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Here’s the great realization about productivity.  Time management is not the issue, energy management is.  Because that’s something we can actually control. Energy is a real, living, breathing thing. Unlike time, which doesn’t exist.  The sad thing is, some people are virtuosos at crafting brilliant explanations for why they can’t do things. You can’t get a straight answer from them. It’s exhausting and annoying.  The story of woe they…

My favorite computer command is called snap to grid.  Here’s what happens when this feature is enabled.  The mouse moves a layer or an image or selection of text. Next, the grid points magnetically pull on the object when it approaches. And within a second, you’re assured to have all the images perfectly lined up without trial and error.  Ask any designer, this feature is enormously useful for accurate…

As a new employee, here are a few questions to ask yourself.  Are you in a league of your own doing a task? Can you bring something to the work that nobody else offers? And will you take the risk of initiating something new that not everybody likes?  If the answer isn’t yes yet, that’s okay. But you have to start now. You have to make a plan to…

Here’s a business riddle.  What do record labels, tour managers, booking agents, art galleries, night clubs, museum curators, art critics, entertainment lawyers, talent agencies, corporate buyers, event coordinators, casting directors, album producers, angel investors, corporate sponsors and hiring managers have in common?  They’re gatekeepers. They control access to the marketplace. They decide whether a given product will be distributed by a mass medium.  The great paradox of how they…

Shaw famously said that the single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has occurred.  But it’s not the only problem. The other challenge in communication is our interpretation about what actually did occur. Because in many cases, the message sent is not the one received.  Drawing from my own experience as a passive aggressive, conflict avoidant, confrontation averse, codependent people pleaser, here are few examples from…

My favorite definition of celebration is, attention paid to oneself.  It’s a regular practice we must do for ourselves. Not from a place of narcissism, but from our role as our own good friend and advocate. Just as the cobbler’s kid deserves shoes, each of us deserves the same credit we give to others.  And when treat ourselves respectfully and with care, others will be taught by example.  This…

As long as we stay in the game, we are going to be rejected.  It’s as certain as death, taxes and rain at an outdoor wedding.  The strategy, then, is not to avoid rejection entirely, but to process it intelligently. Not to obsess over presenting the right image of ourselves so that people don’t reject us, but to become whole on our own terms, so that when we are…

Goldsmith’s provocative book about behavioral triggers contends us that human being are geniuses at inventing reasons to avoid change. And we often sabotage lasting change by canceling out its possibility.  For example, one of the stories we tell ourselves in this area is that we have all the time in the world. That time is open ended and sufficiently spacious for us to get to all of our goals…

Crossing over from one thing to another tricky proposition.  When you try your hand at a new medium of expression, a new job title, a new career, or a new identity completely, there is always pushback.  This resistance starts internally. Because to operate from a fuller sense of self, you have to let go of how you defined yourself in the past. You have to mourn the death of…

Strong boundaried people take responsibility for their own emotions.  They slough off other people’s projections. And they’re able to discern where they end and others begin, appropriately separating their own thoughts and feelings from those of others.  As a codependent, this is inspiring to me. Because my sensitivity has always made me vulnerable to problems that didn’t necessarily belong to me.  For example, growing up, anytime people would imply…