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All hurt has a beginning, middle and end. In the moments when it life seems on the brink of falling apart, our faith really can walk us through the hard times. But we have to be willing to reframe our understanding of the word. Because faith one of those loaded terms. Think of all the social, cultural and doctrinal baggage that weighs it down. Faith has been misused, abused…

Hiring positive people is the great force multiplier for any organization. One, because they’re enjoyable to work with and their energy is infectious to the rest of the team. And two, because positive people tend to be more solution oriented. They’re better at coping with the inevitable adversity of running a business. Their personalities are designed to flourish in the harsh soil of extreme uncertainty. Imagine you run a…

The fear that we are merely one of many, rather than one of a kind, is completely normal. Who doesn’t have at least some desire to be special? Some of us, myself included, are what psychologists would call insistent individuals. We build our identity around how unlike everyone else we are. Our need to feel different and special and fundamentally different from others is our primary motivational driver. This…

Everyone has that one friend who sees too much. Someone who looks too far into everything. Someone who makes spontaneous inferences based on observing a single interaction. Someone who compulsively raises and weighs the potential explanations for why things happened to them. It’s quite exhausting to be around. Listening to your friend tumble down the rabbit hole of useless rumination over a one word text message from some guy…

From an evolutionary perspective, an adaptive trait is a behavior or physical characteristic that enables or enhances the probability that they will survive. For example, humans sweat to regulate their body temperature and endure long periods of physical movement. This adaptation allowed prehistoric humans to excel at hunting. They could jog after large prey under the midday sun until the animals eventually died from exhaustion. But the paradox of…

You don’t suffer from workaholism, the people in your life do. People who overindulge in their careers often do so at the exclusion of their personal relationships. Wedded to their work, they have no time left over for others. Loved ones are left with crumbs. Emotional leftovers. Whatever remains of the day that trickle down their collar. Ask anyone who knew me in my twenties, they’ll verify the collateral…

Working at a startup offers no shortage of opportunities to be flexible. On any given day, you might be asked to do any number of unexpected things. Here’s a list from my own work experience. Reprioritize on the fly when project timeline suddenly gets cut in half. Jump right in on challenging tasks where you have zero direct experience. Move workstations to the other side of the office so…

Trauma is not what happens to us, but what happens inside of us. Whatever event went down, whatever thing turned out to be too much, too soon and too fast, it was just the trigger. Vanderkolk, the foremost physician on the subject, writes that trauma is the imprint that event left on our mind, brain and body. The thing is, the part of our brain that is devoted to ensuring our…

Each of us is compelled to do things by inner thoughts and feelings that may or may not be helpful. As such, each day brings us a chance to either deepen our sense of inner peace by thinking thoughts that serve us, or deepen our sense of anxiety by jumping on the hamster wheel of rumination. It all depends on what kind of relationship we have with our own…

And as a result of the pandemic, I’ve spent the last year focusing much of my attention on how to make the most of the challenges. I released a new book titled Personal Creativity Management and launched GetProlific.io, an online community where people can find an effervescent fountain filled with vivid and compelling ideas dedicated solely to helping people see, smell, taste and even experience how they can dramatically…