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With every promising new opportunity that arises, a set of sneaky beliefs always spout anew.  Assuring you that this interview, this relationship, this project, this is the one you’ve been waiting for. This is thee thing that is going to change everything and set you free and take you to the next level.  But as a veteran screenwriter friend of mine once warned me: Most of the time, you’re…

The best way to reinvent yourself is to not be too successful.  Think about it. People who are thriving every single day, everywhere they go, in everything they do, they have zero motivation to change. There’s no acute pressure to upgrade.  Because why fold a winning hand? Why put at risk the success they’ve already become? And why shift the boundaries of the future when the present is so…

Gaffigan is one of the most successful comedians in the world.  He collaborates extensively with his wife, the quiet powerhouse who writes, edits and produces their comedy programs behind the scenes.  During a recent interview on a showbiz podcast, she shared an insight that every freelancer and artist and entrepreneur in history should hear: Every six months, the opportunity of a lifetime is going to come by, and you’re…

I once read a fascinating medical book about dangers of painkillers.  Pinsky, the author and board certified addiction medicine specialist, introduces the book by reflecting on his first opportunity as a young doctor to administer an opiate to a patient.  I cannot express my satisfaction at having been able to help this man so vividly and quickly. This is what those of us who enter helping professions expect and hope from…

Buddhism teaches that all of human existence is transient, or in a constant state of flux and uncertainty.  This is a deeply difficult thing for westerners to wrap our heads around. Because it punctures our illusions of immortality. It flies in the face of our obsession with omnipotence. It stomps all over our desperate and fateful urge to try to make things permanent.  And so, all this medicine, technology…

Using time wisely is not only about your time, but other people’s time as well.  Understanding that you’re not the only busy one on the team. And having some empathy for people’s schedules, which are likely far busier than you realize.  Years ago my mentor gave me a piece of advice that helped him significantly when he was starting his career as a salesman. He said that before you…

Branding is not a nicety, it’s a necessity.  It’s something every company can be intentional about creating and see significant results in every area of the enterprise.  Sadly, too many organizations do their branding haphazardly, belatedly, or worse yet, not at all. You can read me getting angry about this in my recent column from Metric Collective, and how branding is like cheating. What might help alleviate this branding…

Two of my greatest fears have always been going to jail and going into the army.  Not only because those environments are incredibly physically taxing, but also because they would mean I’m not special anymore.  I would quickly become a blade of grass and not a daisy. It’s a hard thing for me to reconcile.  In fact, it’s a hard thing for anyone to reconcile. Because the bug of…

We may exquisitely execute a series of finite and discrete changes, like how we look, what we say, how we say it and whom we say it to.  But unless we engineer a holistic shift in our psychic center of gravity that integrates into every area of our lives, we haven’t truly transformed.  Wilber’s critically acclaimed book on the evolution of human consciousness explains the difference:  Translation is a change in surface…

Emerson said that if we make ourselves necessary to the world, mankind will give us bread.  Sounds like a fair exchange. Here’s how we can put it into action.  The first step is believing that each of us has a special talent that is unique and essential to the whole of humanity. Which is not an insignificant story to tell ourselves. Believing that mattering is our choice is surprisingly underrated. …