Some of the most profound and interesting response I’ve gotten in the classes I teach have come from one simple question: Imagine you’re in your 90’s, what advice would you give your younger self on living well? Naturally there were good answers that fell...

After a recent blog I wrote talking about the importance of asking for help (You Are Never Too Smart to Be Confused! Ask for Help) quoting Bill Gates commencement speech, I ended up doing something rather painful to my shoulder. The result is I can’t lift my right arm...

What do you think, does anyone wake up in the morning, look in the mirror while shaving or putting on makeup, and say to themselves “I plan to be difficult today”?  Maybe not, but we tend to have continuous challenges with people who seem to fall into that...

Think about things that are contagious: epidemics, measles, chicken pox and emotions. If your boss comes in Monday morning acting as if she won the lottery, you feel better. If your close friend feels despondent, you start to drag as well. We mirror the emotions of...

Life is not a one-act play. What you do tomorrow or even for the next 10 years may not be what you do with the rest ofyour life. A decision today doesn’t have to be forever. Do you remember how frustrating it was to need to know what to do with the rest of your life...

Bill Gates made his third commencement speech recently, and offered this advice for the new graduates, “You are never too smart to be confused. Ask for help.” How many of us feel we should know or understand something and go out of our way to avoid asking for help?...

Did you ever notice how quickly people become unmotivated? We get excited about a project, vacation or goal and once it’s completed or finished, the anticipation and enthusiasm drain away and it’s easy to feel flat. I noticed this years ago when I was...

For years I’ve been doing this interesting little class exercise, and as I’m teaching a two-day class in Dallas this week I was reminded once again of how telling it is. Here’s what happens. I pair people up and one person turns to face a partner. The partner is...

Did you know, according to the EY Belonging Barometer, 40 percent of employees surveyed reported feeling isolated at work? And, since we spend around one third of our lives at work, it makes sense people want a sense of belonging. A study from the Center for Talent...

While enjoying the boardwalk over a manmade lake where I was working recently, I closed my eyes, stood in the middle of the boardwalk, inhaled the fragrant air, felt the sunshine on my face, and almost had a head-on collision with a runner who didn’t expect...

Isn’t it interesting how often we know there’s something more we want to do in our lives or plan to do sometime in the future, but it never seems to happen. It’s always out there in the future, waiting to be actualized.Novelist George Eliot reminded us “It’s never too...

She was absolutely wrong regarding when we were having our phone meeting (I went back and doublechecked) and it took all my control not to send her an email to prove it. My ego was begging me to showher I was right. And there’s this person in my life who has radically...

My cat Nala has no fear of the unknown, in fact he craves it. He’s forever sneaking into the crevice of acabinet opening where he has no business going; he’s gotten stuck numerous times. He never tellshimself, “You haven’t tried that before, it might not work out for...

What’s the first thing you do when making morning coffee or brushing your teeth? As creatures of habit, we tend to do the same things in the same way over and over again. Move a wastebasket and paper hits the floor because we’re used to tossing paper where the basket...

Remember Etch a Sketch, the fun drawing toy for kids? Whether your drawing was great or awful, allyou had to do was turn it upside down and shake and everything vanished, you got to start over. And how does that relate to anything in particular? Think of a situation...

In a class I was teaching the other day I asked everyone to share one of the best pieces of advice they’d ever received. A young woman floored me with a comment from her grandmother, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” What do you think? My first inclination was to...

“If you want to test your memory,” said George F. Burns, “try to recall what you were worrying about one year ago today.” Let’s make it easier, try to think about something that really worried you two weeks ago? One week ago? Yesterday? Worry depletes energy, and...

It was a little before midnight when my flight to LaGuardia landed. There was so much pandemonium on board my first thought was, “Great. A lot of New Yorkers doing what they do, being rude and pushy.“ Finally, my row started moving. Seated next to me was a husband and...

I was paying for jeans at JCPenney the other day and the young cashier was doing everything possible to help me save money. After discovering I had no coupons or discounts, he finally told me what I owed, and I paid. He then shocked me by looking me in the...

Every time I get to my assigned seat on a plane I begin to worry who might sit down next to me and start talking. If they’re really garrulous, I’ll have to put on my serious teaching face and explain I’m working on a project and can’t talk. In other words,...