There are a few books I have returned to several times throughout my life, when needed, because they offered a quick “out” from whatever rut I find myself in. Do One Thing Different: Ten Simple Ways to Change Your Life by Bill O’Hanlon is one of those books.

The book is based on the author’s belief that instead of helping you figure out WHY you have a problem, to provide an explanation for it, as traditional therapy does, you are better off being helped out of a problem. His discovery of this alternative came during his youth, when he decided life was too difficult and he wanted to kill himself. He found a reason to live (admittedly a somewhat arbitrary one) and then went about making simple changes in his life to create more happiness. This solutions-oriented strategy eventually freed him from his depression and provided the basis for his own therapeutic practice.

In spite of the seemingly dire genesis, the book is lighthearted, conversational, and often humorous, in tone. Each chapter details one of the “Ten Simple Ways to Change Your Life” of the title, using examples from his practice and from his own life. It’s both an easy read and an easy-to-apply strategy for breaking out of whatever ails you.

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I met Springfield, Massachusetts-based Doug Foresta when he found me on LinkedIn (ahem) and approached me to be a guest on his blog talk radio show, “The Doug Foresta Show.” In doing my homework to decide whether I wanted to be on the show (YES!) and then in preparation for the appearance, I listened to several interviews and checked out the blog affiliated with the show. And that’s when I decided to turn the tables and interview him to find out more about the story behind the blog talk radio show.

HOMETOWN: I grew up in many places- my father worked for the Department of Defense. Mostly I grew up in Lakewood, New Jersey, about 15 minutes away from Seaside Heights, home of “Snookie.”

COLLEGE: I majored in psychology at Rutgers University, did graduate work in theatre and communications at Hunter College, studied screenwriting and playwriting at Gotham Writer’s Workshop and have a masters in social work from Springfield College.

“REAL JOB:” For the past nine years, I’ve worked in child welfare, working with children at risk of abuse and neglect.

When did you start your blog talk radio show and what was the inspiration? I started my Blog Talk show in January 2010. I was doing a lot of public speaking, but had this idea of doing radio. My friend and guru, Angela Lussier, suggested that I get started on Blog Talk Radio, and the rest is history!

Why did you choose that format, as opposed to written interviews? I love having conversations with guests because it opens up this space where anything can happen. I also do print interviews on my creativity blog, but for me, there is nothing that can replace having a conversation. Personally, it is a thrill to be able to talk with people I’ve admired for years!

How do you find your guests? What are the criteria? I find my guests from various sources. Currently, I’m working with several entertainment PR folks across the country. I interview “extraordinary creative people” from all walks of life. Some are famous, some are not. What I’m looking for are people who are living successful creative lives and who are authentic. I’m very interested these days in mid-level creative folks in show business and creative sectors. To me, these are the unsung heroes who provide so much creative content, and have rich stories and insight into the creative process. At this point, I also get at least several pitches a day from individuals and PR people.

What were you hoping to get out of the interview/the show? Personal inspiration, professional guidance, something else?  When I first started doing the show, I simply wanted to gain “platform” and get experience in communications and social media. Today, I’m very clear about my mission for the show: To find the most interesting and wise creative people and have them share tips about how to live a successful creative life.

What is the most surprising thing to come out of the experience? By far, the most surprising thing to come out of the show is that it has led me to my life purpose: To help creative people live successful, fulfilling lives, and fully express their creativity. I am in the process of launching a global community called “Creative Misfits.” The show will play an important role in developing this community.

Can you give us some of your favorite interview moments? The most surprising moments on the show were a) interviewing Barbara Sher (“Wishcraft”) who then invited me to come to NY to a weekend workshop as her guest! Other surprising moments include Burt Young (Paulie from Rocky) agreeing to come on the show, and Deepak Chopra agreeing to come on the show. Unfortunately, I was not able to get Deepak Chopra on the show (yet), but I’m going to meet him in July at America’s Imagination Summit at Lincoln Center, so stay tuned!

