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I should be practicing piano a lot this weekend, since I didn’t put in as much time last week as I would have liked. But it’s so nice outside! It’s hard to stay inside plunking away when it’s in the 80s and sunny. Fortunately, not everyone needs to make this choice between enjoying a lovely summer day and playing piano,…
Where did you get your ideas about what it means to get older? Are they serving you? Too late I have this vivid memory: I’m in middle school, that time when being cool becomes so intensely important. I get a too-short haircut I hate. I worry about how long it will take to grow my hair back out, because what if…
What seems like a good time to reassess can also bring us to a screeching halt, energy wise.
If you are assessing EVERYthing too much (if you’re not sure, just ask your spouse or best friend who will happily tell you if you are!), you might find you are only ruminating and getting nowhere fast. A better way to get a grip on whether your life is heading in the right direction is to try a few exercises.
On her Super Soul Sundays series on OWN, Oprah Winfrey recently talked with author Steven Pressfield about finding your calling. Pressfield suggests four questions to help you find your calling: What are you more afraid of than anything else in the world? What would you do if you knew you were going to die in three months? What would you…
This year at SXSW Interactive, I heard a speaker say something that made me want to leap up, throw my hands in the air and yell, “Amen!” He suggested that many new technologies, whether that’s smartphones, social media or the Internet itself, have been around long enough that we should no longer be infatuated with their gee-whiz factor and instead…
I’m starting a series called Marketing Monday, with tips and tricks on more effective marketing, from market research to social media, from public relations to branding. Eventually I plan to move the series to a new website at colleennewvine.com, but in the meantime, I think improving sales and customer communications is close enough to improving your personal and professional life…
Maybe you have this holiday week off, or maybe you’re just enjoying a little come down after a jam-packed month of parties, shopping, pageants or religious observances. I love the holidays — taking down the Christmas tree is one of my least favorite days of the year — but feels like many of us have let out a small sigh…
Throughout this year, several bloggers will engage in a conversation here and on their blogs — asking questions of each other and responding. Others are absolutely welcome to join the conversation, as well. Learn more about the ladies of Blogversation 2012. Today’s question comes from Lauren McCabe, mermaidchronicles.com, @mermaidtales on Twitter, originally posted on her blog under the headline In…
One of my favorite blogs, Zen Habits, recently had a post that felt like a richer, better version of several I’ve written on the same topic — setting goals you can achieve. As I’m writing this, I just finished doing crunches in my hotel room. I’m traveling and didn’t much feel like exercise, but I made a commitment to exercise…
I often find myself wishing I had a time machine so I could go back and get an earlier start on things. If I’d taken piano lessons in elementary school … If I’d have been the one to teach myself HTML in our office in the ’90s … If I’d bought Apple stock when it was in the toilet ……
One of my favorite insights is that when someone says they don’t have time, what he really means is, “I choose to spend my time on something besides that.”
Because we all have the same 24 hours, and we all choose how to spend those hours, even if we don’t always choose wisely.
Throughout this year, several bloggers will engage in a conversation here and on their blogs — asking questions of each other and responding. Others are absolutely welcome to join the conversation, as well. Learn more about the ladies of Blogversation 2012. I did not grow up in a musical family. My parents didn’t sing or play an instrument, and didn’t…
Throughout this year, several bloggers will engage in a conversation here and on their blogs — asking questions of each other and responding. Others are absolutely welcome to join the conversation, as well. Learn more about the ladies of Blogversation 2012. I like using the calendar as a prompt in my life. I’m a big fan of birthdays, and I…
Reading NPR’ s app on my way to the office recently got me thinking about one of my favorite questions — whether people are really capable of change. Terry Gross on WHYY’s Fresh Air did an interview about the new HBO series called “Enlightened,” and talked about that, among other things: Can people really change? That’s the question Laura Dern…
After a year of piano lessons, I’m getting closer to sitting down with a new piece of music and coaxing the song out of the notes on the page. I have a long way to go but I’ve played “Lil Liza Jane” and “Careless Love” and my ear recognizes the tunes. That got me thinking about the nature of creativity.…
Money can’t buy love. Money can’t buy happiness. We hear these clichés frequently, but I loved this article from investment firm Vanguard that suggests you can, in fact, buy happiness — if you spend your money on the right things. A snippet from a Q&A with MP Dunleavy, author of “Money Can Buy Happiness: How to Spend to Get the…
A recent Harvard Business Review suggested the best way to achieve your goals is to not demand too much of yourself. That’s not to say set your goals low — but if you want to reach a goal, don’t make it harder than it needs to be to get there. In a post headlined “The Only Way to Get Important…
My piano teacher has instructed me that I’m to have a glass of wine before I practice piano. He’s constantly reminding me that it’s OK to make mistakes, that as a beginner I need to make mistakes to learn, and he wants me to give myself permission to be imperfect. Thus the wine, to chill out a bit about whether…
Maybe it’s because I’m a beginner piano player — and I admit it, I sometimes get myself through practice by fantasizing about sitting in with my favorite musicians — but this video of a recent Paul Simon concert chokes me up. Apparently a fan named Rayna yells out that she learned how to play guitar playing Simon’s song “Duncan,” and…
I moved to New York City from Ann Arbor five years ago this month. Earlier this week I shared a laundry list of tourist tips, in part because visiting friends often ask for “real” guidance beyond what they’d get in a guidebook. Today’s post is more about the experience of being a New Yorker — five reflections on being a…
When I started piano lessons last spring, my approaching 40th birthday was a big motivator. Something about a milestone birthday triggered my deadline response, and I thought I’d like to be able to play at least one song by my 40th. Turns out I can do a decent job at several songs, including Scarborough Fair and My Cherie Amour. Not…