Unbounded Life – Page 12 – Essays on becoming by Chris Barclay

Suffering in comfort

Posted on January 27, 2009March 21, 2009 by Chris Barclay

UnboundedLife is my exploration of personal freedom, and a key aspect of this is wellness. I like to think about it as freedom to consciously choose and be accountable for the quality of our life. There is so much confusion about wellness in modern society, because it has become a huge industry, and there are […]

No “I” in Thai

Posted on January 21, 2009January 22, 2009 by Chris Barclay

As I pick up bits and pieces of the Thai language each day, I’ve found that the Thai people have a unique way of talking about themselves: they omit the “I” and refer to themselves in the 3rd person. This is the first time I’ve encountered this kind of disassociation in a language and made […]

Dark luminosity

Posted on January 17, 2009September 19, 2009 by Chris Barclay

The man I am writing about is not famous. It may be that he never will be. It may be that when his life at last comes to an end he will leave no more trace of his sojourn on earth than a stone thrown into a river leaves on the surface of the water. […]

The Biggest Loser

Posted on January 8, 2009 by Chris Barclay

“Both my wife and daughter think I’m this gigantic loser, and… they’re right. I have lost something. I’m not exactly sure what it is, but I know I didn’t always feel this… sedated. But you know what? It’s never too late to get it back.” — American Beauty by Alan Ball

Creating a System

Posted on January 4, 2009February 2, 2009 by Chris Barclay

Whenever I have worked with organizations that talk about being “stuck”, inevitably someone will come up with the unhelpful phrase, “We have to think outside the box”. This is like saying “we have to stop thinking along the lines of what is known and think along the lines of what is unknown”. How can we […]

How to Be an Expert

Posted on December 29, 2008December 29, 2008 by Chris Barclay

In an upcoming post, I’m going to write about how to monetize a hobby. I feel I’ve achieved some success in this area, to the point where at the age of 42, I don’t have to go to work anymore; I pursue what I love and find a way for it to pay for itself. […]

On Being Perfect

Posted on December 24, 2008 by Chris Barclay

You are perfect. I mean it. And not in a stereotypical American way of heaping praise on people to make them feel better about themselves. If your immediate response to this is, “nobody’s perfect”, this is what most people say, because we have been taught that we all have our weaknesses and must work on […]