In the 1979 comedy movie “A Little Romance”, Sir Laurence Olivier plays a devilish, but charming character named Julius. Julius has shared a legend with two young characters in the movie who believe him, but later find out that the legend is a lie. When they confront him about the lie, Julius says,” What are […]
legends, powerful, sharing
I was walking through an empty parking lot outside the Starbucks the other day and saw the following: Someone pulled into the lot, got out of his car, and walked up to the front door. It was dark inside, nobody there. He tried the front door and found it locked. He looked inside again and […]
mindset, Motivation, persistence, try
In his excellent book Listening with the Third Ear, the analyst Theodor Reik makes the point that sometimes people who seem to be seeking advice or actually looking for permission to do something they’ve already decided to do. You will know that’s happening when someone who comes to you with advice already has a solution, […]
Communication, Listening
In ancient times, there was something called a “touchstone.” This was a dark colored stone was used to determine the purity of gold or silver that was scraped across it, based on the color that it would produce. In life, you can be a touchstone for the people that you care about by reflecting back […]
leader for others, sharing, touchstone
Sometimes, when trying to solve a problem, you can hit a wall. The answers or the solutions just aren’t coming to you, no matter how much you think about it. And that can be really frustrating. One way of dealing with this is to look around your world for some random phrase or idea that […]
decision making, Decisions, fortune cookie
When I was in high school, I worked at a sub shop. One day, there was a little kid at the counter who was covering and uncovering his ears. If you’ve ever done that in a noisy environment, you know it changes your perception of the sound around you. A few people were looking at […]
advice, Confidence, self confidence, sub shop
My grandmother once told me,” If you are wanted a lot, go a little. If you’re wanted a little, don’t go at all.” It was her ways of helping me avoid wearing out my welcome, but it also brings up how much life can be lived at the level of acceptance and rejection. Although you […]
acceptance, advice, grandmother
One of my favorite quotations is from Winston Churchill who said,” When you’re going through hell, keep going.” It’s an outstanding reminder that no matter how bad things get, our ability to keep moving forward, to keep putting one foot after the other, to keep going, is critically important. That’s especially true in situations when […]
keep going, perserverance, push through, winston churchill
There’s a term in cooking called the “smoke point” of a cooking oil. That’s when the oil gets so hot it starts to break down, burn and, smoke. I think people are like that, too! We have points where we get so frustrated or angry we start to break down, burn, and smoke … and […]
anger, frustrations, smoke point
