Change of Scenery

At the end of July, my high school class had a milestone reunion. I had considered attending, but changed my mind when my move popped up.

Afterwards I received a mailing which listed the names and addresses of my former classmates. What struck me immediately was how many of the people were living in the same place they’d been residing at the last reunion—and the ones before that.

While staying put in one place is something I never wanted to do, I admit that I felt a bit envious, but I blame that on being in the midst of the epic task of organizing a physical move.

Even as a kid, I couldn’t imagine settling for a world no bigger than the county where I grew up. I knew there was a big wide world where people talked, lived and looked differently and I wanted to explore.

For many years, I only knew about faraway places through reading about them. It wasn’t until I discovered self-employment that I figured out a way to see things up close and personal for myself.

When I began traveling regularly and meeting other would-be entrepreneurs, I realized  that the same curiosity that urges us to see the world is very much like the curiosity that urges us to start a business.

In fact the very unpredictability of self-employment holds special charms for the joyfully jobless. Where will I go today? What next project fascinates me? Where will I meet kindred spirits?

Unanswered questions, not routine, colors our days.

None of these things are likely to show up for us, however, unless we engage. Instigate. Explore. Get out and about.

Years ago, I read an article in Writers Digest which warned writers about the danger of hiding away in our offices. In order to be a good writer, the author suggested, we must get out and observe. Listen to other people’s stories, be inspired by a change of scenery.

Yesterday, I put the padlock on the POD sitting in my driveway holding all my household goods, got in the car and drove to my new hometown in southern California. As I set out, I decided to spend the five hour drive focusing on gratitude.

As I headed west, something else happened that I hadn’t anticipated. Suddenly, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, what I wanted my next year to include. Museums and mobility are emerging themes.

Even bigger is a crusade I intend to launch. When the idea hit, it was so obvious that I couldn’t believe I hadn’t taken it up sooner. You’ll be hearing more about that soon. In fact, there will be an official announcement at the Joyfully Jobless Jamboree.

“The world is like a book,” said St. Augustine all those years ago, “and he who stays home reads only one page.”

Still true.

Decide to Show Up

The other day my sister Becky sent me an article from her Santa Barbara paper about a creative young entrepreneur named Michael Lewis. His business, Suite Arrivals is an interesting idea, but his entrepreneurial mindset is what got my attention.

One of the things he’s done since setting up shop in his adopted hometown is to create a MeetUp group to connect other self-bossers. “When I started StartUpSB, I knew I wanted to cultivate an entrepreneurial community based on camaraderie rather than business card swaps at networking events,” said Lewis, saying that he’d attended a few such events when he first arrived in town and “they were a nightmare.”

The concept is pretty simple. Participants “show up and make friends with each other, which is far better for the community’s long-term economic growth,” Lewis said. “I spread the word via Twitter and word of mouth at coffee shops, where many local entrepreneurs  work during the day. Now we have 140 members and will soon have the fifth gathering.”

“StartUpSB isn’t big,” Lewis says, “but it’s potent. You can’t measure that potential, all in one room.” He’s passionate that everyone attending has something to contribute. “Each entrepreneur is like one of the X-Men, each with a special forte.”

Later in the interview, Lewis mentions how sad it makes him to see businesses that don’t move forward. He’s convinced that those who make the effort to show up in places that connect them with others on the same path can make all the difference.

It’s something I learned long ago when I watched a tiny little network marketing company grow into a national organization. This was not a get-rich-quick venture and many of those who ultimately succeeded invested a great deal of time before seeing much money.

Because the company was founded by a man who understood much about personal growth, he invented many ways to help people grow from the inside out. One of those tools (although it wasn’t ever called that) was organizing regular company events and meetings.

Since the sales force was scattered across the country, most people had to incur travel expenses to attend. Repeatedly, I noticed, those who invested their time and money were the ones whose businesses continued to grow and flourish.

