When I started to talk with people about my first book, I noticed a pattern of frequently asked questions, the most common being: “How do you come up with a new DailyOM idea every day?”

There is much in our culture and in our own individual experience that leads us to believe we must constantly set future goals, work diligently towards those goals until they are achieved, and then strive earnestly to reach the next set of goals. This is the Western formula for success in life. It's also the Western formula for chronic pain and anxiety.

When Fiorello LaGuardia was mayor of New York City, he created a unique reputation for his unorthodox playfulness and generosity.  LaGuardia walked beats with cops on the street, rode on fire trucks, and sponsored orphanages to attend professional baseball games. During a newspaper strike, he went on the radio and read the Sunday comics for kids.

Not many parents set out to raise a thirty-year-old Nintendo player who sprawls on the couch all day sucking up pizza and diet Pepsi. Yet many parents actually subvert their positive intention of raising responsible, confident, fully functioning children. They do it by unconsciously using Parent Talk that allows and encourages helplessness.

The implication of many of the scientists in the field hold that consciousness is a substance—a something—with the ability to change physical matter. I am a skeptic at heart, an investigative reporter by background. So, I wanted to find out what is this thing we call “intention.” And also, what can we do with it? How far can we take it?

Figure out the most ineffective meetings you’re asked to attend—and stop attending them (Ask to be sent a list of action items instead).