Early this year, I attended funerals and or paid condolence calls regarding six people who passed away in a two-month period. Fortunately, most of them were people in their 90s who had lived good, long lives. But, one was someone my age. It wasn’t someone I was close to, but…
During the early part of my career, I adopted several mantras to help me get through stressful work situations. One of my favorites was, “This, too, shall pass,” which I would say to myself when I had a major deadline approaching. It’s quite powerful, because it’s true when it comes…
As someone who has written and spoken countless times on making habits that stick, I was very interested in this piece in the Wall Street Journal: The New Science on Making Healthy Habits Stick. And, of course, January is a famous time for making, or attempting, to make new habits.…
I loved reading this brief article last year, which told about research showing staying optimistic and maintaining a positive outlook can directly extend the length of your life. The 30-year study followed 1,200 elderly people who were born in 1920 or 1921. The researchers analyzed their health, ability to function,…
Earlier this year, I wrote a post about venting rarely being good for us. A key line from that post, which I learned from Arthur Brooks, is anger has a honeyed tip and a poisoned root – meaning, sometimes it feels good to vent (the honeyed tip), but it almost…
Last year, I listened to a podcast interview with Eric Adams, who has now become New York City’s mayor. As has been the case across the U.S. during the pandemic, crime in New York City has gone up. Adams is focusing on that issue. He explained in the interview his…
In order to keep up with current events, I look at three newspaper apps every morning, listen to one news app, and read one newsletter. Each afternoon, I read two newsletters, one of which is Dave Pell's Next Draft. Pell published a book last year, Please Scream Inside Your Heart:…
The fourth of my “Six Simple Rules” is “Be Organized,” and a To-Do list is one of my keys to staying organized. I’ve written about to-do lists in my book and more than once in the blog, such as here. I’ve also written that one of the secrets to my…
I’m a big fan of Arthur Brooks. I have seen him speak, I have read his columns, I have listened to his podcast episodes, and I have written about him here. Brooks had a podcast called How to Build a Happy Life and on the first episode, “Manage Your Feelings,…
In my speaking engagements and in my book, I have placed extra emphasis on the first and last of my Six Simple Rules. (I also put them first and last because they are the most critical.) The first is “Be Happy” and the sixth is “Be Healthy”. I never considered…
Eating well and exercise are the major pillars of “Be Healthy,” the sixth of my Six Simple Rules. Whenever I give suggestions for ways to be a healthier eater, I quickly mention giving up soda, as I did in this post Soda is Poison. Diet soda is also poison, as…
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…