By regularly gathering with others who shared their vision, they were sending a strong message to both their conscious and subconscious minds that this dream mattered.

This kind of inspiration isn’t vaccination, of course. Repeatedly making the effort to connect and share is an on-going activity for the truly committed.

Sometimes, of course, resistance gets in the way and keeps us away. Who knows what we miss by giving into it?

Comedian Martin Short wrote a wonderful essay in Time magazine about the turning point in his life. He had moved to Los Angeles, but was adrift.

On the day that his own doubts and fears were the strongest, someone invited him to go to an improv show. To be polite, Short accepted, although he didn’t want to go.

He writes, “That show changed my life.The actors were improvising and my mind was going with them. For the first time, I realized that I could channel the way I could be funny at a party into my onstage role. But before that evening, I had never put the pieces together. I had never seen my potential.”

“Isolation is the dream killer,” Barbara Sher reminds us. Fortunately, there’s something we can do about that.

Want to see more of your dreams come true? Transplant yourself into a dreambuilding environment as often as possible.

Gather with others who are passionate and proactive. Make idea gathering your favorite hobby. Listen to inspiring speakers and read eloquent authors who have taken a higher path.

Share ideas with forward-thinking people. Refuse to believe that you aren’t a good investment.

When you regularly show up for your dreams, they’ll start showing up for you. Or, as Steven Pressfield so eloquently reminds us, “There’s power in putting your ass where your heart wants to go.”

Feeling Left Out on Labor Day?

Although the Labor Day holiday has evolved into a weekend that commemorates the end of summer, it began with a very different intention. In an attempt to appease unhappy workers, President Grover Cleveland proposed a holiday to honor their accomplishments. It was quickly and unanimously approved by Congress.

At about the same time, the United States began to evolve from a rabidly entrepreneurial culture to an employee culture. By the time you and I arrived on the planet the conventional wisdom about the importance of finding and keeping a good job was firmly in place.

Having a national holiday to shine the spotlight on laborers undoubtedly has also had the benefit of keeping workers on the job. After all, it’s a public statement that job holders matter enough to have a special day of their very own.

So where does that leave the joyfully jobless? Yes, I know we know we are diligent and committed workers. I also know that our relatives may regard us as slackers. We are not the ones for whom Labor Day was intended.

Several years ago, a self-employed friend joined her former coworkers for drinks one Friday evening.  Although she was looking forward to seeing them, she soon felt bored and disconnected from the conversation.

“The only thing they talked about,” she told me sadly, “was their desire to stay in their jobs until they reached top pay.”

What was this lofty goal that kept them going back day after day? A whopping $17/hour. “That seems to be their only goal,” my friend reported. She never attended another of those gatherings.

However, she did make a diligent and consistent effort to connect with other self-employed people. Instead of finding herself in conversations about top pay, she now was spending time with people who were going places, doing things and making a difference.

“Sometimes I just need to be reminded,” she says, “that being self-employed is a wonderful choice. These days I find myself sharing ideas, getting good advice, and being inspired to set bolder goals. While I really cared about my coworkers from my old job, I know that encounters with them don’t leave me feeling the way I do after hanging out with my new creative friends.”

“Be with those who help your being,” advised the Persian poet Rumi. I often wonder how much happiness, accomplishment and joy would be unleashed if everyone adopted Rumi’s advice.

Since the beginning of 2010, I’ve spent the bulk of my time working on the upcoming Joyfully Jobless Jamboree in Austin, TX. Right from the start, our idea was to create a two-day event where self-employed folks could be with those who help their being.

When we discovered the second day of the Jamboree just happens to be National Boss’s Day, we knew that was a holiday we wanted to celebrate. According to Wikipedia, National Boss’s Day has traditionally been a day for employees to thank their boss for being kind and fair throughout the year.

Alas, many people who have a boss would have a hard time finding little worth celebrating. On the other hand, we who are the boss need to take time to acknowledge the ways in which we’ve been kind and fair to ourselves this year.

