Since starting my own business in July 2001, just weeks before the world changed in September 2001, there have been no shortage of, um, challenges. 9/11 itself was one of the first. There has always been some problem, some obstacle. This Gloomy Gus really summed it up for me: "There are no pleasant surprises when [...]
This blogging thing can be a head game. I have a tendency to want to write something profound, important, BIG. Big ideas. Big inspiration. The Bible in one page. Real success is probably something smaller. People want to feel that they are are not alone. That their fears are shared. That they are understood. That [...]
I played Pickleball last week. I am going to a Kenny Chesney concert next week. These two things have one thing in common: I was only vaguely aware of them. But after I said yes I was opened not only to the things themselves, but the attitudes and cultures surrounding them. The Tribes, if you [...]
I have discussed this before, but I still marvel at the phenomenon. I blog daily. I love it. It makes my heart sing. Work gushes in. I mean gushes in. Like a fire hose. There is no cause and effect I can identify, but I end up tempted to give up blogging. The pressure to [...]
To date I have published almost 300 blog posts. Recently, I started publishing a blog every day, seven days a week. And I love it. Writing is deeply fulfilling and I hope I can offer some encouragement, wisdom and insight. And maybe bring a smile. Maybe. It bothers me that my writing is often not [...]
In his book, Willpower Doesn't Work, Benjamin Hardy argues that creating environment, not the will to succeed, is the way to create new and positive habits. Let's say that you want to write every day, which is, not coincidentally, a goal of mine. In the past I tried to force myself to write. I left [...]
As an English major in college I did a lot of writing, but I found it difficult to sit in a room, alone, and write. The blank page was just too much. I found that the ideas flowed better when I found a comfortable seat in a busy public place. I needed the stimulation. If [...]
I know it is a little odd, but as a youngster I had a fantasy of being a Gentleman's Gentleman. Of serving and helping a great man, well, be great. Maybe this fantasy wasn't so odd. After all, who wants the burden of being great themselves? Isn't it better, safer and easier to bask in [...]
My golf game improved after a friend (and single digit handicapper) advised me to relax my grip. "On a scale of one to ten, one being the club slides out of your hand and ten being a white knuckle death grip," he said, "you should be at a three." Not only has my game improved, [...]
Journaling, and its outgoing cousin, blogging, is one of the most helpful therapeutic devices available to the average person. I am a big fan. I use an online journal called Penzu because it works on all of my devices and I can even dictate on it when I am in the car. Plus it has [...]
Answer Yes or No to the following: Is the work you do every day repetitive? Do you know the answer before you start? Can someone be trained to do what you do in a month or less? Is what you do something that any healthy adult can do? Does your work involve forms of any [...]
I have an affliction. It is incurable. It was first identified by The Buddha, who called it Kapicitta. Today we call it monkey mind. The incessant chattering of internal monologue. Monkey Mind sufferers are easy to spot. They can't sit still. They can't finish a task. They walk into rooms and forget why they went there [...]
Give away money. Want to grow? Take a risk. Want to get better? Make a mistake. Want to make art? Risk embarrassment. Want gratitude? Visit a children's hospital.
I take issue with modern psychology. Sure we want to uncover repressed issues and deal with them, but discussing a problem ad nauseam hardly seems like the path to peace of mind. After all, nothing makes a wound fester like scratching at the scab. Let's say you bought a baby cobra (yes, a cobra, stick [...]
I have done some reading lately by and about a Dutchman named Wim Hof. For years Hof, using himself as a guinea pig, has done experiments on the limits of human endurance (okay, some of them were stunts), specifically resistance to cold. Hof discovered that exposure to cold increases the number of brown fat cells, [...]
When was the last time you: Updated your curriculum vitae? Updated your website? Checked in with your best customers? Sent a thank you note? Got new photos taken? Asked for a testimonial? Increased your prices? Really challenged yourself? Made some art? Today would be a good time. Pick one.
Look, I know what you are going through. You have a problem, and it seems insurmountable. But it is not. Yes, there may be some hard choices. Things may not be the same. Maybe it is time things changed. You are being prompted to move on. So move on.
