After you work for yourself for a while, you won’t go back. If you are of a certain ilk, that is. You’re not born that way, working for yourself makes you that. You might go back in body for a brief period, but it’s impossible to go back in mind.
Welcome to The Daily Article archive. Here’s where you’ll find previous issues of The Daily Article where I share my thoughts on life, work and the pursuit of happiness. Topics I regularly write on include the psychology of creativity and human behaviour, the nature of work, small business and society & culture. If you enjoy Sunday Letters you’ll enjoy these short daily writings.
It’s Not Such A Big Deal
Werner Heisenberg writes of the nature of reality and of the fundamental basis of matter in Physics and Philosophy, as he recounts the ancient philosophy of the Greeks; The process of Becoming is considered a sort of debasement of the infinite Being – a disintegration into the struggle ultimately expiated by a return into that […]
When Sitting With A Problem…
When sitting with a problem, avoid settling for “this is hard”, and instead, add a “but”. The “but” leaves the door open to a solution. So then, “this is hard” turns into, for example, “this is hard, but I can find an answer”. “This is hard” is a verbalisation of a state of mind. It’s a definitive state of mind–a close loop from which there is no way out.
The Sword Upon Which You’ll Fall
Running a business with multiple moving parts is different to being a craftsperson, artist, sole trader responsible for only yourself. Although your craft is the reason the business exists, it often can become a victim to the demands of the business. Abstract elements such as staff management, marketing, sales, accounts and so on, become more important that the work itself.
There Is No Point In Work, Unless…
I’ve got an office/workspace at the bottom of our small garden. It’s a converted shed. Last summer, twelve months, I cleared it out, and in a couple of weeks had my own private space for work. It’s a Godsend. Here I can work uninterrupted, blinkered for hours on end. The only sound is the hum […]
Move Closer To The Centre
On the edge, just inside the edge, there is the mainstream media–a glut of data–fabricated, manipulated, molded, spun. It’s where most people get their information. It’s the nature of surface level reality, but rather than thinking of this information distribution as a two-dimensional circle, consider it a sphere. Particles, waves, wavicles in constant motion, combining, separating, mutating. It’s not ours, we inherit it, then adopt and contribute to it.
Try Many Things
We can get into a rut when things don’t work out. You know, we try something we think we might do for a living and it turns out, for whatever reason, that people just aren’t biting. There’s no traction, you doubt yourself; you feel you’re wasting your time.