There are currently more Americans who have been unemployed for more than 6 months than any other time in U.S. history (6.1 million according to the latest figures). And while we hear reports that things are looking up for job seekers, we also have leading economists...
Of course it doesn’t take the beginning of a new year to make a decision to start something new, make changes in how we are living our life or turn over a new leaf. We can do that any day of the year. But there is something about January 1st that makes it feel like a...
On the eve of Christmas I just wanted to remind you to take a moment to reflect on what the Christmas holiday represents. It is a time to deepen the connection you share with family (near and far); to experience gratitude for your many blessings; to remember the...
As I try to move down my big, long to-do list this week in preparation for all the merrymaking I will be doing in the weeks ahead, I've found myself feeling a bit overwhelmed. Okay, more than a bit. So I have stopped. Stopped to take a big deep breath, to look out the...
I’m heading to Florida tomorrow for a few days of sunshine. Friends who have a home in Key Largo have invited us down and we figured it would be a fun place to spend Halloween! The last time I was in the Florida Keys was nearly twenty years ago. I was backpacking...
Every day we find ourselves having to work through issues that come up in our relationships. Whether it be a difficult boss who seems to be devoid of management skills or a colleague on a school committee who dominates conversation (getting everyone off track in the...
Yesterday a friend emailed me to say that after years of trying to make it as a freelance writer she's admitted defeat and is now trying to find a paying job. I replied to her that she needed to drop the 'defeated' talk and instead re-frame her situation more...
Ahhh.... my kids are all back in school (sigh) and I'm sitting here at my desk (in a blissfully quiet house) wondering how it got to be September already. As I looked at today's date, September 11th, it struck me how much has changed over the last eight years since...
Today is Women’s Equality Day and in a few hours I'm off to speak to a Federal Department here in DC to celebrate the occasion. The topic: "Leadership is a choice, not a position." I think leadership ties in beautifully with women’s equality, indeed with all equality....
Have you ever wondered why so many adults, who never learn to swim as children, never attempt to learn as adults? Often it is because they do not want to go through the same learning curve that children have to. The fact is, to become masterful at something, whether...
As you read the title of this post perhaps you were thinking "umm... I don't know... could I?". If that was the case for you then I want you to begin by thinking about something in your life that is not how you would like it to be right now: a person who is annoying...
"Live your life with arms wide open, Today is where your book begins... Your life is still unwritten..." These are the lyrics from a song I recently discovered on my 11 year old sons iPod. Titled 'Unwritten', Natasha Bedingfield sings beautifully about what I believe...
Greetings from the wireless zone in Albuquerque airport where I'm planted for a couple of hours waiting for my flight home. I flew over to New Mexico last night to speak at a school principals conference today at the fabulous Hyatt Tamaya Resort. I love doing work...
Last Friday I flew in on a red eye flight from L.A. to D.C. I had a meeting that morning and when I mentioned I’d just come in from California (which was on a Swine Flu Emergency Health Alert at the time) the person I was speaking to said, sort of jokingly but not...
Earlier this week I was speaking to a woman who had just gone through an acrimonious divorce. She shared how she felt completely bruised and battered by the process of ending her 8 year marriage and that while she knew that the future was her own making, she felt...
A year ago today I awoke to a phone call telling me that my brother Frank had been in a serious motor bike accident; that, among other injuries, his spine had been very badly damaged and that it was extremely unlikely he would ever walk again. Needless to say the last...
What an exciting week I've had! If you missed the interview on the Today Show Tuesday morning (what, you had something more important to do?! 😉 ) then you can watch it here now: It runs about 7 minutes which is a VERY long interview for prime-time TV. Given the...
Just this morning a poll on CNN reported that 3 out of every 4 Americans currently feel afraid about the state of the economy and what it means for them. There's no doubt about it, we live in turbulent times which are causing many people to feed afraid. Which is why...
A few years back a woman called Sarah Armstrong, who has since become a friend, made the bold decision to try to make a difference for the people living in the poorest nation on earth, Sierra Leone. Sarah got on a plane and traveled around the country and as she went,...
Last week whilst talking with someone about the economy, the possibility of them being laid off and how they thought it was a good time to take a change in career direction came up. As we talked about what they needed to do to make it a successful transition in a...