Here is what you can control: How you spend your time, one day at a time. Your attitude. The rest is out of your control. So don't spend any time thinking about it.
Today they call it anxiety. They used to call it worry. It is the same thing, running a problem through your mind over and over, with no solution or resolution. I suffer from worry occasionally, and when I catch myself (I have no idea why it takes so long), I re-read Dale Carnegie's How to [...]
At my worst I get peevish and snappy and I lash out at the critic. Why? Sometimes it is just a bad day. Under other pressures I lose patience. Sometimes I just feel like the critic does not understand what I am trying to do. Sometimes I feel like the critic is embracing a bureaucratic [...]
My mom never let us watch television in the morning when we were growing up. At the time it probably had to do more with getting us out the door on time than anything else, but as always, there was wisdom behind my mother's many rules. In the past few months, sucked into politics like [...]
That's what I want to be, unrelentingly kind. But at what point is it simply the bad habit of people pleasing? And how much is just ego, wanting to be viewed as "kind?"
I have not been blogging lately. Instinctively I know this is wrong. I am resting on my laurels, as it were - today's business is due to yesterday's marketing. Which begs the question, what about tomorrow's business? And you know what else? I missed the creative side of it. But life is funny. As I [...]
The short answer: Nothing, we tend to blow things out of proportion at night when there is nothing else to think about. Here's an exercise worth trying. If anything is giving you anxiety, that oh-so-special tightness in the chest, especially at night, write it down. Two weeks later read what you wrote. I guarantee you will [...]
When you hear the term Protect the Asset, what do you think? Security systems? Insurance? Wealth Management? Form an LLC? I suggest to you, fellow professional, that it is all in your head. More specifically, your brain. Your brain will make you millions of dollars over the course of your career. It is by far your [...]
I am on the Superprimo plan on Audible, so I am always pleasantly surprised that I some credits for "free" audio books waiting for me when I log in. On a lark, I downloaded The Magic Question: How To Get What You Want in Half the Time by Bart A. Baggett. The concept of affirmation has [...]
Want success and happiness? Do these things: Smile. Say thank you. Be responsive. Be friendly. Take a personal interest in your coworkers and clients. Stick to your knitting. Not all work is right for you. Develop a list of professionals you trust and refer, refer, refer. The client you refer will be impressed with your [...]
It is springtime and the Gagliano back yard is the scene of an ornithological Battle of Thermopylae. It is mating season and it is time for the Robin Rumble. And these little guys really go at it. They battle briefly and return to their corners, eyeing each other coldly. Until one guy makes a move. [...]
As you know, The Ol' Prophet is keen on technology and productivity. Here are some recommendations that may help you get more connected and efficient: ToDoist This little gem of a Task Manager is worth its weight in gold. ToDoist works on all platforms: Apple iOS (there are iPhone and iPad apps), Android, Google Chrome, [...]
Most of the time we are busy, happily buzzing along, getting things done, doing our work, taking care of our families. But let's face it - we don't take enough time off. "Time off! Are you out of your head? The Johnson project is due next week. One kid has a recital and the other [...]
I was fussing and fuming. Things weren't going my way. I was even having stress dreams. Frustrated, I was ready to declare myself a loser. With a capital L. But then I sat back and thought about it. I don't have control over this thing. There isn't a single concrete action I could take to [...]
The Consultant's Consultant, Alan Weiss, often remarks, "If you are one percent better each day, you will be twice as good in 72 days." Besides his obvious facility with compound interest, Dr. Weiss gives us some food for thought. What does 1% better every day look like? Get up five minutes earlier Stay an extra [...]
"The optimist is right. The pessimist is right. The one differs from the other as the light from the dark. Yet both are right. Each is right from his own particular point of view, and this point of view is a determining actor in the life of each. It determines as to whether it is [...]
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less is a new book by Greg McKeown that tackles the Unimportance of Practically Everything. Or, put another way, if you don't prioritize your life, someone else will. I originally bought Essentialism as an audiobook, but after I got a cold and was forced to stay home (and rest, and drink [...]
[ˈhīdˌbound / adjective - unwilling or unable to change because of tradition or convention] My industry is hidebound. Stuck. Full of rules. 50% to 70% of my reports are standard boilerplate that has to be there. That's a lot of senseless murder of trees. After the real estate crash in the early 1990s, the Federal Government decided [...]
