Franklin Taggart's Unconventional Life Blog

  If you've been taking care of others for a long time, it may take a while to reawaken and recognize your own desires. Pay attention to your body. Give yourself time to relearn how to use your want muscles. They haven't had a workout in a while. My friend was taking care of other people from the time she woke until the time she fell into bed. When I asked her if she knew what she wanted, she said that was the wrong question to ask. She was struggling with how to want. Developing new habits takes time, which goes for developing or relearning how we once did things, like acting on our desires instead of reacting to others. Start, and pay attention to physical cues. Your body will lead you, but you have been out of the listening practice. #emptynester #caregiver #selfhelp 

Many years ago, a good friend of mine spent over five thousand dollars on a digital recording system featuring ProTools's latest and greatest technology. My friend had never had any experience with digital recording, although he'd had decades of experience with analog. His sole reason for purchasing the system he did was that the salesman told him it was the industry standard, which was a true statement. He set out to learn how to use his new system and ran into obstacle after obstacle. Months after purchasing it, he had yet to have recorded even a few seconds of audio. He was beyond frustrated. Yes, this system was industry standard, but it was intended to be used by professional level technicians, not novices. He never was able to make the system work. We need to treat claims of industry standard with an eye of caution and suspicion as DIY entrepreneurs. Just because professionals within an industry can make something work doesn't mean it's your best option as a new u...

Learning is central to living. We are learning the whole time we're here. The bulk of learning is practicing. I have a number of clients and friends who are starting things for the first time and they're frustrated that they weren't born doing these things perfectly. I've been there, too. Every time I've learned something new. In this Coffee Break, I share some insights I've learned about the art of practicing that I hope will help you get where you want to go sooner and without as many mistakes. It all starts by taking and mastering smaller steps before you take big leaps. It's also about learning how to recover and move forward when you make mistakes. And finally, it's an encouragement to realize that we will never reach the final level of mastery. There's always more to learn and explore. #creativity #mastery #practice  

As we do routine tasks repeatedly, habits are formed, and the primary reason this happens is to give us the ability to accomplish routine tasks with minimal expenditure of energy.  We haven't had to think about how we get dressed since we were small, and thankfully, we don't have to relearn those things every day. The same can be said for our routines in creating and delivering our work. Can you imagine if you had to relearn the rudiments of your craft every time you started? In this Coffee Break, I have some thoughts from my own lessons about habits. Even some of the unhealthy habits I've had over the years had some kind of benefit to them. And the habits I'm forming now are becoming new systems that help me get things done more efficiently without getting burned out. I also realized that in the desire to form a new habit, the level of intention and commitment I need are significantly higher in the first weeks of adopting new action patterns than they are a few months ...

  You may hear faint drum beats in the background of this one as my kid copes with some anxiety about upcoming final exams by pummeling his drums. I was not a great student, but I wasn't stupid. I was a slow reader, slow cipher, slow test taker, and a D student until I barely graduated, defeating the odds and the expectations of my guidance counselor. I had professors in college who pointed out that if I learned through discussion, my test scores leaped.  I was a good learner, but I had my own way of navigating the learning process, more of a meandering stream than a direct route I know that feeling of anxiety before tests. Even the common nightmare of showing up for school to fin there is a test and I haven't studied is one I still have, 41 years after graduating from high school (oops it'll be 42 years as of Friday). No matter how you learn, I honor the fact that you are capable of learning and I know that you'll figure out soon enough that you were doing the best you...

The day I started first grade my Dad took me to my favorite store in the town where we lived, Scott's. Scott's was owned and run by a cousin of his, Scott Taggart. Scott's was a stationery store, but that wasn't all they had. The candy counter was world famous, or at least I thought it should be. The store clerk, Libby would fill up a small bag of whatever treats you wanted...Swedish fish, pixie sticks, cherry coins, Sixlets, and my favorite, Smarties. A quarter bought a bag full. But the reason for this trip wasn't the candy counter. The purpose of this excursion was to purchase something that continues to be one of my favorite things to shop for, school supplies. This first time is still etched in my memory because it was the first time I'd ever needed school supplies of my own. In preschool and kindergarten if you needed paper or something to color or paint with, the teacher had a pile in her tall cabinet by the rest room door. This time I was getting my ...