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Hope may not be a strategy, but it is a helpful springboard to get us from where we are to where we want to be.  Snyder’s groundbreaking research found that hope was more than a feel good emotion, but a dynamic cognitive motivational system. Hope is a psychological vehicle compromising agency, which is the belief in our capacity to initiate and sustain actions, and pathways, which is the belief…

Falling into a period of prolificacy is one of creativity’s most thrilling experiences.  You feel like you’re being attacked by inspiration. You have more good ideas than clam chowder has calories. And the projects you create become the overflowing contents of your fertile mind spilled out across the canvas.  Every artist longs to be there, many get there, some return there and even few remain there.  Dylan’s most prolific…

Kick out the audience And don’t you let them dim the lights I wonder, and put a chain on my appetite Words are all I have to take your heart away Oh, I used to be the lucky one Oh, looking for the lucky one Three pounds of glorious meat Up inside my head I confuse quiet with peace She sat silently with murder in my eyes Oh, I…

In academics, the term sophomore slump refers to the apathy of students whose second effort fails to live up to the standards of their first.  In sports, the term refers to athletes who have a mediocre second season following a stellar debut. In music, it’s the jinx and jitters bands get when they release their second album and it’s not popular as the first.  In construction, it refers to the architect…

Cutting an onion makes you cry, but that doesn’t mean you’re sad.  It simply means your body had a biological reaction to the experience.  The chemical irritant is actually known as synpropanethial oxide, which stimulates the lachrymal glands of the eyes and causes them to release tears.  Of course, there are numerous kitchen hacks and home remedies to prevent your eyes from watering, like running cold water or keeping bread…

Roosevelt famously said that comparison was the thief of joy, but there’s a comparable mindset that also robs us of our ability to relish life.  It’s the kissing cousin of comparison. Criticism.  Which has its merits insofar as growth and innovation are concerned. But there’s a fine line between the passion for continuous improvement and the compulsion to find fault in everything we encounter.  That’s what our egos don’t…

Boundary guilt occurs when we set a limit that reinforces our integrity, but then have to watch others bear their own consequences and struggle to take care of themselves.  It’s this weird version of buyer’s remorse.  The minute we step off the used car lot of life, we start questioning ourselves.  Maybe I was being selfish. Or too harsh. Or not compassionate enough with that person.  But in that…

The best way to analyze another person is to search for overcompensation.  To notice their excessive and exaggerated attempts to overcome feelings of inferiority, guilt, or inadequacy by asking the following question.  What is the impression that this individual takes the greatest trouble to convey to me?  The answer, then, is the very thing that person fears most about themselves. That’s why they do what they do.  My temperament,…

Starting in the early eighties, my grandfather started a family tradition.  Sunday mornings he’d pick up the grandkids to go out for breakfast, practice math problems in the car, and of course, feed bread to the ducks at the pond.  We did this every week for over ten years, creating many of our most cherished memories as kids.  Of course, we had no idea at the time just how…

As a job search experiment, I once showed up in the lobby of an advertising agency I was dying to work for, sat on the couch all afternoon in silence, and when the owner finally came out of his office, I marched right up to him, slammed my fist on the desk, looked him dead in the eye and said: I want a job, and I’m not leaving until…