A friend recently mentioned that she is reading John Maxwell's How Successful People Think: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life. She was a little puzzled. What does thinking look like (as opposed to reading, web surfing or sitting like a lump)? Her question brought a quote from Wallace D. Wattles to mind: "Thinking is the hardest [...]
There are four stages to learning any skill and ultimately becoming a master: Unconscious Incompetence Sometimes called "beginner's luck", at this stage the person doesn't know how little they know. The stimulus to go on depends on the person's perceived value of the skill. Conscious Incompetence In this stage, the person becomes aware of how [...]
Repeat after me, "I [state your name] will never again refer to my delivery of professional services as 'selling my time'". You know who sells their time? Day laborers. The going rate for a pair of hands and a strong back is $40 to $50 per day, plus maybe half of a hoagie. Most of [...]
It is interesting that one definition of human being includes the notion that we are of prone to error. We say, “I’m only human,” meaning, “I am make mistakes, therefore I am human.” But why do we have this fallibility? Why is it baked into our nature? What would be its purpose? Is it because [...]
Never before in human history has such creative energy been unleashed. There are billions of people creating every day in tweets, blog posts, photographs, videos, music. There is no questions that a lot of it is drivel. Some of it self-aggrandizing nonsense, mean, base and even cruel. But some of it is terrific. True expression, [...]
We’re slightly off. 23.5 degrees off, actually. By some accounts, 4.5 billion years ago a Mars-sized object collided with earth, breaking off the moon and knocking the earth sideways. But were it not for this slight tilt, the equator would be an uninhabitable inferno, and the temperate zones that most people live in would not [...]
I recently took up two new hobbies: golf and sport shooting (i.e., Skeet and Trap shooting). On a metaphysical note, both the golf hole and the clay pigeon are about four inches in diameter. Hmmm. A real Freud beard scratcher. Best I can tell, I have no natural talent for either sport. Yet I keep [...]
Writing is hard. It requires work. And discipline. And a freakin’ idea. But writing it is the best thing I can do with my time. Here’s why: “Thinking is the hardest and most exhausting of all labor; and hence many people shrink from it….Thinking is growth; you cannot think without growing. Every thought engenders another [...]
Feeling anxious? Do something. Move. First, try working directly on the problem. Make some telephone calls, draft that e-mail, confront that person. Nothing you can do about the problem right now? Write it down in a journal. Nothing formal, just a pencil and a scrap of paper. Or take a walk around the block. Read a [...]
Gratitude makes everything better because gratitude, without fail, serves to improve our attitude. And isn't our attitude what really matters? How many apparently unhappy people do you see driving very expensive cars? Or complaining that their soup is too cold? Or too hot? How many times do we grumble about our lot in life just [...]
Be kind Be generous Be thoughtful Be grateful Be peaceful Be calm Be faithful Be forgiving Be sincere Be creative Do one thing at a time Do each thing well Finish each thing Being excellent is simple. But not easy.
Birthday Girl and Good Sport Miss Karen and I had an opportunity to get some formal (and fun) firearms and self defense training at Brick Armory, which is located in Lakewood (?). I guess "Lakewood Armory" didn't have the same ring to it. The proprietors, Milton and Jaime Rivera, both NRA-certified instructors were thorough, thoughtful [...]
In the great film Bruce Almighty, Morgan Freeman's God character says to Jim Carrey's Bruce Nolan, "Bruce, you always made me laugh." The film is, of course, meant for us to rethink our relationship with God. But can we make God laugh? Can we amaze Him with our creativity? Does God take delight in what [...]
In an earlier post, I described my plans to get up earlier, add more to my morning routine and build some new habits. My goal was to focus on (1) waking earlier; (2) using that morning time to write or exercise. Another goal was to play more golf. This is more pragmatic than it sounds, [...]
Fearful that I was becoming horribly dull, I committed to Do One New Thing each month in 2013. This is the July 2013 installment. I haven't done this post in the past few month because my "new things" have been fairly mundane. For example, I am a relatively new golfer and I was afraid to play [...]
