Working towards something you're excited about - as opposed to something that makes you feel badly about yourself - is what will keep you going back to the gym.
I went to Montreal. My first gig went very badly. They just weren't laughing at anything. I found out they were a load of Christians, and it was a gig to raise money for a new church roof.
I wanted to be a columnist so badly that I took a huge pay cut to leave Forbes, which wouldn't give me a column, and join Newsday, which wanted my column for its Sunday business section.
I keep myself away from people who talk badly about others.
You can't think you're God when you score an important goal or the worst player around when its going badly.
My marriage started to go badly wrong after I had my second son.
As a kid, I trained to be an Olympic gymnast. My schedule was rigorous. Four hours a day, Monday through Saturday, I was at the gym. My body was like a boy's, narrow hips, flat-chested, wide shoulders. When I was 12, I badly injured my ankle and was forced to stop training immediately.
The radio stations will happily recycle a badly worded statement by a politician all day but will steer clear of broadcasting more than once or twice a poem by Tomas Transtromer or Rita Dove.
I grew up as a Mormon, and that had more of an impact on my values than my beliefs. I'm afraid I will always feel the weight of a lie. I'm very hard on myself anyway. Religious guilt carries over too. You can't really misbehave without feeling badly about it. At least, I can't.
I've been to Australia, Russia and many of places I wanted to see as a child. But I've never visited India. I've had many invitations to play there but it hasn't worked out. People say it's beautiful, but I think I'd react badly to the poverty.
