Sit at that table and be sick with longing

Burnt is a movie that performed dimly at the box office and received terrible reviews from critics and audience members alive. 

Personally, I thought it was the most inspiring and accurate movie about the creative process that I’ve seen in years. 

Chef says it beautifully as he shares his vision for what he thinks food should be. 

People eat because they’re hungry. I want to make food that makes people stop eating. Anyone can keep on cooking and being interesting, but I want people to sit at that table and be sick with longing. 

This is what every artist strives for. To create as many holy shit moments as possibly. To disturb people into a new way of seeing the world. 

The only problem is, there are far too many elitist fuckwits in the audience who pride themselves on not being impressed by anything. 

You know, the arm crossers who hide their joy, just to prove how much they’re not impressed. The people who have no tolerance for earnestness, lest their cultural passports be reprimanded by the taste police. 

Congress ought to pass a law requiring each of these heroes to be publicly disemboweled by a wooden cooking spoon. 

Look, art isn’t a decoration, it’s an activation. It’s the best technology for taking an audience to the limits of human experience. It’s the best shortcut to transcendence that mankind has. 

Seth said it best in his book about humanity and generosity:



The more people you change, the more effective your art is. 

Chef was right. 

We need to create food that makes people stop eating. That makes them sit at the table and be sick with longing. 



LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How is your work bright star up ahead in the darkness of the world?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com


It’s the world’s first, best and only product development and innovation gameshow!


Tune in and subscribe for a little execution in public.

Join our community of innovators, artists and entrepreneurs.

The voice of change comes barreling down the avenue

There are numerous reasons to get good at ritual, routine and regularity. 

One of them is to be help us calmly and confidently cope with life’s abrupt changes. 

You know, the ones that come about unfairly and without much warning. Like when we’re suddenly thrown into a new job or city or living situation or work environment. 

Here’s a list of tasks that are completely outside of your skill set. Good luck. We’re all counting on you. 

It’s terrifying. Not just because it’s new and different, but because it threatens our ability to satisfy our biological imperative to feel in control. 

Thankfully, ritual, routine and regularity help solve this problem. They help us believe that we have authority over our actions and surroundings, albeit a small amount. 

Because even if control is an illusion, which it is, you do what you have to do to adapt to change. You take your confidence wherever you can get it. 

Whenever I start a new job, for example, I always make a new playlist. A collection of inspiring and joyful music for the soundtrack to my new commute. It’s a small practice, but I find it extraordinarily helpful for several reasons. 

First, is an associative trigger that locks me into the right mindset I need to be in, before and after work. 

Second, it’s an existential anchor that grounds my spirit through the power of art. 

Third, it’s an expression of control because it proves to me that no matter what’s happening in the world, I’m still in charge of the soundtrack.

Lastly, it’s a narrative device that uses music as a marker help me remember different phases of my journey. 

If you’re not the kind of person who gets a sense of warmth in performing a daily routine, you might ask yourself how well you adapt to change. And if that skillset isn’t where you want it to be, consider the spaces in your life that would benefit from more ritual and routine and regularity.

Create constants where you can check in with yourself. Play out a few carefully defined, highly structured behaviors that remind you who you are. Trust that ritualistic behavior won’t detract from spontaneity or creativity. 

And trust that when the voice of change comes barreling down the avenue, you’ll be standing there in posture of calmness and confidence, ready for anything. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How will you prove to yourself that you’re still in charge of your life?


* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com


It’s the world’s first, best and only product development and innovation gameshow!


Tune in and subscribe for a little execution in public.

Join our community of innovators, artists and entrepreneurs.

Pick a boulder, kick it over your shoulder

After suffering a collapsed lung in my mid twenties, keeping my life as light as possible has become an important goal. 

Because I now know how it feels to be literally crushed under the weight of my own stress. After spending a week in the hospital with a breathing tube in my chest, frankly, I’m no longer interested in making each day heavier than it needs to be. I’m no longer in the world domination business. 

And not that I’m against working hard, and not that I need to scrub my life clean of any and all pain and struggle and adversity. But often times, the armor that weighs us down, the heaviness that exhausts us, it’s rarely as noble as we think it is. 

These boulders that we kick over our shoulders, heroic as they might make us feel, are often more trouble than they’re worth. 

I have a friend who consults with big companies about productivity. One of the strategies he tells clients is:

Don’t ask how to accomplish the steps faster, ask how many of the steps are redundant. 

This distinction is hugely helpful for me. Especially when I’m abruptly thrown into a new project or situation or environment. Turns out, cutting dead weight from the process right out of the gate keeps me from getting overwhelmed. 

