I asked, well really told, both my kids to pick up the toys in the toy room before bed. The next morning, the toys lay strewn across the floor unmoved from the previous night. I call it the group affect. When you assign a task to more than one person or a group, without very specific actionable items or a [...]
I woke to the sound of a hairdryer. I tossed and turned, unable to fall back sleep despite the closed door to the bathroom. It seemed like a minute that was actually an hour when I woke back up. The hum of the hairdryer woke me for a bit and then it actually lulled me back to a slumber. We [...]
Songbirds sit on the limb and sing a sweet song, happy to be cute as their whistle brightens the sunshine to a crisp glow. The eagle cruises high in the sky like royalty, a powerful presence. The chicken pecks around the pen. The chicken, well, the chicken might become dinner. My kids always ask to do new things. “Can we…” [...]
As the votes were read aloud and counted, one by one, it became clear who would win. Nearing the end of the voting, the losing contestant said with some tone, “I going to be vice!” I didn’t really hear what she said, so I asked her to repeat it, “I said, I’m going to be vice!” I asked my seven-year-old [...]
Lance Armstrong changed course and admitted to doping. After years of vigilant defense of his innocence, he drastically and dramatically changes course. After years, it looks like he was more of a LieStrong than a LiveStrong guy. Like O.J. Simpson, most people know on some level that with such firsthand evidence, he was probably guilty. However, within all of us [...]
A former colleague used to always promote the idea of making decisions as if time and money didn’t matter. What would you do if you could do anything? After all, he’d say, money and time are just hurdles to work through – they are just problems to solve but they shouldn’t get in your way. That strategy never felt completely [...]
Fear is the single greatest reason people act. What you are afraid of is more motivating than your dreams and desires. We all like to dream, but it’s our fears that usually create a faster reality. You are more likely to act to sidestep pain then you are to satisfy your desires. Every action, every decision is rooted in your [...]
Does your business have a season? Do you need one? I was at the bus stop last month when a neighbor was talking about her husband’s racing team being a contender for the series championship in the race that weekend. She was excited. She was supportive. She had a stake in the outcome. His team won the series that weekend. [...]
I find flies especially irritating. Like a friendly dog that wants to explore you entirely, they are the great intruder of personal space. Unlike the friendly dog however, the fly gets into all kinds of unsavory places and in my mind the fly is indelibly linked to and a symbol of all things dirty. Only the roach comes to mind [...]
I received a lengthy e-mail with a subject line that read something like, “a question.” The e-mail was multiple paragraphs long and each paragraph started with a sentence that required no action. I surveyed the e-mail, as I do with all incoming messages, and decided to archive it – no immediate action needed. Turns out, the e-mail actually included a [...]
