For 2020, my word is Relax. My work ethic has really messed me up. I've been using the stress response to catapult me into high levels of productivity, and the fight-or-flight mode formally known as the sympathetic nervous system has been my fuel for working hours. By relying on the sympathetic nervous system, and artificially [...]
"There is nothing magical about the flip of a calendar," says Jason Soroski, "but it represents a clean break, a new hope, and a blank canvas." Making New Year's Resolutions presents us with an opportunity to reboot our lives, and reset our habits. I typically keep less than half the resolutions I make every [...]
These are the habits that will support the achievement of my goals for this year. I may not keep all of these resolutions (read my thoughts on Why Breaking New Year's Resolutions Is Good For You) but just by setting these resolutions, I have aligned myself with the direction I want to go for the [...]
By nature, I am not a positive thinker. I have to work at it. Positive thinking will not do anything by itself, but as Zig Ziglar said, “Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.” The success or failure of many things you do in life depends on how well you [...]
When I was a young scholar, my life changed when I read this quote: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” I thought that Aristotle said this. For years, I ended my newsletters with this marvellous line, attributing it to the Ancient Greek philosopher and scientist. For [...]
I know that New Years Resolutions are ridiculed and lampooned by many, but I find them to be an indispensable goal-setting tool. The annual act of lifting my gaze into higher possibility keeps my attention focused upward, on what I could become, instead of behind me, on my mistakes. Yesterday before my annual review, I [...]
After working on it for more than a year, I've finally launched my new blog! This project is a culmination of 2 years of investigation. When I went to Pioneer Nation in 2014, I had just come back from Costa Rica, and I was trying to figure out some way to brand myself beyond the 'web [...]
Ordering two cups of coffee, my wife and I sat down for one of our most cherished rituals of the year. We had our favorite notebooks, with the pens that made us feel powerful when we wrote across the page, and together we wrote our New Year’s Resolutions. Yesterday’s Annual Review helped me calibrate myself for the year [...]
“Gratitude is the single most important ingredient to living a successful and fulfilled life.” - Jack Canfield Without gratitude, life is just bleak. You can be rich or poor, healthy or sick, lonely or loved, but only appreciation will assign value to that which you possess. James Clear, an expert on making habits, uses the power [...]
One of the best things you can do to improve yourself is to fail at something new. The first time you rode a bike, you failed. Repeatedly. And if you were willing to get up and try again, and again, you learned a new skill. Failure was the price you paid to learn. Becoming Friends with Failure [...]