Thinking that the good times are going to last forever

My mentor use to train his sales and customer service agents to give something called the response before the response. After a customer complained, employees would smile and say, that’s my favorite problem, and I’m the perfect person to help. Jeffrey said this attitude helped diffuse angry customers and set the tone for a positive interaction. What’s fascinating about this strategy is, it also works on ourselves. We can respond to the slings and arrows of ordinary misery by asking...

Doesn't anybody like anyone anymore? Are we really so busy that we can’t be bothered to rustle up some respect for each another? Apparently not. Everyone is so critical, negative and angry. Our collective inability to find anything good about anyone is downright embarrassing. And at the risk of blaming technology for our interpersonal problems, here's my theory. Computers make humans meaner. They give us permission to act from our lowest selves without consequence. Think about the last time you...

Here’s a cool paradox. For certain things, we don’t need as much as we think we do. And for other things, we need much more than we think we do. Take the concept of time. The story we’ve told ourselves is that if we only had a few more hours in the day or one extra day in the week, we’d cross off everything on our list. But time, like most things, is relative. Just ask anyone who’s ever been...

Who has let you down in the past month? Maybe it was a friend who bailed on the concert at the last minute. Or a coworker who didn't meet your project deadline. Perhaps a public figure who accidentally said something offensive during a press conference. Or maybe the barista at the coffee shop put the wrong kind of milk in your drink. The list goes on and on. There are as many moments of disappointment as there are people to...

The most rewarding thing we can do is update our definition of humility. We accept that it's not a strategy, program, goal, posture or technique. It's not something we try to be. Nobody wakes up in the morning and just resolves to be humbler. We can't slip on humility like a pair of wool socks. We can't whip or will ourselves into a state of modesty like an ascetic monk. Humility a virtue that takes blood, sweat and years to...