(This piece is an “unofficial sequel” to my last post, “Why I Don’t Force Myself To Be Happy.”)
Do you feel like you’re only creative in certain moments?  I’ve worked with several people who said they only produce decent work at specific times of day, or when they’re in particular moods.  The rest of the time, [...]

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 [...]

There’s a nasty mental trap we often fall into when we’re considering trying something new, whether in our business, our social lives, or somewhere else.  I’m talking about what’s often called “the chicken or egg problem.”  The way of thinking I mean goes like this:  “I can’t do A unless I do B, but I [...]

(This is the second part of a series I began a few months back with “Don’t Wait To Do Your ‘Real Work’,” an article about overcoming the fears that often hold us back from pursuing work that genuinely excites us.)
Much has been written about the importance of finding work that not only supports you financially [...]

If you’ve read personal development literature, you’re probably familiar with the idea of affirmations.  When we say an affirmation, we affirm some positive quality we have—examples would include saying “I am lovable,” “I am powerful,” “I am charismatic,” and so on.  The idea is to convince our unconscious minds to adopt these beliefs, and ultimately [...]

I have a friend who, until lately, always seemed upset about something.  If he wasn’t complaining about how someone in his personal life frustrated or let him down, he’d be angry about some current event in the world.  If someone asked why he was so upset, he’d usually insist that any reasonable person would be [...]

Much of today’s personal development literature is about how the type of thoughts you think influence your reality.  Some authors focus on how what you think about tends to appear in the world.  For example, in their view, if you constantly visualize a beautiful house, you’re likely to eventually live in one, and if you’re [...]

If you’ve read self-help literature, you’ve probably heard about the “inner critic”—the mental voice that constantly tells you that you’re not good enough, and bombards you with memories of difficult events and visions of nightmarish possible futures.  There are many schools of thought on how to deal with the critic, and most focus on developing [...]

Recently, a friend told me she’d like to feel more optimistic.  She would like to believe that the world is a fundamentally good place, and that, no matter how difficult her life may seem right now, things will work out all right in the end.  But when she looks at the world, all she seems [...]