Heading into a fourth year of evolution, revolution and living life intentionally

I launched this blog Jan. 1, 2009 in what I might describe in retrospect as pre-midlife crisis.

I’d spent five years in Michigan’s evening MBA program, focused on graduating and getting a new job in New York. Then having made that move, I enjoyed my new career for three years before beginning to ask “What’s next?” I’ve always been a girl with my eyes on the future, and this blog was a way for me to explore possibilities.

I’ve refined and evolved my vision for the blog over time, which seems only fitting for a blog about transformation. It’s seemed to work, as traffic has grown over these three years.

Initially I envisioned the focus as profiles of people who’d made dramatic life changes. Then I began to shift more toward the “living life intentionally” part of the equation, with more emphasis on stories about career, creativity and food and drink.

Now what?

Entering my fourth year with Newvine Growing, I’m again using the new year as a chance to reflect and refine, to make sure the blogging experience still inspires and excites me, which I hope translates into content with a unique perspective.

Part of the plan is what I’m calling Blogversation 2012. I’ve invited a handful of bloggers who I think have compelling ideas and unique views to engage in an online salon of smart thinking, posing questions of each other and responding both in the comments here and on their own blogs.

My hope is that more voices and perspectives will make for a richer dialogue, and that we’ll get lots of other people involved in the conversation, too.

You’ll meet the Blogversation participants just after the new year, when Newvine Growing celebrates another birthday.

Going to agriculture summer camp, talking “agvocacy”

I feel a bit like I’m off to summer camp to meet my pen pals.

Every Tuesday night, a diverse group of people participate in a Twitter chat using the hashtag #agchat — it’s a moderated online conversation of usually about a dozen questions on a focused agriculture topic, ranging from use of smartphones to farm regulation.

Here’s how the AgChat Foundation describes itself:

The AgChat℠ Foundation is designed to help those who produce food, fuel, fiber and feed tell agriculture’s story from their point of view. The Foundation will educate and equip farmers and ranchers with the skill set needed to effectively engage on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, YouTube, Linkedin and other social media services. It will give them knowledge to unlock new tools to effectively tell their story. Research shows that social media is a growing opportunity for farmers to have a stronger voice in educating people about the business of growing food, fuel, feed and fiber.

The Foundation is built from the highly visible “#AgChat” community on Twitter. This weekly moderated chat has served as an international meeting place where the people of agriculture can discuss difficult issues, tell their farm stories and identify ways to connect with people outside of agriculture. More than 2,000 people from seven countries have participated in #AgChat since it started in April 2009. And that’s only the beginning.

Farmers are leading a grassroots effort to develop the AgChat℠ Foundation. The organization is designed to connect agriculture in communities beyond Twitter. Four program areas have been identified to maximize agriculture’s opportunity with social media – be sure to see what farmers have to say about why this is important.

Though this group effectively uses social media to build community, there’s no substitute for meeting people face to face. We’re doing that in Nashville at an event called Agvocacy.

This is a topic near and dear to my heart, and I hope to learn a lot.

Meantime, some of my past posts on farms and farmers markets include:

• Focusing on farming and the American food supply — a summary of tidbits from the North American Farmers’ Direct Marketing Association convention this February
• Newvine Growing book club: Food Matters by Mark Bittman
• I heart farmers’ markets — or how a kid raised on canned veggies loaded with butter learned to love the real thing
• The tour of best farmers markets
• Newving Growing — what I’m doing to help farmers and farmers markets talk to customers

6 reasons to stop explaining yourself

Some of the decisions I have made this year — choosing a part-time job over full time so I could launch my own business in a tough economy, spending two months in New Orleans when we have a cozy place in a great Brooklyn neighborhood — don’t make sense to some people. Ditto our choice not to have children, not to own a car and who knows how many other things.

And that is OK.

I am happy to talk to anyone who is interested about how we’ve made the choices we’ve made, but I’m not interested in convincing you I’m right if you’ve decided I’m wrong. It’s my life and if it works for me, that should be enough. We all have different needs and priorities so why should I explain myself?

