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There is so little in life we can actually fix. Even when we do, everything fix seems to just break something else. It’s like those video game developers are fond of saying. You haven’t fixed anything, you’ve merely changed the problem. And so, whatever it is that we think we need to fix, perhaps what we really need is to fix is how we think about it. Because unlike…

Valve, the award winning software company whose employee handbook went viral, asks this question of its team members. How much do you contribute at a larger scope than your core skill? It’s the counterintuitive question that all of us should be asking ourselves. Because typically, if a task or a project falls outside of our core competency, we’re told to delete, delegate, outsource, postpone, ignore or forget about it….

Nobody knows why it gets worse before it gets better. All healing is a complicated, frustrating journey that take longer than we’d like it to. But if we don’t have realistic expectations about what our healing looks like, then that journey is going to feel even longer. My therapist used to tease me ever time my impatience tried to rush my body into feeling better faster. Hurry and relax,…

My friend who works for a television network jokes that most actors read scripts like this. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, my line, bullshit, bullshit, my line. It’s a silly but truthful example of how empathy is not natural, it is learned. Like most emotional skills, it requires imagination, practice and encouragement. Deliberate and conscious development. Which is probably why empathy has been in increasingly short supply over the past few…

When you live in a big city, the first lesson you learn is, pee before you leave. The second lesson you learn is, every micro interaction costs energy. It’s the very harsh but very real economics of urban living. Strangers are not going to stop, look you in the eye and reward you with a crumble of their attention, simply because you’re in in their line of sight. It’s…

Fomo is the feeling of anxiety or insecurity over the possibility of missing out on something, like an event or an opportunity. Not only has this term been added to the official dictionary, but it has also become a staple of our cultural lexicon. To me, this whole idea is disgusting. Six billion people, and every last one of them trying to have it all? Fomo is just another…

The thing about telling my nametag story to new people is, there’s a certain amount of processing time that has to occur. In fact, relativity comes into play. Stick with me here, this is about to get weird. Okay, so, in the field of physics, relativity is the dependence of various phenomena on relative motion of the observer and the observed objects, especially regarding the nature and behavior of…

Compassion isn’t just a sentimental idea, it’s a survival tool. Especially when directed within. Our willingness and ability to be sensitive to our own distress builds an innate resilience that keeps us on balance and moving forward. That’s why compassion is now being taught in elementary schools alongside reading, writing and arithmetic. It’s a force multiplier. It’s the capability that significantly enhances the probability of success. Gilbert actually discovered…

The merits of failure are vastly overstated in our culture. We are obsessed with bragging about how badly we screwed up, just to earn another precious shred of street credibility from people we don’t even know. But in most cases, that’s just false humility. It’s a performance in the art of failure porn. Certainly, we all screw up and hopefully grow from that experience. But the more life giving…

When you get a stomach virus, your mind immediately goes to one of two places. The first is paranoia. Okay, where did the sickness come from? Maybe the fish from last night? Or that snot nosed toddler at the holiday party who coughed all over me? Is it covid coming to get me? The second place that our mind goes to is worry. Alright, what does this mean for…