So while we won’t be parading through the streets of Austin and no politicians will be stumping at the Jamboree, we will be whooping and hollering and redefining for ourselves what Top Pay means.

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Breaking News: We’re extending the Early Bird enrollment until Labor Day, September 6th. Go to http://jjjamboree.com to take advantage of this saving. It seemed a fitting way to participate in the holiday.

However, the special room rate for the Jamboree at the beautiful Lakeways Center expires on August 31.

10 Ways to Feed Your Joyfully Jobless Spirit

My definition of job security is having a strong, healthy entrepreneurial spirit. That can only occur if that spirit is fed regularly with activities and thoughts that are nurturing. Here are some of my favorite ways to do just that.

Give yourself a change of scenery. It may be efficient for factories to standardize their production lines, but our creative selves thrive on variety.

Take a different route when running errands, take a sabbatical, take a vacation, take your laptop to the park. You can be productive without being routine.

Tithe your time. Don’t just send a check to support things you care about. Find ways to share your time.

When Joe started his own insurance agency he decided to spend 10% of his time doing volunteer work. Eventually he worked his way up to 50% volunteer time.

Did his business suffer? Not at all. He made so many contacts along the way that his insurance business grew naturally.

You could also look for ways to volunteer and spread some entrepreneurial spirit at the same time. Mentor a kid business or offer your services pro bono to an organization you admire.

Create a research project. What would you like to learn more about? Look for a way to fund your research.

Start by checking the grant directories at your local library. You’ll be astonished by the funding sources that often are overlooked and unspent.

Get clear about how this will enhance you personally and entrepreneurially, then begin looking for a match.

You could find yourself photographing  mosaics in Morocco or interviewing artisans in Ecuador. Use your imagination to come up with a fresh research project that excites you.

Share what you already know. Write a tip sheet and get it published—or publish it yourself and distribute it. Mentor a new entrepreneur.

Put your experiences together and teach a seminar. There’s no better confidence builder than sharing your unique insights and experiences.

Find  great entrepreneurial stories. There are thousands of inspiring stories out there. Make it your hobby to find them. After all, it’s your tribal history.

Offer praise. Master the art of writing an exquisite fan letter. Catch others doing something good and let them know you noticed. It’s good for them and good for your soul.

By the way, although e-mail is quick, a handwritten  note is even more special because they’ve become so rare.

Learn how to synthesize ideas. We should have learned how to do this in school, but I fear many of us haven’t.

For instance, I was reading Jim Miller’s Savvy Senior column in my local paper. He was asked by a reader how to find a reliable handyman. He offered dozens of suggestions.

As I read what he had to say, I thought that anyone wanting to have such a business could find some great suggestions for marketing themselves using the suggestions in Miller’s article.

It’s equally important to look at enterprises that are nothing like yours and figure out what you can adapt from their way of doing things or their overall philosophy.

Attend with a friend. I always like to see pairs of people showing up together in seminars. I realize that sometimes a friend comes along hoping to discourage their companion from doing anything foolish.

However, sharing a learning experience with an entrepreneurial friend can be a great way to extend and deepen the lessons learned. There’s nothing like building dreams with someone who gets it.

Record your journey. Keep an illustrated journal of your entrepreneurial life. Don’t just include the big events; do a photo essay of an ordinary day in the life of your business.

The sooner you begin this, the better. It might become your grandchildren’s favorite storybook.

Join other creative self-bossers at the Joyfully Jobless Jamboree.

The Crooked Path to Our Dreams

On May 24, 2002, I happened to see a Breaking News story on CNN about an apartment building in Los Angeles that had suffered an explosion. The immediate cause was unknown, but when they reported the address, I panicked.

This was the building where my daughter Jennie, her partner Hector and their pug Emmit lived. I called Jennie’s phones, but got no answer on either.

The next forty-five minutes were the longest of my life. Finally the call came saying they were fine.

