Once a month, I curate the best links on how to find work that you love, be excellent at what you do, and unlock any door that stands in your way.
Here’s your list for July!
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
• Athlete, actor and activist Aimee Mullins talks about her prosthetic legs — she’s got a dozen amazing pairs — and the superpowers they grant her: speed, beauty, an extra six inches of height. A powerful example of how you can find grace, and even joy, in absolutely any situation. Just… wow.
• Here’s a quirky way to understand how your colleagues think and figure out ways to collaborate more effectively: ask everyone in your department to draw a picture of how they make toast. (Watch this TED Talk for clues on how to decode everyone’s drawings.)
• Feel like a traditional college experience just isn’t for you? Want to study online, instead, and also get real-world work experience and maybe even launch your first business? This could be for you.
• Travel hounds: if you want to explore a new city without keeping track of every turn, yet later call up the coordinates of that quaint patisserie you passed on that little cobblestone street whose name you can’t recall… This is the app for you!
• And while you are on the road… here’s how to have a $1000 day in Paris but for a tenth of the price.
• So many of us want to feel “popular” and “famous,” but sometimes, fame arrives later in life. Here’s a beautiful NY Times piece profiling fabulous female artists in their 70s, 80s, and 90s who are (finally!) receiving mainstream recognition for their work.
• Speaking of fabulous, visionary women… this woman dropped out of Harvard business school and now runs a company with 150 employees! Her message: “Most people don’t dream big enough.”
• Talking about dying isn’t easy. Journalist Ellen Goodman has started a new
nonprofit called The Conversation Project, dedicated to helping people talk about their wishes for end-of-life care. One conversation can make all the difference.
• On a related topic… what’s the “right” thing to do when a friend or loved one is grieving? My friend Alex has a few wise words.
• On a brighter note… are you looking for your dream job? Here are 15 stories from people who unexpectedly found theirs!
• Stuck in a cereal rut? Here are 15 make-ahead breakfasts that are so nutritious and pretty, you almost won’t want to eat them! (Except you will. Yum.).
• At the beginning of 1905, Albert Einstein was deemed a “failed” academic. Yet twelve months later, he radically transformed our understanding of the universe. A great lesson in perseverance!
• Headspace: a gym membership for your mind. Meditation made simple in just 10 minutes a day. (I’ve tried it — it really works!).
• Speaking of gyms (well, the other kind of gym!), I recently made a commitment to take a long walk every day and visit the gym 3x a week because I am training for a big trek across Ireland next year! I love to listen to podcasts while I’m walking. My current favorite: Dear Sugar.
• Now here is a guy you would want to work for! Since 2006, Ryan Carson, CEO of Treehouse, has maintained a 4-day workweek for his employees. He believes that enforcing a 32-hour workweek is just “the right thing to do.”
• Michelle Poler has a LOT of fears: going a day without her cell phone, speaking in front of a crowd, even piercing her ears. In her 100 Days Without Fear project, she has set out to conquer them all — and she’s documenting each experience with a short video. What’s a small (or BIG) fear that you’d like to conquer this week?
That’s a wrap for this month!
Find great work. Do great work. Unlock every door in your way.
Image: Willie Franklin