I began this blog 18 years ago, in November 2002, before social media was even a thing. I started the dance with 100 subscribers and over the first two years I slowly unpacked The 13 Principles of Happiness that were central to my work at that time. While my focus has expanded and shifted and gone global over the years, the …
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DISCLAIMER: This post moves into territory I have never before addressed publicly. I recognize that for some this topic may push into what they experience as polarizing space. I offer this essay as MY reflection on MY experience in the world right now, and I make no judgment whatsoever about you and your position in the world. I invite you only …
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ARE YOU AN OPTIMIST OR A PESSIMIST? It is said that an eastern monarch once charged his wisemen to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and all situations. They presented him with the words: “and this, too, shall pass away. “How much it expresses! How chastening …
[ > Keep reading ]COVID Brain Part 3: Awesomeness One of my favorite writers has been posting daily bits of Pandemic Awesomeness. Inspired, I’ve been working on my own list. Discovering that I DO have the motivation to exercise even though the gyms are closed Having fresh baked bread twice a week for the past 20 weeks – because there’s no place to go …
[ > Keep reading ]COVID Brain Part 2: Coaching Conversations I have a client who has struggled w/ depression in the past and is struggling with isolation now. In a recent coaching session (in which he wanted to “work through some of the negative shit”), I asked him this question: What are you learning about yourself as a result of having to live in …
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Part 1: From The Pandemic Lockdown, Day 159 How long have you been in lockdown, or working from home, or having to balance kids and job and worry about the return to school, or feeling separated from loved ones? Too long, right? I thought I was doing OK. Then two weeks ago (day 143, but who’s counting?) I had a …
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WHAT JUST HAPPENED? Since mid-March, every conversation touches on the pandemic, at least for a second. But the topic’s been consistently held as a temporary situation. Then last week happened. Plans for return to work in July shifted to year-end 2020. Conferences in 1Q21 started getting the “let’s go virtual!” treatment. Three months is temporary. A full year is, “We gotta figure this out, …
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Just For Fun A Few Resources For You You Can Do This Hard Thing. I really enjoy the “virtual choirs” that have existed in social media and on artist platforms for years. Physical distancing has encouraged more people to experiment with that art form, and I found this folk song by Carrie Newcomer hit just the right notes of collaboration, …
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Muck [muhk], noun, moist farmyard dung, decaying vegetable matter, etc.; manure; a highly organic, dark or black soil; mire; mud. From 1200–50; Middle English muc, muk <<Old Norse myki cow dung Say WHAT?? When we moved to a new home in 2016, we inherited a large, reed-infested marshy pond that had been neglected for 30 years. We mostly avoided it because the area was …
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Stress is Mostly Self-Created Happiness Principle** #7 says, Choose to Respond: What happens is going to happen, regardless. Accept constant, discontinuous change as reality and instead of reacting, respond with curiosity. Wow, when I created these principles, I had no idea how useful they’d be 17 years later during a pandemic! Let’s take a moment to go back to basics: what …
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