Insights & Strategies for a Purposeful Life

It’s one of the seven deadly sins commonly known as the green-eyed monster. Envy. It happens. Sometimes when you least expect it.  You find out that your coworker who was hired at the same time as you was given the big account that will probably lead to a promotion. Or

Don’t compare yourself to others. Don’t judge others. You hear it all the time. But we do. We can’t help it. We are constantly comparing and judging. It is part of being human. Try to shut it off for a day and see how many times you find yourself judging

I don’t know about you, but my calendar is getting full.  Opportunities that were closed to me a year ago are starting to open up. Part of me says, “Yes!” I have missed this and it feels good to be able to do this again. Part of me thinks, “There

Recently I came across an article entitled, 10 Things You Should Never Do In Life. Now, I was taught not to say never in my writing by the editor of my book, Thomas Cantrell, so I was piqued by the list. I discovered that most of the items were things

It’s National Eat Your Vegetables Day We all know we should eat our vegetables, among other things. Yet, how many times do we grab for the brownie and skip the vegetables?  There are other things we know we should do – but we don’t.  Why not? The answers vary. Perhaps

Do you know what target fixation is?  A person becomes so fixated on an object that they end up driving into it. I heard a friend talking about it in connection to motorcycle riding. It is one of the most common reasons motorcyclists crash. If the motorcyclist stares at a

Computers are amazing. There is one tool on my computer that comes in handy. I seem to use it more now than I used to. Perhaps it has something to do with my twin sister having a birthday recently.  It is the zoom tool.  When I need to see more

In thinking about the topic for today’s email, I googled positivity and came up with 52,300,000 responses.  That is a lot of information. If you had the time to go through and read all the articles and posts, would it make you more positive? Not likely. We can read books

Love Conquers All Day is June 3rd. Even though this holiday is on the weird and bizarre calendar of holidays, it might be one of the most important days of the year. So much of what is happening in the world and in our homes can be solved by choosing

I am a big believer in being grateful.  Gratitude can help us to feel content. Gratitude can cause a perception shift that leads to growth. Gratitude can help us to look outside ourselves. Gratitude can create connection. We celebrate Memorial Day this weekend and I was thinking about the reason

Make a tight fist and don’t open your hand. Now catch what I throw to you. It is a little hard to catch something when your hand is tightly fisted.  I use this example when talking to clients who are having a hard time letting go of something.  When they

This is a topic that I have dealt with and in my 30 year psychology practice, I have had more than one person in my office with the same problem. They are trying to make everyone in their life happy and they are miserable because they feel like they are

If your default is to negativity, you can learn to be more positive! My friend Devan Thorpe asked me on LinkedIn if our optimism setpoint is immovable or can we learn to be more positive? Unless you missed it, I am a Positive Psychologist. I answered that through research and

People come to see me for a variety of reasons. They are having trouble in their marriage, their family, work, and some for personal development.  Their circumstances are very individualized, but often there is one thing that is common. Relationships. There is a relationship that is in trouble or causing

Everything will be okay in the end. If things aren’t okay, it isn’t the end. Keep going. I was reminded of this saying when reading a hopeful study that said 10% of people with major depression were thriving 10 years later.  Thriving, not just living. Many people think that once

The other day I was doing a task around the house and I took a shortcut.  It wasn’t really so much a shortcut as just being sloppy. My mind was on the next task. I stopped and said out loud, “You can do better.”  Now no one was around to

I was reminded the other day about commas. We use them when writing to create a space, a pause.  How often though do we pause? We speed read through without paying any attention to the comma. Yet, a comma can make a powerful difference.  “Let’s eat grandma,” or “Let’s eat,

No matter the reason someone comes into my office, what issue they are getting stuck with, we almost always have to do some work with what we control and what we don’t.  It can be difficult or freeing when someone realizes that they don’t have control over something they have

You may know what your IQ is, but do you know what your EQ is? Your IQ is determined by a test that measures your ability to solve problems and reason.  Emotional intelligence is determined by your ability to read others in social situations, empathize, decrease conflict, communicate and overcome

Some people are gift givers. They just seem to have a knack for picking out the right gift for a person and love to see the receiver’s reaction when they open it up. Giving gifts is more important to them than receiving gifts. Over the last year as reports have

This is a chapter in my book, Pathological Positivity. We start out as little kids and there are lots of games for us to play. Preschoolers often learn very important things like the ABC’s, counting, and motor skills through games.  Then we get older and there are less games and

Spring Break is really popular at our house since my wife works in a school setting.  Spring Break is set up to give students an opportunity to take a break from their studies so they can finish the year strong. (I see how it also benefits teachers and staff members.)

Do you know what a disrupter is? In business a disrupter is a new product that enters the market and at the outset appears to not perform very well, but over time, it disrupts the giants of the industry and in some cases, causes massive, long-term changes.  I bet you

How did you like the interview I did with David Horsager on his book, Trusted Leader? Link to the last post to see what I am talking about. As I was going through the YouTube Comments, one came up that I thought was insightful and relevant to the interview. It