This episode was all about how it all began for Tony. If you’re not familiar with this show or the story, Tony Bourdain was a career chef, working in the business for nearly 30 years until writing a book called Kitchen Confidential that propelled him into notoriety and henceforth into popular culture. This book, which I haven’t read yet, but is definitely on my reading list, is sort of a tell-all expose of the culinary culture of New York City. It garnered much praise and not a little criticism for it’s straight-talking illustrations of the places and names behind some of the Big Apple’s finest eateries.

What I found striking about this episode, though, was the transition from professional chef to professional author, and, ultimately, to professional cable television personality. Tony found himself the subject of a documentary that was filmed over the course of several months in 2000. This was the year that his book was published and he went through this enormous life-change.

Before publishing his book, he appears as a younger, skinnier, less gray (and less tan than now!), version of his current self. What’s interesting is his comfort with where he is in life, with his role as head chef at Les Halles. He is clearly at home in the kitchen, making sure that all the components necessary to a fine meal are in the right place at the right time and prepared to perfection. He is in his element as the person in charge of this kitchen and it’s ragtag staff. He’s downright cocky in his confidence.

Then comes publishing Kitchen Confidential. Then the book tour. Then an invitation to lunch from a local, but world-renowned chef. After his meeting, Tony looks shell-shocked. He’s evidently experiencing some sort of inner crisis as he comes to grips with a life that is quickly changing, not for the worse, but undeniably for the better. He describes with some surprise how he is able to pay his rent on time for the just about the first time in his life. Some exaggeration can be expected, but the sense of seeing a man who believes he has seen a miracle is palpable. His life is forever changed in a positive way.

Fast forward ten years. Tony interjects his own commentary from time to time throughout, but it’s most poignant near the end of the program where he still shakes his head in disbelief that he’s made it. He’s comfortable with his new celebrity, even though it hasn’t gone to his head. He’s less arrogant and firmly grounded in his new reality of traveling, talking, writing celebrity. It’s plain to see that he’s humbled by his successes.

The lessons that I take away from this story are several: Work hard, don’t give up, do what you are passionate about, and accept the changes that come with life. When you follow your passions to their natural conclusions, going with the natural current of your life, there will most definitely be great changes. As in Tony’s case, these changes clearly unsettled him and, I’m certain, simply scared the hell out of him. Ultimately, though, he persevered and grew with his passion and with his life and reached this point of balance where it just works.

I’m reminded of that line from Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad, where the wise old adventurer advises that the title character should be encouraged to “immerse himself in the destructive element.” This was an admonition for the perenially unhappy character, who had failed in his one big chance live up to the heroic ideal he had always dreamed of, to dive into this role regardless of consequence. The alternative would have been drugs or alcohol or wasting away the potential of his life in some menial, ignoble job.

In Jim’s case, he embraced his passionate desire and ended up paying for it with his life, for better or worse. Tony Bourdain shows us another side of the coin. He definitely embraced his passion for cooking, for creating something wonderful out of a list of ingredients and a mob of unruly misfits. But, he continued on to the next step, transitioning from chef to author to television star, never letting the passion consume him, but rolling with the punches and accepting his journey.

The overarching lesson is one of pursuing your own passion while accepting the twists and turns of the currents of life. Don’t shy away from change, but embrace it and realize that it’s part of the journey to personal fulfillment and satisfaction in life.

P.S. For a great interview from one of my hometown papers check out Anthony Bourdain’s Irresistible Impulses.

When we go through these experiences, it’s important to remember that there is still a sun behind those clouds. As important as our loved ones, friends, jobs, homes, cars, and other things in life are to us, there is more in our lives than just one person or job or possession. The pain and emptiness of loss can only be dealt with by accepting that we’ve lost someone or something very precious and then realizing that there are other precious things in our lives to cherish.