It allows me to lean into the discomfort, which feels tolerable, as opposed to getting coldcocked by the distress, which impairs my ability to function. 

Clooney’s classic monologue from Up In The Air comes to mind:

How much does your life weigh? We stuff it all these things into our backpack, and when we try to walk, it’s kind of hard. This is what we do to ourselves on a daily basis. We weigh ourselves down until we can’t even move. And make no mistake, moving is living. But all those negotiations and arguments, and secrets and compromises, you don’t need to carry all that weight. Why don’t you set that bag down? Why don’t you let everything burn and wake up tomorrow with nothing. And yet, the problem with the backpack is, we feel the straps cutting into our shoulders and that tells us we’re alive. 

The goal, then, is for each of us to effect small, concrete ways to make our lives lighter. 

Like when I noticed that my yoga studio had lockers where I could store my clothes and water bottle overnight, instead of schlepping a stinky backpack to the studio every day. 

Or when my office installed cloud software for data storage, which meant I no longer had to bring my laptop and hard drives into work each day. 

These strategies physically made my life lighter, because I was longer tethered to my gym bag and briefcase. But they also lightened my emotional load as well, because I no longer felt the part of me that was always bursting to rid itself of all this psychic weight. 

It’s this strange correlational thing that happens between the body and the spirit. 

Once we let lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles us, we’re free to run with endurance the race that is set before us. 

Because we don’t have to worry about those goddamn straps cutting into our shoulders.



LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Instead of walking faster, what if you simply carried less in your pack on the trail and then ran?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com


It’s the world’s first, best and only product development and innovation gameshow!



Tune in and subscribe for a little execution in public.



Join our community of innovators, artists and entrepreneurs.

Begging the rose to unfold faster

Anyone who’s ever lived in a big city has extensive experience coping with subway delays. 

They’ve suffered from spending long stretches gazing into the tunnel, praying to see the light of an oncoming train. 

As if staring down the inky blackness with an angry look on their face would somehow will the subway into existence. 

But it never does. No matter how often they check. No matter how late they’re running. No matter how important they think they are. And no matter how many times they shake their heads and roll their eyes and complain to the lady standing next to them about how horribly inefficient the public transportation system is. 

People still stare into the tunnel. Because it reinforces their sense of control. 

Not unlike repeatedly pushing the close door button on the elevator. Which doesn’t actually help the situation, but it does delude people into thinking that their actions are making a real difference. 

The point is, begging to rose to unfold faster accomplishes nothing. Reality is not obligated to conform to your wishes. 

So let it go. The train will get here when it gets here. 

And remember that the stress of avoiding the pain of owning your reality isn’t worth the calories. 

Better to conserve your best energies for your creative efforts instead. 



LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Do you have an accurate account of reality with all its flaws and flavors?
* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Buy my latest devotional! 


A Year in Hot Yoga: 365 Daily Meditations for On and Off the Mat


Now available wherever books are sold.

Namaste.

To love in such a spacious and generous way

Avatar was a film that taught us to develop a new kind of relationship with nature. 



One that’s grounded in sense of gratitude and prosperity and generosity. 



Sulley models this connection in the scene where he goes on his first hunt as a rite of passage. He shoots down the great beast, pulls the arrow from the twitching body of a hexapede and dispatches it with his knife. He then speaks haltingly, but with feeling, and says:



I see you brother, and thank you. Your spirit goes with god, your body stays behind to become part of the people

Best scene of the movie, hands down. 

Because it portrays the kind of interaction we should have with everything. It’s a relationship with the world that supports and enhances our overall experience of prosperity. 

Taylor’s analysis of the cultural and religious significance of this film dissects the scene in great detail. Uttering this native phrase, I see you, is a ritual that expresses the deep sense of reverence that spiritual hunters feel for their prey, he writes. Nature hunters felt the need to confront and rationalize the death of the animal. Motivated by a genuine respect for all wildlife, the nature hunter faced the paradox of inflicting violence on a world that was the object of great affection. 

Killing was not a final act, then, it was a spiritual transition. One that acknowledges the unity of life and death and accepts that pain and suffering are inherent in life. 

Can the modern man learn to live and love in such a spacious and generous way? Can we trust that the stream does not weep at the loss of water when we drink from it? Can we learn to take responsibility to the way abundance flows in and out of our lives? And can we leave scarcity behind and move toward a world of prosperity? 

One can only hope. 

