making your home work
When I first started practicing Zen meditation years ago, I thought it was to make me more calm. Then it was to make me less reactive. Then to make me less attached to things. These things all happen if you meditate regularly, as many of you know. But one of the most helpful things I’ve done is to drop the goal of …
I’ve come to realize that smart people are very good at creating super persuasive arguments for why the shouldn’t do the thing they’re fearing doing. This past week, I’ve worked with half a dozen intelligent people who have convinced themselves to give in to their resistance, over and over. They’re persuasive, …
One of the most common problems among people I work with and coach is the feeling of always being busy. And then it becomes a rationalization: I can’t honor my commitments because I’m too busy! I can’t be with my family or friends because I’m too busy. I can’t work out, meditate, shut down at night to get to sleep, or …
In the middle of last month, I set myself a 45-day discipline challenge, just to see what my mind would do. I like the idea of pushing myself out of my comfort zone, and so I decided to take on 12 things at once, which is against my usual advice! The challenge isn’t over yet, but I’d like to share some of my findings …
Over and over, throughout the day, we make the Hundred Little Decisions: to work on this, to check email, to go to this website, to respond to messages, to grab a bite to eat, to meditate or exercise or do yoga or have tea or watch a video or push into deep purpose. The Hundred Little Decision shape our day. They …
Every day, I work with people trying to shift their habitual patterns: procrastination, avoidance, escape, reaching for comfort foods or other comforts like video games or watching videos, distraction, complaining, lashing out at others, ignoring problems, and more. These habitual patterns show themselves whenever …
The most common problem I’ve found in the people I’ve coached and worked with in my programs is a very fundamental problem: Most people have the feeling that something is wrong with them. And it is heartbreaking. Actually, most people would say that their problem is that they want to be more disciplined, more focused, …
Many of us know the feeling of turning away from our finances — it’s yet another way we put off dealing with something stressful. Whether it’s looking at our overspending on online shopping, our credit card debt, our taxes, our lack of income, or lack of a budget, our piled up bills … we don’t want to look at that …