That’s why this recent column by Christine Kane struck me — it’s a distraction and a waste of energy to explain ourselves.

Christine offers up her content free for reuse as long as it’s in its entirety with her bio attached. So here it is:

Jennifer’s parents didn’t approve of her choice to hire a coach now that her new business was up and running. Jennifer was expecting a long letter from them filled with judgments about her irresponsibility – first, with starting this “crazy” business and second, with paying someone for advice. As she waited for that letter, she was figuring out what she would write back.

———–

My client Sylvia just bought her dream house. She avoided telling her father about it for fear that he would judge her, call her irresponsible and proceed to describe her imminent demise. She finally did email her father and tell hi. On our call, she told me that she was waiting for his reaction gearing up to explain her choice to him.

———–

Now, there are some people who might read these stories and think, “Are you kiddin’ me? Who cares what anyone thinks about your houses or coaches or anything??!”

If this is you, then read no further. This article is not for you.

I’m writing this for the “explainers” out there. And it doesn’t matter if you explain to parents, partners, or priests. You know who you are!

You’ve heard me talk about the benefits of going “Complaint-Free,” right? Well, today, we’re going to talk about going “Explaint-Free!”

And here are 6 irresistible reasons to do just that:

1 – Waiting Drains Your Energy.

When I’m coaching an explainer, I can see that much of her energy goes to the act of waiting.

She waits for judgment.

She waits for people to “get” her before she’ll take action.

She waits for people to approve of her choice.

She waits for criticism.

This literally drains her creative life force. Both women in the examples above were losing energy waiting for criticism.

Here’s your first big challenge: Give up the non-activity of waiting.

2 – You Need to Learn to Trust your Choices.

Explaining robs you of empowerment.

Our decisions teach us valuable lessons about intuition and instinct. RARELY do our clear decisions come from our mental activity. Gut instinct is clearer than our critical minds.

When we explain ourselves, however, we move away from the place of deep trust in our intuition and into the realm of mental activity – where the choice didn’t come from in the first place! We’ve suddenly stopped honoring and trusting ourselves and started creating a pattern of mental activity as we question our choices.

3 – Explaining Blocks Creativity.

Creativity means you’re the Creator of your life. You’re a Creator. Not a Reactor. When you explain yourself, you become a “Reactor.” You can’t live in both realms at once. They contradict each other. Living in a state of reaction causes you to cut off the flow of creativity.

4 -Disapproval is a Great Opportunity.

Huh?

Yes, I’m serious about this!

Becoming an adult in the deepest sense is about learning to take responsibility for your actions and choices. Sometimes that means other people won’t like these actions and choices. And what a great opportunity people provide when they do that!

I once heard a relationship coach say that love can sometimes mean letting your partner be disappointed in your choices. Think about that. Can you stand in your body and love someone enough to allow them not be happy with a choice you’re making?

5 – Explainers Endorse Irresponsibility.

People who take personal responsibility for their lives do not blame others (or themselves) for their unhappiness, for their life situations, or for their financial state, etc. Instead, they recognize that they created it, and they can un-create or re-create anything. It’s an empowering place to live.

Many people do not live in this level of personal responsibility. They are too busy blaming other people, taking other people’s inventory, and looking outside themselves for their happiness. Author Byron Katie calls this minding other people’s business instead of your own.

Your choice to explain yourself teaches other people that it’s okay not to take responsibility, and that it’s okay to mind your business instead of their own. Your explanations actually perpetuate the pattern of irresponsibility!

6 – Explainers Play Small. It’s Time to Play Big.

Explainers are waiting for permission, or approval, or for people to “get” their choices. So much unhappiness and depression comes from a lifetime of waiting for these meaningless things. It’s the ultimate meaning of Playing Small.

Playing Big means you trust in yourself enough to make lots of mistakes – and keep going anyway, no matter what people say to you. Playing Big means being clear, and making decisions from your soul. And, by the way, your soul doesn’t feel the need to explain anything!

