It's great to set goals during the second half of each year for the upcoming year, but goal setting can be done anytime. The best time to start is NOW!

To reach your goals, it's important to know why many people miss the mark. Here are 9 common traps that snag people and make goals fall flat. Avoid...

Decision making can be one of the biggest challenges in life. Getting stuck in indecision leads to lost opportunities, leadership failure, damaged relationships, and tremendous anxiety.

Few things bring as much relief as getting decisions made. With practice, you can improve your ability to make qu...

The healthiest workplace teams and families create cultures where members give and accept frequent feedback. Members feel safe enough to have conversations in order to address concerns. When they see an opportunity to encourage someone, they do so with little delay.

They also often ask clarifying q...

Most people procrastinate because they fear failure, and psychologically, they view something that's not perfect as failure. Their avoidance, driven by anxiety, can make them appear lazy.

Clients share with me frustrations about not getting things done. They put off reading, exercise, eating health...

Here’s a list of 50 of my favorite relationship-building questions. They’re light and fun, get you to think, and come from over 25 years of helping people open up in my work as a family therapist.

Genuine, authentic, and heartfelt conversations connect people and transform relationships.

My par...

I'm a work in progress. Recently, I realized how inflexible I can be (a topic I cover in other posts). Along with greater self-awareness, reading inspiring books has sparked major shifts in my attitude--second only to the influence of people and life experiences.

There are 2 major perspective shift...

You can make great progress in just a quarter of an hour. Significant and "imperfect" progress is a product of consistently making smart 15-minute choices.

Over a decade ago, when I had our logo designed, I made the tree with 7 leaves to represent our "Make it 7" success philosophy (i.e., on a scal...

I've read a lot of books and special few have inspired me deeply. Some books have changed, and possibly saved, my life. I want to share them with you.

Here's how I decided on my list:

1. I've read the book multiple times because it's been so helpful.
2. It's been so inspiring, I've had it in more tha
...

Most procrastination is driven by fear. You avoid facing things because, subconsciously, you believe it keeps you safe (i.e. "I won't get hurt/rejected/judged, like in the past, if I don't engage").

Do you have tasks at home and work you keep avoiding? Think of these as "loose ends" or "mental clut...

You will make some bad decisions in life and that's OK. You'll trust untrustworthy people. You'll take the wrong job. An investment of time and money will go south.

Will you follow up bad choices by learning and taking a better path?

In How to Make the Good Decisions (Part 1) I gave you 7 tools th...

If you've written down some goals for this year, you should be proud. Everything starts with clarifying what you want.

In my experience, written goals are 10 times more likely to be achieved than unwritten goals. Written goals, shared with a good friend, and 100 times more likely to be achieved.

A...

Here's a goal setting activity I've used with dozens of clients. It takes no more than 15 minutes to complete. You can do it personally or with your team. Works great as a team building activity where everyone shares their results. With this task, I've found that most set the same goals in 15 minute...