Do you feel powerless? Do you have problems you feel like you can’t overcome? Well, you need to know this. No one is powerless. You always have a choice. Yes, you are powerful. You just don’t know it yet. And it starts with taking responsibility. He survived the Holocaust by taking responsibility Victor Frankl survived…More
Category Archives: mindset
Finding satisfaction
Satisfaction is elusive. Most days, I feel I could be better at work, more fit, or have more money. And, there is a benefit to that. I’m constantly trying to improve myself and the world around me. But there’s also a negative side to that mentality. It’s this: I’m rarely satisfied. The thirst is never…More
Longevity: thoughts about living a long life from Ikigai
Do you want to live longer, you know, have longevity? Me too. So I read Ikigai, by Hector Garcia, Francesc Miralles. Here are highlights I found most helpful. To understand longevity, the writers studied blue zones, which are areas in the world where the greatest concentrations of centenarians live. The highest ranking one is Okinawa, Japan.…More
An overdue post and thought on dealing with uncertainty
It’s been too long since I last posted. I could give you excuses like I’ve been writing a novel or a commercial property we own had some serious sewer line issues (raw sewage was seeping into the basement, and our tenants were texting me every other day), or that I’ve been busy with this, that,…More
When I made one of the biggest bets in my life
Sometimes you need to abandon plan b and go all in. I recently read this 2013 article on Steve Job’s presentation of a lifetime. It was for the first iPhone. It was monumental, legendary, historic. Yet the article outlines all of the things that could have gone wrong (how the multitouch, making a call and…More
Resolutions are good, legacies better
Don’t just make resolutions; leave a legacy. Over the break, I, like many of you, reflected on the past year and casted hopes for the next. It was a mixture of memories and dreams, sadness and joy, grief and gratitude. There wasn’t much clarity that came from that exercise for me. But there was one…More
Use your mind to change your brain: changing your temperament
We all have aspects of ourselves, our temperament, that we wish we could change. Me—I’ve had a temper all of my life. It can get ugly. But that’s not the most interesting part. What is is that it has changed, improved as I’ve aged. I get angry less and with less intensity. I ultimately attribute…More
This Is One of the Smartest Things You Can Do
To get smarter you have to feel stupid, sometimes. You ask the obvious question, repeat something back, relearn something you think you should have already learned. Sure, it can be embarrassing. But, to learn you have to be open to learning. And that means you’re not the master but the pupil, not the teacher but…More
You Have Great Power
You are not powerless; you have a choice. You can choose to avoid the news, build a routine, exercise, connect with a friend, read a great book—hope. It’s not easy in this time, I get it. Shifting your mind from focusing on the negative to healthier activities is your decision. Decide to feed your mind…More
Keeping perspective in crisis: This too shall pass
Yes, I’m afraid. But my fleeting fear rests on this fact: This too shall pass. Coronavirus should be taken seriously. We shouldn’t just keep on hanging out with all of our cohorts, sharing food, drinks, laughs in a crowded space, spraying respiratory droplets all over each other like we’re watering the lawn. Gross, but true.…More
John Pa 