 7 Other Points on Making It Happen

6. Focus like your life depends on it.
The faster you drive, the more you have to focus.

WhiteHot backup, read: Super Hero Syndrome + The Practical Response To Crazy Ambition

7. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT DEVALUE SOMETHING YOU MAKE BECAUSE YOU MADE IT QUICKLY AND EASILY. This is the most nasty killer of unfurled greatness. We think that because it came so swift and easy, it mustn’t be as valuable. Hogwash. When you’re operating from a place of your True Strengths — it’s easy. You’re more productive, happy, and…faster.

WhiteHot backup, read: The Manifesto of Encouragement (I wrote it in 10 minutes. It’s been shared 7000 times.)

So, no kidding: I’m just about to hit “publish” on this post, and I get this email from my creative compatriot, Alexandra Franzen: “In a bout of mania, I made a mini-product this morning: FIVE SCRIPTS TO FILL YOUR CLIENT DOCKET. It’s fun. It’s $15. And hopefully, it’s hella useful. Here’s a copy for YOU. ‘Cause, ya!. Today’s theme is: getting shit done, lightning fast.” See.

And now, here’s a copy for YOU to get manic with.

Believe in the possible, the swift, the power of lickety split.

. . . . . .

Reviews are streaming in for YOUR BIG BEAUTIFUL BOOK PLAN, which we launched last week. They are thrilling, we are thrilled, and I predict that a whole lotta people will be spending this holiday mapping out a strategy for their creatives empires. Please check it out.

Just got dumped? Lace up your runners and move your body.
Under the weather? Go in to work any way, wearing your favorite sweater.
Up to your earrings in deadlines? Go cheer on your friend. Show up at the bake sale. Call your mother.
Crying before show time? Put some tea bags on your eyes. Say a prayer. Enter stage left.

Push. Turn up the volume. Go hard. Go harder.
Re-prioritize your aches and pains.
Infuse your sensitivities with courage.
Tell fear to fuck right the fuck off.
Devote to Done.

There are soul-justified reasons to cancel. There are times to just stop. This isn’t one of them. Keep going. Show up. Full on. Full tilt. Full out. Decide to be one of those people who pull it off.

Do what you say you’re going to do.
Don’t let us down.
Decide to rise.

Why decide to rise? Not for the reasons you might think. In fact, these are the reasons that will make you sick and tired:

Do not rise out of obligation. Do not rise because of feared consequences. Do not rise because you think being tough makes you smarter (it doesn’t.)

Decide to rise because you want to expand — your being, your life, your possibilities.

Decide to rise because super powers are meant to be activated and applied in everyday life.

Decide to rise to explore your place in the universe.

On the other side of deciding to rise is illumination, ecstasy, insight. And the angel of your strength is there waiting, smiling, applauding, with a goblet of endorphins for you. Drink up.

When you transcend circumstances you get special privileges. You get evidence that you are indeed amazing, and irrefutable proof that what your heart and mind choose is what matters. And you get the deep knowing that life wants you to win.

Decide to rise.

Lean in. Listen up. Closely.
It’s your soul speaking and she says,
Get UP! I need you. I want you. I am you. Choose me.
Lean in. Listen up. Closely.

Decide to rise.

Jonathan’s thesis on innovation can be boiled down to this:

a) Uncertainty is not just useful in creation and innovation, it’s mandatory.

b) Certainty is a dream-killer because it stops us from exploring the possibility that we don’t know everything, and that we might be able to create something better.

So of course I, and dozens of journalists are asking him this: If ambiguity and uncertainty get us to our creative crux, then how can we lean into those states? His answer:

Optimize your workflow. Most of us work in ways that are actually fairly destructive to our ability to not only do great work, but feel great doing it. Simple changes to workflow, like pulsing and refueling, single-tasking and selective ritualizing can change not only how well you create, but how you feel along the way.
.

I knew a guy who worked from home and wore a tie. With his t-shirt and flip flops. Same necktie everyday. “My best ideas have come from this tie,” he told me. I asked if he also had magic underpants.

Twyla Tharp says her ritual of exercise and choreography begins when she gets in the taxi at 5am and tells the driver to take her to the gym.

I sit down to write. I close my day-timer. I light a candle. Every time. Sacred space. Ready to commence.

Your intention to innovate becomes more powerful when you declare it. And you can be certain of that.

