It has been my pleasure on several occasions to interview author Julia Cameron. This time it was about her book with Emma Lively called The Prosperous Heart. Another 12-week program (a la The Artist’s Way), only it offers a way to delve into our definition of prosperity via the spirit. I also spoke with Lively and she offered some wonderful insight.

Today’s Game Plan: Our Heart Beats, Maybe We Should Listen

I was walking around my town running errands last week and the same poster kept hitting me. A well-intended one, but something about it kept bothering me because it was advocating an anxiety-free life. Here’s what happened when I thought it through.

Today’s Game Plan: Why We All Need Anxiety in Our Lives

This one was prompted by a question a friend posed while watching a particularly tense football game last weekend The Super Bowl teams — Patriots and Giants — give insight to the answer.

Today’s Game Plan: This Is Why We Watch Sports

In most cases, taking a stand is the confident, intelligent thing to do. Ideally we learn as much as we can and then decide where we come down on an issue. But sometimes that isn’t so easy. At least not for me.

The last week or so we’ve seen a lot of Joe Paterno and Paula Deen in the news. The judgment has been raining down, but I had to step back and process a bit. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Today’s Game Plan: What’s With Our Rush to Judgment?

The last four years I attended a conference called Conversation Among Masters — an annual gathering for master-level coaches — and one of the highlights has been coach/performer Laura Berman Fortgang keeping us entertained with skits and good cheer.  Last year she introduced a character she’d invented named Life Coach Lurlene, resplendent in leopard and sass, and she was received with much laughter and appreciation.

I recently caught Lurlene’s show at Studio Players in Montclair, N.J. and just knew I had to interview her and her creator.

Today’s Game Plan: A Coach Finds Her ‘Inner Glitter’

Brian Scudamore is one of those people who just gets it. He has a gift for building businesses. He sees possibilities and opportunities and he makes them happen. After taking 1-800-GOT-JUNK? to a successful place, he recently took on the painting business and launched 1-888-WOW-1DAY! I had the pleasure of interviewing him about it recently.

Today’s Game Plan: A Painting Business with a Brush of ‘Wow’

A few weeks ago I turned 50. It fits like a pair of sleek black leather boots.

I had already begun to feel an intense sense of liberation at age 49. Hard to explain, but a shift occurred and it has only escalated since hitting the milestone. And far be it for me to be able to experience something without expressing it via ‘quill.’

It hit. Suddenly I had the urge to chronicle my 50s. The writer who has lived inside me from as far back as I can remember came to even greater attention at the idea of releasing ideas, of freeing thoughts held back out of self-consciousness. I decided I wanted to be unfettered.

Hence the birth of Unfettered 50, the portion of this blog dedicated to thoughts from that place. Readers can continue to come to my main blog and find posts in the categories of Write Thinking and Unfettered 50 mixed together, or choose to use the navigation on the upper left and just read entries under one of those categories.

I am so excited about challenging myself to be my most authentic self in this space. What a wonderful pull to action.

Most times, when I interview people for my Game Plan columns, I marvel at something. In the case of certified massage therapist Gustave Boisits, it was how he identified his gift early on and didn’t ignore it. As a life coach, I am constantly reminded how special that is as hard-working folks struggle to transition from work they dislike to work they’re passionate about.

Now Boisits complements his private practice with work for the Denver Broncos. What a rush.

Today’s Game Plan: Bringing Some ‘Loving Healing’ to the NFL

Would you rather go out with the person who is good on paper or who makes you feel the za za zoo? We get caught up in what ‘on paper’ tells us sometimes, in sports, in jobs, in dating, in life. Sometimes it takes something random like a guy in a cafe and the NFL to help me see.

Today’s Game Plan: When It Comes to Success, Numbers Don’t Tell the Whole Story

Fabulously productive day, coaching, interviewing and writing. Sometimes when a Game Plan column feels like it channels right through me, I come away feeling exhilarated but mentally exhausted.

So, at 10 p.m., with the final sentence in place, I had one wish. Please, TV gods, let there be a Sex and the City repeat on somewhere. Thank you, Style Network. Thank you, Carrie and Big.