Carlin used to do a brilliant routine about this very concept. He would say:

People think nature is outside of them. They don’t take into them the idea that we’re part of it. They say, oh we’re going for a nature walk. We’re going to the country because we like nature. But nature is in here, and if you’re in tune with it like the native people, the balance of life, the harmony of the world, you don’t overbuild. It’s a symphony, and everybody is in the band

If we truly want to leave scarcity behind and move toward a world of abundance, that’s the attitude we must have. 

I see you brother, and thank you. Your spirit goes with god and your body stays behind to become part of the people. 

Remember, the world is an abundant place, but only if we’re willing to become a part of it.



LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What are your mechanisms for expressing gratitude?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Buy my latest devotional! 


A Year in Hot Yoga: 365 Daily Meditations for On and Off the Mat


Now available wherever books are sold.

Namaste.

A new phase of the spirit is preparing itself

Life is not set up to meet our meaning needs. 

It’s not the universe’s obligation to endow each of our endeavors with a sense of significance and value. 

Meaning is an inside job. Only we can form our experiences into communicable meaning for ourselves.

This process can be an uphill battle. Especially during seasons of inactivity and transition. Because we want to be proactive, but we also don’t want to burden our efforts with the demand that they feel spiritually fulfilling. Otherwise we start feeling like a drowning man grasping at straws, making futile and desperate attempts to spin some shred of satisfaction right out of thin air. 

In my own low moments, I often find myself assigning additional meaning to activities that I once did as a matter of course, such as cleaning the house or running to the post office or paying bills on time. 

Which isn’t to say those tasks are unimportant. When you’re battling a bout of sadness and not feeling burdened by glorious purpose, you take your confidence and momentum where you can get them. You strike the match of meaning any place you can. 

But when doing the dishes becomes the biggest victory of the day, I can’t help but feel a little sad and pathetic. 

What I remind myself is, periods of minimal meaning making are necessary. They remind us who we are and what we value. They show us that a new phase of the spirit is preparing itself. 

We all have a responsibility to accept periods of inactivity as necessary preparation for something new and important. 

Because we shall soon be burdened by glorious purpose again. 



LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What is the energy that carries your life towards its meaningful unfolding?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Buy my latest devotional! 


A Year in Hot Yoga: 365 Daily Meditations for On and Off the Mat


Now available wherever books are sold.

Namaste.

Don’t mind me, I’m just trying to get your attention

Carlin famously said that you can’t be the fastest gun in town forever. 

There comes a time when you’re no longer the golden boy, and you have to go off somewhere and figure yourself out. 

What’s interesting is, some people do just that, and come back guns blazing looking for blood. They kill a man before breakfast just to work up an appetite. 

But some people move away from the spotlight and discover that working humbly and quietly is profoundly refreshing and exquisitely relaxing. It’s fulfilling in a different way. Because you’re operating from a heart space where you’ve already scratched your ego itches, both to the point of satisfaction and scabbing, thus successfully conquered your need to conquer the world. 

Realizing to yourself:

Wait, who cares if I’m the graying prince of a shrinking kingdom? Who cares if my golden goose is done laying eggs? Who cares if this is all just one big circus where everybody’s trying not to go home? There must be more to life than being the center of attention. There must be better goals than being the object of everybody’s fascination.

And not that we shouldn’t drop a few bombs from time to time just to let the world know that we can still run fast when we want to. But nobody can carry the torch forever. 

Seinfeld once performed a comedy concert at my college, during which a student asked him if he planned on writing another network television show. 



Absolutely not. I’m old, I’m tired and I’m rich. Spongebob has the spotlight now. Let that little bastard work his ass off for a few decades. 

We should all strive to arrive at such a level of wholeness. That blissful state of being in which the inner applause is enough for us.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Will you still need the spotlight once you learn how to shine from within?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Buy my latest devotional! 


A Year in Hot Yoga: 365 Daily Meditations for On and Off the Mat


Now available wherever books are sold.

Namaste.

Take a step in the direction of your wholeness

You’re more prepared than you think. 

The groundwork has already been laid in the inner space of your mind. It’s all muscle memory now. 

And so, let go of all your crutches and props and cheat sheets. They won’t help you. Instead, trust that you’ve already done the work. Trust that you can be moved by whatever is inside of you. Trust that who you are is enough to get the job done. And just start from whatever energy is there. 

Yoda gave this same advice to his young apprentice before he ventured into the cave. 



Your weapons, you will not need them. Everything a jedi needs to survive is already inside of him. Ability. Intelligence. Strength. Belief. Focus. Hope. 

Who needs a light saber when you have weapons like that? 

Jazz musicians feel this every night when they take the stage. Because they know the songs will be utterly chaotic and unpredictable. Just like life. 

