I was walking down the street the other day, and somebody asked me what time it was. I instinctively looked at my watch to tell them and after we passed each other, I realized two things. One is, I can’t remember the last time somebody asked me what time it was when I was just […]
telling time, time, watch
One of my favorite expressions in sports comes from baseball and it’s the term “getting caught looking”. That’s when a batter who has two strikes on them, watches the next pitch come in, gets called for a strike, and they’re out. They didn’t swing the bat; they didn’t take any action at all. I think […]
baseball, bat, looking, strike, swing
My brother Robbie was an aficionado of cigars, pens, chocolate, and many other good things. As an attorney, he had very few bad days but when one would occasionally happen, he had a saying: “On a good day, you have a little chocolate. On a bad day, you have a lot of chocolate.” I have […]
bad day, brother, chocolate
One of my favorite sayings is, “No one ever complained that something was too easy to read.” It’s a continual reminder for me when I’m writing for business, or personally, to keep things as simple as possible, not to use big words when small words would do because I want to make sure that the […]
easy, little words, quote, word, words
I was trying to free up some space on my iPad the other day and I deleted all the emails that were in one account. When I opened my laptop, I realized that those emails weren’t just deleted off the iPad, they were deleted out of the account entirely, and after I got over the […]
book, bookcase, cleaning out, removing
A friend of mine recently asked for my help while he was preparing for a job interview. He asked if I could help him figure out the best way to answer the question so that the employer would think he was a good fit for the company. My advice to him was “be yourself”, because […]
be you, be yourself, who are you
On a commute to work that I had several years ago, there was a man who stood at the same intersection every morning, waving to cars as they went through the intersection, and the response was really positive. People would honk their horns and wave back, and he impacted so many people that the local […]
advice, good morning, good morning man, morning
I started my Rise & Whine episodes over 2 years ago, and the idea was pretty simple. It was just a way to connect with people offering a brief word of encouragement or a concept from psychology that I thought would help people in their daily lives. What was surprising and quite rewarding, is how […]
R&W, rise and whine, youtube
An article in a recent issue of Psychology Today noted that although we know the benefits of receiving a compliment, people are often reluctant to give one. The reason is people tend to underestimate the positive impact of the person we’re paying the compliment to. And people tend to overestimate that the person will be […]
advice, kind, kindness, sincerity
Sometimes we can become anxious when we feel like somebody is expecting a response from us about something, and we don’t have anything to say, at least not in that moment. I’m reminded of the great line from Meg Ryan in “Joe Versus the Volcano” at times like that, where she says, “I have no […]
no response, nothing to say, silence