What you can never, ever be fully certain of is how you’re going to get there. Or how you’re going to breakthrough. Or when your muse might decide to bless you with an awesome idea. Or what you’re actually going to produce in the end. This is unnerving and sometimes terrifying when you’ve got expectations, a budget, a deadline, and a big dream. And, this is the place where great things come from.

Back to Jonathan Fields…

Build daily “uncertainty-harnessing” personal practices. Beyond changes in workflow, there are daily personal practices you can add your uncertainty “scaffolding” that work on a deeper mindset-tuning level time, can have a profound effect not only on how you experience the creative process, but on how you experience life in a world where there is no new normal. Some of these include mindfulness, reframing, and high-intensity movement.

“Uncertainty harnessing” typically requires that we step away from what we’re so focused on. Can you relate to this?: you’re so engrossed in your project that it’s 2pm before you realize you haven’t eaten lunch. But you’re in the thick of it, on a roll. Get lunch or plow forward? Tomorrow is your deadline and your friend’s band is making their debut performance tonight. Front row seat or bail out? You’ve been working on your project for months and you’re aching to launch it. Work when you’re burnt, or take the weekend off, like, really take it off.

My vote: when you choose life, your work reaps the rewards. Lose focus. Intentionally. Just for a minute.

In my experience, when I’m thinking that I ‘have no choice but to crank on’, then it’s time to stop cranking. (And we ALWAYS have a choice.) And lo’ what happens, predictably even, is that in those break periods — chopping carrots for lunch, driving home from the concert, unplugging… my mind cools down and a new really, really good idea will come forward. It was just waiting for me to take a break so I could see it.

Uncertainty might push you to work harder. Lighten up.
Uncertainty might have you looking for answers. Ask more questions.

Uncertainty might have you demanding assurances.
Instead, welcome Mystery….and her sidekick will tag along.
He goes by the name of Innovation.

. . . . . .

the pebble in your shoe is bigger than you think

Small, annoying things. Energy leaks. We tend to discredit the slight aggravations in life + work because our attention is on accomplishing the big things. But think about the trying to walk with a grain of sand in your sock. You won’t go more than a block until you frantically peel off your shoe and give things a firm shake ‘n swipe. Ahhh, relief. Think about the dramatic effect of a pin prick to an inner tube, the power of a mosquito, that impact of a sliver.

Every time you make REPEATED contact with aggravating tasks and situations, you make a conscious or unconscious choice to endure (the root of the word endure is ‘to suffer’,) and to settle with less-than-ideal. This kind of aggravation triggers resentment and bad ju-ju. We direct our pissed-off vibe outward, (Damn landlord needs to fix this lock.) Or inward, (These too tight pants are what I get for being so lazy.) And in doing so, we affirm any feelings of helplessness and overwhelm that are floating in our consciousness. And a little bit of our energy zipples out of our sails.

fix the small stuff

Noticing — really noticing — what’s rubbing on you is part of being conscious. When subtleties grab your attention you are not OCD, you’re lucid. When you deal with the annoyances, you’re not a control freak, you’re the master of your reality.

Look at it this way: energy leaks are usually really easy to fix because they’re small. It’s simply a matter of stopping to tend to them. When you fix the stuff that’s picking at you, you get relief, and that freshness helps you focus on the big stuff.

god + mastery are in the details. so is your freedom.

Where’s the rub in your day-to-day? Make a plan to cure, dissolve or absolve it.

What’s the mosquito-like thought form that’s zifting in your psyche? Visualize rinsing it away, make a phone call that will settle things.

What’s broken that you want fixed? Hire a handyman, find a homeopath, reach out and mend it with love.

Your vitality deserves an as-soon-as-possible response.
Get on it. Because you have bigger things to do.

Savasana is not so much about chillaxin’, as it is about integration. Some teachers will say that if you skip out on Savasana, you lose the benefits of your yoga session.

We rest to integrate the benefits of the work that we have done.

Creative and work cycles need Savasana time – consider it divine debriefing. This is the most under-valued practice in business and busy living. We resist. We fidget. We race forward. For similar reasons, Savasana – undoing, unwinding, letting go – is considered to be one of the most difficult of all yoga postures to master.

Right now, my career / creativity is in Savasana. Which is to say: agitation, satiation, ebullience, and fresh rushes of ambition – all at once. For Creatives (and we’re all Creatives,) this is the unavoidable, slightly uncomfortable, and sacred space between exertion and renewal. If we bypass this place, we miss the most empowering insights of all the work we have done – insights that will fuel us on the next journey.