And so, their goal isn’t to spend two hours rehearsing every note in the green room, but to integrate every ripple of their life into the creative moment. Constantly and subtly building on who you already are and what you already do. 

If you find yourself confronted with tasks that are seemingly outside your skill set, tell yourself that you trust your resources to achieve your goals. That you are equal to this challenge. That your accumulated knowledge and experiences will be there to support you. 

And that if panic should start to grow, a surge of genius will bubble up as if from an underground spring. 



LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How do your performance shift when you’re willing to being nothing less than completed integrated? * * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Buy my latest devotional! 


A Year in Hot Yoga: 365 Daily Meditations for On and Off the Mat


Now available wherever books are sold.

Namaste.

Build something that nobody can take away from you

The reward of the journey is not arriving at the destination, it’s transforming yourself to such a state of joy and worthiness and fulfillment, that you don’t feel any different when you get there. 

Because you’ve already done the work. You’ve already supported yourself in becoming the person you most needed to be. The destination was just a bonus. The cherry on top. 

Job seekers, for example, assume that once they finally land their new gig, intense feelings of relief and lightness and satisfaction will surge through their system as they start the first day of the rest of their lives. 

Cue the lights. Start the dramatic music. Zoom in on the character’s face. And let the audience know that this new job symbolizes our hero’s highest moment of achievement. 

This is it. This is the one. This what he’s been waiting for. This new job is going to change everything forever. Freeeeedommmmm! 

It reads nice on a screenplay. Unfortunately, if that scene happens in real life, the character hasn’t learned a damn thing. He hasn’t grown, he’s just wearing a new suit. 

His joy is at the mercy of external forces. It comes from without, not within. 

Which means it can be taken away at any moment. And the minute it does, he’s back to where he started. 

On the other hand, if job seekers can approach the process knowing that their new position isn’t going to save them, set them free, make them whole or make them complete, they will have already won by the time they arrived. 

Because they will have built something inside of themselves that nobody can take away from them. 

The love they can never lose

And of course, they allow themselves to celebrate and pump their fists and express gratitude and share the good news with people they love. 

But the real victory is within. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

How could you make the journey so valuable that the destination doesn’t even matter?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Buy my latest devotional! 


A Year in Hot Yoga: 365 Daily Meditations for On and Off the Mat


Now available wherever books are sold.

Namaste.

Episode 102: Single Saskatchewan Kissers || Andy, Phil, Sherril

What if grandparents babysat in parking lots? 


What if doing house chores was a competitive sport? 


What if ping pong had ball boys? 


What if we monetized road rage? 


What if parents could shop in big box retailers without stress?


In this episode of Steal Scott’s Ideas, Andy, Phil and Sherril gather in Tampa for some execution in public.

# # #

Execution Lesson 102: Air as dense as a poor man’s sandwich.

Recently, a footwear company launched an innovative pair of sneakers that were fashioned mostly out of recycled carbon dioxide emissions.

Sound unfathomable? Well, carbon dioxide emitted by power plants can be actually be captured and converted into a special polymer useful for creating shoes. You can literally make the product out of thin air.

This is, in my opinion, the one and only instance where the phrase out of thin air is valid.

Those three words make my blood boil. When somebody comments that an idea comes out of thin air, what they mean is, it’s so unexpected, it seems to have materialized suddenly and dramatically.

But that’s not the way innovation works. Thin air exists on mountaintops, but within the infinite realm of human consciousness and imagination, it’s exactly the opposite. The more interesting, surprising and memorable an idea is, the more likely it is to have come from air that is very, very thick.

This is how the creative brain functions. Nothing is ever wasted. We train ourselves to file everything away. Our subconscious impressions combine with our conscious experiences, efforts and realizations, and the relaxed free association between the two promotes the flow of air makes ideas happen.

Emerson spoke of this process movingly.


A man is to know that they are all his, suing his notice, petitioners to his faculties that they will come out and take possession, born thralls to his sovereignty, conundrums he alone can guess, chaos until he comes like a creator and gives them light and order.

If your job is make into existence things that didn’t exist before, to bring forth the future from nothing, then make the air as thick as you possibly can.

Pay attention to your impressions. Keep a watchful eye on them. Assure everything you know is written down somewhere.

And in time, your reservoir of related associations and impressions will be money in the bank of your creative consciousness.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…How will you breathe a new world into existence when your air is as dense as a poor man’s sandwich?

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Buy my latest devotional! 


A Year in Hot Yoga: 365 Daily Meditations for On and Off the Mat


Now available wherever books are sold.

Namaste.

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