It’s not just a line from the Alan Parsons Project — it’s the truth.
I know how you’re feeling and what your intentions are.  What’s more, everyone else does too.  Human beings are extremely empathic creatures.
I’m exaggerating a little — sometimes you can trick people into buying your facade.  But much of the time, when you [...]

I’m excited to announce that I’ve launched a new blog I’ve been thinking about for some time.  It’s not a replacement for this blog — I’m going to keep writing for both of them, because each of them deals with a different aspect of my work.  The new blog is called Development In Context (or [...]

Many of us know the story of Narcissus — the boy who drowned because he fell in love with his reflection in a lake, and jumped in hoping to embrace his image.  At first glance, this story seems to be about the dangers of loving yourself too much.  If Narcissus had only taken his attention [...]

 
As I’m sure you know, some people doubt that personal growth work has practical benefits.  Some scoff at the idea of working with our thoughts and emotions, seeing it as just a tree-hugging hippie way of escaping the harsh reality of survival and conflict.  Others only see value in personal development work that teaches nonstop [...]

As some of you know, I recently released a book called Inner Productivity: A Mindful Path to Efficiency and Enjoyment in Your Work.  While most productivity books are about techniques for rearranging your outer circumstances, like making to-do lists and organizing your inbox, Inner Productivity is about dealing with obstacles to getting work done that [...]

Like many people, finding happiness used to be my goal in life, and as an avid consumer of personal development products I learned a lot of techniques for getting there.  You’ve probably heard many of these:  think positive thoughts, force yourself to smile, take a warm bath, and so on.
For a while, I diligently used [...]

Many of us on a “personal development” or “spiritual” path harbor the secret hope that, one day, we’ll be “fixed.”  If we work hard enough at visualizing what we want, pushing our comfort zone, saying affirmations, or whatever we normally do, one day we’ll get rid of all the parts of ourselves we don’t want.  [...]

I already admitted in an earlier post that I like heavy metal, so I probably can’t make the situation any worse by doing another post about the metal songs that inspire me to fearless action.  I’m joking, I’m not ashamed of my love of metal—or, to use the militaristic language common to these kinds of [...]

One thing that’s hit home for me, in giving workshops on using meditation and other spiritual practices to transcend procrastination, is how deeply personal and unique everyone’s hangups and concerns about their careers are.  To use procrastination as an example, some people put off working to avoid anxiety about how others will receive what they [...]

 I find puffins irresistible.  When I see them (or pictures of them) my usual instinct is to hug myself and say “aww,” or coo like a newborn.
Why am I telling you this?  Because becoming able to get so much pleasure out of  funny-looking seabirds, and admit it on the Internet, was a major step in [...]