signs

messages from the future, written in the past

FutureMe message

In October, 2010 I had just started graduate school and was in a bit of a panic about my choice. I was setting myself up for somewhat limited career options and would graduate with a sizeable chunk of student debt. So when I was asked, at a conference I attended that fall, to write myself a postcard that would be mailed to me three months later, I thought hard about the message I wanted to receive.

Of course I forgot all about the postcard. I came home three months later to find it waiting for me, declaring confidently: “Keep calm. You made the right decision.” And indeed, I had.

Sometimes there is nothing more comforting than our own reassurance or words of wisdom, but for whatever reason we’re often not able to hear ourselves clearly in the moment. That’s what makes FutureMe such a great idea: you can write yourself emails to be delivered at any point in the future. read more…

holstee’s inspiring video manifesto

(Video link here.)  We LOVE manifestos – in fact have one of our own (click “about” in the right sidebar), so were delighted by the very cool, fun Holstee video manifesto to live your life by.  Here’s a version you can put on your wall: read more…

powerful words: devise, invent, create, change…

Change_elevators_2.jpg

H-m-m-m. This high-design elevator installation reminds us our favorite words that have been at the top of ‘the improvised life’s page’ for 2 + years. Wonder if ‘the improvised life’ passed through the designer’s field of vision at some point and had a subtle influence, or if it is just the zeitgeist…

Wouldn’t it be great to walk into a staid office building and ride in an elevator like this..?.

via Core 77

Related posts: signs on walls: ‘how to work better’
‘don’t say yes. be yes.’
yes
myeongbeom kim’s forest bed

focus!!!! (an instant tattoo)

Tina Roth Eisenberg of SwissMiss designed this swell Tattly, temporary tattoo. Just the message we need…

We’re going to try writing it right on our hand…

Related posts: body as artist’s canvas
to-do list tattoo
tattoo you!: making your own temporary tattoos
emergency medicine

practicing yes

(Video link here.) This week I’ve been contemplating the challenge of saying yes. I was sent a TED Talk from last year in which Sasha Dichter discusses a neat experiment: for a full month, every time he was asked for something, he said yes. Dichter works in philanthropy, so cultivating personal generosity and connecting it to his work has a very particular meaning. But he raised an interesting point that we think is worth thinking about in our own lives. As a philanthropist, Dichter grew very comfortable saying “no,” but found that

“…pretty soon no becomes who you are and what I realized is, I needed a new habit and a new reflex. When I want to teach my kids to say please and thank you, it requires repetition and it requires practice.”

I started thinking about this idea of saying yes as a practice; what saying yes more often might look like. What’s buried beneath all the No? read more…

‘what’s not wrong?’ and other ways to start your day

For a long time, it was our habit to jump out of bed and start working: reading blogs, news, emails, writing. We were, literally, swept away each day by the virtual world we love to wander around in; there were no real breaks and downtime, no time to turn inward, quiet. Every morning, we simply jumped in.

Then a friend told us that he made a practice of always reading something uplifting or illuminating first thing in the morning – NOT firing up the computer and NOT reading the news, but rather taking the time to read a bit of poetry or a philosophy, something that was more about ‘being’ rather than ‘doing’. We decided to try it, turning to books that we valued but hadn’t looked at for years – Wherever You Go, There You Are… Neruda’s Garden: An Anthology of Odes… reading as we drank a cup of tea in the quiet of the morning. It changed everything; the books we read have the effect of centering us for much of the day, while teaching us a new perspective.

A piece that we return to frequently, and that we find reverberating mightily in our thinking, is by Vietmamese Zen master, poet and peace advocate Thich Nhat Hanh. It’s called “What’s Not Wrong”, from his book Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life: read more…

reminder: a wrong choice can take you to the right place

We found this sign on The Curious Brain and thought “Yeah, we need to remember that…”

Related posts: ‘beautiful oops’ lesson for all of us: mistakes are OK
‘harness the power of being an idiot!’
tool for improvising: embrace mistakes

‘what to focus on’, reminder via marc johns

We really love the message of this drawing from Marc Johns. Apparently quite a few folks have used his drawings for their tattoo design, so he’s selling it as a temporary (stick-on) tattoo. With all that’s been going on in the world, we think it’s the perfect reminder…easily done with a nontoxic pen. read more…

chef inspiration: from eleven madison park to el bulli

Make it Nice Daniel Humm at Eleven Madison Park kitchen sign

Recently, during a birthday celebration for a friend at Eleven Madison Park, we were invited to see the kitchen of what is, arguably, one of New York’s best restaurants; the number of staff on any given day roughly equals the number of diners – THAT’S how attentive the service and complex the menu. While cooks in crisp white toques worked with great concentration around us, we were treated to some culinary sleight-of-hand in honor of our friend.

Using liquid nitrogen, a chef made us a molecular gastronomy version of the classic Manhattan cocktail. read more…

‘don’t say yes. be yes.’

sign: Anne Herbert "Don't say yes. Be yes"

Sally Schneider

 

Related posts: what is the most powerful word in the english language?

bathroom read: john cage’s “a year from monday”

yes

a reminder, via anne herbert (open doors!)

healing worry (via anne herbert)

random wisdom, overheard

anne herbert’s wise + teeny meditations

fling and be flung (jackson pollock)

help ‘the improvised life’ by taking our 2-minute survey

question mark sign green Sally Schneider

We love the community we see growing around ‘the improvised life’. Every day we get comments and emails that give us snippets of our readers’ lives; you inspire us daily with your creativity and support.

We wonder if you would take a few minutes to fill out this survey to give us a better idea of who you are and what interests you. We know that none of our readers are defined by these details, however the survey will help guide us as we think about what you will enjoy, and tailor our ideas for exciting new services and ways to interact.

The survey is completely anonymous and confidential, and shouldn’t take more than two minutes (we timed it!) to complete. Thanks deeply for taking the time to participate. Your feedback means a lot to us. You are a huge part of what makes this site special.

Click here to start.

wendell berry on ‘the real work, and the real journey’

Wendell Berry It may be that when we no longer know...

via Reference Library

Related posts: healing worry (via Anne Herbert)

‘changing thoughts, changing future’ (nannucci)

the power of uncertainty -> ‘delicious ambiguity’

think-make-think

what is the most powerful word in the english language?

insoluable problem -> interesting solution

From the great Anne Herbert at Peace and Love and Noticing the Materials:

“It’s insoluable! Yay! That means there will be a really interesting solution.”


Related posts: a reminder, via anne herbert (open doors!)

healing worry (via anne herbert)

what to do when things don’t go as planned

random wisdom, overheard

anne herbert’s wise + teeny meditations

fling and be flung (jackson pollock)

“love cannot be, without love”

From the great Constant Siege.

Related posts: robo-rainbow, cool video via chance encounter

diy: words on walls

yes!