After consuming about a zillion self-development products, we have distilled the best bits out of each, to bring you unvarnished information you can trust!

Done Dreaming? Good. Get Moving.

Last fall, when I started This Offbeat Life, I was seriously searching. I searched libraries, the internet, and bookstores for self-help stuff. I tried minor drugs, stimulants, recordings, hypnosis, walks outdoors, bus trips to nowhere, and many hours with my computer and notebooks. None of it paid off except going back to school. A single quarter at the local community college taking web design classes gave me something to focus on, fleshed out my skills, and brought me new colleagues who were in the same boat I was. So now school's out, and I'm in high gear. Going back to school, by the way, is a tremendously motivating thing to do. I recommend that you pop by your local college and talk to someone in financial aid if you're not sure you can afford it. What started out as a few classes has now become for me a quest to complete an entire program.

Every now and then I run across gift shop items that say "Dream" and "Imagine" and "Visualize." They now annoy me. What cheers me up is the new Quaker Oats ad. I'd like to suggest we all reel in that visualizing stuff for a while, just a little. Make the new mantra "Get Moving" and "Get on With It." Or "Go humans go."