Eric Tapley

How’s your life? (Be honest.)

Why the hell didn’t you say “Great!”?

I keep thinking about value, and meaning, and what makes a good life. Not necessarily a good life in the sense that someone else would define it as pure, or purposeful, or following some set of socially defined moral guidelines. I mean a good life in that I’m happy and that what I do has value and meaning for me. Maybe along the way I’ll make a difference to other people, too, but living for someone else can’t be your primary goal or you’re not really living, you’re acting out a script.

Lately I’ve been reading quite a lot, to help pass the time as I recover from surgery in a more fruitful way than watching marginally acceptable TV shows. And I want to share a really cool manifesto I read on being creative. I think it’s worth reading, if you can spare 30-45 minutes, and isn’t really a “how to” so much as a “wake up and think about your life in these terms for a bit” manifesto.

How To Be Creative, a manifesto published at Change This. It’s free. And good. Enjoy.

It will be interesting to see how my definition of a good life changes once I’m a father. Stay tuned.