Renie Cavallari wrote an article recently for careerbuilder.com that contained some excellent advice for getting ahead at work. The key is to be willing to go the extra mile with a positive attitude and a smile on your face. This includes staying late if necessary to finish a project, helping clean up a mess even…
An article by Elizabeth Bernstein, which recently appeared in The Wall Street Journal, contained some excellent advice for being a good conversationalist. First, ask lots of questions. According to the article, “People love to talk about themselves and often will think you are a great conversationalist if you talk about them and not yourself.” For…
There’s no time like the present to be happy because the present is all we have. Furthermore, self-indulgent things and experiences don’t make us happy. Rather, our happiness is the byproduct of the actions we take to make others happy. These can be simple little things like complementing people on what they’re wearing of something…
My youngest daughter landed a job teaching second grade this year. It’s the perfect job for her since she loves young children and she loves to teach. For the past two weeks, she has been working 12 hour days getting her classroom ready for the school year to start. All the while she has a…
I came across this poem by Edgar Guest. He was born in England, but spent most of his adult life in Detroit writing regularly for the Detroit Free Press. During his life, he wrote more than 11,000 poems all of which contained excellent advice for getting the most out of life. The one below contains…
Most people tend to hang out with people who are roughly their same age – and for good reason. Their children are probably close to the same ages, they grew up in the same era and remember many of the same historical events; so there’s a certain comfort level associated with doing this. As comfortable…
Actor Denzel Washington was the commencement speaker recently at the University of Pennsylvania. He had the following advice for the graduating class: “I’ve found that nothing in life is worthwhile unless you take risks. Nothing. Nelson Mandela said, ‘There is no passion to be found in playing small – in settling for a life that’s…
I attended a party recently where one of the guests was intent on bragging about his latest exploits. I watched as he moved from group to group trying to get people to listen to his story. As soon as he started talking about himself, one by one, people in the group would excuse themselves and…
Most of us are not afraid to try new things; we just don’t make it a priority. Then, when we do try something new and realize how positive the experience was, we often kick ourselves for not having done it sooner. Trying new things enriches your life in a number of ways: It allows you…
Maya Angelou appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show recently and said, “I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he or she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage and tangled Christmas tree lights.” Maya is right on the money. If you can negotiate events like this…