This is the first time in two years that I haven’t been operating under an intense deadline. A few weeks ago, I delivered my final manuscript for The Fire Starter Sessions. There will be copy edits. My Canadian spelling and poor punctuation will be stripped, but mostly, I am done. I hardly know what to do with myself.

I’ve done the Downward Facing Dog of deals, I’ve done the Tree Pose of multiple product and event launches amidst gusting winds of life upheaval. I’ve sweated and twisted and floated, and I have felt the breath of angels in my lungs as I lifted my ass and aspirations to new levels. So now what? Fidget. Rest. Ready myself.

rest is productive : the savasana of creativity + work

At the end of a big project, you will be pulled with equal force in three directions:

CLEANING UP. You’ve been in the creative bubble. Your auto-responder was set to “don’t bug me,” your door mat said “Unwelcome.” Now your inbox is encrusted with emails like barnacles on an ocean-liner. There are many things that legitimately need tending to, people you care about are waiting, and you genuinely want to move into responsive mode. But you also really need…

STILLNESS. Your mind has been burning for so longing that needs the cooling effect of suspension and ambling. A nap. Reading a book unrelated to your line of work. Unscheduled time. Listening, receiving.

NEWNESS. Part of you is raring to get going on the next Big Thing. You’re wired to make stuff. It’s what you do. If I was more chemically imbalanced, I would have started my new book the day after I submitted my last book, (it crossed my mind. The next tome is burning a hole in my heart.) But I knew it was Savasana time.

Prone on the floor with your eyes closed, it’s easy to fall asleep in Savasana. Some yoga instructors discourage this because it’s not about escaping per se, it’s about integration. I used to consider it nap time. But now I listen, and I hear so much more. And I re-enter the world more energized.

The same approach applies to work. I used to wrap a project, crash hard, and then zip into the next thing. Now…I sit with both the discomfort and the enthusiasm. I stay awake and look at where I’ve been and how it relates – or doesn’t – to where I want to go.

We rest to integrate the benefits of the work that we have done.

CLEAN UP without rushing, without panic or guilt, and with respect for the patience you’ve been shown.

BE STILL in the ways that your body and mind crave.

LET THE NEWNESS ROOT. Allow yourself to be sensationally excited…without acting on it…yet.

When you rest, you have space for all of it.
And when you rise to meet the future, you will be very, very ready.

E3 Live Blue Green Algae: this is like jumper cables for your brain. I buy it frozen from my local health food store, I de-thaw half the bottle at a time and use about 3 tablespoons of it in my smoothie. I can feel my brain grin–from ear to ear…ar ar ar — ear to ear, brain, get it…anyway…When I’m on the road or don’t do a smoothie, I pop three or four of the capsules. Green dream.

Tom Ford Fragrance: I haven’t ventured out of essential oils for years, the synthetic stuff ain’t my cut. But Tom…oh Tom, I’m so glad you swing both ways.

Speaking of hot men…

Ray LaMontange: This raspy-voiced minstrel loves his women. And you gotta love that in a man.

The iPad2: can’t believe I waited so long to get the iPad2. It’s a cafe-friendly piece of freeing technology.

Rapportive: a free lil’ app for Gmail users that “shows you everything about your contacts right inside your in-box.”

OmmWriter: this is Zen wallpaper for writing in peace. No desktop icons or formatting rulers to distract you from making art. Ahhh.

Pheylonian Beeswax candles: I just placed my yearly order. The very, very best.

Rob Mee’s article on TimFerris.com: What’s Your Start-up’s “Bus Count”? 7 Myths of Entrepreneurship and Programming, is a grounded perspective on what makes for good work and output, as told from the perspective of software development. Wise stuff that applies to every creative process.

These fantastic books for kids
: The Boy Who Grew Flowers, by Jennifer Wojtowicz
: Weslandia, by Paul Fleischman
: Everest, Books 1, 2, 3, by Gordon Korman. We’re plowing through this fantastic story of nobility and adventure. “Mama, are you crying again?” Sniff.
: Schooled, by Gordon Korman

And this poem, from my friend Samantha, who is writing one poem a day for a year. (As we all should.)

THE PRESENT

The present
paper thin
be careful
it is dissolving
as you read this
new moments
erupt under your feet
fill each one
with awareness
witness
your heart beats
can you believe it
your body coaxes
you onward
constantly
utter faith
that you will
spend the offering
of life
wisely.

