For several years, I’ve been wanting to read “Thinking, Fast and Slow," by Daniel Kahneman. When the book came out, the reviews made me feel I would love it. I finally read and found it an incredibly interesting read. It wasn’t a fast read, which is part of why it…
This is a guest post by April Boey. Growing up in a results-focused society, I went to university with the single-minded goal of acing all my exams. My parents had done a good job of drilling the idea in me. I did well in school. However, after two years of…
Not long after I published Six Simple Rules for a Better Life, I read a book called Willpower, by Roy Baumeister & John Tierney, which had come out the same month. In my book’s introduction, I talk about how to make changes that stick. I knew my method worked, but…
In the spring of 2015, my daughter Julie had the good fortune of spending a college semester in Prague, in the Czech Republic. A year later, reflecting on the experience, she shared the following lessons from her experience. I'm sharing them here because her learning is applicable to many other…
I think someone once said, "Life doesn't come with an instruction manual" and for sure I know parenting doesn't come with one. There are countless parenting books, articles, and more; and there is plenty of advice available from other parents. Nothing totally prepares you, but I'm a strong believer in…
It’s a new year and resolutions are being made once again. And once again, many will be broken. Here are a ways to help make changes that stick: Be realistic when setting goals. If your goals are too big (and the goals most of us make tend to be too…
As I have done for each of the past three years, here are the many ways I enjoyed the experiences of my year, including places I visited, books I read, and even what I watched on TV. Books I love reading and I love learning. I read quite a bit…
I was taking a continuing education class recently and the instructor told us a great story. A child was with one of his parents in the kitchen and the parent decided it was time to teach the child how to cook a roast. Early in the process, the child asked,…
As has happened to me many times before, I recently found myself inspired by a eulogy delivered by a friend upon the passing of their parent. Every funeral I attend leaves me a better person because of something I learn about the deceased, and their life well lived. With my friend's…
I recently finished reading an extremely disturbing book, Missoula, by John Krakauer. Krakauer is the author of two other fascinating, non-fiction books I had read, Into Thin Air and Into the Wild. While Missoula was disturbing, I couldn’t put it down. Subtitled “Rape and the Justice System in a College…
One of the best things I watched on TV this year was the HBO miniseries, Show Me a Hero. It was a bit long (six hours) and it was a bit slow, but the takeaways from the show were worth every minute. As I said in this blog post, seeing the…
A bunch of years ago, when my company moved into the office building where we still reside, a number of people began using the stairs to get to our offices on the fifth floor. I had not been a part of that group until returning from a vacation in Positano,…