There's so much there to find. The temp read 101 degrees as I pulled into Ralph’s parking lot. It was a challenge as usual to find a parking spot which was further exasperated by the fact that I was hot and didn’t want to walk a mile to the door. So, again as usual, I trekked up and down the rows of parked cars watching for brake lights indicating someone was pulling out. I turned down the last row, and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a ramp. I have no idea why I had never noticed this any of the numerous times I’d been to this grocery store, but today it felt it had been put there just for me. It led to underground parking and as I drove down the ramp it was like finding a secret passage way. I found a spot right by the... Read more →

Man, did I have grand plans for 2017. I mean, I couldn’t wait to hit the ground running with a very full plate of flavorful projects waiting to be completed and/or started. Every day was Ready, Set, Go... Then, on Christmas Eve, seven minutes after I arrived at my sister’s for the family celebration, I stepped around the back of the couch to slip my gifts next to the tree. Unfortunately, the only things that slipped were my feet on the hardwood floor, clean out from under me as I fell and broke my wrist, broke it badly in fact, both the ulna and radius bones, which meant surgery, which meant a steel plate holding my wrist together, which meant wearing a cast for weeks (albeit one in a pretty color), which meant having to learn how to use my left wrist and hand all over again. Can you say... Read more →

"Tramps like us, baby we were born to run." I'm happy to share a birthday with Bruce Springsteen, which happens to be September 23rd. In his upcoming autobiography, Born To Run, The Boss talks about what was in his “Rock ‘n Roll Survival Kit: DNA, natural ability, study of craft, development of and devotion to an aesthetic philosophy, naked desire for… fame, love, admiration, attention, women, sex, and oh, yeah… a buck. Then, if you want to take it all the way to the end of the night, a furious fire in the hole that just…don’t…quit…burning.” The contents of his Rock ‘n Roll survival kit got me thinking. I often take stock around birthday time and this year I'm thinking a lot about what I was born to do. And, out of those musings several truths have bubbled to the surface, various lessons learned over a few decades of life.... Read more →

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were on CBS Sunday Morning to talk about the Ron Howard documentary, EIGHT DAYS A WEEK: The Touring Years (which is in my Hulu queue!). They talked about the rocket ship early days in 1963 when they rode their unprecedented meteoric rise on the simplest of ideas. “It was really simple in the beginning,” Paul said, then added, “We were a great little band.” Then, things got crazy! Beatlemania took off to the point where they needed to find a place large enough for their growing surge of adoring fans. The first concert at Shea Stadium happened in 1965 and arena rock was born. Paul McCartney: “We didn’t plan for anything.” Ringo Starr: “We just went with it.” They just went with it. In other words, they leaned into what was working. And, kept leaning in as things kept working. Until it didn’t. Paul said... Read more →

Fifteen phone messages need to be returned, 55 emails need to answered, the laser printer needs ink, a proposal needs to be written for a sales pitch, an annual report needs to be delivered in a half hour, your son called and forgot his baseball uniform, six employee evaluations sit on your desk - due yesterday, you have to reschedule a lunch meeting for twenty, oh and Hugh Jackman is on the Today Show...and it's only 9:15 a.m. What do you do first? Does your list of tasks, obligations and deadlines leave you sitting paralyzed at your desk? I recently re-read two books which continually have a profound impact on my life and career. It's hard to fathom that "Think & Grow Rich", by Napoleon Hill, was first written in 1937 because the principles still hold so true today. In fact, if you ask many of the top leaders currently,... Read more →

The word today is efficiency. It’s not the first time I’ve chosen this word from the grab bag of words I use sometimes to prompt my writing. In fact last time it sparked this: 5 Ways to Be Efficiently Creative. But, this time I wanted to put it back and draw another card. I wanted to pull something different, a bigger, sexier, juicier word, a word that would really get my engine going, a word I could really get behind and be jazzed about. Instead, efficiency. Okay, there must be a reason this word jumped out at me. The first things that popped into my head were “corporate” and “color within the lines” and “beige.” All three concepts I have a tendency to run from energetically. Yet, I know there’s something important here to discover, another way of looking at efficiency, a thought changing notion begging to be brought forth.... Read more →

Some thoughts, and perhaps thought changers, on one my least favorite places to be: Indecision. Indecision is the enemy of spontaneity. Indecision is the enemy of the artist. Indecision is the downfall of the parent. Indecision is the downfall of fruition. Indecision is a self-imposed prison. Indecision is the enemy of invention. In fact, indecision cripples invention. It cripples marriage proposals, cripples IPO’s, cripples education, cripples war. And, peace. The very nature of indecisiveness stunts the very nature. Where would we be if Mother Nature couldn’t make up her mind? Would an apple tree become a river? Would an ant be dissatisfied with being an ant? Would an albatross wish it were a hummingbird? Would a sunflower decide to stay in bed? If Mother Nature waffled and just couldn’t make the definitive decision that everything in nature has its predetermined role to play, where would we be? Where would we... Read more →

I often a word card to focus my daily journaling, and many times that then leads to a blog post. The word recently was Efficiency. So apropos, particularly lately as I find myself sometimes scattered in my writing commitments. Efficiency: to be efficient, to work tidily, concise, linear. Okay, there was probably a divine hand intervening as I chose a card this day! As a creative, living in her right brain world, I often ponder the notion of efficiency. It can be a challenge in there, inside my right brain dwelling. Some rooms, if you will, are more colorful, whimsical and intricately imagined than the one before it. And, then many of the rooms are partially furnished, need paint on the walls and proper lighting. Some are dimly lit, or even completely dark. Sometimes the right brain is like Hearst's Castle - winding staircases that lead to staircases on the... Read more →

By Cindy Yantis Real isn’t always nice. I saw a friend recently and she told me she saw a change in me, that I was more grounded. “You’re more real, not so nice.” And, I got it. When I was about nine, growing up in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, there was a neighborhood club called, "The Nice Club," run by a group of girls my age. And, no matter how hard I tried they wouldn't let me in the club. I was my nicest nice, but it clearly wasn't good or nice enough. Turns out the nice club wasn't so nice. And, I've spent the good part of my life trying to get into that damn Nice Club. Ha! No more. Letting go of nice leaves room for more real. Niceness many times covers up a fear of the truth, which in turn hides fears of being rejected, or not being... Read more →

"Stop editing." It's what I tell myself constantly as I write, or speak. I have such an internal editor. I'm an editor, a slicer, a cutter. It stops the stream of consciousness. I stop myself. I stop. The invisible door slams in front of my words or thoughts. I slam the door. I slam. No chance of a stream that flows. What does a free stream of consciousness look like? Feel like? It's a river full of everything. At its mouth, it's a cold dam bursting over with trash and fabric and sand, jumbled questions and scrubbing bubble answers, gasoline and olive oil, body parts and brain matter, war and peace, warm peaches and pomegranates, silk and lambswool, and diamonds. But, it's not until the stream is steady and crystal clear that the diamonds appear, tumbling over the rapids of genius. Through the clear flow, valuable gems appear on the... Read more →