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Christine’s bio: Christine Kane is the mentor to women who are changing the world. She helps women uplevel their lives, their businesses and their success. Her weekly LiveCreative eZine goes out to over 20,000 subscribers. If you are ready to take your life and your world to the next level, you can sign up for a free subscription at http://christinekane.com.

7 tips for dealing with negative people, via Zen Habits

I’ve shared posts before from one of my favorite blogs, Zen Habits. I know you can read it yourself if you’re interested, but this recent column on dealing with negative people just struck me as such good advice that I wanted to share here. Zen Habits encourages sharing by offering all its content freely, without restrictions.
This post, borrowed from Zen Habits, is by Celestine Chua of The Personal Excellence Blog.

“The people who are the hardest to love are the ones who need it the most.” ~Peaceful Warrior

Have you ever dealt with negative people before? If you have, you will know that the experience can be quite a downer.

I used to have an ex-colleague who was very negative. In our conversations, she would complain endlessly about her co-workers, her work and her life. She was also very cynical about people in general, often doubting their intentions. Talking to her wasn’t a pleasant experience at all.

The first time we had a meeting, I felt very drained. Even though we talked for only 20-30 minutes, I didn’t have the mood or energy to do anything after our conversation. It felt as if someone had sucked the life out of me, and it wasn’t until 2-3 hours later that the effect wore off.

The same thing happened the next few times we talked. Because she was so pessimistic, her negative energy often spilled over after the conversation, leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth. For a period of time, I was quite bothered by her. I would avoid speaking to her if I could.

After a while, I figured I needed to work out an action plan to deal with negative people. After all, she was not going to be the only negative person I was going to encounter in my life. I thought: “For every 1 negative person I face now, there are probably thousands of them out there whom I’ll meet one day. If I learn how to deal with her effectively, I will be able to handle other negative people next time.”

With this in mind, I then brainstormed on the best approach to handle negative people.

Eventually, I developed several key steps to deal with negative people effectively. These steps have proven very helpful in making the best out of my relationships with them. While the people I face today are generally more positive, these steps come in handy when I’ve to deal with a negative person.

If there’s someone negative in your life at the moment, don’t let yourself be affected by him/her. You’re not alone in your problem – I face negative people as well and dealing with them is always a learning experience. While people can try to get you down, you’ve a choice in how you react to them.

Here, I’d like to share my 7 tips on how you can deal with negative people:

Tip #1: Don’t Engage in the Negativity

One thing I found is negative people tend to harp on the bad things and ignore the positive stuff. They also have a tendency to exaggerate issues they are facing, making their predicament seem a lot worse than it actually is.

The first time you converse with a negative individual, provide a listening ear and offer help if needed. Provide support – let him/her know he/she is not alone. However, be sure to draw a line somewhere. If the person keeps harping on the same problems even after the first few conversations, then it’s a sign to disengage.

For starters, try to switch topics. If he/she goes into a negative swirl, let him/her continue, but don’t engage in the negativity. Give a simple reply, such as “I see” or “Okay”. Whereas if he/she is being positive, reply in affirmation and enthusiasm. When you do it often enough, he/she will soon realize what’s going on, and will start to be more positive in his/her communication.

Tip #2: Hang Out In Groups

Speaking to a negative person can be extremely draining. When I spoke to my negative co-worker, I would be mentally drained for several hours, even though we talked for only 20-30 minutes. That was because I was on the receiving end of all her negativity.

To address this, have someone else around when conversing with the negative individual. In fact, the more people, the better. This way, the negative energy is divided between you and the other members, and you don’t have to bear the full brunt of the negative energy.

The plus point of having someone else around is that people bring out a different side to an individual. By having another party around, it may bring out a more positive side in the negative person. I experienced this before and it helped me to see the “negative” individual in a different, more positive light.

Tip #3: Objectify the Comments Made

Negative people can be quite critical at times. They tend to drop insensitive comments that are hurtful, especially if they are directed at you.

