While the world continues to march forward, I invite you to take a moment for quiet at the end of this year. Make the time you spend with family really count, even if it’s thru a plexiglass panel or a video camera lens. Have conversation. Listen. Hug often, laugh a lot, and look for the good in everyone, even if …
[ > Keep reading ]I. ACT HAPPY WEEK, DAY 5: WHAT’S THE ONE THING? In 2018 I was guest on the Leadership Hacks Podcast with my esteemed colleague, Jill Windelspecht, a fellow executive coach and organization consultant. Jill invited me to bring my best hack (shortcut/workaround) to the conversation, so I showed up with the most basic tool in my box: Breathing. You’ve heard me say it …
[ > Keep reading ]During my search for past writings on Optimism, I came across this article from 2012, LONG before pandemics and 2020’s turmoil – and I was struck by how much of the wisdom from a “normal” year still applies, but feels different, in a pandemic year. With minor tweaks, I share this from the archives. My ambition for this newsletter was …
[ > 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 …
[ > Keep reading ]
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 …
[ > Keep reading ]
Why Listening is Important. In this interview clip, Oprah – who made her living by listening – describes the insight that informed much of her career: The One Question Every Guest Asked.
[ > Keep reading ]
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 …
[ > Keep reading ]
Pandemic and all, this is still annual Act Happy Week. Watch for five 60-second exercises, starting today. Because even if panic is the emotion of the day, you get to choose. The focus of Act Happy Week is to educate the public about purposeful actions you can take to create chemical shifts in your body that drive Positive Emotions. This is …
[ > Keep reading ]I’ve traveled extensively in the past month, adding stamps to my passport from Netherlands, Czechia, Japan, and Singapore – and of course the US when I returned. The experience of passing through Customs and Immigration in those first four countries was fairly pleasant. “Hello, how are you? How long will you be in our country? Purpose of visit? Thank, enjoy …
[ > Keep reading ]
Why do we make Happiness feel so damn elusive and unavailable? Why is it always about the pursuit of Happiness? Can we, for just a moment, notice that it is sitting RIGHT NEXT TO US and all we have to do is turn to it, say “Hi!” and enjoy its company for a moment? Breathe deeply, on purpose, and enjoy …
[ > Keep reading ]