#60: Funemployed, with Sarah Hart

Sarah Hart was several years into a successful advertising career when the quiet voice in her head — not to mention the ants in her pants — became too much to ignore. She quit her job to embark on what she calls “a journey toward purpose”, and since then she’s been documenting her experiences on her blog, F The Desk. This week, Sarah joins us on location on Sean and Eli’s back patio to talk about the ups and downs of “funemployment”, and getting in touch with what truly matters to us.

We mention:

• Sarah’s post about digging up memorabilia from her days as a “real life Lisa Simpson”
• The Oatmeal on Why working at home is both awesome and horrible
• Barbara Baron’s quote, mentioned in this post from Tiny Buddha: “Don’t wait for your feelings to change to take the action. Take the action and your feelings will change.”

Download MP3 | Subscribe on iTunes

#59: Embracing Sucktitude

Continuing on from last week’s conversation, we talk about Eric’s time volunteering with TEDx Toronto and how Sean’s career “death spiral” led him to photography, writing and dog training. How do we find the courage to embrace failure, and persevere in spite of it?

We mention:

• Episode 18, “Fear of Failure”
• Sean’s latest blog post, “You will suck. Deal with it.”
• Morning pages, a daily writing exercise recommended by The Artist’s Way author Julia Cameron
• “The Overjustification Effect”, which describes research into the relationship between income and happiness
• Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark, summarized on Clark’s blog
• Ira Glass on storytelling (YouTube)
• Stanley Kubrick’s first film, Fear and Desire (described by the director himself as “a bumbling amateur film exercise”)

No episode next week — Sean’s just returned from another dog behaviour workshop, and Eric’s traveling in Turkey. Back in two weeks!

#58: Rationalizing What We Do

A discussion sparked by Sean’s recent blog post, “The Secret Stories We Tell About Ourselves”, about the so-called overjustification effect, and how one rationale for our actions can eclipse the others in our minds — whether it’s a deeply held principle or “just for the money”. Next week, we’ll delve a bit deeper into our own rationalizations for various jobs or projects we’ve taken on.

We mention:

• “The Overjustification Effect”, a post on the blog You Are Not So Smart
• The Now Habit by Neil Fiore
• “I read Playboy for the articles”, a study described in The Economist
• Drive by Daniel Pink
• Design is a Job by Mike Monteiro

Download MP3 | Subscribe on iTunes

#57: Future Collages

Last week’s talk with Lisa Charleyboy inspired us to try an activity she mentioned: making a collage of images representing things we’d like to have or pursue in the future. We spent an hour or so before this week’s show with some good friends, some bristol board and a stack of magazines, cutting and pasting photos to produce a sort of mood board for our lives. On the episode, Sean and Eric discuss what they learned from the process and the end results.

• Eric’s dream board
• Sean’s dream board

Download MP3 | Subscribe on iTunes

#56: Vision, with Lisa Charleyboy

Writer, blogger, traveler, actor and Urban Native Girl Lisa Charleyboy talks to us about leaving her job to pursue her passions, getting in touch with her Native Canadian roots, and the tools she uses to envision and plan her future. Check out her blog, or look her up on Tumblr or Twitter.

We mention:

• Sean’s interview with Saul Kaplan on his brand new site, The Most Passionate
• Sarah Hart’s blog F the Desk

Download MP3 | Subscribe on iTunes

#55: Point of View

This week, we talk about how exploring our interests can give clues to our point of view, beliefs and sense of purpose. Along the way, we discuss photography, cities, and our connection to nature. Plus: why you should quit your dog and get a job job and get a dog, and the return of coffee and Baileys.

We mention: 

• Bruce Barnbaum’s book The Art of Photography
• Photographers Cindy Sherman, Edward Burtynsky and Cole Rise
• Our interviews with Ren Bostelaar, Chris Luckhardt and Mike Wagner
• Yosemite HD, a stunning piece of timelapse work
• 500px, a photo community site (where Sean and Eric both have pages)
• A Kurt Vonnegut quote found on this blog post

Download MP3 | Subscribe on iTunes

#54: Making and Creating

What does it mean to create? We explore the way society rewards or fails to reward the actual making of things, the difficulties of tackling a new craft, and how creation aligns with purpose.

We mention:

• Make, Craft and Maker Faire
• the TV series Departures
• Ira Glass on storytelling (YouTube)
• Episode 31, “The Learning Letdown”

Download MP3 | Subscribe on iTunes

#53: Doing the Crazy Things

We’ve talked about adventure and play in past episodes, and this week we delve a bit deeper: walking the line of conformity, giving ourselves license to play, and setting a social contract for the more out-there things we want to accomplish.

We mention:

• Pat Thompson, whom we interviewed on Episode 47
• Episode 7, which has more about urban exploration and “the network” of people we surround ourselves with

Download MP3 | Subscribe on iTunes