For example, I once had a friend who was quite tactless. She would drop jarring comments which were dismissive and critical. Initially I was bothered by her words, wondering why she had to be so critical every time she spoke. I also wondered if there was something wrong with me – that perhaps I wasn’t good enough. However, when I observed her interactions with our common friends, I realized she did this to them too. Her comments were not personal attacks – it was just her being the way she was.

Recognize that the negative person usually means no harm – he/she is just caught up in his/her negativity. Start by learning how to deal with critical comments. Objectify the comments made – Rather than take his/her words personally, recognize that he/she is just offering a point of view. Sieve out the underlying message and see if there is anything you can learn from what he/she said.

Tip #4: Go with Lighter Topics

Some negative people are triggered by certain topics. For example, one of my friends turns into a self-victimizer whenever we talk about work. No matter what what I say, he’ll keep complaining about everything in his job, which becomes quite a conversation dampener.

If the person is deeply entrenched in his/her negativity, the unhappiness may be too deeply rooted to address in a one-off conversation. Bring in a new topic to lighten the mood. Simple things like new movies, daily occurrences, common friends, hobbies, happy news, make for light conversation. Keep it to areas the person feels positive towards.

Tip #5: Be Mindful of the Time You Spend With Them

As Jim Rohn puts it – “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”. What this quote means is that who you spend your time with has an impact on the person you eventually become.

I find it to be very true. Think about the times you hang out with negative people – Do you feel more positive or negative after that? Same for positive people – How do you feel after spending some time with them?

Whenever I’ve an had encounter with negative people, I’d often feel negative after that, like a bad aftertaste. Whereas with positive people, I’d feel extremely upbeat and exuberant. Clearly, there is a spill over effect that takes place even after the interaction! By spending more time with negative people, your thoughts and emotions will slowly become negative too. At first it might be temporary, but over time it’ll slowly become ingrained in you.

If you feel certain people in your life are negative, then be conscious of how much time you’re spending with them. I recommend to limit the duration where you can help it. For example, if they want to hang out with you but you don’t enjoy their company, learn to say no. If it’s a meeting or phone call, set a limit to how long you want it to be. Keep to the objective of the discussion, and don’t let it extend beyond that time.

Tip #6: Identify Areas You Can Make a Positive Change

Negative people are negative because they lack love, positivity and warmth. A lot of times, their negative behavior is a barrier they erect to protect themselves from the world.

One of the best ways you can help a negative individual is to usher positivity into his/her life. Think about what’s bothering the person at the moment, and think about how you can help him/her in your own way. It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate, and you definitely don’t have to go out of the way to help if you don’t want to. The key here is to be sincere in your desire to help, and to show him/her the upsides in life.

A while back, I had a friend who was unhappy with her job, due to the stagnating environment and culture mismatch. There was a job opportunity that arose in my (now former) workplace, so I introduced that opportunity to my friend. She eventually got the job, and she has been working there for over 3 years now, and doing very well.

Today, she’s a lot happier, forward-looking and proactive in life. She’s definitely a lot more positive than she was a few years ago. While I do not take any credit for what she has carved for herself in her career, I feel very happy knowing that I helped in a small way at the right time. Likewise, there’s always something you can do for others too – keep a look out and help where you can. Just a small act on your part may well make a huge difference in their lives.

Tip #7: Drop Them From Your Life

If all else fails, reduce contact with them or drop them from your life.

Rather than spend your time with negative people, focus on the positive people instead. In the past, I spent a lot of time with negative people, trying to help them with their issues. It drained up a lot of my energy and was often futile, which led me to rethink my methods. Ever since then, I worked on cultivating positivity by hanging out with positive friends and business partners. This has turned out to be a lot more rewarding and fruitful.

Remember that your life is yours to lead, and it’s up to you on how you want it to be. If there are negative people who make you feel bad about yourself, work on those issues with the 7 steps above. With the right actions, you can create a dramatic difference in what you get out of your relationships.

