Internet forums are wonderful sources of information; they’re also home to flame wars, trolling, arguments, misunderstandings, and incivility. If you’re like me, you visit forums to learn, grow and connect, but mining wisdom from hostile forums sometimes feels like trying to jam a camel through the eye of a needle.
If you’re looking for a way […]
Like it or not, we live in a media driven world. We spend 11 hours a day bombarded by television, radio, Internet, and other forms of media, a non-stop onslaught on the psyche, an ever-churning series of images, sound bites, opinions, and advertisements, but precious little substance.
The media provides shared experience, collective memory. Unfortunately, many […]
Last week, I listed 21 critical life lessons you didn’t learn in school. Today, let’s dig deeper into the first lesson: choosing a spouse; selecting a mate; evaluating a romantic relationship.
Bad relationships destroy happiness: just ask the man going through a divorce, the woman questioning her man’s fidelity, or the teenager dodging his girlfriend’s fists.
Why […]
If someone doesn’t take us aside and teach us a few things (assuming we’d listen) before we graduate high school, we are doomed to learn life’s hardest lessons in the real world beyond the classroom.
With that in mind, here are 21 non-academic lessons every person should know before he or she graduates high school; if you graduated long […]
A good friend of mine once gave me a bit of advice I’d like to pass along to you.
We were sitting in his kitchen at two in the morning, knocking back beers and talking about women. I’d spent the previous half-hour telling him terrible secrets about my love life: I couldn’t trust the woman I […]
Disagreeing with someone without making him mad is an art form. So let’s talk about how to get your point across without getting into a fight.
The 6 strategies of persuasion below are best utilized when you want to be heard, understood, and considered, when you seek productive exchange, when your goals involve truth and clarity, […]
Is your boss driving you crazy? Are your co-workers getting on your last nerve?
If you need help coping with difficult people, check out my tips for dealing with these 4 difficult personality types: the bully, the whiner, the gossip, and the know-it-all.
Arguing with your spouse? Feuding with your boss? Fighting with your parents or teachers? Adopt a new frame of mind and try solving that dispute one more time.
As a team leader for a large software organization, I sometimes had to help feuding teammates settle an argument. Over the years, I taught my teammates 7 tried […]
If you are like most Americans, you have obligations to many people: partner, children, parents, boss, friends. Do you ever feel pulled in too many directions? If so, this article is for you.