What are your favorite blog talk shows, radio talk shows, vlogs, blogs? I really like your blog, YourIndustryInsider.com, especially since so much of my work revolves around show business. I also am a fan of Steve Dahlberg’s blog, Applied Imagination, and Lincoln Center Institute’s blog, Imagination First.

Where do you hope to take your show? What about your own career? Do you have a vision you would like to share about some next steps? I hope to continue to grow the show on Blog Talk and beyond. Most importantly, I feel deeply called to lead this movement of “Creative Misfits.” Growing up, I always felt like a “misfit” and had many painful experiences before I finally discovered my purpose. My hope is to reach out to creative people all over the world who may feel like they don’t fit in, or feel confused or despairing about how they can survive and do their creative work. As a creative person, I’ve found that it is so important to have guidance, support and nurturance, and that is what this creative community will provide. I’m very clear that this is my life’s work. I see myself continuing to grow this enterprise, and create revenue sources through speaking, writing, sponsorship, and teleseminars and webinars. I’m also working on a book, “Creative Misfit Manifesto,” based on my experience interviewing scores of creative people. Nothing makes me feel better then serving amazing, authentic creative people!

Definitely check out Doug’s blog, “The Doug Foresta Show” and his blog talk radio show. You can also find him on Linked In (tell him you read about him here!).

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I’m one of those people who usually has at least three browser windows open at a time – and multiple programs and documents, too. I laugh to myself (or sometimes cringe) when people say “only check your email once a day.” I love my distractions as much as I love my morning coffee. Why would I deprive myself of them?

Alas… As I wrote in February of last year in this post, The Art of Unitasking: A Semi-reformed Unitasker Tells All, study after study has shown that doing more than one thing at once is not productive. In fact, one study said your IQ goes down ten points when you try to do more than one thing at once. As I said in the earlier post, if you’ve ever walked around your house talking on you cell phone while looking for your cell phone, you know this is true.

So, just as surely as eating less and exercising more will make your weight drop, doing one thing at a time will make you more productive. And calmer. And smarter. (Shaking fist at air– “Damn you scientists!”)

The trick is putting the “puppy back on the path,” as they say in meditation training. Close the extra browser windows, turn off the email, etc., etc. I know that is the assignment I am giving myself these days. It’s part of my Meditation in Motion prescription.

And so, I take my own medicine and see how it heals me. Anyone else want to try it?

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I’ve been feeling some serious brain overload these days. I think it’s a side-effect of the constant flow of stimuli in this 24 hour news cycle, smartphones at our fingertips, email and text messages coming in by the hundreds, etc., etc. world we live in now. T. M. I.

Back before I became the working mother of a preschooler with a corporate job and two side pursuits, the cure would’ve been meditating every morning, writing in my journal, a yoga class or two a week… Ah, I can feel the calm descending. but I can’t… quite… reach it.

Seriously, who has time for that kind of sanity?

So, for me, the fix has to be implemented on the run, so to speak, making seemingly small adjustments to my normal life in order to add breathing room, thinking room… peace.

Here’s the recipe I’ve put together:

1)      Silence- This is ingredient #1 and, as a self-admitted news and information junkie, the hardest to implement. Not listening to a “Fresh Air” podcast during my daily hike? Not tuning in to Dr. Oz’s satellite radio show while driving to the studio in the morning? Egads. Which brings me to…

2)      Editing- Yes, in this kind of situation, eliminating as much “input” as possible is key. But what can and what cannot be edited is another matter. The two above-mentioned items can go, at least most of the time. As can most internet surfing. Listening to music is a good alternative if the silence cannot be tolerated all the time (especially at the beginning), preferably music without lyrics. But the aim is not feeding the brain at all. Let it feed itself.

