Many (most) of my Frolic 100 article writing comes from the prompt “What do I need to hear most right now?” However, today I asked “What am I scared to admit right now?” and I had an immediate answer: This is all there is. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been coming to terms that I’m dealing with another existential crisis, possibly the 3rd in my life. There are ebbs and flows. This one caught...
A trap I still regularly fall into is the idea that I’m the one that needs to change. Despite my 50 years on this planet, the conventional successes I’ve had in multiple fields, as well as my own personal achievements of success I keep trying to change how I do things. Why? Because there’s a voice inside of me telling me to. That I’m (still) not good enough. Whose voice is this? I believe it’s a...
Everything great that has ever happened to me happened because I was willing to face a fear, and walk through that door. Shermain Melton and I used this as the topic of the most recent Accomplished Misfit gathering. There’s a distinction between talking about old, vanquished fears, and ones you are actively facing today, or in this very moment. We had a spirited call where everyone used...
Ever have one of those moments where it seems the universe has resorted to having to scream a message at you that you were doing your best to ignore? Today was that day for me. Like many of my Frolic 100 articles, I often start with the prompt “What do I need to hear most right now?” and I did so today. I literally write it out on my Word document, and had those words staring at me from a blank...
I live to tell stories, and when someone says something to me like “What a story!” I know I’ve accomplished something incredible. It’s even more powerful when I can catch that I’m living through a story, or that one is in front of me – if I just say “Yes” to it. Here are the elements of what makes an incredible story. One where you change, and the people that hear the story change as well. This...
Last week I spoke about the trap I can fall into comparing the impact I have in the world with billionaires, and in the past I’ve also spoken about an “inner mob boss” who lives within me and tells me I’m not doing enough: “I’m only as good as my last envelope”. I live within a paradox where I want to feel at peace, and at the same time I want to believe my best is yet to come. But the chase for...
Isn’t it funny how all our best growth moments come from when we push ourselves? Last week I wrote an article titled “This… AGAIN?” which felt good, and got some very thoughtful responses showing me how much it resonated. Writing that article also gave me another layer of my own self-mastery. Here are the steps of what happened: I had a weekly commitment to write an article, and as the deadline...
Do you have an insidious voice that lives rent free in your head always telling you nothing you do is enough, nothing you have is enough, and you’re never enough? I do. Today I decided to write to an earlier version of me, from seven years ago. A letter I have all the authority in the world to write, because I know the truth, having lived it. The letter is below: Dear 2018 Chris from 2025...
I find almost everyone using AI is playing the wrong game with it. They’re trying to figure out how to have AI let them do “more”. More productivity, more revenue, more output, more, more, more. This is the same trap humanity has been caught in for decades, if not centuries. AI is just the latest tech tool that is facilitating “more”. For most people, if they were...
As I write this I’m suffering from my second covid infection in less than two months. It was just over 6 weeks ago I wrote that life can be random and unfair sometimes. My wife wasn’t even fully recovered from the previous one and is also infected again. This just sucks. In this moment though I’m grateful for a spontaneous lunch I took with my wife exactly a week ago. I was...
During the peak of my DJ career, back in the year 2000, I was banned from entering the US after being caught entering to work as a DJ without having the required paperwork (Longtime followers of mine are very familiar with this story, and I wrote about it extensively in my memoir). I spent many years regretting my actions that led to that. This ultimately led to my eventual retirement from DJing...
A paradox is generally defined as something (person, situation, action) having seemingly contradictory qualities or phases. I’ve come to the conclusion lately that my life is full of paradoxes, and they leave me in a state of feeling like I’m supposed to be doing something about them. However, what if by their nature of being a paradox, there wasn’t actually anything to fix or change? Because...
“But what if we’re caught? It will be humiliating”, was the fear in my head. Thirty minutes before this moment, my wife and I went out for a spontaneous walk in our neighborhood. Where I live, in Toronto, is near the factory for Bombardier Aerospace. They make passenger jets. On this particular Saturday afternoon we could tell there was something happening, with lots of people...
As someone who suffered from crippling imposter syndrome for many years (and eventually overcame it and even wrote a book about it), I am very familiar with the feelings of being a fake, of thinking someone is going to find out the truth, and everything I have is at risk. There can be no expansion without contraction, and those years of contraction, no matter how painful, were an essential part...
The best word I can describe my state of mind lately is “confusion”. It’s something I’ve felt before, and makes answering questions like “What’s next?” or even “What do you want?” very difficult. Nothing comes up. I’ve decided to be kinder to myself and stop asking, at least for a while. Confusion is different from “I don’t know”. “I don’t know” can be played with, and creatively explored. “I...
For reasons I cannot explain clearly, my momentum on my book has stalled. I went from being excited and inspired, to days and weeks passing with no progress. Once I hosted my recent Zoom on my creation process (with the actual evidence held in my hands of my past books), something about the whole project evaporated for me. It’s clear to me a large contributing factor is that I’ve already...
A colleague of mine was recently part of a panel of “successful” people and interviewed on what success was for them. I pondered what my answers would be if I had been invited. Success is such a subjective topic. For me it goes far beyond financial success, although that is a piece. But so many people have money and are miserable. I don’t consider them successful. At a recent...
I was hoping to be back in the United States this week. A leadership group I’m a part of is meeting there. For the last couple of years I’ve been slowly addressing one of the biggest stories I carry around with me – how I got myself banned from entering the United States 24 years ago for working as a DJ without a visa. For a long time, I had simply given up and buried the entire...
This blog represents this latest chapter of my life. I started it 6 years ago. As the New Year passed I started to have the typical thoughts about what was to come. So much of this part of my life could not have been predicted. I then began to wonder, what if you were able to tell me 6 years ago what the next 6 years would look like? Would I be happy with that? And the answer was hell yes. I then...
Yesterday was my latest step in being able to re-enter the US (I was banned 23 years ago for working as a DJ in the US without a visa). Last year I tried to enter because I didn’t know what would happen. Turns out, I’m still banned. I at least answered the question of whether it was my fear keeping me out or them – it was them. I started the legal route, and yesterday was my...
“Freedom” is a huge value of mine. For my entire life I’ve lived a life of freedom and possibility. I haven’t had a “job” since I was 20 years old. Since then, I’ve worked for myself, doing what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it. Part of what motivated me was that I needed to make a living. I just happened to choose things that I was extremely passionate about. I lived on the edge and forced...
“Enough” is an interesting word. A quick dictionary definition is: “As much or as many as required.” I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about how much is enough for me. I’m probably the first human in my family line to ever consider this question. For all but the most recent human history, our ancestors never had enough. Not enough food, not enough comfort, not enough resources, not enough...
I got myself banned from entering the US way back in the year 2000 (working as a DJ without a visa). Last year, after 22 years, I decided to try and re-enter. I had been invited to a leadership conference, and thought it was as good a moment as any to try. A few different people stepped forward with offers of helping me by connecting me with lawyers, and I thought “Great! This is how it’s...
I just watched the second of 2 documentaries about the disaster that was Woodstock ’99 (Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage on HBO and Trainwreck on Netflix. I thought the Netflix one was the better of the 2). It’s given me a lot to think and reflect on. For me it is a strong cautionary tale of what can happen when you think what the world needs is yesterday’s solution from yesterday’s people...
If I’m honest with myself, I can see that much of the fear that holds me back today is not my fear of failing at something, but what would happen if it was successful. These are some of the voices currently in my head: I don’t want to create a formal program or offering because people might sign up for it and I’d be committed to running it.The more attention I bring to myself, the more people...