Summer Love
xo

Rare beauty, busy-ddiction, and not holding it back

I’m so jazzed to launch my Burning Questions interview series with some wit and wisdom from the one, the only, (put your hands together for…) Dyana Valentine. Lady Dy came to one of my Fire Starter groups in LA this spring. It was a magical night in part to her shimmer and substance. Dyana is part Aphrodite and part Clarissa Pinkola Estes, with a heaping dose of the Grandmaster of Funk, George Clinton. And as my creativity coach, she’s helping me tear the roof off the mutha f*cker (aka my next book.) Her claim: “Helping self-starters self-finish, one project at a time.”

1. What are you trying to discover?
Ways we can connect and collaborate to make electrifying changes in the way business is conducted and life is lived.

2. What do you believe that you didn’t believe before? What changed your mind?
I never believed that relaxing into something would get you anywhere; that and that being calm could be productive. Oh, shit–where do I start? Every time I stop this autobahn-style schedule; rest for a day or so; take a day of silence–magic (and yes, I mean MAGIC) happens. Clients roll in; I have a productively inspiring dream; a new workshop springs out of a well-crafted, slow dinner at home. The evidence is there for the powerful productivity of peaceful energy–and so is the devotion to my busy-ddiction.

I still schedule myself within an inch of my truth, but on those remarkable days when I shut up and sit down–the beauty is there. Maybe I need to reexamine my belief that beauty is rare, huh?

3. What do you know the most about?
Photography, cooking, parsing large concepts into easy-lingo, connecting seemingly disparate ideas and making sense of patterns.

4. What book(s) are you always telling people to read?
Dan Roam: The Back of the Napkin
Malcolm Gladwell: Blink
Alice Waters: Chez Panisse Vegetables
Allan and Bargara Pease: The Definitive Book of Body Language

5. Inspiration flashback: When is the last time you thought, “Yes! That person has so got it going on!”?
Seriously: in June at the Fire Starter about YOU (mischievous sage, laser-lens witness). Melanie Orndorff (wicked smart idea mine); Jeni Herberger (stunner, visionary, ass kicker), Steve Gordon, Jr. (design a go-go, psychiatric nurse calming presence)

6. I’m going to give you a word. Tell me what the first thing that comes to mind when you read it… Ready? The word is: fecund.
Pregnancy, potential, creating conditions for miracles to happen; world-wide distribution; name in lights; striding across a stage with a cheek-mic rocking some prada-meets-patagonia superfly duds and TELLING IT.

7. What question are you currently living?
Knowing what I know about myself, my values and my goals: how dare I hold back?

Dyana, darling, You? Even more unleashed? I dare you.

find Dyana:
http://dyanavalentine.com/
on Facebook
on Twitter: @DyanaValentine

Next week’s Burning Questions Interview: Chris Guillebeau, world traveler and founder of The Art of Non Conformity

Even the most daft entrepreneur knows that:

1) The internet is the global brain. Once an article is firing on the internet neurons, you’ve got to work strategically hard and deftly to have it buried – fortunately or unfortunately.

The instinctively wise entrepreneurs know that:

2) You GO WHERE THE LOVE IS. You pay very close attention to the people, customers, commenters, and buyers who are paying very close attention to you. You don’t waste time trying to convert fringe audiences or to quiet outlying critics – it’s an extremely inefficient use of marketing energy. You feed the tribe and keep on supporting them to be your freaking raving mavens.

The daft, wise and enlightened entrepreneurs know that:

3) Good manners are good karma.

And with that, I’m happy to share with you my response to those who are so tightly guarding their uh, copyright:

Dear Intellectual Property Officer and Entrepreneurial Time Management Team,

So let me get this straight: I write an excellent blog post extolling the virtues of your Entrepreneurial Time Management System, foremost siting Dan Sullivan as the creator of the system, linking back to his website, and also linking to a free article of his on www.entrepreneurship.org in which he outlines the system — and you send me a litigiously-minded email full of copyright declarations, asking me to “take immediate steps to cease use of these concepts on your website, and that [I] refrain from so doing in the future.”

