I’ve just published a guest post at The Change Blog, “Getting Productive By ‘Getting Real,’” which is about how letting go of our need to create an image for the people we work with — whether we’re trying to look tough, likable, or something else — can actually help us get more done and find [...]

I have to admit, I cringe a little when I see personal development products offering us the ability to “make” others do what we want.  Whether it’s books about “making her attracted to you” or “getting him to commit,” CDs on “making your audience applaud” or seminars on “getting customers to close the deal,” there’s [...]

One of the most liberating realizations I’ve had in my life is that I’m not responsible for my ideas.  In other words, I can do very little to make myself become creative, except for keeping my mind open to receiving insights, and writing them down as they come up.  In this post, I’ll talk about [...]

We often hear about the importance of dreaming big, getting clear about our goals, and making lists of what we want to get done.  I think these are wonderful ideas, and I use them all myself.  I also think we need to be careful not to fall into the trap of believing that achieving any [...]

For a little departure today, I’m going to offer my take on Richard Nelson Bolles’ What Color Is Your Parachute?, the undisputed heavyweight champion of the career advice genre.  Parachute has sold over nine million copies since its 1970 debut, is still updated annually, and is the most popular book on job hunting and career change [...]

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 [...]