Shawn Achor wants you to “cultivate the mindset and behaviors that have been empirically proven to fuel greater success and fulfillment.” In The Happiness Advantage, his excellent chicken-and-egg examination of feeling good and performing well, the author challenges us to stop moving life’s goalposts farther out every time we experience victory. He cites Aristotle’s go-to term for happiness – eudaimonia…
Book Report – A Truck Full of Money by Tracy Kidder
Paul English has seemingly never been comfortable having money, at least not a ton of it. English, the co-founder of Kayak who personally cleared $120 million after the travel industry search engine was acquired by Priceline in 2012, gives of his windfall quite generously and in fact did so even from a prior – albeit much smaller – web…
Book Report – Scrappy by Terri Sjodin
Everyday people need to be scrappy to get ahead in life. When you can’t count on $1M of seed capital from your rich daddy, you must “have the determination of a street fighter, to work smarter, to be willing to work harder when you need to.” This is the gospel according to Terri Sjodin as expertly outlined in her terrific…
Book Report – Grit by Angela Duckworth
“Enthusiasm is common,” writes Angela Duckworth is her seminal book, Grit. “Endurance is rare.” Ain’t that the truth? She shares the stories of those known for determination and direction, from West Point cadets and Olympic athletes to oft-rejected cartoonists and salespeople, all of whom find ways to gut out the tough times and persevere. At issue for the rest of…
On Dementia
My father has been battling ever-worsening dementia for several years now and my mother – bless her – takes care of him full time. They’re best friends and are fortunate to have been at each other’s side since their teens. He doesn’t always recognize his eight children or – on several unnerving occasions – even her, his wife for over…