First Volley: The traditional concept of “Willpower” really doesn’t work! “Any human construct offering infinite choices will result in poor choices, with each and all of us Invariably choosing what PLEASES us rather than that…
In the end analysis, life is all about CONSEQUENCES … things that actually happen as a result of other things that did or did not happen. Some consequences are predictable. Do good things / useful…
With so much dissonance, discord, dishegience and mental health challenges permeating the early days of a still nascent 21st Century, we seem to have lost sight of any meaning, purpose or zest for living. Some…
Life is TOUGH! But it’s so much more straight forward and manageable when all you have to do is FILL IN THE BLANKS … providing, of course, you have the proper “goods” available to do…
Life-coach gurus talk about “Life Balance” … a very helpful reflective concept for different people at different points in their personal lives … especially for when they feel “out of sorts”, “at loose ends” or…
“Communitation” is the fine art of PARTICIPATORY COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT. It is the art of intentionally, actively and proactively participating in a thriving, collaborative COMMUNITY. Lee Shulman Bierer [ www.collegeadmissionsstrategies.com ], provides an excellent example of…
LIFE’S TOUGH! The CHALLENGES are FORMIDABLE The RESPONSIBILITIES are AWESOME The EXPECTATIONS are OUT OF SIGHT And TIME is always TOO SHORT for what we want and need to do Consequently, it’s increasingly clear that…
The best “insider” advice for success that most people have traditionally given aspiring emerging generations generally isn’t “Work Hard” and “Become Irreplaceable/Indispensible”. It is: “It’s who you know!” However, I’ve found, personally, it’s been a…
The development and production of Self-Driving cars became all the rage at the beginning of the 21st Century. Tesla was early out of the gate, and “autonomous trucks” soon followed: https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a30196644/self-driving-truck-cross-country/ The stakes are extremely…
I have been haunted by this intractable, plaintive cry of employers: “We can’t retain employees – some leaving after only a day on the job!” Landscaper After spending 3 hours a day on several very…
There’s LIGHT and there’s DARK. In the beginning, there was only DARK. DARK is the default and DARK is passive but it is MASSIVE. LIGHT requires an active source and has to be constantly generated…
I had just finished breakfast and my FIRST INCLINATION was to move to the screened-in porch to finish my coffee, the sports section of the newspaper and the comics. A person who’s retired has the…
Original artwork by Leah Palmer Preiss Odd Fellows Perhaps I was doomed to be an “Odd Fellow” from the start. My dad was a card-carrying member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. (Yes, it’s…
In 1996, Susan Jeffers, Ph.D., released a book entitled “End the Struggle and Dance with Life” (St. Martin’s Press) This book had some great advice for people completely overrun by life’s circumstances. Jeffers, personally, had…
“The Head Winds / Tail Winds Asymmetry” Tom Gilovich and Shai Davidai https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27869473 J Pers Soc Psychol. 2016 Dec;111(6):835-851. http://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-is-my-life-so-hard/ “The idea should be familiar to anyone who cycles or runs for exercise. Sometimes you’re running…
It’s a dismissive / derogatory term of disparagement: “Not worth a hill of beans!” “You don’t know beans!” … as if – everybody knows – beans are not worth very much, even piled in a…
We tend to migrate toward and embellish those behaviors that make us happy and bring us the most success … however we choose to define “success”. Success-driven behavior patterns start forming early, notwithstanding the fact…
Disclaimer This is NOT about Presidential politics! In a March 14, 2018 posting, John Rosemond – a provocative and not universally acclaimed “family psychologist” – highlighted a New York Times article by Alex Stone (Jan.…
It’s that time of year again! … time to get rid of all the encrustations and encroachments … time take stock of all the things we’ve hoarded whose purpose may have lost luster, and whose…
The wistful lament of the under-invested and overly-wrought is often: “Just wait ‘til my ship comes in!” However, we need to face up to the fact, here and now, that BIG SHIPS do not sail…
The book The Four Agreements by Miguel Ruiz contains the following advice: Be impeccable with your word. Don’t take anything personally. Don’t make assumptions. Always do your best. The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to…
ar·tic·u·la·tion noun LANGUAGE the formation of clear and distinct sounds in speech. “the articulation of vowels and consonants” MUSIC clarity in the production of successive notes. “beautifully polished articulation…
Life is an evolving progression. There is no stasis … no parking lot … no statutorial sanctum … To embrace life, we have to embrace CHANGE. We change or die! And the world around us…
“In analytic geometry, an asymptote (/ˈæsɪmptoʊt/) of a curve is a line such that the distance between the curve and the line approaches zero [but never actually GETS there] as they tend to infinity.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymptote In practical terms, one can approach…