With this in mind, don’t wait until you’ve lost someone or something important to you before filling your life with good things. Take time to search for those rays of sunlight while there are few clouds in the blue sky. Meet new people, try new foods, and experience life to the fullest every day. Living a full and passionate life won’t save you from the pain of loss, but will help to insulate you from the worst of the pain and quickly put you on the road to recovery.

My first encounter with personal mission statements was in reading Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The concept was very simple: define who I am, what I value, and how I should live my life in light of these realizations. I began immediately trying to put together a list of roles and values. I quickly found that the task was going to be more difficult than I’d initially believed, though.

After taking a good, hard look at myself, it occurred to me that many of us don’t know ourselves very well at all and that, even if we do, we rarely live our lives in accordance with that knowledge. For example, how many of us work at jobs that we profess to hate? And, yet, we still continue to spend the majority of our lives in these places without looking for something better. Or, if we do look for another job, we take the approach that anything is better, just as long as it’s different. This is a dangerous trap caused by either not knowing ourselves or ignoring our own values, needs, and desires.

Chuck’s tag comes at an interesting time for me because I was already working on my personal mission statement. I had started writing one a few years ago and my efforts dwindled away over time as other concerns took priority. A couple of months ago, though, I decided to read 7 Habits again and really work on defining my core roles and values and ultimately, a personal mission statement. When Chuck emailed me, I was in the middle of writing a first draft of this mission statement.

I think Stephen Covey’s approach to this is a good one. He suggests that you define your roles in life first. Think about it. You are one person, but you’re many things to many people, a father to your children, a spouse or significant other to your partner, an employee or employer, a writer or blogger, a member of a church or other group, and, most importantly, an individual. I say that your role as an individual is most important because it is the deepest layer, the most inner part of yourself that defines who you are. Without having an idea of what’s important to you, it’s almost impossible to develop a proper perspective on your other roles in life.

I have a lot more to say on this topic, but I’m going to save it for another post. I’ll be including some of my own personal mission statement, too, so check back soon.

In his article, Maki addresses the points made in the CNN story and then adds his own commentary. I won’t cover all these again, as I think he does a great job of hitting the most interesting stuff, but I will say that the wealthy aren’t superhumans.

We have to remember that they are all human just like we are and have many of the same faults and daily struggles that we do. They mostly don’t have superhuman qualities that separate them from us by enormous gulfs. They typically do, however, have subtle differences in habit and outlook that give them a much higher chance for success.

Boiling it all down, it their passion and persistence that contributes to their ultimate success. They may not be the most charismatic or intelligent people, but they stick with it and go after what they want with a gusto. They are determined, but also have a sense of when to quit and go on to the next thing.

Most of us can use some motivation from time to time to get us going again. If you’ve found yourself flagging lately in your own pursuits, take time to read Maki’s article and realize that you are just as capable of achieving success as any CEO or venture capitalist. Good luck!

There are times when your mind is just tired of the same old thing. I’ve been one to always write down ideas, jotting a few words or sentences here and there when I’ve had an idea for a story or a blog post, or even a novel. These all sounded like great ideas at the time. Maybe if I’d sat down right at that moment and taken the time to work them out, these ideas would have sprouted from the tiny seed into a completed, fleshed out work, a whole story, article, or novel. Even a first draft.

Unfortunately, these seeds can’t always be watered at the same time they’re collected. We have lives that we have to live in the meantime. Sometimes, we just don’t have that spark. All we have is this cold, hard little seed of something – something that could grow into a great mustard tree someday under the right conditions, but for now, must remain a tiny seed, only raw potential and hopes and dreams, nothing more.

What do you do? One thing you can do is to just write about it. Write about what you’re thinking or feeling. No, you don’t have to divulge your half-formed idea before it’s ready to be unleashed on the world. Write about your process, or lack thereof. Try to find the reason why you can’t write about all these great ideas you have jotted down on dirty scraps of paper and stained napkins. If you can dig deeply into your own reasons and share those with your readers, maybe you can help them to avoid the same problems.