They had stepped out to run an errand just before the explosion occurred.  Even though they didn’t normally take Emmit with them, that day they decided he needed an outing.

The next few weeks were chaotic since the building was uninhabitable. Jennie and Hector had to quickly find a new apartment, although most of their possessions were impounded in the old place. It was months before things settled down.

By May 24, 2003, Jennie and Hector were the new owners of a gorgeous house that came with a magnificent backyard garden. As the three of us sat on the patio, we began talking about the dramatic events of a year earlier.

“That was the best day of my life,” said Hector, “Although I didn’t know it at the time.”  None of us knew, of course, that the horrible events of that day would mysteriously lead to this wonderful new home.

Almost everyone has a story about a loss or disappointment that turned out to be a blessing. The tricky part, for most of us, is to recognize that when our plans go awry, there may be greater forces at work.

Although it can be challenging, it’s important to keep looking for the opportunities that may be hidden behind a disappointment—or even a disaster.

That can be easier to do if we remember that everything doesn’t have to go right in order to ultimately succeed. If a plan unfolds without a hitch it might be wise to be suspicious. After all, dreams are here to teach us how to be more, not just to have more.

Stewart Emery  tells a story about flying in the cockpit of a plane going to Hawaii and learning that every flight is a series of corrections. He says, “If we could see that we can get a 747 to Hawaii, having been in error 90 percent of the time, we might be a little less uptight about being in error ourselves…Somehow people have the notion that they are going to get away from failure, that they are going to succeed enough never to fail again. That option is simply not available; it is like trying to eat once and for all.”

Before you encounter another delay or disappointment, decide to challenge yourself to find opportunities that are hidden, along with those which are obvious.

While you’re at it, give yourself permission to be in error much of the time. Know that ultimate success is a process of accumulation and that you’ll accumulate both victories and defeats along the way.

Or just memorize these words from Paulo Coehlo: “Too often we decide to follow a path that is not really our own, one that others have set for us. We forget that whichever way we go the price is always the same: in both cases we will pass through both difficult and happy moments.

“But when we are living our dreams, the difficulties that we encounter make sense.”

Yo! Simon: Advice From a Pro

When I was packing books for my upcoming move a tiny volume caught my eye. Although it’s not readily available in the US, the title that got my attention was Simon Woodroffe’s The Book of Yo!

Even though I’m not a sushi eater, I knew about Yo! Sushi, the business started in London in 1997 by Woodroffe and billed as the “World’s Largest Conveyor Belt Sushi Bar.” Today Yo! Sushi is an international brand with establishments in sixty countries.

The brand has expanded into other endeavors including Yotel, Yo! Zone, Yo! Home and RadiYo. According to their Website, YO! Co is the wholly owned holding company of Simon Woodroffe that works with others to develop and seed finance YO! ideas and new YO! brands. YO! Co owns equity stakes and collects royalties from its endeavors.

When Woodroffe wrote The Book of Yo! the company was only a couple of years old. Nevertheless it is a fascinating tale of bringing an idea to life.

The book begins with one of the most whimsical entrepreneurial bios I’ve read. Here’s a bit of it:

Simon, who knew nothing about restaurants and not a lot about sushi except that he liked it, won awards while YO! was still a small company, albeit always with big ambitions.

Simon lives alone in London’s West End without a TV set and with his own karaoke machine. He rides horses with his daughter Charlotte and her mum, climbs up and skis down mountains and dreams that his tennis will get better.

He reckons that if he had a year left to live, he’d carry on doing what he is doing today: writing, dreaming, scheming and speaking about YO!

Like everything else Woodroffe touches, his book is also unique. A mere 60 pages long, this little treasure has a most unusual format. All the left-hand pages are orange and tell one part of his entrepreneurial journey. The right-hand pages are white and share a lesson learned from the aforementioned part of his story along with a brief tip sheet to encourage other would-be entrepreneurs.

