“You know your most annoying flaw?” says my friend Sam, eyeing me critically over the rim of a coffee cup. Uh-oh. I’ve known Sam for many years. This means two things. One, she’ll be right. She has decades of evidence to back up her findings. Two, we know each other so well that she won’t feel she needs to be polite. I brace myself. “Indecision. You can’t decide about anything. Even whether you wanted a pastry with your coffee. Or which kind of coffee you wanted. How have you got this old without being able to make decisions?” My Indecision Is Final It’s a good question. I can make very basic ..read more

When I listened to the latest episode of Mind Tools Expert Voices, I was reminded of a famous and influential book. It’s a groundbreaking text that’s been around for decades and read by millions, and one which – I believe – has a great deal to tell us about having a better career, and being happy and successful at work. I’m talking about Eric Carle’s timeless classic, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” Your Career Story Storytelling in general is a powerful theme in the podcast. Experts like Robert Kaplan and Pippa Grange talk about “seizing the pen” and starting to write your own career narrative ..read more

I try to avoid making sweeping generalizations but, guess what, I’m going to make one right now. From my experience, you can pretty much lump people into two distinct groups: those who set New Year resolutions, and those who don’t. But, maybe there’s a third way – writing a Hope Letter at the start of the year, to act as an ongoing inspiration to yourself. If you don’t set resolutions, congratulations! If you do set them, you’ll most likely ditch them at some point in the next 12 months. According to some studies, nearly half of all Americans regularly make New Year resolutions (incidenta ..read more

A lightbulb’s just blown in the kitchen and I need to buy a replacement. So it’s decision time. There’s a small electrical shop a few blocks away. I could walk there, which would be good exercise – and I’d be helping a local company. But it’s rainy and cold. There’s also a good chance that they won’t stock the slightly unusual bulb I need. Then there’s the big home-improvement superstore a few miles down the road. They’ll have what I’m looking for, but their prices are high. And a trip there would mean taking the car. Or I could just get what I need online. If I type in the serial number print ..read more

Prediction was a passion for my Grandad. My Mum was a working single parent, so every school day, I dropped into my grandparents’ for lunch. And every day I’d see Grandad hunched over the racing pages, poring over form guides. He believed fervently that he could unlock the secrets buried in those mountains of stats. The big win was just around the corner. I took an interest. It looked like my idea of fun. (I was an odd kid.) And it was educational. Working out the winnings on a five-horse accumulator (or parlay) was an excellent way to sharpen my mental arithmetic. So how did he do? Well, he w ..read more

“Panic causes tunnel vision. Calm acceptance of danger allows us to more easily assess the situation and see the options.” – Simon Sinek, British-American author How Do You Cope in an Emergency? I wish every blog I write could be about a happy story. But life doesn’t work that way. And what would a happy emergency look like anyway? Maybe winning the lottery? I’m not sure. I have it on good authority that winning the lottery doesn’t necessarily make a person happy. Whether we like it or not, much of our growth takes place in the less-than-happy times. We can also often develop understanding an ..read more

“Discard every self-seeking motive as soon as it is seen, and you need not search for truth; truth will find you.” Nisargadatta Maharaj, Hindu guru About This Week’s Chat Think about your values for a moment – the core reasons why you do what you do. Do those values guide your behavior at work? Or do other motives and needs sometimes take control? And, whatever the real reasons are for your behavior, how are your motives viewed by others? Last week’s #MTtalk Twitter chat was about understanding why you do and say certain things, and what your behavior tells others about the values that you ho ..read more

“Holding on is believing that there’s only a past; letting go is knowing that there’s a future.” ― Daphne Rose Kingma, American author The Fear That Paralyzed Me  There have been many times in my life when I’ve struggled to leave things behind. Some of my toughest decisions have been about changing jobs, and about ending a significant relationship – my marriage. I was brought up with the value of doing everything possible to make things work. What wasn’t factored into the equation, however, was the cost it would have on me. So, even when I was in an unhealthy marriage, I tried one thing ..read more

What makes a high performer? Is it hard work and commitment, or a more strategic application of effort? For Marc Effron, it’s all of the above, but the second approach is the deal breaker. The subtitle of his new book, “8 Steps to High Performance,” says it all: “Focus on What You Can Change (Ignore the Rest).” When I spoke to him for our Expert Interview podcast, I asked him to expand on that idea. He said it’s all about the “flexible 50 percent.” Flexible and Fixed 50 Percent “Half of what influences our performance at work we cannot do a darned thing about,” he explained. “We call those thi ..read more

Have you ever noticed how decisions are so much harder when you try to do the right thing and make an ethical decision, rather than focusing on what’s easiest or most practical? This is mainly because “the right thing” means different things to different people. It’s like carving jello. Priorities shift and the decision wobbles, just when a direction and structure should be taking shape. Thornton: Business success is a happy by-product of ethical decision making. Yet making ethical business decisions is increasingly important in today’s world. News of a leader’s questionable behavior can sprea ..read more