The New School Library
A catalogue of free resources for your study and enjoyment.
Many people who come to work with me identify as being “unconventional”. Regular-type jobs make them feel trapped. Old structures and systems stifle their adventurous spirit. They like to take the status quo, scrunch it up into a ball and throw it into the fire. They’ve spent much of their lives trying to reconcile the way they perceive the world with the way others proclaim it to be.
The unendin...
I am genuinely surprised at how often people express guilt and shame around doing self-discovery work. I just welcomed a new cohort into the Vision Program and already this has come up in conversation. Some perceive themselves as being self-indulgent – irresponsible, even.
They question: Who am I to be sitting around figuring out what inspires me, especially when there is so much suffering in t...
When I used to operate my school as a physical entity, I would welcome people into the classroom and advise them that it was a space for “not knowing”. They would heave a sigh of relief and then ease into their chairs. They could finally relax.
If you are currently in a career transition, you might feel a tremendous amount of external pressure to know what’s next. Under the guise of caring, your ...
Every time I have occasion to visit my family doctor, I think about how much it would suck to have the job of a GP. All day, every day, they see humanity at their lowest. We go to them when we are sick, injured, or broken – literally. The primary tools they have available to help us include either referring us to another doctor or prescribing drugs. It must feel helpless. When my doctor enters the...
“It’s going to take how long?” she asked. A couple of years ago, a lovely human reached out to me to discuss her work situation. She found her work to be “dull” and “repetitive”. She wanted to find something more inspiring and more fulfilling, but she wasn’t clear about what that was. During our discovery session, she decided she was keen to enroll in the Vision Program. However, when she learned ...
You are a creator. Full stop. You were born this way. You can refute it as much as you’d like, but if you’re depressed, bored, numb, unfulfilled, or mad at the world, it’s because you’re not allowing the natural flow of creative life-giving energy to be expressed through your being.
Most people who work with me are frustrated creators, though they don’t necessarily perceive themselves as such bef...
I turned in my chair to face my friend, whom I had known my entire adult life, opened my mouth to say “I love you”, but no words came out. I just stared at her with my jaw agape. I tried again, but there was cotton in my throat. My friend just smiled at me with her eyes. She knew. She knew I couldn’t say it because I couldn’t feel it.
This was decades ago now, but I remember the incident as being...
“Hello? Is everything okay? Are you okay?”
That’s me, in the past, writing to my clients after they had ghosted me. In the early days, I used to be perplexed about why some people would suddenly abandon their journey in the Vision Program just before it was complete. With more experience, however, I noticed it would happen around the same point in the process. They stopped showing up when they we...
Even though you may have braved the arduous inner journey of getting clear about the work you are here to create, your story isn’t over yet. Now you have to walk the next chapter – actually bringing it into the world.
Whatever it is you are birthing – be it a useful tool, a piece of art, a consulting practice, a playful adventure, an educational program, a marketing strategy, a conscious business...
“Here, I made something for you, and I made it with love.” My client was explaining to me this is what it’s like for her to bake bread and share it with her friends and family.
I said, “This is how I feel about work. Everything I offer is made and given with love.”
She said, “Wow, it would really change how the world would work if we all perceived it in this way.”
I wholeheartedly agree. This i...
He stared at me with anguish when he realized what he had done. Given that he is someone who had professed repeatedly that he has great difficulty in emoting his feelings, I realized this was not actually true. His grief was written all over his face.
We had just completed an exercise that was designed to help him determine his life purpose. I refer to this exercise as “the pivot”. I’ll explain w...
This is an era of evolution like no other. We are being invited to step into a completely new paradigm both as individuals and as a humanity. If you are feeling the inner call towards something more expansive than what was before, then you know what I’m talking about. In relation to your work, you may also be feeling the desire for something more. You might be wanting to discover the work that is ...
Be inspired to bring your work to life.
Receive notifications of the latest blog posts by email.
Please note that you are opting in to receive emails from The New School for Inspired Work. You can unsubscribe at any time.