Marcie and I love a wonderful bike path about a 20-minute drive from our house. It's a six mile train (12 miles round trip) , running alongside the Saddle River, and passing through four towns along the way. A few weeks back, en route, we passed a woman on rollerblades…
In my monthly newsletter, I write an article and provide links to the prior month’s blog posts. Earlier this year, after publishing a simple piece on making healthy eating easier, I received the most feedback I’ve ever had. So I’m publishing it as a blog post today. While eating a…
Not long after I published Six Simple Rules for a Better Life, I read a book called Willpower, by Roy Baumeister & John Tierney, which had come out the same month. In my book’s introduction, I talk about the importance of breaking down your big goals into small pieces, and…
There are numerous apps to help you to eat better and exercise more, as well as apps to help with habits of all kinds (not just exercise habits). I have not tested them out, so I don't have strong opinion on any, but anything that can help you to be…
I recently had the good fortune to sit in on a workshop with Cassie Solomon. Ms. Solomon conducted the workshop at the same conference where I was the keynote speaker. While her book, Leading Successful Change, is geared towards change in the workplace, her examples were largely about personal changes.…
I’ve written before and will write again: the key to making real, positive, lasting change, is breaking down your big goals into small pieces—small enough that when you focus on them one at a time for 21 days they will become a habit. Habits are the key because they are…
I've been biking to work lately. It's something I started doing last summer, partly inspired by my then-college-age son, who was living in Brooklyn and biking to his summer job in Manhattan. It was taking him about 30 minutes and I realized it would be the same for me. I…
This is not really a post about sex. But it sort of is. Most of us have seen those commercials for Viagra and other products that treat ED. The commercials feature pictures of people like the couple on bikes in today's photo (though they need bike helmets!) Like most drugs,…
About a year ago, I raised my desk so I could stand for most of my work day. I wrote about it last September, a couple of months into the "experiment" which turned into a permanent change. I originally raised my desk after I read in several places that sitting…
In order to make changes that stick, I take my big goals and break them down into small pieces. Then I focus on one at a time until it becomes a habit. The goal of safer driving is a good one, but it's one of those big, non-specific goals that…
Albany is about two-and-a-quarter hours north of where I live in the NYC area. I was driving up to Albany one morning early this year. It’s a drive I’ve made countless times. First, during the four years I went to college in Albany in the 1980s, and more recently during…
“Be Healthy” is the sixth of the Six Simple Rules for a Better Life. In most places, including here, most "be healthy" attention is paid to eating well and exercising. Another topic I always cover in speaking engagements is “knowing your numbers.” The numbers referred to are those such as…