If the words “staying close to the bathroom” have made it into any of your “sick day” emails, you need this post. I’ve been there. Especially if you are a perfectionist, type A, overachiever; it’s agonizing to figure out how much detail to give your boss. If you ate at a new sushi place and […]
humor
Listen Better to Win Negotiations, Even With 4-Year-Olds
I took my older son (he’s 4) on a trip to Phoenix to visit family. Our main outing was to the Phoenix Zoo to see this “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” style exhibit called Big Bugs. I’m not into bugs, but we scored a great deal on Groupon, so off we went. The zoo set […]
The Magic Email: How to Hold People Accountable
The Magic Email from the book Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss, really works. About the book itself: An ex-FBI international kidnapping negotiator opens each chapter with a crazy-but-true hostage negotiation story. Then he takes whatever tactic was used and applies it to regular life. You […]
How to Identify Toxic People, and Avoid Them
Toxic people, unfortunately, do not walk around the office with little plastic ID tags on their wrists or ankles, like a rare bird species being tracked by biologists in the wild. I wish they did, though. Toxic people can be hard to identify until it’s too late: until you’ve already bonded, or formed a friendship, […]
How to Fail at Surfing
Today I drove to a New Jersey beach at a ludicrously early hour, ensuring there wouldn’t be many other surfers. I can’t steer. Yet. I stood on my first wave less than 18 months ago. That was in warm, sunny Costa Rica, at Witch’s Rock Surf Camp. You must drop everything and go there, actually. Find […]
I Ate a Whole Box of Mac n Cheese, Now What?
I ate a whole box of Mac n Cheese the other night. We all do it. They key, my friends, is to acknowledge and move on. It’s what resilience is all about. If you’re like me, you made the mac n cheese out of sheer exhaustion, with the intent of eating a normal, single human amount. […]