When you tell your boss your job goals, she’s going to check back and see how you’re doing. If you commit to an exercise plan with your personal trainer, he’ll ask how you did last week. We even let children hold us responsible: “Daddy, you promised we could go to the zoo today!” This is…
Time Management 101: Time Isn’t Money
Let me guess. You’re busy. There aren’t enough hours in the day for you to do what you need to do. Your to-do list is out of control. E-mail is burying you and wasting your time—you’ve got hundreds, maybe thousands, in your inbox. Your office is a mess of piles. Any of this sound familiar?…
No You Don’t: Getting Honest about Behavior Change
“I want to start exercising.” “I want to get more organized.” “I want to quit smoking.” “I want to train myself to get to work earlier in the morning.” “I want to learn to be more patient.” We’ve all heard people say things like this—or we’ve said them ourselves. But guess what? These are usually…
Hook a New Habit: A Smart Tip for Behavior Change
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: behavior change is just plain difficult. Why? Because that old behavior is on autopilot. It’s so ingrained that it’s simply second nature. So changing it is like kicking a familiar old habit. But fortunately, I have a trick—a tool that actually leverages old habits into positive…
Crisis, Change, and Fiscal Cliffs: What Congress Isn’t Doing Wrong
The fiscal cliff. The sequester. The continuing resolution. Whatever name we’re using to describe Congress’s budget predicament of the moment, the media’s tone of consternation remains consistent and seems tinged with a sort of looming dread. As if these “crises” are like asteroid collisions or threatening weather events—things that are about to happen to us.…
The Law of Compensation II: How to Increase Your Value
In my last blog post, The Law of Compensation: How to Make More in Any Year, I promised to follow up by answering a simple and essential question: How? How do we constantly make ourselves more valuable? As many of my readers know, I think there’s great power in brevity. So, I’ve selected 3 brief…