Take the time to wonder aloud. Type the words to yourself as a sort of airing of the inner monologue. Sometimes a little sunlight will help to dispell the dusty cobwebs in the corners, or at least show them for what they are. It can be healthy and cathartic to share some of these things with your readers. Be careful, though. These sharings can end up revealing much about your inner self. If you’re comfortable with that, then go for it. If not, think again. Try to always keep in mind the purpose, the goal of what you’re writing, whether it’s a blog or story or some other type of writing.

The greatest writers of both fiction and nonfiction are able to share some of themselves in their writing. They are able to offer up a raw, bloody pound of flesh to those who care to partake. I’ve always liked my steak medium rare. If there’s no blood, how do you know that it was ever alive? Is it time for you to offer up a piece of yourself?

For many adults in the industrialized societies, work is a daily and often hated part of every day life. You get up at least five days a week and commute in some stressful way for much too long a time to get to a job you dread walking in to. There are a lot of things that must contribute to these negative feelings.

Each day, you may have to deal with fighting through traffic in that crappy car of yours that barely runs, like the automatic transmission that you now have to shift manually, or the new, late model car that constantly reminds you that you really can’t afford it. Maybe your regular workday begins with the bus or subway ride with a nice selection of nutjobs and thugs mixed in with the rest of the bored commuters like you. Just be glad you don’t have to sit by the sweaty, stinky guy today.

After this trial, you end up safe and sound in your little cubicle, your 6 x 6 sanctuary from the horrors of the modern workplace. Actually, it’s often more like a cage than a place of safety and solitude. You can still hear that obese guy two cubes down who’s ripping open snack wrappers and slurping cans of soda pop all day long, right? And god forbid you happen to be there at lunchtime when he starts sucking his fingers with that sick popping sound that’s probably very similar to the sounds made by a pack of wolves ripping apart the joints of young lambs. Are you shuddering yet?

Aside from all the human horror shows you encounter on a daily basis, there’s the actual work you do. The work isn’t bad, though, is it? It’s just always the same. It’s boring. You don’t feel challenged by it and it eats away at your insides. You can feel the brain cells screaming in hellish pain and then dying a horrible death, but at least they’re not alone, like you in your cube… No, they’re dying together in hordes.

Anyway, you’re bored, right? That’s a huge problem these days and most people don’t seem to realize it. It’s easy to establish what’s boring, too. We know it when we see it. That is, we know it when we’re thinking about it. We may not realize that what’s killing us and our poor little brain cells is a terminal case of boredom. Let’s keep this in mind, though, as we start fighting back.

To begin our battle against the horrors of boredom, we need to find out what does not bore us. When we sit down to think about it, we realize what does bore us. The sameness of it all, the lack of real challenges, the absence of passion and creativity. These things that are missing are precisely the elements we need to begin searching for.

The answer is simple: Start looking for new things to do. You may not be able to go right out and find a new, exciting job, but there are ways you can spruce up the dusty old one you’ve got. Start trying to vary your routine a bit, for instance. Take a different route into work. Find a new group of people to carpool with. Get an ipod and listen to some new music or books. Take more breaks if you can and go outside and get some sun on your pale skin. Take a walk around the building. Maybe you’ll encounter other like-minded people who are attempting to break out of work robot mode for a few minutes here and there. The key is to break up the routine somehow with new activities.

This doesn’t just apply to your work life, either. Find a class at your local college to take part in. You’ve always wanted to learn how to crochet, take pictures, learn a language, scuba dive, right? So, do it now! What’s the point in waiting to do something new and fun? All these little things can usually be done for much less money than you might think. A couple of months ago, I took golf lessons with a group of other people for only $100 for 7 lessons. It was a lot of fun and I got to meet a bunch of cool new people.

