In his book, “How to Change Your Mind,” which I wrote about last year, author Michael Pollan writes of Peter Hendricks, a psychologist conducting a trial using psilocybin (aka magic mushrooms) to treat cocaine addicts. According to Hendricks, “People who are addicted know they’re harming themselves – their health, their…
Last year, I gave a (virtual) speech. It was the speech I’ve give more often than any other. I always title it the same name as my book, “Six Simple Rules for a Better Life,” but the organizers (one of whom had seen the speech the prior year) titled it…
A slightly early happy and healthy New Year! This has again been a very challenging year for all the reasons I don't need to list here. Nonetheless, as I have done for quite a few years, here are some of the experiences I enjoyed this past year: what I listened…
The last couple of years have been challenging, to say the least. I write a lot about health and wellness, most often focusing on the importance of exercise and eating well. I also espouse what I call “Proactive Positivity.” In posts and speeches, I explain the way negativity tends to…
A recent post, “Lessons from Mimi,” about inspiration from my mother-in-law, who passed away this year at 95, resulted in more feedback than most of my posts. The notes I received were inspirational themselves and I am sharing excerpts from some of them here. I am 69, and have been…
As I have written countless times, New Year’s Resolutions fail because we make too many, or ones that are too big. Instead, breaking down our goals into small pieces, and tackling one at a time for the 21 days it takes to create a habit, is the way to go…
My mother-in-law (who my kids and I called Mimi) passed away this year. It was not from COVID. She was 95 (and would have turned 96 this month). Her body simply gave out. Incredibly, her mind was at 100% for about 94 of those years, and she wasn’t too far…
Early this year, I read the book “How to Change Your Mind,” by Michael Pollan, about psychedelic drugs, which are finding a place in the medical world to treat addictions such as smoking, alcoholism, and some forms of mental illness. In the 2020 elections, Oregon passed a law legalizing the…
A bunch of years ago, I read Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think, by Peter Diamandis. Since that time, I have often read Diamandis’ newsletters. I wanted to share excerpts from one of his newsletters from late last year that came with the subject line, “Increase your healthspan,…
In the past, I've written about James Clear. I’ve been reading articles by him for a bunch of years. He shares all kinds of useful life hacks. Over the last few years, he has written quite a bit about making and keeping good habits, a subject near and dear to…
If you bought a house or a car or made another major purchase, you would likely put a lot of thought into it. You wouldn’t just jump in. You would pause, digest all the available information, and respond to the situation in a way that makes sense to you, and…
I have extremely strong feelings regarding customer service responsiveness. Whether I am providing service or receiving it, whether in my personal life or my professional life, my standards are very high. Last fall, a client complained about one of my colleagues not responding to an email. When I spoke with…