“Fall, then figure out what to do on the way down.” ~ Del Close
I fall a lot. You might say I’ve become an expert faller. I often choose to do something knowing that I’ll fall just so I can learn something. Given the choice between the smooth sailing road and a vertical climb, I’ll take the vertical every time. I try things that don’t work out as I hope or expect. I take up new hobbies, explore new interests, and take myself way outside my comfort zone on a regular basis. I’ve taken jobs that didn’t work out, moved to new cities in an attempt to find “home”, and been in relationships that crashed and burned and rose only to crash and burn and rise again.
Falling down makes me feel alive. All my senses are activated. When I fall, I am fully aware of where I am and what I’m feeling. I’m reminded that everything runs in a cycle. Birth, death, and renewal comprise a constant loop. There’s something thrilling about being out there on the edge, pushing the boundaries, reaching for things that are just out of reach. It makes me stronger. It helps me understand what’s important.
“Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that.” ~ Norman Vincent Peale
Money takes its lead from the heart and the mind. If we have true passion to do something, that kind of passion that refuses to take no for an answer, then somehow we will find a way to afford that dream. We will sacrifice for it. We will compromise and make certain concessions in other areas of our life in order to see it through. We will make the time for it. We will find a way to make the money to fuel it.
When we consider how to spend our time, we should put the logistics aside. They are important, but they are secondary. Our focus should be what we care about and why it matters. The “how it will get done” details will flow from there.
“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.” ~ Corrie ten Boom, Dutch writer
I’m all for planning, though as I get older I find that trust is a better companion. I trust that my hard work today will pay off tomorrow, even if it doesn’t pay off in ways that I expect. I trust in my own abilities to navigate any circumstance that arises, good, bad, or indifferent. I know now that even if something breaks me down, I can rebuild and be stronger for it.
From time to time, I do worry about tomorrow. I wonder how it will all come together and where it’s all headed. The difference is that I can put those worries aside and just keep moving forward. It’s not that I make them evaporate. I just keep them in check. When it gets to be too much, I use those worries as fuel. I think of all the other times in my life that I worried and how well it turned out in spite of my concerns.
And the most beautiful part of leaving tomorrow to tomorrow? We get the chance to fully enjoy today. After all, we will never be able to have this time again. Time does indeed evaporate so we need to make the most of every moment.
The London Clock Tower – one the world’s great reminders of the importance of time
“Time has a wonderful way of showing us what really matters.” ~ Margaret Peters
A lot of people ask me what I plan to do with my life and career now that I’m building one of my own design. Lately, I’ve been rolling around the question in my mind with this lens: what would I do with my life if money didn’t matter? Ironically, this exercise has led me to realize that time is the more important constraint and resource. Yesterday, I jotted down these dreams:
1.) I would go back to school. (Those who know me well shouldn’t be the least bit surprised by this.) I want to study acupuncture so I could set up my own holistic, multi-disciplinary practice to help people better manage and eradicate pain. I’m also interested in getting some more formal training in coding and design so that I can contribute more to the education tech and healthcare tech industries.
2.) I would spend more time writing a couple of long-form pieces that have been kicking around in my mind for years and exist in the form of detailed notes.
3.) I’d adopt a second dog, get a bigger place to live with a formal office space, and spend more time raising money for good causes, including Compass Yoga.
4.) I would teach more – yoga classes and college classes in product development.
5.) I would travel more often.
I discovered a beautiful truth by writing out these plans: the only one that really requires a heavy investment of money is studying acupuncture. That would require 3 years of intense study and about $60K in tuition alone. Getting a second dog and a larger place to live also requires additional funding, but not an enormous amount of it. Same goes for travel. I could absolutely write the long-form writing projects, learn more about coding and design thanks to free massive open online course and books, fundraise for more good causes, and teach more with the resources I currently have. In fact, I could earn additional income from some of these ventures.
The real constraint here is time, not money. I spend so much time thinking about piecing together my income from different sources when it isn’t even that important to the work I want to do. Granted, I do need money to survive and save for the future, but money can be made. Time cannot. And so, the question of what I will do with my career is not so much a question of earning money (I have plenty of ways to do that) but rather one of using my time to its maximum benefit. That set of priorities will take a bit more noodling.
“Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it.” ~ Rabindranath Tagore
Here’s the one thing I know about getting the life you want – you must make room for the people and things in your life that matter in order to find them. To find peace, you must be peaceful. To find happiness, you must be happy. To be in love, you must love. Do the work that gives you joy so that you discover the work you are meant to do.
Making room often means taking a risk. We have to let some things go, we have to turn away certain opportunities, so that we have the space in our lives to receive the blessings we want. My very wise friend, Susan, once told me many years ago that I should never compare options to one another, but rather to compare each one to what I really want. It’s one of the truest pieces of advice I’ve ever received, and I try to live it every single day. It’s not easy, but my God is it worth it!
Just another day on the Great Lawn in Central Park
“You often say, “I would give, but only to the deserving.” The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture. They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.” ~ Kahlil Gibran
The universe always rises up to support someone with a passion to do something of value for others.
I think about this quote a lot when people ask me about Compass Yoga‘s partnership with the New York Public Library. We offer 9 weekly classes at different library branches in Manhattan, all free of charge to anyone who walks through the door. Over the past two years since we began offering the classes, a number of people have asked me how I make sure the people who are in the class really need it. What they’re really asking is how do I feel about them coming to our classes for free while they have the means to pay for classes elsewhere.
We certainly do have students who could afford to pay something for a class – perhaps not the $20 or so it costs for many classes around the city, but certainly something. A few of our students have given donations to Compass Yoga because they are of means and support our work. I wish others who are of means would do the same. Perhaps in time they will. Other people have given their time and expertise to support our work. Other people don’t have the means at all, but they bring their energy and dedication to class every week.
There’s another New York-based charity that operates under the same circumstances as Compass Yoga: NYC Parks. Consider how often New Yorkers take advantage of the beauty of Central Park, or any of the other public parks in the city, on a sunny day? How many of them have donated money to NYC Parks? Certainly not all of them, maybe not even most of them. I wish more people would donate, though the parks don’t discriminate. They don’t have a giant gate around them demanding payment before entry. Compass Yoga has the same philosophy as Central Park: to be free and open to all who enter.
I started Compass to bring more yoga to more people in more places, no strings attached. I also started it so that yoga teachers who are just starting out could get experience teaching. I wanted to build a bridge between the people who need what yoga has to offer and the people who have the training to teach. I know if we stay true to that goal and work hard at creative fundraising strategies, eventually the funding will flow. The trickle has already begun; now its our job to do our best to carve it into the Mississippi for the sake of all our students.
“What do I say to people who say fashion is frivolous? I agree with them and then I tell them how many jobs this industry creates, how many people my company employs. That is not frivolous at all…This was always my dream.” ~ Prabal Gurung, fashion designer
As the whirlwind of Fashion Week dies down, I am inspired by two fashion stories that happened far away from the hubbub at Lincoln Center.
The bra that detects breast cancer
My mom is a breast cancer survivor. Early detection by GE Healthcare scanners caught her tumor during a routine mammogram when it was the size of a grain of sand. She was treated with a lumpectomy and radiation. 7 years ago yesterday, she wrapped up her radiation and she has been cancer free ever since. Early detection and capable doctors saved my mom’s life.
In the U.S., most health insurance doesn’t cover routine mammograms until women are 50. Sadly, too many women are developing breast cancer long before their 50th birthdays. Some are not even making it to 50. First Warning Systems is about to change all that, bypassing the healthcare system in favor of the fashion industry. They’ve developed a system that fits inside a sports bra to monitor breast health. They’ve spent 20 years developing this technology and expect it be approved by the FDA next year. The bra costs $200, a fraction of the cost of a mammogram if women can even get one before they’re 50. Learn more here.
Carrie Underwood’s Grammy dress
During Carrie Underwood’s performance at the Grammy Awards, there were two shows – one involved her voice, the other involved her dress. It was something to behold. The dress was hand-sewn with thousands of crystals. Projectors created choreographed, colorful patterns using the dress as the main screen and then extended them throughout the Staples Center. The images were timed perfectly to her music. It was breathing taking.
