I love reading. And I love books. I haven't switched over to e-books yet, and I'm not sure if I will. Over the years, I've kept bookshelves full of the books I read. There were three reasons why I collected books: I liked how they looked on my bookshelves. I…
My next door neighbor invited me over a few months ago to check out his "Alexa" (the electronic device from Amazon you can ask to do things for you). I had only heard a bit about Alexa at that point. He showed me the way he uses it to control…
Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, lost her husband to a tragic accident. Sandberg, who is quite famous for her book, Lean In, is writing a book with Adam Grant, the author of two of my favorite recent books, Give and Take and Originals. In a commencement speech at…
As part of our corporate wellness program, I listened to a webinar on stress. Here are some of the things the speaker shared: It’s understandable that so many of us feel stress at work and at home because the demands on our time and our energy continue to increase, but…
Back in December, I wrote about an extremely enjoyable and edifying discussion I had with Michelle Gielan. Michelle is the author of Broadcasting Happiness and, along with Shawn Achor (author of The Happiness Advantage, one of the great books I read during the last few years), has created Inspire Happiness,…
A few weeks ago, I wrote this post about all the things I've been clearing out of my house. For many years, I’ve been good about throwing out or donating things I don’t use. My house is not filled with clutter. We have very few toys from when our kids…
I've written before about the importance of letting go of anger. I've also read quite a few blog posts by others on anger, including several I published after they were submitted to me for this blog. I recently read Originals, the second book by Adam Grant, whose Give and Take I enjoyed…
Last year, a friend of mine helped orchestrate his parents’ move from their house—the one my friend grew up in—to an apartment in a high rise. In the high rise, they would no longer be responsible for maintenance of their home, the cleaning would be reduced dramatically because the apartment…
I've always liked the designs of the "Life is Good" t-shirts. I was recently given Life is Good, the Book, written by Bert and John Jacobs, founders of the Life is Good company. It's a nice, happiness book, and an easy read. After explaining optimism as the philosophy behind their…
I recently watched the HBO documentary, Risky Drinking. It delivers a powerful, disturbing, and important message about dangers to our health and happiness from what are now called alcohol use disorders. The documentary had four segments. All of them were meaningful. The first segment focused on binge drinking. The filmmakers…
I was listening to a TED Radio Hour podcast about memory, and Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast and Slow (a book I loved), was saying we get confused between our experiences and our memory of experiences. As an example, he talked about how people can have a great day,…
As I have done for each of the past few years, here are the many ways I enjoyed the experiences of my year: places I visited, books I read, what I watched on TV, and more. Books I love reading and I love learning. I read quite a bit every…