3)      Focus- This is a big one these days, since the email dings constantly if I let it. I wrote about the myth of multitasking here. So the bottom line is to do one thing at a time and, to take it one step forward, to do my tasks in big chunks, preferably from start to finish.  For me, it’s writing the entire draft of a resume, a blog post, or a newsletter edition in one sitting. Easier said than done, but doing a task at one sitting saves time in the long run, since the time it takes to refocus on a task each time you return to it adds up. 

4)      Movement- I’ve got this one well in hand right now. As I mentioned in this post,  I have been hiking up Baldwin Hills Overlook five or six times a week. Glorious. (To those who lament about not making it to the gym or not working in exercise at all, taking a walk or a bike ride in order to get an errand done- to the grocery store, the post office, the bank- is a good way to get movement in without taking up too much extra time.)

5)      Breathing- Don’t just breathe. Focus on breathing. A few minutes of extra deep breathing, even while you are doing something else – driving, hiking, checking email- can be a wonderful thing.

So, I’ll be following this recipe for the next week or two (or three, etc., depending upon how it goes and how much self-decipline I can muster). Let us know in the comments if you have your own ingredients for sanity to suggest or, if you follow the recipe too, how it works for you. What is particularly challenging? What provides the most benefit? Do tell…

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Okay, Where Was I?

You know when you’re driving and you’re paying attention but in almost a Zen-like way, while thinking about something else completely? And you get to where you’re going and you have to really think about it to remember the exact route you took?

I feel like that about life a lot now. It’s not that I’m not paying attention or in the moment or “enjoying the ride.” It’s almost like I’m so in the moment that it comes and goes.

Anyone ever get that? 

Anyway, for anyone else keeping track, this part of the Inspiration Invitation has been about editing. We edited our physical space. (This is the blog post about that phase.) We edited our time commitments (Hope you did better than I did! Here’s my blog post about it.)  And then there was money. (Here I am talking about how spending money often involves other commitments: Space “commitments” – aka clutter – and time commitments, such as when you buy a book or a magazine subscription or season tickets.) 

And that was a little over a month ago and here we are.

The truth is, I have actually been feeling more inspired. I’ve been doing a LOT of resume work. (Note: The economy seems to be picking up steam. People are seeking to change jobs by CHOICE. That’s big.) And the people who’ve been coming to me are motivated and interesting and appreciative.

I’ve also been doing a lot of interviewing for Your Industry Insider. I’ve interviewed an award-winning Foley Artist and a Producer on “CBS Sunday Morning” in the last couple of weeks, as well as catching up with a past profile subject, a cinematographer and camera operator, for an “Update” post on her.

Aside from that, I’ve been walking up the Baldwin Hills Overlook almost every morning, since the evening I wrote about here. (Thanks again, Diana Nyad!) It’s a challenging walk- there’s sweat and heavy breathing involved. And the most awesome view of Los Angeles I have ever seen. (That’s just a camera phone photo at the top of the post- imagine it being 100x better.)

Sometimes I listen to music during the hike and sometimes I listen to a podcast of one of my favorite radio shows, usually “Fresh Air.” The other day was an interview with Grant Achatz, the chef behind Alinea, the Chicago restaurant that was chosen as the Best Restaurant in America by Gourmet magazine in 2006. 

Achatz had gone through tongue cancer and managed to spare himself from surgery (and eventually regain his sense of smell) by enduring chemotherapy and brutal targeted radiation. That part of the interview was interesting, but more engrossing to me was the way he talked about food. I’m not a big cook, but I love “Top Chef” and “No Reservations” and I’m always happy to eat uniquely-delicious food made by someone else.

This took it to a whole new level, though. He infuses his food with scents that evoke sense memories and make people in his restaurant CRY. And what was really cool and – YES, inspiring – was that his next restaurant, called Next Restaurant, is going to focus on cuisine from a specific time and place: Paris 1912, Sicily 1949, even Tokyo 2036. Food as time travel. How genius is that? Watch this “trailer.” I dare you not to want to eat there.

What’s next for US?

