This week marks the one-year anniversary of Make New Friends Monday. Here's an updated version of an earlier post I wrote, recounting and celebrating the great experience #mnfm has been for me, and others. When my kids were home from college for winter break just over a year ago, the…
Pronoia: “The delusional belief that other people are plotting your well-being or saying nice things about you behind your back” One of the books I enjoyed reading this summer was Give and Take by Adam Grant. I first learned about Grant, and his book, in this New York Times piece, Is…
One of my friends participated in a training program and told me what he heard in a lesson on listening reminded him of some of what I said in my book, in “Be Nice,” the second of my Six Simple Rules for a Better Life. Listening is an important "Be…
Like so many people, my smartphone has become a seemingly indispensable part of my life. I love much about it. I love looking up stuff on google, checking the weather, and accessing various social media. It's gotten me back into taking pictures, which I hadn't done (other than pics of…
During the week after the George Zimmerman verdict, Marcie (my wife) and I were driving in the car and heard a priest say in a radio interview that a primary cause for this tragedy is that Zimmerman didn't see the humanity of Trayvon Martin. We both thought that was very…
I’m excited to publish this guest post by Barrie Davenport. Barrie is a life passion coach, author, and founder of BarrieDavenport.com, a site devoted to helping people uncover and live their life passions. She is the creator of The Path to Passion Course (more on the course at the end…
I recently had a 24-hour stomach virus. I was feeling queasy around mid-day Friday, threw up around 6:00pm, was in bed from 7:45pm until 7:15am (a fitful sleep), felt light-headed all the following morning, and felt almost 100% by mid-day Saturday. It was the first time I threw up in…
I want to tell you a brief story about something super nice that someone said to me recently. More than 18 years ago, Dan Sullivan, founder of Strategic Coach, told me about four “Referability” habits—behaviors that help you to be referable, as in a person who other people would recommend…
Early this year, I ran a post called “Make New Friends Monday”. I explained that when my kids were home from college for winter break, the subject of Instagram came up. My daughter Cara said, “You have an Instagram? What’s your name? I want to follow you.” I told her…
A couple of years ago, I read a book called The Go-Giver. The book’s lessons are delivered in the form of a parable about a young go-getter who is introduced to an older, wiser man, who teaches him about go-giving—putting others’ interests first and adding value to their lives. It’s…
This is a guest post by Chelsea Carr “You did not listen to me!” The woman pointed at me from across the counter. “See? She listened… You did not listen to me.” Well, what can you say to that? Not much. Anyone working in retail knows that, to many customers,…
Harnessing the power of thinking—knowing that what we think has a huge impact on how we feel, and then putting that knowledge to use—has had powerful results for me. I’ve also learned that discounting other people’s feelings is a mistake and I’ve gotten better over time at balancing the power…