Here are his a few of his thoughts on Finding the Way:

° Practice removing “I don’t know” from your vocabulary and when you are unsure, ask yourself the question, “If I did know the answer, what would it be?”

° Write down what you’d do if you had a year left to live.

° Keep a notebook of all your ideas, yes even the stupid, passing or fleeting ones. Become obsessed with getting them down, even keeping pen and pencil by your bed.

Then there’s this observation: “I’ve noticed that most successful people also fail, so I set myself daily targets to fail and when I get six in the bag I punch the air, knowing I am on track.”

Of course, he has advice on how to Practice Failing:

° Ask someone out with the intention of being rejected. You might be surprised.

° Make the hardest call you can imagine. After that the others will be easy.

° Tell someone who deserves it how much you love them.

° Support and encourage others to fail around you.

Woodroffe sold Yo! Sushi in 2003, but continues to spread entrepreneurial spirit through Yo!Co and speaking around the world.

Finding the little treasure that is The Book of Yo! Sushi was a terrific reminder that someone else’s story can inspire—even awaken—our own entrepreneurial spirit.

“I dare say, all successful entrepreneurs have loved the story of their business,” says Michael E. Gerber, “Because that’s what true entrepreneurs do: They tell stories that come to life in the form of their business.”

Don’t miss the stories. They’re loaded with clues.

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Since whimsical British business is on my mind today, here’s another little story from today’s mailing from Innocent Drinks, another reminder why I love them so much.

Ian is the man who delivers our eggs from Treflach Farm every week and in return, we give him any out-of-date smoothies we have for his pigs. A big chunk of the profits from the farm go towards running local community projects so we like to help out Ian and his team whenever we can. Recently, we had a raffle to raise funds for a new classroom at Treflach, where children can go along and learn all about being a farmer, working outdoors and looking after the environment.

The Company You Keep Impacts the Company You Build

It’s easy to imagine people looking at the prolific William Morris and saying, “I wonder how he gets so much done.” During his lifetime, he produced a dazzling body of work that included writing, social activism, publishing and all those intricate textile and wallpapers.

I’ve always suspected that the secret of his enormous output stemmed from the weekends he organized at his home, Red House, where he invited his artistic friends to come and spend the weekend “making things.” Rosetti, Burne-Jones and the others who came to make up the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood were participants in these Art Weekends.

In gathering all these creative souls around himself and nurturing their talents, he was taking advantage of that extraordinary energy known as synergism.

This phenomenon was first noticed and named by the pharmaceutical industry where it was observed that combining drugs sometimes produced a result greater than the individual parts. In other words, synergy says two plus two equals twelve.

The same thing can happen when people gather together and the result is greater than the individual contributions.

You’ve probably been the recipient of synergistic energy and know how powerful it can be. One November, I went to London accompanied by Karyn Ruth White, who is a perpetual idea machine. Everything seems to trigger a creative thought in her.

I returned home with a notebook full of ideas for my business. Happily, the momentum of that time kept my creative spirit on alert for months and months.

While synergy can occur spontaneously and in unexpected ways, the smart entrepreneur will consciously create situations to help it along.

This is particularly important for those of us who work alone and need to reach out to other self-bossers on a regular basis to take advantage of the rewards of synergism.

Here are some suggestions for doing just that.

° Instigate. “As I look at my life,” says Stewart Emery, “I notice that all my friends are people who support me in learning the lessons I have to learn. We have consciously chosen each other based on the contribution we can make to each other.”

Create situations and gatherings for the purpose of brainstorming. Form your own small Joyfully Jobless group. Have regular breakfast meetings with another self-bosser.

If you’re feeling really frisky, invite a few trusted folks to go away on a mini-retreat where you spend time away from normal demands and concentrate on generating ideas for all members of the group. You could even host your own Art Weekends ala William Morris.

° Show up. You’re  more likely to be the recipient of synergistic energy at a seminar than you are watching old reruns on television.

