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Thinking seriously about not-so-serious things | Searching for substance in a superficial world
Do you have a “Personal Happiness Algorithm?” You should.
Do you have a “Personal Happiness Algorithm?” You should. Here’s mine.
How to Prevent Burnout: Close your Stress Loops
Burnout could be the official word of 2022 (and 2021, to be honest). So many people have had first-hand experience with it that you would think we’d understand it perfectly. But most people don’t really know what it is, nor what to do to prevent it. Burnout...
We Need to Talk about Dopamine | Part I
The modern world is set up to hijack our dopamine response, so we need to become aware of what we allow to hook our brains and overwhelm our biology.
Get Your Daily D.O.S.E. of Happiness Chemicals
We now know how to literally change our brains. We owe it to ourselves to do so with purpose and intentionality.
How to Know When to Quit Your Job (and Reinvent Yourself)
The 7 Red Flags Checklist We’ve all been in challenging work environments; sadly, it’s a constant of professional life as the dreaded off-site and - my personal least favorite - the office birthday party. But how can we know when the regular grind of work (they call...
The Modern World is a Dopamine Minefield. Here’s how to navigate it.
Have you had your mind hijacked by TikTok and wondered how that happened? Or maybe you’re the kind of person who gets most excited about planning your next trip? The driver of your behavior in both cases is a brain chemical called Dopamine, and you need to get familiar with it – right away. Whether you realize it or not, that neurotransmitter rules our world today. But while it has served a critical role in the propagation of our species, dopamine is absolutely terrible for our sense of satisfaction as individuals. Moreover, it’s being used to stimulate and manipulate us in ways that are distracting at best and addictive at worse. Dopamine is the new Nicotine. We need to reset our brains and go on a Dopamine Diet. Use my NOPA Method to get off the Dopa.
Old Rules for a New Life in the New Year
People usually become contemplative as another year ends and a new one begins. For many, this is the season for reflection, resolutions, and perhaps even reinvention. I’m no exception to this ritual. The following thoughts came to me a few years ago in a feverish...
Make the Pivot to Hybrid with the H.I.B.R.I.D. Algorithm
Hybrid work is a problem to be managed, but it’s also an opportunity to be leveraged. But how do you move from one to the other and do Hybrid right?
The “Office” is Changing: The RIGID | HIBRID | FLUID Framework and the Past and Future of Work
One of the lasting consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic is that the nature of what we understand as the "office" has changed. I would argue that we're merely at the end of the beginning, however, in the evolution of the workplace. I see four distinct stages to the...
Evolution, Progress, and Reinvention
If Evolution is, as someone once described, progress without planning, then Reinvention is progress *with* planning.
Or, to put it another way,
Reinvention = Evolution, Reinvented.
Are you positioned to seize the “Hybrid Dividend”?
The Hybrid workplace shouldn’t just be managed; it should be leveraged. This moment is an opportunity.
You’ve decided to reinvent yourself. Here’s how to start.
A lot of people are contemplating making a big professional change right now. A recent Microsoft survey of more than 30,000 people in 31 countries revealed that over 40% of respondents are considering leaving their employer this year. It’s a natural reaction to a...
The future is hybrid: almost every industry will be “Pelotonized” in the post-pandemic world
Photo Credit: Robynne Hu | Unsplash The great science fiction writer William Gibson famously noted that “the future is already here; it’s just not widely distributed yet.” I think that I’ve seen the future, and in it, everything will be “Pelotonized.” Let me explain....
Take stock of 2020 before turning your mind to 2021
I know that everyone is in a hurry to turn the page on this incredibly challenging year, but doing so too quickly would be a mistake. Life seems to naturally slow down this time of year for those of us who are fortunate enough to enjoy a holiday. This season is quite...
Overcoming the Power of Bad
The cascading crises of 2020 have demonstrated the enormous weight of bad news. Here are some strategies to help you cope in case the worst is yet to come. Photo by Clément Falize on Unsplash It’s fair to say that 2020 has been a constant stream of dismal news. To...
2020 is a Perfect Storm. Don’t be the Andrea Gail. Have a game plan for when the game changes.
The successive health, economic, and social crises of this year underscore the need to be prepared for uncertainty. Follow this Five-Step Playbook to be Future PROOF. Photo by Justin Kauffman on Unsplash 22 years ago, I was staying at a friend’s house in San Diego and...
COVID-19 is a hard reset for society. Let’s embrace this fresh start.
Photo by Jose Antonio Gallego Vázquez on Unsplash So many aspects of lives operated on autopilot until recently. Not anymore. The second and third-order effects of C-19 are — for good and for ill — breaking centuries-old habits. The Coronavirus just pressed...
Don’t pine for a POST-C-19 world. We’re never going back to “normal”. So now what?
Photo by Alok Sharma on Unsplash We live in the world C-19 has permanently changed. We need to pivot now from a crisis mindset to a coexistence one. Next, we’ll need to figure out how to capitalize on it. In early March (after SXSW was canceled, before the NBA shut...
2020 will be another “Year Without Summer”
Everyone is comparing COVID-19 to 1918 and the Spanish Flu. But I think that the better historical analogy is a century earlier, in 1816. Photo by Jared Murray on Unsplash I went to see a theatrical rendition of “Frankenstein” with a friend last night - in part to...
The Perils of Being Stuck in a Pleasant Present: 7 Strategies for overcoming Status Quo Bias
“If you are considering a change, you are past the point where you should have made it.” Tyler Cowen, Economist When was the last time you did something for the first time? When was the last time you took a risk, or even diverged from your usual routine? Don’t feel...
Have you ever done a Personal Brand Audit of yourself? You should.
Photo by Patrik Michalicka on Unsplash To quote the great urban philosopher Ice-T, “don’t hate the playa, hate the game.” Some people might not like to think that we are “products” that have “brands”, but wishing it away does not make it so. If I say the names “Justin...
Plans are useless but planning is priceless
What maps, plans and Mike Tyson have in common Photo by Damir Spanic on Unsplash Maps — whether mental ones or cartographic ones — give the illusion of accuracy. But, as the saying goes, the map is not the territory. Only by recognizing the limitations of these...
Want to be more consistently great? Be like the All-Blacks and have a “Haka”
Here’s a trick borrowed from pro athletes that you can incorporate to become more consistently excellent: have a ritual. You probably don’t watch much rugby, but if you’ve ever seen the New Zealand All-Blacks you no doubt were stunned by their pre-game...
A Reinvention Portfolio is the Key to Planning for a 22nd Century Life
I’m sometimes called upon to give my take on so-called Mega Trends and ‘the Future’, and tonight I’ll be a giving a different version of that talk. Rather than forecasting the future, however, I’m going to discuss the long one you have in front of you. I’m going to...
Stillness is the 21st Century Super Power
Do you reflexively reach for your phone when you’re stuck in an annoyingly long line at Starbucks? I do. How about when waiting to get on your flight and you’ve been relegated to boarding category 4? Guilty there, too. Don’t worry: this isn’t going to be another...
The S.I.E.S.T.A.S. Method for Beating Burnout
Are you near Burnout, or know someone who is?
I’ve looked at the science of what we can do to turn our situation around. It starts with stimulating the release of our body’s natural feel-good chemicals of dopamine, endorphins, oxytocin, and serotonin – and then proceeds to dial up the feelings – of control, hope and progress – that we intuitively understand will be beneficial to our mood.
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