Hmmm. I’m confused. Because, in my world, a glowing review such as the one I gave your system is golden publicity that you can’t pay for. In fact, it was so glowing that that particular post has since been republished on about a dozen other websites, linked to, saved to on delicious, and received twenty-two comments on my site alone. That’s the phenomenal combined power of a great testimonial from a respectable authority, the viral capacity of the world wide web — and a unique system such as Dan’s that makes for truly useful content.

Do you really require that your fans get authorization to discuss how they apply your work? I don’t think Stephen Covey needs to approve public articles on successfully applying his Seven copyrighted Habits. I too am an IP generator. I created a personal development system called Style Statement and whenever it’s been blogged about in a similarly methodically descriptive and positive way, I went out of my way to actually thank the writer for spreading the good word. In some cases I would even comment on the blog posts and begin to interact with the other commenters. Imagine…supporting those who support you…reinforcing the tribe…making your ambassadors even stronger ambassadors. In my world, that’s good business.

Let me know if you’d still like me to remove my post entitled: Entrepreneurial Time Management: How I Rock It, from my site. And I can (sadly) consider obliging, and never use that phrase in a viral sentence again.

Very sincerely,
Danielle

What do you want more of?
There’s nothing physical I’d like more of … in fact, I’m always getting rid of stuff as my possessions naturally accumulate. But there are two things I’d like more of:

1. Patience. I’m not a super impatient guy, but it’s something I’d like to improve as I age.
2. Travel. I love to travel, but I haven’t had the chance to do much of it. There’s so much of the world I want to see!

Assuming that your evil twin is a materialistic, extravagant hoarder, what’s an over-the-top luxury that he’d be craving?
A super-huge monitor for my Mac. I love big monitors. I saw a really beautiful one recently and immediately lusted for it. I’ll never buy it. :)

“How do you keep it simple with six kids?” sounds like a trick question. But really, when they’re pleading for the latest Polly Pocket or Guitar Hero game, how do you convey your essential outlook to them?

I don’t pretend to be the perfect parent — I give in and buy them video games and gadgets all the time, especially for Christmas and their birthdays. And I feel guilty about it afterward.

But I think we parents are only human, and we are striving to improve, and that’s what we want to teach our children — that we can be happy with what we have, but that if we fail and give in to our human frailties, that’s OK. We can just try to do better next time, and
figure out a better way.

My kids have learned, through my example, how to get rid of things they don’t use. They’ve learned how to have fun without spending money (though we do spend money to have fun sometimes). They’ve learned what’s important. They’ve learned how to do things for themselves, and how to solve problems and learn things on their own.

I think any parent who’s helped their children do these things — often by getting out of their way — should be proud of the job he’s done.

What’s been the greatest surprise on your journey to blog-dom success?
I’m surprised every day, by things I learn from my readers and other bloggers, by the simple fact that I’m able to do what I do for a living. I keep thinking people are going to catch on to me and I’ll have to find another job, but lo and behold! I get another day to do
this crazy job called blogging. It’s a dream come true — a dream I never really dared to do before.

Besides being able to blog for a living, I think what has surprised me the most is that I’ve been able to find success as a writer — especially without having to leave the tiny island of Guam! In the past, a writer would have had to go to one of the major cities, such as New York or Paris or London, to try to make it in the world of writing. I always supposed I’d have to do that, but was too intimidated. But amazingly, I just put my writing out there in
blog-land, and I was able to succeed, to be shoulder-to-shoulder with great writers from all over the world!

Who would you like to hand-deliver a copy of The Power of Less to?
Leonardo da Vinci … because the dude just fascinates me. I’m named after him (my dad’s an artist) and I’ve always felt it’s an honor to be named after someone so amazing. Plus, I’d have to travel through time to hand him a copy of my book, and how cool would that be?

But if I had to choose someone living, I would choose William Gibson, the sci-fi author, because that is one seriously cool guy. I don’tknow what I’d say to him. I’d probably pee my pants.

I would say Jessica Alba but my wife might kidney punch me. So just ignore that comment.

What’s your big audacious dream?
I’m already living it! I am self-employed, my own boss, able to work from home, spending time with my beautiful and painfully sexy wife, playing with my six incredibly cool but exhaustingly curious children, living in an exotic tropical island, reading and running and wearing shorts and T-shirts and Birkenstocks. That’s the dream.

I would also like to live in other parts of the world … the south of France, Italy, Japan, Toronto, Brazil, London, Australia, New York, San Francisco … I could go on and on. I will make some of these dreams come true, but time will probably run out before I get to live
in all of these places.

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