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Personal Flight Path
“Not the cry, but the flight of the wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow.” (Chinese Proverb) Sometimes we feel like it’s our job to get others — our children, our spouse, our co-workers — to do certain things. The reality is, our job is much more interesting than that. Our job is […]
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The Gift of the Present
“The distinctive character of a child is to always live in the tangible present.” (John Ruskin) One of the things that aggravates parents most is when the kids get so zeroed in on an activity that they forget the world around them. This often happens when they’re playing a computer game, but it can occur […]
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Stop Chasing Perfection
“What is important is to keep learning, to enjoy challenge, and to tolerate ambiguity. In the end there are no certain answers.” (Martina Horner) If you’re searching for the right thing to do at the time time, every time, I have some sobering news for you: You never “arrive”. You’ll never get to the place […]
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Sleep Better Than a Baby
“People who say they sleep like a baby usually don’t have one.” (Leo J. Burke) There are few things in life worse than a sleepless night — except for maybe an endless string of them. When you’re sleep deprived, food doesn’t taste as good, colors don’t look as bright, and things that normally wouldn’t bother […]
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Stand By You
“You can stand tall without standing on someone.” (Harriet Woods) One of the interesting conundrums the Self-Esteem movement created goes as follows: we try to praise our kids into competitive accomplishment, then we want to protect them when they fall short by telling them life is not about competition, it’s about just being yourself. Similarly, we […]
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Go Ahead and Mess Up
“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing” (George Bernard Shaw) So many of us find ourselves paralyzed by possibilities. Whether it’s choosing how to interact with a potential partner or one of our children or choosing a new career path, the stakes seem […]
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How to Be Heard
“Be sincere; be brief; be seated.” (Benjamin Franklin) Say what you will about his politics, FDR has rightfully been acknowledged as one of history’s great orators. And now you know the secret to his success. As the new election cycle gets ramped up, we should be talking about the big issues of life — at […]
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Worry Sucks
“Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.” (Benjamin Franklin) Worry sucks. It sucks away your time, your energy, your joy, your hope. And yet we are a society of world-class worriers, fed by a 24-hour news cycle, 500 cable channels, and ubiquitous internet alerts. Everywhere you turn, […]
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Speaking of Our Kids….
“Children are apt to live up to what you believe of them.” (Lady Bird Johnson) How we talk about our children is more important that how we talk to them. One of the reasons is because how we talk about our children is very reflective of what we really believe about them. If we complain […]
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More than Power
“We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.” (Stuart L. Udall) Everyone has at least a little power — over family members, co-workers, neighbors, or even strangers. The question isn’t whether or not you have power. The real question is: What are you going to do with it? Too often we believe power is an […]