The last step of the editing part of the Inspiration Invitation is about editing TASKS. Anything that’s looming. For me, a long-looming task has been putting together estate planning documents. Add to that now tax prep and getting new glasses. What’s on your list? Anything that you’ve been meaning to do for a while and which lurks in the back of your mind should be addressed in this phase. We’re making room, remember? Now, go to it!

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It’s ridiculous really. I keep thinking time is a puzzle and if I can just figure it out, I will have an infinite amount. Aren’t I old enough to know better than to try to defy the basic laws of physics? The line-up of my commitments was included on the post which invited you to join me in injecting inspiration back in my life so I won’t belabor the point. Suffice it to say most days I get up well before dawn and still my to-do list is unwieldy.

The idea behind this week’s editing task (remember, last week was about physical clutter) was making time in my schedule. Not to fill it back up right away (start another business? have another kid? take up knitting?), just to open up some temporal space.

First, I thought I should examine where my time goes, and what obligations I have, as opposed to ways I choose to use my time?

For me, REAL obligations are surprisingly few. Care of my preschooler, fulfilling my duties at my corporate job (per a long-term arrangement which finances most of the rest of the obligations!), basic food acquisition and consumption, paying bills and taxes, personal hygiene, sleep…

Could the rest really be by choice? When you think about what constitutes a real obligation, it really opens up opportunity, doesn’t it?

Overall, the mantra for each of these editing phases is Eliminate, Automate, Consolidate.

What can I eliminate or what have I already eliminated? I won’t go into a whole lot of detail on these (way too boring), but will give you some examples as a way to give you ideas of ways to cut time commitments in your own life:

I don’t really talk on the phone. If you know me personally at all, you know I don’t enjoy it and I consider it a huge time-suck. Plus, my mind wanders. (It’s not you. It’s me. I swear.) The phone is about setting up in-person plans or quick, time-sensitive communication. (Example of the latter: “I see smoke coming from the 2nd floor of your house!” “Thanks, bye!”)

I don’t spend time with people who drain my energy (which I can’t recommend enough!) and I quit my book club years ago, when it was no longer fun and relaxing. (Anyone else been in a dysfunctional book club? FUN!)

I recently decided to limit my (self-inflicted) blogging requirements to one post a week and one eblast to newsletter subscribers a week. (My readers are busy too, I know, so it’s a win-win.) [Getting one post done a week along with everything else I have going on is actually harder than it sounds and Your Industry Insider was sorely lacking in new content earlier this month.]

Here’s something else you may want to consider… I am so sick of looking at the unread Sunday LA Times that I’m canceling the subscription. Also, my subscription to Money Magazine and possibly others. If three unread issues stack up in the magazine rack, to me, that’s a sign. I’ve unsubscribed to all the crap that cluttered up my email in-box every morning. If I want to buy something, I’ll get in touch with you, Macy’s!

Something I won’t be eliminating: No matter what, the cleaning lady is well worth what we pay her to come every other week. (I am also in the process of finding a transcription service for the recordings of the phone interviews I do for Your Industry Insider. Interviewing and editing it are key activities for me. Transcribing is a drag.)

What can I automate to save myself time? A chunk of my paycheck is diverted into savings each pay period. That came out of a “pay yourself first” article I read years ago about building your personal worth. I also have some bills automated, but need to finish that process. I am going to look into automatic prescription refills.

What about consolidating? The book, The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris (that’s an affiliate link, but borrow it, don’t buy it, if you can), while being gimmicky and containing a lot of junk (I am fairly certain my corporate boss would figure out if I was doing my job in twenty minutes a day from a beach in Tahiti, Tim.) has a lot of tips for saving time, many of which involve consolidating. Checking your email only a couple of times a day (but email is crack, Tim!), paying all your bills at one time a month… anything that involves any sort of set up or focus is a good candidate for this. I try to do it with email and any administrative tasks that I can let accumulate.

In summary: I think I have eliminating down, but I am definitely on-the-lookout for more ways to automate or consolidate. Does anyone have tips to share with the rest of us? Please include them in the comments section below.

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