Do you have more stuff than you want? Do you have trouble keeping yourself from acquiring it? Do you wish you could get less stuff? I’ve been working on getting less stuff for a long time. I find the most important part to not having too much stuff is not acquiring stuff in the first place. Often when I’m with people and they can see I want something but hesitate[…] Keep reading →

At an outdoor concert July 4 I noticed something that, when I said it, sounded like a meaningful life lesson worth sharing here. The VIP section for some reason had fewer port-a-pods per person than the rest of the venue so they kept having long lines. Also, my friends and I were mostly staying in the tent area with the bar to stay out of the hot sun and walking[…] Keep reading →

How do you feel right now? I suspect you read this page when you’re calm, maybe even relaxed. Now think about a few times you’ve been stressed. Think of how much you worried about the consequences of some worst-case scenario — how it could ruin your life, destroy some relationship, undermine something important to you. Did you yell at anyone? Lose your temper? Lose control in some other way? Everybody[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on Communication Skills Exercises for Business and Life. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] I’ve written a bunch of times on the exercise I made up to avoid using judgmental words, particularly good, bad, right, wrong, and evil, but also balanced, better,[…] Keep reading →

Here’s a conversation I had with a friend. It shows the way my physics training gets me to think that I expect others will find interesting. Remember, physics to me means respecting and appreciating nature — not just something that happens in a laboratory, but how rainbows work, why the sky is blue, and why people are the way we are. My friend also said she found the result enlightening.[…] Keep reading →

My series on beliefs got me more page views and emails from readers than average. Did it get you to examine your beliefs? Did you do the exercise that started it for me? It costs nothing and takes only a few minutes. I ask not just because I’m curious, I ask for a reason we could all benefit from. As much as I like how my beliefs work for me,[…] Keep reading →

[Today’s post is an alternative introduction to my series on beliefs and how to change them. It gives a different, more team-oriented approach.] A major tool of leadership is setting the common beliefs and models of your team. Some examples: The head of a corporation may decide that the company’s highest priority is product quality when it used to be customer service. Or may decide it is a consumer electronics[…] Keep reading →

[This post is part of a series on “Mental models and beliefs: an exercise to identify yours.” If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.] The great business guru Peter Drucker illustrated how different people find different value and meaning from their work (and lives) through the parable of the three[…] Keep reading →

I walked outside my building and saw one of the most complete and beautiful rainbows I’ve ever seen, over the Jefferson Market clock tower. The camera in my phone didn’t capture its full beauty, but I hope you can tell some of it. It was too big for my camera to capture it all at once. You can see it fading in the few minutes I watched it so I[…] Keep reading →