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Defense to offense
When I was a child, my parents enrolled me in a rec floor hockey league. I played defense for a couple of years, until a snow day happened and the team needed me to play offense. I shifted my focus away from clearing the ball away from my own net, and instead on putting pressure…
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Are you being rude to yourself?
For some of us, the people who taught us when we were young might have been tough. They believed that by being rude to us, they were also helping us build character and succeed. Whether their approach was effective or not, their voice stays with us. We learn to be rude to ourselves in the…
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Five tactics to scan for career opportunities
If you ever find yourself exploring the job market, you can treat these five posts as a mini-guide to help scan for opportunities. I wrote these with my tech marketing career experiences in mind. I think the insights are widely applicable: How to reach out to your network for opportunities: These approaches are useful particularly…
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Clarify what your career currently supports
Your career can help you solve one problem at a time. It benefits from having a primary focus. Here are some factors I have solved for, either through intuition or intention: Learning: When I started freelancing and grew that business into an editorial studio, I wanted to learn the ropes of starting a business. Earning:…
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The Middle Way
In Buddhist philosophy, the Middle Way is a practice that steers clear of extremes. It involves eight interconnected guidelines. You can consider the guitar string an analogy for the Middle Way: a guitar string needs to be just tight enough—not too loose, or too tight—to sound right. In the world of creative work, balancing art…
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Wisdom starts with walking
One of the more useful practices I’ve cultivated this year is treating stress like a pet dog. When I experience high stress, I imagine a dog who desperately needs to run outside to use the bathroom. It would feel cruel and irresponsible to keep them cooped up inside, and they would eventually take care of…
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Lest we forget
My grandparents survived the Second World War. I don’t know much about what they went through. We never talked about it. I imagine part of this silence involved protecting their grandkids from the horror. Maybe protecting themselves too, from revisiting the past and risking more trauma. By the time I was old enough to learn…