Happiness at work & in life

Thursday Thoughts on Thriving: Oops! How Do I Recover & Thrive After That?

You know when it happens, you get that icky sinking feeling. Or for a really big one, you feel the slime of shame moving over you. The dreaded mistake, embarrassing oversight or error in judgement. It is bad enough in the moment, even worse is that it can come back again and again just by thinking about it, weeks, months or even years later! Yikes! How do you thrive through such horrible mistakes? Here are some tips. Shift to […]

Thursday Thoughts on Thriving: How Likable Are You?

Your ability to be likable can make a big difference in your thriving at work and at home. And this does not mean you are that guy that has no guts to say anything, goes along with whatever you say and then is passive aggressive later (you know he is more slippery than likable). I came across this article, “6 Habits of Remarkable Likable People” on INC’s web site and loved Jeff Haden’s points, especially about how to ask […]

Thursday Thoughts on Thriving: Without This Skill, Thriving Is Impossible

In order to thrive, relationships are key and in both personal and business relationships, empathy is the skill you cannot be without. In my prior post from last October, “The Most Impactful Skill for Negotiating Agreement” (linked) I wrote about how understanding of the other person’s perspective/position is crucial for influencing the outcome and it is more impactful if this understanding is obtained prior to selling your own position. Adding to this, beyond the negotiating table, if you grow […]

Thursday Thoughts on Thriving: Love or Hate on Valentine’s Day?

It is so easy to hate that guy that drives you crazy with his right-wing remarks about how everyone should own a semi-automatic gun or that liberal who keeps saying that no one should ever own a gun or have even more justified hate toward that crazy guy who went on a shooting spree and killed so many innocent people and it so easy to feel deep hatred toward those evil Taliban people spreading their atrocities against innocent people […]

Thursday Thoughts on Thriving: Just Surviving?

“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” – Maya Angelou What would you include in your life mission that takes you from surviving to thriving? I like Maya’s ideas and I’d add some fun and creativity in there too. Give yourself some time this week to think about what you want in your life and work to continue or increase […]

Thursday Thoughts on Thriving: Worse, Same or Better? 2

How are you doing/feeling? Compared to last week, yesterday, last month, last year; are you worse, the same or better? Comparisons to others are dangerous and draining, but I always encourage my clients to compare to themselves to assess where they are on their journey of thriving or after their latest negotiation or completion of a big project. Was the result about the same, worse or better than the last negotiation or project? If not better then what would […]

Thursday Thoughts on Thriving: The Gifts That Keep On Giving

Every day is a gift, some gifts are just best better than others. As I go into my 50th day in the hospital caring for Walt, I sometimes have to fight off the feeling that it is just one more day of these same walls, the same cafeteria, the doctors doing more tests, the same sad looks on Walt’s face as the guy I love is lost in his struggle of maintaining some level of faith that he will […]

Thursday Thoughts on Thriving: Simplicity 4

I was reminded this week of a term we used in my prior corporate days: “KISS-Keep It Simple Stupid!” “It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessentials.” – Bruce Lee In my Coach training I went through a process of looking at all the things during my day (both personal and work time) that I “tolerated.” The challenge was to come up with 100 of these things that did not add to my […]

Thursday Thoughts on Thriving: Choose Thriving with Top Ten Tactics

My apologies for missing the past few Thursdays! I wasn’t off relaxing at a spa or slacking off for the holidays, unfortunately I am helping my significant other, Walt, while he is on the road to recovery with multiple (five total) surgeries due to major complications with open heart surgery. Today is day 30 for him in the hospital and day 29 for me in a hotel across the street (it is a longer story of how we ended […]

Thursday Thoughts on Thriving: Life Is About Not Knowing

Last week, I was remembering the very funny Gilda Radner and her late 1970’s SNL character, “Rosanne Roseannadanna.” I was in the high humidity of Florida and my hair grew as big as her character’s…This week, I came across this great quote, “I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and […]