See, it’s not just the lack of exciting and interesting activities that bores us, but also the lack of new people in our lives. It’s a good thing to go out and meet new people on a regular basis. After all, that’s why many of us are blogging. We’re not just here to vent and bare our souls for strangers from all over the world, but also to share, really share something of ourselves with people who are looking for the same things. It’s the interaction, the personal connections that make blogging such a wonderful tool and a great experience.

The whole point of this post, if you haven’t gotten it already, is to encourage you to find out what does not bore you. If you find yourself overworked, overstressed, and unhappy, find some new things to inject some vitality into your life. These new activities, people, and experiences will help to change your attitude into a much more positive one. Feel free to leave a comment and let us know what does not bore you!

It struck me that one of the people in the video says that the first entrepreneurs were the first farmers. This is because they took big risks and made something useful and valuable out of the naturally available materials around them. Take this one step further, though, and you can see that anyone who used or uses his or her abilities to make a living from what the world provides.

When I think about this, it seems that most people must have some innate entrepreneurial ability inside. Even the hunter-gatherers took what they found in their environment and turned it into food, tools, and housing. This incredible blend of necessity with invention must have had a great effect on the development and success of mankind that we enjoy the fruits of today.

Unfortunately, many people today don’t utilize these natural abilities. Each of us does have talent and abilities to use for our own benefit. We may not know how to turn barren ground into farmland or skin an animal to make clothing, but we know things that we could use in some way to enhance our ability to survive in this modern world.

Obviously, you could blog about any given thing you know how to do and have a passion for. This may not make you rich, but those hunter-gatherers didn’t solve all of their hunger problems just by making a better spear. They still had to go out and hunt and repair that spear when it would inevitably break or wear out from use. It certainly made hunting easier for them, though.

Take some time and think about your own entrepreneurial abilities. Think about your passions and creative talents. There is some ability or knowledge you possess that you can use to make life a little easier and a little more rewarding. If nothing else, blogging about it will give you a great new way to share what you know and make things a little better for yourself and those around you.

This is vitally important to your success as a writer or blogger, but it’s not something that is easy to develop. Actually, it’s very simple to discover your voice. However, it takes some time and effort. Here are some tips to get you started on the path to finding and developing your own writing and blogging voice:

• Write every day. I wrote a guest post once for science fiction writer Tobias Buckell in which I contended that it was imperative to write every day in order to become a successful writer. I was a little taken aback when I received some comments critical of this assertion, but most commenters were supportive.

  The truth is that if you want to develop your abilities as a writer, just as in any other endeavor, you must do it frequently and with some consistency. Great baseball pitchers aren’t just born. They work hard to get to that level of competitiveness. You should do the same with your blogging.

  This doesn’t mean that you have to write a blog post every day. Just practice writing somehow. Write a post if you can, but at least try to write in a private journal or do some free writing on scrap paper. Exercise your writing skills. Soon, your voice will be evident.

• Write from your own experience. Writing that doesn’t come from personal experience often sounds forced and fake. This is why new writers are told to write what you know. Don’t try to sound like an authority on a topic in which you have no particular expertise or experience.

  Keep in mind, though, that you are an authority on your own experience. If you have tried internet marketing for a couple of months with moderate success (or, even none), you are the expert on what you have actually done. You may not have done things in the best way, but you can tell your readers with authority what you have done and what you have observed the results to be.

  Again, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you should relate your traumatic experience at the dentist on your internet marketing blog, that is, unless you can make the story relevant to the topic of your blog. If you can do this, then by all means, do. Stories help to draw in your audience and show them that you’re a real person. People will relate to you much better and find your writing much more accessible.

