What are you avoiding today? Is it a conflict, a hard conversation you need to have, dealing with a work situation, disciplining your child consistently—that thing about yourself? You know what it is. It’s been bothering you—nagging, really. But you keep burying it. But like a zombie that won’t die and keeps crawling back out…More
Category Archives: life
The difference you can make
Being different is the difference that makes you stand out. See, many of us hate being different. It makes us feel alone, ostracized, alienated. I know. I remember being one of the few Asians in my elementary school class. And, yes, people made fun of me for being different. It hurt. I cried. But later,…More
Post-pandemic life
You can take us out of a pandemic, but it will be hard to take the pandemic out of us. Here’s what I mean. It’s true; the pandemic is almost over. With the vaccines and their delivery scaling, we can be confident that the pandemic will end shortly. The problem is that its scars are…More
Do more by managing this resource: energy
When it comes to productivity most of us think about time. It is important, but there is, I believe, another resource that is even more so. It’s this. Energy. I don’t mean that we are battery-operated, like a Tesla, no. But it’s not too far from that, in some sense. I mean, you can feel…More
How to overcome your fear of pain
Life isn’t about avoiding pain. It’s about knowing what’s worth living for despite the pain. To find that purpose that makes the pain irrelevant or less relevant is key to really living. Many of us get carried along in our lives without really knowing what we want in life. And, when that’s the case, we…More
A secret to winning
We all want to win in our relationships, investments, love. But winning is often counterintuitive. And we can sum it up like this. To win, you must be willing to lose. You see, in relationships, we want to be right or argue our point or make people see our way, our hurts, our pain, our…More
A secret to writing even when you don’t feel worthy
One of the hardest things about writing is saying something worth sitting down to write. I know. I’m feeling it right now, as I’m trying to write this. And that’s the thing about writing; it’s often based on our feelings. When we write, we can feel not only that our work isn’t worthy enough, but…More
Silence: hearing the sounds of the soul
Silence. It’s one of the best things for us. Even so, for many, it’s scary. So we surround ourselves with noise, TV going in the background or music streaming, podcasts playing, zoom meetings zooming. These days we have more noises than ever before. There are videos, shows, audiobooks, and on and on chattering in our…More
Time is more than money
Time isn’t money. It’s more than that. Yes, I know that some people like lawyers and consultants bill hourly. But just because an industry works like that doesn’t mean we should live life the same way. We shouldn’t. “Time is money” is a phrase that is pervasive in our American culture. Not everyone says it,…More
One of the Most Powerful Things You Can Do
Words are powerful, but this has even more power: Listening. When you take the time to turn your ear, pay attention, and ask good questions to others, you build bridges, change history, and move mountains. You are connecting. That will reverberate across time and space. You are making others feel loved by your act of…More
John Pa 