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Who Needs a Blanket?

Some time ago I saw a reprinted Peanuts cartoon in the newspaper. One of the kids asks “What do you do when you feel that life is treating you unfairly?” Snoopy responds “Learn to bake your own cookies.” There’s a lot of truth in that. After all, what are cookies except the ultimate comfort food? […]

Too Excited to Make Good Decisions

Last week I had a chat with my girlfriend Ronda about some changes to my business. Like many of us, Ronda leads a busy life and can get caught up in the daily buzz, buzz, buzz. But in this instance, she showed me two very important lessons about important decisions. I have a tendency to […]

Living on the Edge of Incompetence

How do you feel about being incompetent? Honestly: Is it good to be incompetent? I say yes! I was reading a book recently and one section was about how no one wants to be seen as incompetent. One character in the book was having a crisis of incompetence. That got me thinking about the times […]

Are You Living on THAT? – and Other Misconceptions

Reality is an interesting concept. Sometimes I think I’m the master at being mis-understood. Why? Because I work a lot with people who aren’t like myself. They interpret the world differently than I do. Reality has three components: – Events, actions, or statements – Context (other things going on more or less at the same […]

Making Lemonade is a Lifestyle Choice

“Stuff” happens in life. You can make yourself miserable and dive into the well of dispair, or you can pick up the lemons and start making lemonade.

Nothing Grows in a Straight Line – Even People

No one is surprised when they see that plants don’t grow straight. Plant a squash or a vine and see what it does. If you want it to grow straight, you’ll need to use tent stakes to staple it’s tentacles to the earth. If fact, it’s almost laughable when you see what people do with […]

Quiet Time Doesn’t Solve Problems – But It Sure Helps

I’m a big fan of Quiet Time. That might be meditation, prayer, or just sitting in the back yard watching the birds as the sun comes up. And I’ve written on several occasions about how I’ve solved problems through Quiet Time. But some people confuse these activities. Meditation/Prayers/Quiet Time is not an active attempt to […]

Reflective Communications

A few posts back I talked a bit about how the sender and the receiver each affect the messages that pass between them. If you haven’t read John Gray’s book Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, you should. In addition to explaining some obvious truths about the species, the book is chock full […]

A Busy Mind is not a Disorder

Let me be very clear here: I’m not a doctor. I don’t play one on TV. I don’t hand out medical advice. I just find myself thinking about the world around me and I can’t help “thinking outloud” on the web. I’ve heard the term “ADHD” — Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder — but I’m not […]

Silas Marner in the Workplace

If you haven’t read the book Silas Marner by George Eliot, check it out. It’s a good Summer read. The title character is well known for sitting alone in his house, with the windows shuttered, and counting his gold. Night after night Silas Marner counted his gold. When we read that part of the book, […]