Blog Posts
Furball Friday: Billy’s Studio Shots
By Hillary Rettig |
So, we hired a professional photographer to capture Billy in all his furball glory. I've hired a pro for my business, but never personally. The things we do for our dogs! It was a bit of a splurge - $250 for everything including some prints - but worth every dime. ...
Let’s Talk About “Situational Perfectionism”
By Hillary Rettig |
“Situational perfectionism” is when something causes your perfectionism to spike above its usual levels. (Which usually, in turn, causes your procrastination to spike!) It’s a common phenomenon, with many causes. Here are a few: A prior failure. Often, when we perceived we’ve failed, we get more afraid of future failures. ...
Some Thoughts on “Genius” – a Not-Very-Useful Concept
By Hillary Rettig |
There's been a spate of writing about "genius" lately. Here, in Tweet form, are some of my thoughts on that concept. Hope you like them, and I welcome your comments, on Twitter, Facebook, or below. - Hillary For millennia #genius has been gendered male, and used to justify everything from ...
Does Writer’s Block Exist?
By Hillary Rettig |
A coupla tweets for your delectation: Lookee here! Another guy--and they almost always seem to be guys!--claims #writersblock doesn't exist. They seem to come out of the woodwork every once in a while. https://t.co/Eb5deQQdG1 — Hillary Rettig (@hillaryrettig) May 7, 2018 "Writer’s block is a delicious myth" How callous and condescending, not to mention, #clueless, can ...
Stuck? Lose Your Label!
By Hillary Rettig |
Here’s a useful piece by Austin Kleon on How to Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Chaotic Times. I like #3 a lot: “Forget the noun, do the verb.” Carl Spitzweg, The Poor Poet, 1839 Calling yourself a “writer,” “artist,” "activist," "scholar," “entrepreneur,” or any other label can ...
Dogs Don’t Like Perfectionism Either!
By Hillary Rettig |
This piece by Nancy Tanner on how impatience ruins dog training is brilliant: When I am asked what is the biggest problem I see in dog training today, it is the same problem I saw fourteen years ago, and thirty years ago, it is the misunderstanding of time. It takes ...
A Self-Critical Paragon of Productivity
By Hillary Rettig |
Last weekend, a woman with whom I was speaking on a business matter told me she was "really could use help" with her time management, citing as proof the fact that we were working over the weekend. She had forgotten, however, that the reason we were doing so wasn't because ...
The Welcome Debunking of “Grit”
By Hillary Rettig |
I'm happy to report that "grit," that awful, victim-blaming concept, has largely been debunked. An Education Week piece by University of San Francisco psychology professor Christine Yeh reports that Grit author Angela Duckworth has been forced to walk back some of her book's key claims: “Much Ado about Grit: A Meta-Analytic Synthesis of the ...