The annually updated book “What Color Is Your Parachute” by the late Richard Bolles has been a helpful life and career guide for multiple generations. The basic thrust of the book is one of personally…
The story of human development – both individually and en masse – is one of both glorious and inglorious progression … driven by a combination of internal and external compelling forces, ideally toward bigger, stronger,…
A fundamental conundrum in 21st Century life is finding something of intrinsic, compelling ultimate value into which we can unreservedly pour our time, energy and “unbridled spirit” for the duration. Life is changing so fast,…
In our barbershop chorus, The Kentuckians, our Director keeps challenging us to keep our pitch up and stay on key by imagining the addition of “onion skin” layers of higher frequency sound, particularly when holding…
“Every new DIY project justifies the acquisition of a new tool!” Herbie Halfmaster [After all, the savings on labor and on avoiding subsidization of someone ELSE’S tools more than makes up for the cost of…
Our navigability in the world is heavily dependent on our real or perceived “legitimacy” … le·git·i·ma·cy conformity to the law or to rules. ability to be defended with logic or justification; validity. https://www.google.com/search?q=legitimacy&oq=legitimacy&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.2407j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8 Legitimacy is…
First of all, this is not about crystal ball gazing and clairvoyant phrenology! It’s about the “electrifying” energy that comes from the “Psyche” … variably referred to as the “pneuma, the anima, the inner being,…
Motivational speakers, personal coaches and self-help proponents all underscore the importance of having a VISION, a DREAM, a LIFE PURPOSE, a PASSION … an overarching GRAND GOAL as an essential driving force for a successful…
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/10/first-children-are-smarter-but-why/280725/ In the study noted in the article above, investigators confirmed the postulation that first-children generally excel beyond the levels achieved by their younger siblings, and they asked “Why?” A genetic basis for the difference…
We occasionally need to take inventory of what we “bring to the table” to advance our personal stake and holdings in the world … to advance the enterprise(s) in which we are engaged … to…
We adopted a kitty about 12 years ago that is now in marked decline … with issues of hyperthyroidism, high blood pressure, a detached retina, arthritis, hypokalemia and kidney problems. She is on six different…
“Cache or caching [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cache ] refers to: … a food storing behavior of animals … a collection of artifacts [… a nest of duck’s eggs!] Computing Cache (computing), a collection of data duplicating original values stored…
Every construction project remains unfinished until the completion of a final sign-off “Punch List”: a list of final “finishing” details, as well as a list of mistakes and imperfections (things which fail to conform to…
“ … (have you ever been running, and decided you need to run a little faster … and then you WILLED it and it happened; have you ever tried to open a jar of pickles and decided…
Why do we have persisting “Achievement Gaps” both in public schools and on the job … why do so many business owners complain that they can’t get “decent help” … and why do so many…
I’ve struggled to articulate – in “digestible” terms – what I mean by “VISIONING” … i.e., being able to “picture” how the future might unfold – including discernment of hurdles and barriers to be overcome…
At this dawning of the 21st century, we don’t know everything we’d like to know or need to know about the Brain. But we know enough to set a more profitable course in life than…
Here’s a near-absolute Truth to consider: Everything you deserve is going to take everything you’ve got! This sobering observation compels one to ask four indelicate questions: If you are not giving life “everything you’ve got,…
At some point – and earlier is better – we have to “Get Real” about the unalterable “Cost of Living” … about all the stuff “below the water line” that “floats our boat”. Life’s Tough!…
FLASH NEWS! Your success is guaranteed! In fact, you may already have WON! Wherever you spend the most time and energy is where you will realize the most success. You may become an EXPERT: Eating…
“Our society has resigned itself to suffering.” Jamie Studts, Behavioral Scientist [Describing the fatalistic acceptance of a cancer diagnosis as a death sentence] ************** I’ve had a growing suspicion that, as with a cancer diagnosis,…
“I can’t function without my second cup of coffee; but, once I’ve had that second cup, look out world – I can do ANYTHING!” Herbie Halfmaster What gets you going and keeps you going through…
Some things in life are guaranteed to work and some are guaranteed NOT to work. However, due to inexperience, ineptitude, “natural tendencies” and a whole host of other factors, we tend to gravitate toward things…
“Making it” in America – or almost anywhere in the universe – is both deceptively easy and deceptively hard. As I’ve sought to break the code on why some people “make it” but many don’t,…
[Reference: TIME Magazine, May 2/May 9, 2016 “100 Most Influential People of 2016”] This issue made me wonder: What makes winners “Winners”? It was a compelling challenge to compile a list of characteristics that best…
