A tasty perspective from Seth Godin’s blog:
The best, freshest spices still taste like the spice that’s on the label, but they taste more like themselves.
That’s what successful brands and freelancers do as well. They relentlessly do the work to act more like themselves.
Read the post, here …and decide what you taste like.
Photo by Anju Ravindranath on Unsplash
Happy New Year!
Many of us are scrabbling around assembling and confirming our good intentions for the year; all the things we’re going to do in 2026.
An alternative is to adopt Daily Stoic’s list of eight things to STOP doing (from Instagram, here):
Simple, sound advice for the year ahead.
I discovered this blog, Infatuateur, via Cultural Offering. It’s a curated feast of beauty and style that includes nature & animals, architecture & interiors, food & drink, men’s style and beautiful women.
In the words of its keeper, “I am a man who is bewitched by beauty and smitten with infatuation.”
Worth checking out over an idle hour.
Image: https://infatuateur.tumblr.com/post/802742838748200960
A great reminder from Steve Layman. I was tempted to copy/paste the full post, but here’s a snippet:
We are conditioned to enjoy the benefit today and pay the cost tomorrow.
Achievement reverses the transaction. It requires full payment in advance (and regular payments forever).
An important warning about the decline of deferred gratification. Read the full post, here.
Photo by Alora Griffiths on Unsplash
Kurt at Cultural Offering updates his list of 25 Blogs Guaranteed to Make You Smarter.
Really not sure I’m worthy, but I am deeply honoured and flattered to be included. Cultural Offering was one of the first blogs I followed and it is a never-ending source of perspective, information and inspiration.
Add it to your list and check out the others.
Thank you, Kurt.
Photo by Ioana Trandafir on Unsplash
Here is the soundest of advice from Hunter Gatherer 21C’s Nicholas Bate:
Only listen to vinyl when working; a break and a walk will be naturally necessary every twenty minutes or so.
This could be the nudge I need to set up my turntable again.
Currently, I have a playlist on Sonos of mostly guitar instrumentals curated from my music collection. It runs for nearly a full day and ensures (after a couple of opening tracks with vocals) that I’m not writing with other people’s words in my head.
It’s not vinyl, but it includes some sublime tracks. Here’s a taster:
Opening vocal tracks:
Loser, The Grateful Dead (“I’ve got no fear of losing this time.”)
Hair of the Dog, Nazareth (“Now you’re messing with a son of a bitch.”)
Hello Hooray, Alice Cooper (“God, I feel so strong.”)
Thereafter, a mix of the sweetest guitar music:
Blue Valley, Thomas Blug
And The Address, Deep Purple
High Nights, Sutherland Brothers & Quiver (an instrumental from Quiver’s Time Renwick, later of Al Stewart and Pink Floyd’s touring band amongst many others)
Cloudy Day, JJ Cale
Weiss Heim, Rainbow
Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers, Jeff Beck
Samba Pa Ti, Santana
Journey of the Sorcerer, Eagles
Little Wing, Stevie Ray Vaughan
Another Place, Jeff Beck
Scandinavia, Van Morrison
Angel (Footsteps), Jeff Beck
Where Were You, Jeff Beck.
And, much, much more. Just so much great music!
Photo by Adrian Korte on Unsplash
Action is the antidote to anxiety.
I found this list via (I think) The Hammock Papers. Apologies if I’ve misattributed. The full list of “20 Sentences I Wish I’d Read Sooner in Life” is here on a blog called Born Too Late.
The most dangerous addiction is the approval of other people.
…
Your habits are the silent architects of your life.
Worth pondering the full list.
There’s so much wisdom in Steven Pressfield’s posts, but this particularly resonated, “You have to have a slate.”
I was doing a free rewrite on the lot at MGM when a producer friend spotted me on the bungalow’s porch and plopped down in the chair beside me. She asked me what I was working on beside this freebie.
I hesitated.
Don’t hesitate…
“you have to be able to rattle off four, five, six projects—and be able to pitch ‘em all with full professionalism.”
Read the full post, and more, here.
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.
Marcus Tullius Cicero, letter to Marcus Terentius Varro
Varro, I learn, was Rome’s leading expert on gardens and agriculture at the time and the literal translation is ““If you have a garden in your library, everything will be complete.”
Photo by Lucas Calloch on Unsplash
Blogs come and go, but some stalwarts remain.
Here are a few that I’ve read daily for years and which still provide valuable insight:
These three are the cornerstone of my morning reading. Also highly recommended are:
And two essentials that I follow on email:
Check them all out. Your lives will be richer for a few minutes’ reading each morning.
Image: Andrew Munro