I facilitate an exercise with groups where I ask everyone to write down a quote from a book, movie, play, or song that had a profound impact on them personally. We use the quotes throughout the day in a variety of ways. So far, I’ve not met anyone who didn’t have one. Mine is easy to recall because when I …
Roll with It
Back in May, I started a list of suggestions for how we could live and operate our businesses from a place of greater happiness. This is a list of what could make us happier people and better business leaders, but it could also be interpreted as a list of the things that make us miserable or make our lives and …
Yes, You Can
I have a sign on my desk (given to me by the fantastic Sara Connell) that says, “I Can and I Will.” I’ve put lots of sayings on my desk, bulletin board, dream boards, laptop screens, and bathroom mirrors over the years to give me a nudge about sentiments I tend to forget or acknowledge. They simply remind me of …
Tasks vs Results
We’ve probably all had at least one of these handed to us in our professional careers: a job description. It lists the duties we were hired to complete. A good one lists the tasks in detail and aids us in assuring we meet expectations. However, even a well-written job description is only half the information we need to understand what …
Seeing the Best
Does being happy matter in business? I think it does, and there is plenty of current research to show that it matters more and more to the customers, clients, and patients in today’s marketplace. Someone asked me recently, “How is it that you’re able to be so happy with all that’s going on in the world today?” They were speaking …
Happy People
I’d describe my dad as one of the happiest people I know. He doesn’t live a perfect life, but he’s happy pretty much no matter what happens. I’ve always dreamed that I could learn to live my life so that people would describe me that way. I think it would be a great epitaph at the end of a life …
Music Monday: Be Here Now
There is absolutely NO END to it… the incessant distractions of the modern world – cell phones, social media, text messages, emails, voicemails, calendar reminders, streaming TV, to-do lists, Amazon deliveries, deadlines. As a result, we’ve become master multi-taskers, but we’ve also become flops at being 100% present in almost any situation. I swear some days I can talk on …
Tip of the Spear
You’re waiting. You just wish it was different. You wish your teammate helped out more. You wish the meetings accomplished more and were more fun. You wish you’d get a raise. You wish your office manager would let go of the one mistake that you made months ago. You wish your spouse was more romantic and spontaneous. You wish your …
Becoming Our Best Selves
Recently, I was faced with a moment of choice. I was with a group of friends, and the topic of a colleague we all know came up. In the past, I have joined the group in what was essentially a gossip session about this person with whom we all have a challenging relationship. But I have made a commitment to …
Something to Look Forward to
A few years ago, one of my business coaches, Mark LeBlanc, gave me a piece of advice as I was creating my strategic business plan: Always have something you’re really looking forward to on your calendar, even if it’s months (or even years) away. He contended it would help to balance my energy on the days when life and work …
