Sunday, November 23, 2014

Desire, Drive & Disconnect

November 2014 - Houston, TX.  Patio on Sabine.

November 23, 2014
Houston, TX

I’m kicked back on the patio wearing slippers I put on after spotting spiritual guru Gabby B wearing a similar pair in a Facebook post.   Danielle LaPorte’s Desire Map is on my lap and the first few pages have energized me to plot how I want to feel instead of what I want to do Just ten minutes ago I was curled up in bed on Sunday morning, reading on my iPhone Eric Barker’s weekly blog Barking Up the Wrong Tree.  Today he features the work of Daniel Pink, author of Drive:  The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us. [bxA]

I discovered Pink’s Drive last July on the bookshelf in the guest room of Sandra’s lakeside cottage outside Toronto.  I met Sandra in Beirut in 2009 and finally got to visit her this summer on my trip to the Montreal Jazz Festival to see Charlie Musselwhite, whom I met during my days in Phuket a few months after Beirut.  About a month ago my boss read Drive and it’s all he can talk about, but I’m still into Simon Sinek’s work on inspiration.

July 2014 - Near Toronto.  Sandra's Cottage on a Lake.

I’m swimming in a stew of stimuli.  

I want to email my boss about Drive, which makes me want to Facebook message Sandra about my boss, which makes me want to send a postcard to Charlie about my trip to Canada.  I also want to finish all these books and maybe write about how these concepts apply at work.   

Jun' 14 - Montreal Jazz Fest.  Charlie Musselwhite & Ben Harper 

Instead I do nothing: socially and intellectually overwhelmed.
 
The digital age disconnect.

Just when things were getting existentially interesting at the end of my travels circa 2011, I ditched the blog because I’d been afflicted with what I call Blogger Brain.   I viewed my life through the lens of how I’d write about it in my blog.  Kinda like how nowadays people can’t stab a fork into dessert until they stop to Instagram it. 

Not that I’m not totally on board with the social media culture.  I’m for sure one of those people.  I just stop myself from posting most of the time because I’m not so sure we can have our cake and Tweet it too.

Monday, November 10, 2014

Santa Monica Pier Pressure

Santa Monica, California 11/6/2014

November 9, 2014

I had only fifteen minutes to stare out at the Santa Monica Pier last week during a quick trip following a string of endless weeks of almost continual travel.  In the past couple months I've had the privilege of seeing countless inspired thought leaders speak live (including Oprah, Simon Sinek, Elizabeth Gilbert, Malcolm Gladwell and Danielle LaPorte), had my Beirut BFF Derek spend two weeks with me on his inaugural trip to the USA (Texas), moved some cool stuff forward at work, spent a lot of time with my guru sister, and reconnected with four of my Wayfinder friends (thanks to angelic Abby for enticing me to California on a whim).

My brain is an amusement park right now and there are lines at all the rides.