Wednesday, June 17, 2026
When teaching, my students often enjoyed my “life talks.” As the semester drug on, someone would invariably request, “Can we have a life talk?”
I realized that students were overburdened. Theirs is a generation filled with ear-budding noise and phone-induced comas. In my college years, interruptions were far fewer. As a music major, I had time to study, read entire books, complete assignments, go to concerts, and practice 4 hours daily! The only interruptions I can remember were people knocking on my practice room door, or just waltzing in for a chat. Other than that, I was unreachable.
It’s hard to be unreachable, but you can do it. I think we have simply availed ourselves too much. Even our damn computers are disruptive. You may be going along swimmingly and the computer “suddenly” needs to update something or to restart. Or, something pops up on your screen – a meeting notification or a ding from your inbox.
A lot of My Morning Motivator is sketched out on a notebook with old fashioned pen and paper. Those seeds warm up the swarm of ideas that germinate throughout the day. But most of my day is spent unreachable.
When you’re unreachable, Life Talks. On my student evaluations, the dean always mentioned how much the students enjoyed the mentorship and the life talks. The reason I do it is because I had teachers that talked to me. But no greater teacher is there than life itself. The suffering does become unnecessary, once you hear life talk.
Eventually, your attention will have been focused and placed on what’s important – Life, and Life ain’t easy to talk about! I find it’s better to listen because it sure has a lot to “say.”
When you begin to hear it, you may find yourself eager to give life talks yourself!