Today many people are enthusiastic participants in chat rooms on the Internet. While this may be an efficient way to share information, it’s not the same as being in the presence of other people. Communication is more than just words and, in fact, nonverbal communication is hugely important.

When you get involved in events and activities where ideas are encouraged and flow easily, like the upcoming Joyfully Jobless Jamboree, it can directly impact your success for years to come.

° Be opportunity-minded. My friend Chris Utterback and I seldom had a conversation without one of us exclaiming, “Oh, there’s a great business idea!”

We always were observing the world around us with the attitude of finding better ways of doing things or discovering something that was missing. Often this led us to giving ideas away to others who could carry them out.

More importantly, it conditioned us to see the world as a place filled with abundance and unlimited opportunities. We knew that we’d never run out.

What more valuable perspective could an entrepreneur have?

Welcoming Serendipity

When I saw the Twitter post from someone saying they were going to claim intentional serendipity, I smiled. See, I’ve had a long love affair with the concept of serendipity.

Like most people, I always thought serendipity meant accidental discoveries. Then I read Marcus Bach’s The World of Serendipity and discovered it is far more exciting than that.

According to Bach, the idea originated in an old Persian fairy tale which was retold in 1754 by Horace Walpole. The tale had to do with the Princes of Serendip.

While traveling through the world, these three young noblemen rarely found the treasures they were seeking, but continually ran into other treasures equally great or even greater which they were not seeking.

“In looking for one thing, Bach explains, “they found something else and it dawned on them that this was one of life’s sly and wonderful tricks. When they realized that, they got a new slant on life and every day resulted in a new and thrilling experience.”

Bach says, “A closer look at serendipity suggests that there are actually techniques involved. What seems to be chance is actually the result of (1) great expectations,(2) great sublimations, (3) great observations.”

We begin our journey expecting to reach a goal. When that doesn’t occur, we claim something equal or even better will take its place. Then we pay attention and see what shows up. (Note: we don’t abort the journey. This also doesn’t happen if we are armchair travelers waiting for something to show up.)

The author goes on to illustrate how this sort of serendipity has operated throughout his career as a writer. “No manuscript ever goes on its way to a publisher without a special blessing. I affirm that the manuscript will be accepted, that the publisher will like it, that the public will welcome it and that the book will sell.”

But once in a while one of the manuscripts comes back. “I affirm that though I did not reach the initial goal, there will be a wayside goal just as good, or better, waiting for me.”

“In some 25 years of writing, every manuscript of mine that was rejected eventually turned out advantageously for me. Either I improved it, profited from the rejection, placed it elsewhere, adapted it for radio or television, or benefited in some way from its return.”

Great expectations. Great sublimations. Great observations.

Or as Justice Cardozo said, “Like many of the finest things of life, like happiness and tranquility and fame, the gain that is most precious is not the thing sought, but one that comes of itself in the search for something else.”

So go ahead. Take up the journey and claim intentional serendipity for yourself. You’ll be delighted by the unexpected treasures that appear when you’re paying attention.

Finding World Headquarters

For thirteen years, Dominique Browning lived a fast-paced life as editor-in-chief of Conde Nast’s House & Garden magazine. Days were spent in a frantic office while evenings were for social events where she was expected to schmooze (do people still schmooze?).

One Monday morning she arrived at her office and learned that the magazine was folding; she and the staff had to clear out by Friday. What followed that unwelcome news is the stuff of her book Slow Love, which bears the wonderful subtitle How I Lost My Job, Put on My Pajamas & Found Happiness.

It’s the story of a woman who faces a crisis and discovers things about herself she never knew. That unplanned journey of self-discovery leads her to make dramatic changes in her life including selling her New York house and moving to a smaller place she owned on the coast of Rhode Island.

She writes, “Odd that being fired from a job about making homes would finally make it possible for me to make a new home in a place I have long wanted to know better. I feel a small flash of liberation. I am no longer afraid to make a big move.”