Celestine Chua writes at The Personal Excellence Blog on how to achieve our highest potential in life. Read her readers’ favorite 101 Inspiring Quotes of All Time and get her free ebooks here.

The myth of discipline — a repost from Zen Habits

Zen Habits is one of my favorite blogs, and the author offers full permission to share his content. So today I’m reposting one of Leo’s recent articles that really got me thinking, about what discipline really is. Enjoy.

The Myth of Discipline

Post written by Leo Babauta

It’s one of the most prevalent myths of our culture: self discipline.

The myth is larger than life. Benjamin Franklin had it, with his waking early, his virtues checklist and his daily reflection. The best athletes have it, with the discipline to train harder than anyone else to win the gold. My readers often think that I am more disciplined, after reading My Story and the list of habits and accomplishments I’ve achieved, from exercise to waking early to saving money.

It’s all a myth.

I’m hoping that if you accept that it’s a myth, you’ll be released from the guilt of not being disciplined, you’ll be empowered to create the habits you want without the need of the mythical discipline.

Why Discipline is a Myth

I’ve written about the illusion of discipline for almost 4 1/2 years now (see my old posts on the topic), but it’s necessary to revisit the topic now and then. Especially when I read otherwise excellent posts still spreading the myth. So I need to put an end to this myth right now.

Here’s the thing — discipline sounds like a perfectly valid concept, until you dig a little deeper. Consider the first line of the post I linked to above:

Discipline is not a mystery.

Except that it is. What is discipline? How much of it do you have? How do you get more of it? If by practice, how do you practice if you don’t have any in the first place? If you don’t feel like doing something, how do you use discipline to force yourself to do it?

I’ve had many conversations with people who believe strongly in the myth of discipline. It usually goes something like this:

Me: What is discipline, exactly? How is it different than motivation (which is a set of actions we can actually do)?

Friend: Motivation is like pulling you toward something, making yourself want to do it. Discipline is pushing you to do something, making yourself do something you don’t want to do.

Me: OK, so if I have no discipline, how do I get it?

Friend: You practice. It’s a muscle that gets stronger as you practice.

Me: How do I practice if I have no discipline?

Friend: Just do something small, then keep practicing over and over.

Me: But it takes discipline to do that. What specific action do I take to make myself do something if I don’t want to do it?

Friend: You push yourself to do it anyway.

Me: But that takes discipline that I don’t have. OK, let’s say I’m sitting on the couch and I want to go out and run, or get up and write. How do I make myself do that? What specific action do I take?

Friend: Hmmm. You visualize about the end result, something that you want.

Me: That’s a motivation action, not a discipline action.

Friend: OK. Then you set up rewards. No, that’s motivation. Hmmm. You psyche yourself up and tell yourself you can do it. No, that’s motivation too. You tell people you’re going to do it. No, motivation too. You focus on the enjoyable aspects of it … or, maybe you only do the things you like doing. No, those are motivation things. Huh.

Every single specific action you can take to make yourself do something is motivation. Not discipline.

And that’s why discipline is a myth. It might sound good, but it’s not a useful concept. When it comes to taking specific actions to make yourself do something, the only things you can do are motivation. Not discipline. I’ve challenged people to come up with a discipline action that isn’t motivation for years now, and no one has done it.

If you’re interested in learning about motivation, I’ve written a book about it.

Build Habits for Consistency

When people talk about wanting discipline in their lives, they usually mean they want to be more consistent at something. Maybe that’s exercise, or meditation, or writing, or some other creative activity, or finances, or eating, or productivity at work.

These are all doable without the concept of discipline. What you want is to build habits instead.

Habits are not well understood by most, which is why I’ve created The Habit Course. In the course, I explore the concept of triggers, positive and negative feedback loops, consistency, motivation, accountability, support, and other things that help form habits.

