This year, my wife and I celebrated our 30th anniversary. Around the same time, I read a blog post called “8 Traits of a Happy Marriage, According to a Couples Therapist.” I agree with all eight of the defining characteristics of long-lasting, happy marriages. I am particularly drawn to these…
My friend Ed sent me the following note after we had gotten together and talked about the way we each have a drive to make a difference; to make the world a better place. I recently spoke at an event and closed with this… In the end: What will matter…
“Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood” is the fifth of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, one of the all-time, best-selling, personal development books. We often jump to conclusions and make assumptions with incomplete information. When we do that—when we fail to seek to understand someone…
I heard someone recently say great leaders are not leaders—they are followers. They are following a cause greater than themselves. People came to hear Martin Luther King, Jr. speak not because of him but because of themselves; because of something inside which told them what type of country they wanted…
Pride Month has just come to an end, and I was thinking about the way LGBTQ issues have been in the news in a big way over the last few years. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2015 for equal rights for those in same-sex marriages. The fight for transgender…
I've written many times: helping others is one of the greatest happiness strategies. A recent way I have been helping others is by donating my voice to people who live with voicelessness. My involvement with this activity started when I read an article about VocaliD, a for-profit company. It seems…
After I republished my post Kindness & the Common Good in my monthly newsletter, a reader sent me this note I want to share with you: Thank you for this email (newsletter)! I have a constant, inner conversation with myself where I try to be mindful of the point of…
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. I’ve been watching a series of TV specials marking the anniversary: I Am MLK Jr, King in the Wilderness, and Hope & Fury. I’ve read many books on Dr. King and the civil rights movement, but it’s…
This is a guest post by Dr. John Izzo. Today we’re constantly bombarded with messaging about how we should live. We’re told to work harder, dress better, be fitter, have better relationships, and show more gratitude. So how are we supposed to decide what really matters in life? The answer…
This is a guest post by Ryan Snow. Screens are everywhere. You can’t make a call or even make your coffee without looking at a screen. After reading Kevin Kelly’s book, The Inevitable, where he writes about the future of screening, I decided to examine my own use of screens.…
In the past, I wrote about Being Present in a Smartphone World. On a related note, I read a piece in the New York Times where they reported on these survey results, which might not be very shocking: We check our phone an average of 47 times a day. Eighty-two…
In an op-ed piece in the New York Times, David Brooks wrote about Pope Francis’ New Year’s Eve commentary that the people who have the most influence on society are “normal folks,” and their everyday gestures of kindness make them “artisans of the common good”. The pope used driving, of…