I was talking with my friend Jeff about the way I cannot get myself self to spend a ton of money on a fancy restaurant. He is very willing to spend a lot of money on a particularly good meal. Once in a blue moon I enjoy a super fancy…
I've been blessed to spend time in a bunch of wonderful countries. Whether it was short stays during vacations or the long backpacking trip I took after graduating college in 1984, travel abroad has been one of the most enriching, enjoyable, and memorable experiences of my life. I have learned…
Just over two years ago, after seeing the movie Fruitvale Station, and coincidentally, around the same time, reading the book The New Jim Crow, I wrote a blog post about the importance of seeing the humanity in people, and how that relates to being a leader. ("Be a Leader" is one of the Six…
My wife and I were fortunate to take a wonderful trip to Europe to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. We met in college and after we graduated we took a backpacking trip in Europe. We hadn’t been back since and the anniversary trip was a wonderful time, filled with many…
After receiving quite a bit of positive feedback on a recent newsletter piece, I am publishing it here... At an end-of-year yoga class, the instructor asked us to form an intention for the coming year. I decided to focus on respond vs. react. Responding instead of reacting is something I…
When you reach a certain age (in my case, it was in my mid-40s), parents of friends begin to have health problems and/or pass away. Over the past 10 years, I’ve been to many funerals, including several very recently. I nearly always cry, but I also frequently smile, and often…
Henry Klein and I met about 20 years ago. We were living in the same town and met on a men's softball team we played on together. Henry is an attorney and a couple of years after we met him, when Marcie and I wanted to create wills, mostly to…
Last year, when Marcie and I celebrated our 25th anniversary, I published an article in the Six Simple Rules newsletter with my thoughts about marriage, and about divorce (and happiness). A version of the article was published on the new Love Fairy site, a sister site to Purpose Fairy, where…
This is a guest post by Julie Singer, who teaches us, among other things, something we've discussed before: one of the great sources of happiness is helping others. As a college student, at times you can feel like you have no control over anything. It may be your emotions, your…
This week marks the one-year anniversary of Make New Friends Monday. Here's an updated version of an earlier post I wrote, recounting and celebrating the great experience #mnfm has been for me, and others. When my kids were home from college for winter break just over a year ago, the…
Pronoia: “The delusional belief that other people are plotting your well-being or saying nice things about you behind your back” One of the books I enjoyed reading this summer was Give and Take by Adam Grant. I first learned about Grant, and his book, in this New York Times piece, Is…
One of my friends participated in a training program and told me what he heard in a lesson on listening reminded him of some of what I said in my book, in “Be Nice,” the second of my Six Simple Rules for a Better Life. Listening is an important "Be…