From the Author

There’s no specific theme to this piece, just a collection of valuable advice that will help you become more productive and successful in your work and your life. In no particular order, they are: Cull Negative Co-Workers Before you are through, you will have countless opportunities to work with many people – as colleagues, subordinates, […]

You’ve worked hard to be as productive and successful as you currently are. And you’re hoping for more of the same in the future. But something may be souring the otherwise sweet taste of achievement and satisfaction: guilt. Guilt is a natural emotion – closely akin to shame and embarrassment – we all feel over

In weight lifting and many other exercises, you normally get benefits from lifting weight against the pull of gravity. But you can also get benefits from restraining the weight as gravity pulls it back down. In setting goals for both your work and your life, there’s a similar dynamic available: you can feel powerfully motivated

There are many ways to grow your abilities and your competence, and also to increase your level of success, including your potential for larger earnings. One good way is to systematically look for and take on challenges. This is because some of the biggest opportunities for success and growth come from new and oftentimes difficult,

As I’ve written previously, the goal of your negotiation efforts should naturally be to find an outcome that works for both you and the other side. This kind of a “win-win” result is not as difficult to achieve as it sometimes seems. That’s because there are many specific tactics to significantly increase your chances of

Productivity, earnings, and success grow from working smart and working hard. But they grow much faster and better when you root smart, hard work in a nurturing environment. In this piece, I’d like to help you understand the elements of a nurturing environment, and suggest some ways to review and possibly improve yours. Nurture Your

In many – perhaps even most – situations, the biggest and best wins are usually those that take a lot of effort, resources, and time. But even there, taking steps to deliver a quick win or two can offer some important benefits: Building or reinforcing your confidence. Demonstrating your abilities and competence. Providing a solid

Most of what I write about in this blog contains a large component of objective, tangible, practical considerations or criteria that make the ideas and practices pretty easy to implement. This one is different. That’s because finding work you love inherently depends on subjective, intangible, sometimes even ambiguous considerations or criteria that require you to

As the famous and highly successful basketball coach at UCLA, John Wooden, wisely counseled: “When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur. … Not tomorrow, not the next day, but eventually a big gain is made. Don’t look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time.

As you make your way through your work and your life, you’ll meet lots of people, both good and bad. Most of them will appear, hang around for a while, and then slowly or suddenly disappear from your world. However, some of them will be keepers: people you enjoy, admire, appreciate, or otherwise want to