Tag: personal development

  • At any given time, I have three or four draft pieces on the go. Some get finished over a day or two, other take longer and sometimes, I’ll shelve an article for weeks until I figure out just the right wording. I’d been working on a piece about the ways in which we fight or…

  • Hate To Break It To You is a recurring feature wherein we dispense succinct home truths that everyone could benefit from facing up to, unpleasant as they may be. Just because something or someone looks good on paper doesn’t mean it works off the page. CVs, self help books, OkCupid profiles, Facebook status updates; if…

  • Hate To Break It To You is a recurring feature wherein we dispense succinct home truths that everyone could benefit from facing up to, unpleasant as they may be. “Karma is not currency. You can’t pay your rent with unicorns and goodwill.” -Moi, in conversation with a friend Wanting to do positive, meaningful work and…

  • Today, we’re putting a new twist on old-school self help. Have you noticed that we don’t often ask ourselves questions, at least not of the exploratory variety. Sure, there’s the rhetorical What am I going to do now? OMG, where are my keys? Why can’t I ever finish a carton of soy milk before it…

  • I write a lot about going after what it is you want, not hamstringing yourself with insecurity, doubt or manufactured worst case scenarios. But what if you don’t have a sweet clue about what it is you want? What exactly are you supposed to do then? Photo by Robert Scarth Let’s start at the very…

  • Here on GenMeh, I like to mix pragmatism in with the pep talks, so assuming that you’re theoretically on board with the just because message in my previous post, how do you move from nodding along to actually going out and, ya know,  doing stuff? Photo by ontilnow The trick to countering cowardice/natural reticence/an overabundance…

  • I love when an idea, inspiration or theme pops up in different places in a short period of time or when I see/read/hear variations on the same general notion and then get the uniquely nerdy pleasure of pulling them together into a unified perspective. Recently, I was at dinner with a group of folks and…

  • I promised that I’d offer a rough and ready guide to Project Guinea Pig, in which you acknowledge that you can’t predict the future, stop trying to and start diving down interesting rabbit holes as you encounter them, without thinking about how these life tangents will affect A) your personal “brand”  B) your five-year plan…

  • This time last week I was frantically attempting to track down my movers in order to reclaim my meager truckload of possessions. Since then, I’ve set up my new apartment, figured out how to use a cordless drill, had coffee with one of my neighbors (and attempted to avert my eyes from his vast collection…

  • Had variations on the same discussions with two different people this week*. I know that when that happens, it’s a pretty good bet that there’s a GenMeh piece in there somewhere (also a good bet that I will use the conversations to hone my thesis, complete with wild gesticulations, maybe some sporadic pounding on the…