But none of these are nebulous concepts. They are all specific actions you can take to form a habit. If you want to be consistent about something, take the actions necessary to make it a habit. Start small at first, so you can successfully build the habit. Once it’s ingrained as an actual habit (which can take anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple months), you can expand on it from there.

Habits are the key to consistency. Not discipline.

And I can attest: once you’ve built a consistent, positive habit, it’s a wonderful thing. You feel disciplined, and strong, and good, even if you’re a living embodiment of a myth.

It’s kinda like how the Greek gods must feel.

Have you learned life lessons through years of experience?

I thought I was going to have a low-key 40th birthday celebration, but instead John cooked up a surprise party with Mikey Freedom Hart leading a trio in our living room. (Mikey plays Radegast in Williamsburg tonight, by they way.)

I have spent considerable time contemplating what it means to be 40.

Though my good friends at L’Oreal give me the option to not show my grey hair, I’d like to think what does show is four decades of life experience.

If you, too, have earned some grey hair and/or life experience, would you like to join a blogging project that’s in the works?

I’m writing a post tentatively headlined “40 things I’ve learned at 40,” and two excellent writers — Margaret Yang and Amanda Hirsch — have done their own lists, as well. A few others are in the works.

To join in on this weekly series, all you need to do is:

• Write a list of things you’ve learned in life — one item for every year of your age. They need not be profound. You can include your best pointers for buying discounted airline tickets, a never-fail method for removing grass stains or your favorite PowerPoint trick. Whatever accumulated wisdom you carry around in your head is fair game.
• Send me your list, along with a recent photo of yourself and a link your website or blog, if you have one.

So far this is an all-female exercise, although my hubby is making noises about joining and I’d love to make it a more co-ed experience.

The series is tentatively slated to start next week and it’ll run until I’m out of contributions. If you want to participate, email me or volunteer in the comments below and I’ll get you on the calendar.

You don’t need to be a writer to join in. Think of this in the same vein as the Facebook “25 random things” notes that everyone was doing a few years back.

You in?

The Good, the Bad and the Freelancer (via Lorena’s Epiphany)

I got my first job when I was 16, and before that, I’d been babysitting since middle school.

Working for other people is something I’ve had decades of practice doing. Working for myself is new.

So I was glad to stumble onto Lorena’s Epiphany, a blog by a Lebanese freelancer with good pointers on how to be successfully self employed.

Her tips include:

1- It’s gonna take a lot of blood, sweat and tears to stand completely on your own. You’ll probably be working a lot more than you ever did at any agency and nothing is ever certain by ways of work. You may have a great line-up of clients to work with for 2 months and then a dry spell for a few months after.

3- Plan the legalities. Register yourself and learn a few things about the accounting side of things. Many times I wear different hats – designer, client manager, accountant and PR. You’ve got to be ready to follow-up with clients consistently, be open about discussing rates and then ensuring your projects get done in time. It helps to learn the most you can about everything so that once you start hiring employees, you already know what to expect. No one likes a boss that’s a dummy.

4- Being a freelancer doesn’t mean working in your PJs. Work in your PJs if you must a day or two during the week, but don’t make it a habit. I recommend having a space outside your bedroom to freelance from. That helps you take your freelancing more seriously and get dressed in the morning – it’s very psychological. Getting dressed + a space to work + lots of coffee = Mental readiness for the tasks at hand.

5- Get ready to talk money. It was never easy for me to confront clients about what I should get paid. Even harder when you’re a woman. Many times I settled for lower rates than the project merited just to ensure I was getting paid that month. It’s not pretty nor do I support that, but when you’re starting out, you have to make a few sacrifices. Also, NEVER EVER start a project without a signed agreement and ask for a deposit upfront (even if it’s as little as say $200). Clients will take you and your work more seriously if they’ve already invested in you.

