37 Shares Picture this… You’ve decided you want to get in shape. Get a little fitter, healthier and stronger. Buff up and gain some muscle. Possibly even a six-pack. You head off to the local gym, sign on the dotted line, hand over some cash and then head straight home. You would have done a workout on the spot but it wasn’t really a good time. So the following day you get up, put on your new gym outfit – the one you bought on credit – and head off to the club. You... More »
18 Shares In this uncertain economy people need to do more with less, make do, do without, do the math, and do it themselves. Why not DO SOMETHING by investing time in getting organized? Here are eight motivating reasons to do it now: Save money by knowing what you have. If you already know that you have three black turtleneck sweaters, you probably will not buy another one. Visibility should be one of the primary goals of any organizing project; in other words, can you easily see and find what you have? Save money... More »
28 Shares Towel throwers and ball droppers People often ask me why it is that they seem to have so much trouble sticking with their commitment to changing certain behaviours and habits; doing what they need to do to create the results they want for their life. Even though they desperately want to change something about their existence, it seems that invariably there comes a time when they simply stop whatever it was that they started. They drop the ball. Throw in the towel. Put the cue in the rack. Start-stop-aholics Why we do... More »
3.3K Shares The time has come when we cannot just rely on others to make the world a better place – each one of us has to do our bit. It is therefore time for people to be more and more aware about their Personal Social Responsibility (PSR). PSR is all about doing to others what you would like others do to you. It is about recognizing how your behaviour affects others, and holding yourself accountable for your actions. For example, contrast someone being well mannered and kind, with someone being rude. And this... More »
63 Shares The world, it seems, is going downhill fast. Everyone has a take on what’s wrong: liberals over-regulating everything, conservatives decimating the principles of governance, immigrants refusing to blend in, racists bashing immigrants, poor parenting, non-family-friendly policies, corporations bound to short-term profits instead of long-term social responsibilities, activists hampering corporate innovation, and of course the Jews, always the Jews. You name it, someone’s upset by it and the negative effect it causes in the world, by the sheer affront to decent people’s values that the world poses. The problem is, the problems facing... More »
14.6K Shares So I thought that I might write a quick review of every self-help book ever written all right here in this one little article. Simple enough. I love the easy jobs. Surely it couldn’t be that hard, could it? I figured that maybe I could take the important lessons from every self-help book I’ve read and every life experience I’ve endured, condense all that into fifty key points and save everybody a whole bunch of reading time. Sure, global book sales in the self-help field might take a down-turn for a decade... More »
347 Shares A couple of days ago I listed 10 of the tools I find essential whenever I travel, along with a bunch of related tips. Today, I have more tips, this time disconnected from any particular tool or gadget. Because most of the traveling I’ve done as an adult has consisted of longish trips overseas, these tips are going to tend to be more useful for Americans traveling abroad over two weeks or more. (Though there are a couple that really only apply to short trips.) I can’t really change that; it’s who... More »
13.8K Shares I grew up traveling. My dad was a manufacturer’s representative in home furnishings, which meant he did a tour of all the furniture stores in the Midwest every few months. In the summers, we went with him, exploring the tiniest of Midwestern towns while he showed the fall line in some Main Street furniture store. After college, I headed to London. When my 6-month work visa expired, I traveled Europe for a month before settling down for a few months to an Army base job in Heidelberg. Since I had built a... More »
Stop me if you’ve heard this before… it’s a good idea to differentiate your luggage by tying a brightly-colored object to the handle… oh, you’ve heard that one? Here are some tips that may not be as common, based on experience and mistakes I have personally made or have learned about from my frequent flier clients and colleagues. Don’t travel with gel pens. One time I fell asleep on a plane while holding a gel roller-ball pen in my hand. I woke up with a pool of black ink all over my... More »
65 Shares Against all odds, I became a world traveler in my 25th year. It began, as all things inevitably do, with a girl. I thought it was ever-lasting love. She was setting out for a year abroad — a summer in Germany, then an academic year in England. I decided, halfway through our summer apart, that I’d join her in England. Ah, youth. The relationship didn’t even last until my departure date, but with tickets bought, baggage acquired, traveler’s cheques already paid for, I decided, “Why not?” Best decision I ever made. What... More »
204 Shares So there I was at seven thirty in the a.m., perched on my scooter at an intersection waiting to turn. I was sitting at the lights lost in my own thoughts when all of a sudden I became aware of a presence… no, not a poltergeist; a bloke on a mountain bike had pulled up along side me. Three feet away. Coulda touched him. Game face on… waiting for the green signal. Like an Olympian waiting for the starters gun. Focused. Committed. And dressed atrociously. Didn’t matter… it’s all about function. I... More »
142 Shares OK, I’m done with procrastinating. I’m done with the guilt, anxiety, stress — and, of course, the not getting stuff done. I’m tired of answering “what’d you do today” with “nothing…”. Of course, it’s a lie — I did do something, just not anything important. Not anything that made me feel happier, more complete, or more relaxed. What I did today was spend 8 hours kicking myself, putting myself down, and telling myself “I’ve really got to do…” Why procrastination is always easy to do right now Psychologists tell me that the... More »
48 Shares It must be morning; I’m hungry. Then again, I’m always hungry, so it could really be any time. I can hear the shower and feel the sun on my back, so I’m guessing the Boss is awake. I lift my head off my bed and look down the passage. I want a shower too. Sometimes I try and get in but he won’t let me. Boring. He’s not so happy in the mornings any more. He used to be, but things have changed. I think it’s stress. Not really sure what that... More »
16 Shares Our memory is one of the integral parts of day-to-day human life. We’re using it every moment, consciously or not, as we perceive the world and interpret it based on our memories and experiences, or as we look for the car keys, trying to recall where, exactly, was the last place they were seen? It’s no small wonder that this part of our brain would fall prey to such inefficiency and failure, given the busy pace of Western life and the constant barrage of information that the hippocampus must somehow keep up... More »
Like it or loath it, we all have a relationship with money. We don’t really have a choice; it’s somewhat of a necessity. Unless of course you’re a skilled hunter, gatherer, farmer, living entirely off the land in your own hand-built hut, wearing animal skins and residing in some remote, exotic location. Who happens to have Internet access. Of course. Part of the human experience Money means different things to different people. Or different things for the same people at different stages of their journey – stress, anxiety, freedom, choices, arguments, happiness,... More »
