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New Paper Hats

My more evolved friends don’t appear to be having an issue with this, so I want to make something clear from the outset. I’m writing about my own hang-up here. When did it stop being cool to wear paper hats? One morning I was picking up doughnuts for work (yes, and extras to scarf in […]

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Time To Let Go

When you think about a memory… an object… a person that’s taking up space in your life, does it ever feel like you’re looking down from a scary height? Maybe it’s time to let go. I sold my Fight Club DVD a couple weeks ago, along with dozens of others that were just taking up space. Looking at […]

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Change

A Safer Portfolio

I never realized how much of my identity was wrapped up in my stuff, my job description or my relationships until it all started changing – if not disappearing outright. I decided to try a new investment strategy. The other day I heard this quote attributed to the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu. He said, “that […]

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Connect

Why Connections Matter

You may doubt that it’s possible, but sometimes the first word of a message can tell you a lot about the sender, and the first sentence in general can be pretty revealing. How great would it be to really connect with people during those first few syllables? There it is, right in the opening line. […]

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Your Four Creative Aces

It’s your World Series, game seven lineup. Which will you cut – your hitters or your fielders? Ridiculous, right? You might be doing the same thing at work without realizing it. If the game matters, then it pays to play your aces in every key position. The creative process works that way too. When you […]

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Change

Why You’re Still Alive

Change is tricky. For a start, we bump up against it as both a noun and verb. As a descriptive word, it’s a way of understanding the world around us – something that’s always in motion – always carrying us to the next “now.” As an action word, it can be a command or a […]

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Connect

The Hidden Risk of Tuning Out

Hey! Are you listening? You might be tuning out without even realizing it. When we’re not fully present for certain conversations, we can pay an extremely high price. As Michael Hyatt points out in his book Platform, we live in an increasingly noisy world. As if your to do list weren’t already overwhelming enough, scientists […]

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Change

Enlarge Your Vision

An inspiring father-daughter creative team surprised me with a timely reminder about my own assumptions, and this is it – they’re ALL imaginary. Over the past few months I’ve been reconsidering a lot of the assumptions I’ve made about work, life, love and relationships. It turns out that most of the perceived limitations, obstacles or […]

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Change

There’s Room For You

I learned an important life lesson from Malcolm C. Dankner’s “Jazz and Standards” radio show. Here it is in a nutshell – if it really matters to you, there’s a way in. The first time I set foot in a radio station, it was like entering a shrine. I grew up listening to legendary AM […]

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How You’re Like Neil Armstrong

You may never visit the moon, but you could have more in common with Neil Armstrong than you think. Even if that’s only partly true, when you consider how far he went, it might be worth looking into. The events leading up to Neil Armstrong’s footprints on the moon played a big part in shaping […]