7- Cold calling is chilly, but something that leads to bigger things. The best projects I’ve worked on where projects where I called people and said “hey, I love what you’re doing and would love to find a way to collaborate” Then comes the selling. You’ve gotta be ready to highlight your skills and achievement and have an idea in mind why the hell you’re calling them. One of my friends took this idea to a whole other level when she wanted to get more web design projects. She started the Digital Cleaning Lady – a fun approach to reviewing websites and then providing them suggestions for their layouts. More often than not, the suggestions were well taken and that would open doors for her working with them.

If you’d like to read more of Lorena’s pointers on self employment, check out the link to her blog below.

Whenever someone asks what I do and I explain that I’m a freelance designer working out of my own studio, I tend to get the same reaction “You’re so lucky! I wish I could work on my own too.” But becoming a freelancer wasn’t something I really planned in advance. It sorta chose me. Yes, being a freelancer certainly has its perks – I won’t lie. I get to wake up at 9 or 10am on most days and head to the studio at my own leisure. You also get the fr … Read More

via Lorena’s Epiphany

Inspired by Zen Habits: Surround yourself with passionate people

When I recently returned from South by Southwest Interactive, I couldn’t quite put my finger on why the 20,000-person tech festival fires me up so much.

Sure, there’s a lot going on — compelling speakers, rockin’ parties, huge crowds on the sidewalks. But for a woman who lives in New York, it’s not like I couldn’t access those things any day of the year.

You want to see passion at work? Gary Vaynerchuk is passion personified. Click here for a video interview where he's moderately restrained, in part because his interviewer is the guy who does parody social media strat videos.

Then I read a post from one of my favorite blogs, Zen Habits. The headline is “Surround yourself with passionate people” and it reads in part:

when you talk with people who are passionate about what they’re doing, passionate about life and the people they love, it is transformative.

The people I talked with last night are incredibly passionate about what they’re doing. And yes, Brett, I mean passionate: excited, fired-up, feeling-strongly-about, thinking-about-it-all-the-time, can’t-wait-to-do-it-when-you-wake-up passion. When you talk with people who are passionate like that, you can’t help but get fired up yourself. You want to go out and do something exciting.

Passionate people not only inspire you, they give you ideas. They read books by other people who are passionate and full of ideas, and they recommend the books to you or pass the ideas on to you.

SXSW is a conference that buzzes all day and all night, and when the bars stop serving margaritas at 2 a.m., there’s a decent chance the people all around are still having intelligent, inspiring conversations. (If perhaps a little more animated.)

I came home from SXSW full of the passion of people who feel what they’re doing has profound potential, whether that’s to transform an industry, to make them a lot of money or to change the world.

Although a very different experience, it’s part of why I’m looking forward to  our mini-sabbatical in New Orleans.

Every time we’ve been to NOLA, I’ve been swept up in the passion of the city. It’s in some ways a lowkey, Caribbean-ish place, slow moving and Southern, but it’s also a city of deep passions, especially for music and food.

I am making it one of the goals of my sabbatical to seek out passionate people and pull them closer to me. I want to plug into their inspiration to power my own passion, and hopefully light the way for others, too.

Some overlooked posts on Newvine Growing

A few days ago I offered a list of Newvine Growing’s greatest hits — the posts I’ve written in the last two years that have gotten the most traffic.

Today I’ll do the opposite and serve up a list of some of the least-read posts. I’m curating these to look for posts I actually liked that never got traction, as opposed to the ones you probably skipped for good reason.

While I’m at SXSWi, these might keep you occupied, and chances are you haven’t read them before:

1. Does social media change the ways we’re social?
2. See, you’re not wasting time online — you’re innovating!
3. Life after newspapers, by my old editor, Maria Stuart
4. Christine Kane: How to reclaim your attention and get more done
5. Giving yourself permission to be a beginner
6. Eat Drink Local Week — I’m on my way. How about you?
7. Newvine Growing book club — come by to discuss, debate, consider
8. Sometimes we’re learning lessons even when we don’t know it
9. Focusing on one change at a time for two months each
10. My favorite endorsement, from Eleanor Traubman

Goin’ to New Orleans: sinking in to a city we love

Me and our super-fabulous hostess, the bride who's helping make the plan come together. Here we're toasting in her kitchen -- and we will most certainly toast her numerous times in the weeks to come. Thank you, Cara!