• Write about your passions. What I’m talking about is trying to focus your writing on topics you have a passion for. Dipping into that reservoir of feeling can have a magical effect on your writing. Passion is contagious. When you write about something that you clearly love, your readers can tell and will respond to that. It will also make it much easier for you to find things to write about every day. If you’re into collecting scabs or wrestling dolphins, you may want to save that for your personal journal, though.
• Work on your grammar and spelling. You may ask why I’ve included this one. This one is more for your readers, but it’s still very important. The reason is that numerous grammar and spelling errors tend to distract readers from the topic and purpose of your writing, thus making it difficult for them to get a feel for your voice or what you’re trying to say. Working on your basic writing skills will go a long way toward helping you develop your voice as a writer. Take the time to nurture your writing abilities and you’ll be rewarded.

Hopefully, these few tips will give you some starting point for understanding where your voice as a writer comes from and how to work on it. Leave a comment with your own ideas and your own experiences. It’s good practice.

Pursue the Passion is a project started by three recent college graduates who realized that they didn’t know anything about the business world. That is, they had learned plenty in college, but hadn’t gotten much real world experience. They wanted to find careers that they could really get into, that they could put their passions into.

This is, of course, a common interest amongst not just college graduates, but also many people already out in the business world. The problem lies in the fact that so many are unsatisfied with their careers and are not feeling this passion in their professional lives. So, what’s the secret?

This is what Pursue the Passion is all about. James, Brett, and Noah toured the country last year and interviewed professionals about their careers in the hopes of finding the answers. On their first tour, they interviewed 75 people who were passionate about their jobs and posted the interviews to their website so that others could benefit.

They are now touring again and posting the interviews to their web page once again. The interviews provide some fascinating insights into what makes them passionate in their careers. If you’re interested in some ideas about how to find a career you love or how to start feeling passion for the one you have now, check out their website.

I’m normally not much of an impulse buyer, but I jumped right on to Amazon and ordered the book. I did check out Tim’s website and blog first and found some good information on other topics, too, like bodybuilding and nutrition, of all things. This and the other articles related to the content of the book sold me on making the purchase.

I started reading right away and found Tim’s conversational style of writing to be refreshing and accessible. There isn’t a whole lot of technical jargon to bog you down. This book is a quick and relatively easy read. I say relatively because there are exercises at the end of most chapters that are intended to help the reader change his or her mindset over to one that will be more conducive to attaining the goals of the book.

So, what are the goals of this book? Tim’s whole philosophy centers around freeing yourself from the wage slave life so that you can fill your life with excitement. Sounds great, huh? It’s not as shallow a concept as it may seem at first. He talks about the stress and boredom of the average 9-5er and how many people spend 30 or 40 or even more years living this lifestyle in the hopes of someday being able to enjoy life.

This idea really resonated with me. Tim relates his fears of becoming the bald, fat guy in the red BMW convertible. As soon as I read this, I knew exactly what he was talking about. Since I was a teenager, I noticed how many of the really nice cars I saw on the road were driven by old guys. I shuddered at the thought of spending my whole life in drudgery to get to the point of driving that beautiful yellow convertible Corvette and then getting out with a cane or a walker. You get the idea, right?

Tim starts off talking about why you should want to change your life and join what he calls the New Rich. His points are simple and direct and will make a lot of sense to those who don’t like a bunch of fluffy nonsense. After that, he goes into the how-to of changing your life.

His ideas aren’t all new or groundbreaking but it’s the way they’re put together that makes this book worth the money. He includes many stories from his own life as well as stories of others in the New Rich who have taken a similar approach to life and changed theirs for the better. This helps the reader to see what people have done and that it really is possible.

If you’re looking for a detailed, paint by numbers text, don’t bother. This book isn’t about telling you every little detail to start a business and make lots of money. That’s not what it’s all about. This book is about changing your mindset more than anything else. Once you have the proper view of life, this type of change becomes possible.

At any rate, Tim’s book is good. It’s highly motivational for those of us who are interested in changing our lives and getting out of the rat race. If you find yourself terminally bored and hating life right now, pick up The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (aff). Even if you’re not at that state at the moment and you’re not looking to completely make over your life, this book has lots of tips that will have you wondering why you never realized that before. Pick up a copy and let me know what you think about it.