From the Author

If you look back on your mental processes at various times, you’ll recognize periods when you were busier than others. Think about those busier times, and you’ll probably remember that you naturally prioritized certain tasks, projects, and goals while letting others slide, at least a little. When you did this, you were managing your mental […]

If this were a perfect world, everything would go great all the time. But since it’s not, we all must regularly deal with breakage: things that go wrong with situations, events, material items, relationships, plans, opportunities, hopes, dreams, and more. They all unintentionally encounter and suffer from occasional adverse forces or developments. Since you can’t

It’s wonderful to have fresh, creative ideas. It’s even better when they come to you easily and plentifully. Some ideas arrive in a flash of inspiration, while others emerge only after long periods of thought, research, and experience. Either way, it’s disappointing when those ideas don’t fly. Assuming at least some of your ideas are

We generally don’t allow machines to have an “off” day. But we humans can’t avoid them. There will be days when you will feel ill, upset, sluggish, or in a funk. You may be injured or suffering from a difficult experience. You may simply have woken up “on the wrong side of the bed.” For

Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t help thinking that people who want to be more productive and successful need an extra helping of self-reliance. Why? Because the vast majority of people are not very productive or successful, and it takes better than average self-reliance to depart from that well-trodden path, strike out more-or-less on

Men, in particular, tend to be socialized to bottle up their feelings, to put them aside and get on with the activities of daily working and living. Many women do this, too, although perhaps suppressing different feelings in different ways. This suppression strategy is a mistake, because it fails to take advantage of the direction,

“It’s not easy being green,” was the oft-repeated phrase of Kermit the Frog. He complained about blending in so readily and not gaining appreciation for being special. He would have preferred to stand out more from the crowd. But while that sentiment made him popular with the toddlers of the day, the opposite is often

Drive is the simple urge, the motivation, the desire to succeed. It’s a key ingredient in accomplishing what you want, because it energizes you to take action in a wide variety of situations, both favorable and unfavorable. Some people have lots of drive. Some people don’t. The curious fact is that unless we’re already working

Are you cognizant of the difference between tactics and strategy? Oh sure, you probably know the words: their dictionary definitions or maybe even specific examples. But are you consciously aware of when you’re actively pursuing a meaningful strategy for your own work and life and when, instead, you’re primarily responding to daily nuts-and-bolts issues that

When you read back through my previous posts, you’ll see that I generally emphasize the positive, and I want to do that again this time. But I want to show you how to find the positive impact you can sometimes find on the negative side of the ledger. Here are four ideas that may help