Because of my own impending move, I’ve been thinking alot about how we choose where to live. Many people, of course, remain in the area in which they were born, staying close to family, friends and the familiar.

Not everyone stays put, of course. For the past several decades, Americans, in particular, have become increasingly mobile often putting down roots in places far from where they began life.

Of course, much of that mobility was instigated by corporate decision-makers who moved people around as needed. Don’t like Memphis? Too bad. That’s where we need you now.

For the self-employed, it’s a different story. Free to consider their own preferences, those who work for themselves take advantage of the opportunity to choose a home in a place that is congenial.

Since I have always wanted to live in different places, I realized early on in my Joyfully Jobless days that I had found a way to be as mobile as I wanted. I wasn’t always so smart, however, about how to select a new world headquarters.

When I knew that I had not chosen wisely in moving to Boulder, Colorado, I asked myself, “What would my ideal community include? What do I want access to?” Writing out the answers to those questions was eye-opening.

For starters, weather was not a consideration. I did, however, want access to a good airport, an excellent library, and lively theater in a place that was easy to navigate. Since my daughter was still in high school, I also required a good school system.

Once I identified those basics, Minneapolis was a natural choice. It turned out to be an ideal place for that time in my life.

When I took my sabbatical in 1999 and traveled for 8 months, I was completely prepared to relocate if that’s what my creative renewal project uncovered. That’s not what happened, however. When I returned from my travels, I had some fresh ideas and increased clarity what I wanted to do next. Minneapolis was still the best environment for that time.

Even though we may actively participate in virtual communities and have connections throughout the world, our immediate environment matters, too. As Stewart Emery reminds us, “Nothing in the Universe is neutral. It either costs or it contributes.”

It seems to me that if we are growing, changing, evolving people, we have different requirements as we change and we acquire new goals and perspectives. Sometimes those new needs can be met right where we are.

At other times, a relocation is in order. Like Dominique Browning, we make better choices about where to plant ourselves after we have found ourselves.

Alternatives for August

When I woke up this morning, I had a whole new idea about the August theme for this blog. The word that was shouting in my head was Alternatives. “That’s interesting,” I thought. It was not at all what I’d been planning to write about.

I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. For the past several weeks I’ve been weighing the alternatives of staying in Las Vegas or moving to California. So the process of decision making that comes into play when considering alternatives has been vividly playing in my life.

In case I wasn’t convinced that this was a timely topic, I picked up my latest issue of Afar magazine and noticed the Subaru Outback ad on the back cover. It said, “Buy map. Throw dart.”

That’s one way of selecting from alternatives, I guess, but not exactly what I have in mind for this month’s exploration.

Let’s begin with the dictionary definition: “offering or expressing a choice.” Technically, alternatives refer to a choice between two, and only two, options. However, the more popular notion is that alternatives include a number of choices, the selection of which eliminates the others.

Of course, alternative also is used to mean “different from the usual or conventional.” So we have alternative music, newspapers, lifestyles, education, medicine and so forth.

Since I never know exactly where a theme is going to lead me, I’m going to keep looking at both definitions of the word and what it has to do with the Joyfully Jobless Journey.

The one thing I know for sure is that it’s ridiculously easy to overlook the abundance of alternatives in every situation in which we find ourselves. Too often we limit our choices to far fewer alternatives than actually exist.

As I was considering that, I remembered something Swedish actress Liv Ullmann said in her autobigraphy, Changes.

“I had a life with options but frequently lived as if I had none,” Ullmann writes. “The sad result of my not having exercised my choices is that my memory of myself is not of the woman I believe I am.”

Ullmann’s recollection might have been different had she encountered this bit of advice from British general W. J. Slim:  “When you cannot make up your mind which of two evenly balanced courses of action you should take, choose the bolder.”

Let’s make that our starting point in this August excursion.