The images looked as if they were coming from inside the dress. It made me think about the canvases all around us, not just the ones on easels and museum walls. There are so many places where art can come to life. There are so many ways for us to create a masterpiece that boosts our creativity and inspires others.
Fashion doesn’t have to be outrageous to be meaningful. Just like any other creative work, it can have an impact. It can help to build a better world. All that’s needed is the intention of its makers to do so.
“Beginnings are apt to be shadowy.” ~ Rachel Carson, American marine biologist, conservationist, and author of Silent Spring
We have such a strong desire to know what’s next before we leap. It’s understandable; the unknown is frightening. We don’t know what to expect and it’s difficult to prepare when we don’t know exactly what we’re facing. Panic sets it. We freeze and wait for more information.
Although I thought I knew what I was getting in to before I’ve taken any of my leaps, in my career and in my life, the truth is that what seemed to be sure wasn’t really sure at all. Sometimes things didn’t pan out as I expected, and sometimes that was a wonderful thing. Sometimes, it wasn’t. Sometimes, I faltered and lost my footing. Many times I fell, and then I got back up.
When I look back on those leaps that led me to land in a place that was entirely different from what I expected, I am grateful for my ignorance. I am grateful that I didn’t have all the answers. If I had, I may have never taken those leaps at all. And in the end, they were all worth it because they led me to where I am, a place I am so glad to be.
In the past, I worked very hard to collect what information I could and based my decision on that information. To be honest, the information I collected wasn’t all that valuable. All that time I spent waiting to make a decision didn’t yield much except lost time. In the end, my gut always new what to do when I would invariably get myself in a bind. It didn’t need all the answers; it just needed me to have faith in…me.
Now, I’m getting better at trusting my gut from the start. One thing I can always be certain of is my gut’s ability to do what is best for me. And I’ve learned to trust in my own abilities to handle any circumstance, predicted or otherwise, that arises. Hazy beginnings no longer phase me; every journey is apt to have surprise twists and turns. I embrace them; that’s where the fun is.
At the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at the Sesame Workshop, I work on the National STEM Video Game Challenge, a youth game making competition for students in grades 5 – 12 that runs through April 24th. Everyone I talk to about the Challenge is interested in why I chose to leave my corporate job to work on projects like the STEM Challenge. There is a very simple, concise explanation – to help kids build a better world.
With our world becoming increasingly complex, technology is playing a larger and larger role. Soon, knowing how to code will be as much of a requirement for employment as knowing how to use basic computer programs like Excel and Microsoft Word. In short, engineering will become a part of every professional field. People who build products and services using technology, or who at the very least understand at a deep level how technology works, will have the greatest influence over the global economy. A stable economy creates a stable world.
The best way to engage children with technology in a healthy, meaningful way is through games that are fun to play and teach them important skills like reading, writing, language, design, science, and math. With these skills in their back pockets, they will not only have a better understanding of the world around them but will be able to shape the world in which they wish to live. They will be empowered to build strong, healthy communities and they will be able to connect with, learn from, and share their experiences with people across the globe.
Learning to code is the key. Sit down with the children in your life, whether you are a parent or other family member, teacher, mentor, or afterschool program volunteer. Show them how technology can help to change their world for the better. The STEM Challenge will give you a place to begin. Let us help you and your kids get started today.
I’m excited to announce that the National STEM Video Game Challenge, the project that I work on at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, is now open and accepting submissions. The deadline to enter is April 24th and we will hold a culminating awards event in June. It is free to enter and students can work on their own or in teams.
The STEM Challenge is a youth video game making competition that encourages kids in grades 5 -12 to submit playable video games. Last year, the Challenge attracted almost 4,000 submissions. All the of details about the Challenge, a listing of free game making workshops happening across the country, and a host of resources to help kids, as well as their teachers, parents, and mentors, create games are available at the STEM Challenge website: http://stemchallenge.org. If you are interested in being a judge, are a game making professional, or are interested in doing outreach for the Challenge, I would love to hear from you!
Please let me know if you have any questions. I’ll be glad to answer them. I can’t wait to see what you create. Let the games begin!
