You wouldn’t know this, but you instantly dropped my cortisol level in the way you cheerfully raised your hand, broke into a wide-open smile as if you were spontaneously glad to see me, and said hello. Thank you for that. Something shifted in me, and […]
Sometimes the only thing to do is be quiet and get out of the way. Such is the case with this lesson in astonishment, a spoken word poem entitled, “Acceptance Speech After Setting the World Record in Goosebumps.” As Colorado poet laureate Andrea Gibson recommends, […]
There was a period in my life when I was so edgy and wary it felt like I was having a million tiny little heart attacks every day as I tried to suppress all the zings of feeling I didn’t like and didn’t want to […]
In a culture that applauds giving your all, it almost seems against nature to sanction anything less, which is why I’m a tad leery to bring forward a concept that does exactly that: The 85% Rule actually proposes dialing back our effort to 85%. Yes, […]
Pilots do it. Astronauts do it. Surgeons do it. Taking a two-minute timeout to run through a checklist before undertaking a critical endeavor is a proven way to minimize errors, including life or death ones. It’s why the Joint Commission instituted a universal protocol for […]
If you have a bad headache and really want the pain reliever to kick in fast, it probably will in about 10 minutes if you are in the right position. If you are in the wrong position, however, it might take a… Very. Long. Time. […]
Mastering ChangeYou may not have asked for it, but it happens anyway. Being a human being is to be in constant conversation with change. As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus kind of said, our lives are like rivers. You never step in the same river twice. […]
Being human guarantees there will be self-improvement-worthy behaviors and characteristics surfacing in us almost from the moment we are born. As we come of age, with all the cultural encouragement to be our best selves, it’s easy to get caught up in the quest for […]
It’s hard to think too far ahead into the future without feeling a certain amount of despair about humanity’s prospects but then someone like 29-year-old Boyan Slat comes along and makes environmental repair feel totally possible. How can it not when this young Dutch inventor […]
For over a year I watched a house by the golf course go through a head-to-toe upgrade. It was already a cute house on a corner lot in a quiet part of town but by the time the owners artfully staged two pairs of crocks […]
A man had a dream he was a butterfly. In the dream he felt with his whole heart that he was a butterfly. Then he woke up and realized he was a man. But then a thought occurred: why couldn’t he just as easily be […]
“I have lived a long life and had many troubles, most of which never happened.” Mark Twain I know what you mean, Mr. Clemens (Mark Twain being his pen name). Just like the way I am sometimes seized with certainty that I am going to […]
Be cool. 