One of my goals this year is to streamline my life.  I know… me and everyone else.  But this year I am finally serious.  I have way too many projects to keep track of, and if I don’t streamline I will be crushed.  Metaphorically speaking I hope. Naturally this means I’ve been looking at everything through an inefficiency standpoint.  What is wasteful?  What adds time and uselessness to my life?  What detracts value? Trendnet does.  You see I bought a wireless internet card from them (which I love).  But it came with a rebate.  Now I understand the whole purpose of the ...

It’s human nature to complain.  It’s also human nature to try and appease those who complain.  But this might be the worst thing you can do.  Forget the fact that you’re reinforcing the wrong behavior (would you let your kid go out with their friends on Friday if they didn’t come home last weekend?) The real problem with greasing the squeaky wheel is that we’re destroying our chances of creating change. Whenever we create change, we’re going to produce a lot of squeaky wheels.  People aren’t going to want to change.  They might like the old systems.  Or maybe they are in ...

It’s often said that we “fear change.”  But I’m not sure that’s right.  I don’t think it’s change that we fear.  Each and every day we change.  We eat new foods.  We wear new clothes (I hope!).  We might even take a new way to work or listen to a new song.  The list of things that changes on day-to-day basis is astounding. We don’t fear change. We fear failure. This is why we don’t pursue our dreams.  This is why we don’t bring meaning to work.  If we did, we might not succeed.  Maybe our dream job would turn out to be ...

In the original post on the Myth of Stability I mentioned that people like, perhaps even need, stability.  It's how we predict what's going to happen to us in the future.  It's how we talk ourselves into falling asleep at night.  It's how we get up to face the next day.  Because lets face it, if you knew disaster was just around the bend, would you really feel like getting up? But I must concede, not everyone seems to like stability.  Take, for instance, ...

Stability.  We all want it.  We want our days to be predictable and even a bit mundane. "Wait a second," you may be thinking, "I want excitement in my life.  I don't want it to be boring." Unless you're name is Evel Knievel, I doubt that very much.  Don't get me wrong, we love the illusion of danger and excitement - that's why roller coasters are so popular.  But we don't really want true danger.  If we did, why can't we walk outside without SPF 50 sunscreen?  Why are we worried about eating non-organic food? We want excitement as long ...

In today's world things don't last long. Not even championship games. Being a huge Steelers fan I loved their SuperBowl run this year.  I watched dozens of hours worth of pre-game shows.  I read any article that mentioned the Steelers.  Frankly I loved every minute of it.  Even the game was intense.  Some have said the Steelers victory over the Cardinals was an all time classic.  Don Banks of Sports Illustrated even described it as "the best Super Bowl in history". Despite the accolades and endless pre-game material, the broadcast was over ...