It all started with the idea that we might have to skip Jazz Fest this year.

While I’m getting my business off the ground, our cash flow is reduced, so we’re looking at all the expenses we can possibly trim to live within our means. We love going to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival every spring, but it’s optional. We consoled ourselves with the knowledge we’d at least be in NOLA in March for our friends’ wedding.

But then I started putting the pieces together for an exciting little scheme:

• My new part-time role allows me to work from home, so I can do that work from anywhere there’s Internet and cell service
• Likewise, the work I’m doing for my business can be done anywhere
• John’s self employed so he can paint and do graphic design anywhere
• The bride at the wedding we’re going to in March is moving in with her groom after the wedding, leaving her cute house in the Garden District, where we’ve often stayed during Jazz Fest

We began to investigate the pieces so we could stay in New Orleans from the wedding through Jazz Fest in early May, and every sign pointed to it being a good idea:

• The bride agreed to sublet her NOLA house to us at a rate that’s less than our NYC rent, so assuming we’re able to sublet our place, we come out ahead in living expenses
• Changing our flights home from late March to early May would have cost more than $500 — but one-way tickets from New Orleans to New York in May were cheap.
• John has picked up several new design gigs in the last few weeks, which will help keep his cash flow up while we’re away
• I was worried I’d have to put piano lessons on hold — but my teacher here is on Skype and I lined up a place to practice in New Orleans. Maybe you’ve heard of Preservation Hall? I’m helping them with some marketing work around their 50th anniversary, and their marketing director said I can practice there during the day.

John made a painting that's a vision of my life -- see the music and the Mardi Gras beads? This plan is getting more of both into our lives.

Before you post a comment that says “I’m so jealous, I wish I could do that,” let me share with you an excellent blog post from Peter Shankman, founder of Help a Reporter Out. It’s headlined How to Jailbreak Your Life So You Can Live the Way You WANT and it arrived in my email this week, just as we committed to New Orleans.

It’s a long post but well worth reading if you wish you could do what we’re doing. Here are a couple of highlights:

• Is your job to be somewhere in a physical place, five out of seven days a week? If you love your job, I mean truly love your job, love the people with whom you work, love your office, love your commute, then hey, you know what? RESPECT. You’ve got it. Enjoy it, baby. You’re done with this blog post, and I give you mad, mad props. For real.
• We all need to work. We all need to make money. With the exception of trust fund babies, we all gotta find a way to make some cash and live our lives. Some people just choose to do it a different way than others. Some of us choose to work for a living, and some people choose to incorporate work into living. For the past 16 years, I’ve worked harder than almost every person I know, yet I’ve never felt like I’ve worked a day in my life.
• I will never, ever begrudge someone their fear. If what you’re doing works for you, that’s fine, but if you’re jealous, then you got a problem. See, being happy and being jealous don’t mesh. So it usually comes down to you being angry about your fear. But here’s the thing: Fear keeps us healthy. Fear keeps us alive. It’s what got us through the age of mountain lions and other big-ass animals that could have us for tea. But here’s the thing – Fear is built-in because we used to have no other options. Wanted to eat? You had to face your fear and kill something. Back in the age of the stone, Dean and Deluca didn’t exist. Fear now exists primarily to hold us back.

Are you motivated? Are you thinking of how you could ask your boss if you could work from home three weeks out of four so you could go live in your dream locale? Or contemplating how you might live someplace with a low cost of living so you can launch that business you’ve been fantasizing about?

If you aren’t now, maybe you will be in a few weeks when we start filing dispatches from New Orleans.

When I first started blogging, back in late 2005, it was to chronicle a one-month stint in NYC. John and I sublet an apartment on the upper east side to test drive living in New York, and I wanted to share the experience with friends back home. So consider this round two of sharing a cool life experience with you.

Laissez les bons temps rouler!