“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”
Maria Robinson

“A year from now you may wish you had started today.”
Karen Lamb

I didn’t really try to improve my life very much until I was 25. Before that I mostly just moved along in the same old rut.

Since then (I’m 32 now) I have tripled my effectiveness, lost more than 30 pounds, adopted a more optimistic view of my life and raised my own self-esteem greatly. I have learned to simplify my life and to inject a lot more happiness into my days and years.

People go to work to sustain themselves and produce value in the world. Yet work environments can also be stressful, filled with challenging responsibilities and personalities, and feel misaligned with our most deeply cherished values. Instead of sustaining us, the workplace can sometimes feel simply draining, and at worst, unwholesome for both ourselves and the world.

Is the modern workplace a potentially corrosive but necessary environment, or is there a path for heart and spirit come alive through inner transformation at work?

In 2009, I lived two professional lives. The first was being a member of a close-knit, highly passionate team working together to organize the creative world. The other was rather lonely, as a writer aiming to finish my book.

Over the course of that year, I experienced the extreme sides of the work spectrum. During the work week, I was part of a highly collaborative dream team. And every weekend I worked solo, writing alone and planning what would become Making Ideas Happen.As I reflect, I found that the work I did in isolation was rewarding yet depressing. In my memory, every late night and weekend spent writing was rainy and overcast (if that's any indication!). By contrast, my participation with the team at Behance was, and continues to be, among the greatest sources of joy in my life. Despite the financial hardships of bootstrapping our business - and the intensity of the work and the schedule - I recall the year as nothing but awesome.

Fear stops us from living our best life and EVERYONE is afraid of something.

Fear has the power to hold us back from taking risks, following our dreams or becoming successful at anything we attempt to do.

What many people fail to realize is that fear is nothing more than a conditioned response. It is an automatic response to a frightening or unfamiliar situation. While fear usually happens automatically, there are things you can do to manage it.

We all get stuck. You find yourself sitting at your desk, frustrated by the fact that every solution you generate just doesn't seem right or seems too similar to the failed solution before it. Later that evening, while trying your best to describe the complexity of the challenge to your friend, the solution presents itself to both of you. Why does this happen? What is it about the act of sharing your frustrations that yields the necessary insight?We tend to believe that creative work is a lonely endeavor. But, research – not to mention past precedent – suggests otherwise. In fact, one of the single most effective ways to enhance your creativity is to regularly break the cycle of isolation and interact, talk, and share your work with your colleagues and friends.