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One of my favorite things in the world is telling people that I love them. Whether it’s a friend, relative, coworker, my wife, or a complete stranger; and whether it’s in person, over the phone or via text or email, few acts make me feel more human and alive that expressing love, from my mouth to another person’s ears, every single day. Because if you think about it, that…

Here is perhaps our society’s most widely debated aphorism. Can money buy happiness? There are thousands articles, studies, books research papers, message boards, speeches, even organizations dedicated to arguing it one way or another. But what if we’re asking the wrong question? What if we’ve all been measuring the wrong currency? Because in my experience, although money may not make you happy, being happy may increase your chances of…

Since high school, I’ve been lucky enough to have numerous influential mentoring relationships. The amount of time, money and energy these mentors have saved me is immeasurable. It’s proof to me that mentoring is more than just a relationship, it’s an inheritance. But the piece most people miss about this exchange is, mentors don’t always show up in human form. When you come from a curious constitution, searching out…

Black holes have a gravitational acceleration so strong, that they destroy everything that falls into them. Whether it’s the remnants of giant stars, electromagnetic radiation, or the clouds of interstellar dust and gas, nothing makes it out of a black hole alive. Hawking proved that even if someone did jump into a black hole, and their mass energy was returned to our universe, it would be in a mangled…

Heliotropism is a biological term that describes the motion of flowers or leaves in response to the direction of the sun. If you’ve ever noticed plants turning and growing toward the light, that’s called the heliotrope effect. What’s fascinating is, human beings apparently took a page from the plant bible. Cameron writes in his book about positive leadership that the tendency in all living systems is to move toward positive energy…

My friend sits on the board of a nonprofit in the community solar industry. Recently he hosted an informal industry event at his home so people could learn more about the organization and emerging challenges and opportunities within the clean energy space. After he welcomed everyone to the event, he took a few minutes to allow people to introduce themselves by stating their name and what role they play…

Being the only person the room wearing a nametag makes me feel special, rebellious, creative and powerful. These feeling are the principal motivation for have continued my experiment for half of my life. But if suddenly it was no longer just me, if one day everyone starting wearing nametags, that would be probably fine with me. If it meant sacrificing a certain amount of my positive feelings to elevate…

My friend once asked me to attend services at her church. She said the culture was super progressive, casual and didn’t tell members they were going to hell. Sounds like my kind of congregation. Sure enough, everything about the experience was enjoyable. Friendly members wearing nametags, powerful music performances, even a minister whose words challenged and inspired us. At the end of the sermon, they announced that they would…

Is the world really upsetting us, or are we upsetting ourselves by what we tell ourselves about it? Most likely, the latter. Other people are not the sole source of our negative feelings. The onus is on us. The call is coming from inside the house. We need to take responsibility for improving our situation, not wait for other people to change so we feel better. There’s an interesting study from…

Dilbert’s boss once sat him down for his annual performance review and said the following: We can’t give you a raise because you didn’t do anything noteworthy this year. To which the engineer responds: It only seems that way because I’m so good at my job that I make it look easy and never complain. Meanwhile, his frazzled coworker storms in and yells: My job is a nightmare! And…