• Competition,  Inspirational quotes,  Motivation,  Rumi quotes and poetry

    And the winner is …

    “Take someone who doesn’t keep score,who’s not looking to be richer, or afraid of losing,who has not the slightest interest evenin his own personality: He is free.” ~Rumi  A little competition is a good thing. It can keep us motivated and productive. In the business world, for instance, a competitive spirit gives us an edge. In sports, you can’t have much of a game without competing against another team or contestant. Somebody’s gotta win, right? That said, I’ve always felt uneasy around competitive folks who act as if everything in life is a race or a contest — the folks who always worry that they’re not getting the biggest piece of…

  • Communication,  Friendship and relationship advice,  Self-care

    Undersharing

    “Our stories are not meant for everyone. Hearing them is a privilege, and we should always ask ourselves this before we share: ‘Who has earned the right to hear my story?’ Even if we have just one or two people in our lives who can sit with us and hold space for our stories, and love us for our strengths and struggles, we are incredibly lucky.” ~Brené Brown There are times when I face challenges that I’m not comfortable sharing with many others. As tempting as it can be to seek out other opinions, or even emotional comfort, I first need to get a handle on those issues myself. Back in…

  • Book review,  Communication,  Featured,  Personal growth,  Where I'm published

    How to Know a Person

    “Being open-hearted is a prerequisite for being a full, kind, and wise human being. But it is not enough. People need social skills.” ~David Brooks As author David Brooks sees it, so much of our current national angst results from the “fraying of our social fabric.” Put simply, we’ve forgotten how to talk with each other. We’ve forgotten how to listen to each other. At the same time, too many of us feel unseen and misunderstood. Worse yet, mental health statistics show that we’re feeling lonelier than ever. Social media may have given us more connections — and nearly unlimited access to others — but the quality of those relationships…

  • Aging well,  Change and challenge,  Motivation

    Making the most of our days

    “The realization that I may have only a few good years remaining has hit me with real force, and I have done a lot of thinking as a result… I try to figure out what I really want to do every day. I try to say to myself, ‘If this is one of the last days of my life, am I doing exactly what I want to be doing?’” ~Nora Ephron Today’s quote underscores an important conversation we started last night in my “Aging with Grace & Courage” group. We all agreed that we’re hyper-aware of the time we have left in our senior years — and we want to…

  • Aging well,  Change,  Personal growth

    Still looking through an old lens?

    “If you don’t allow yourself to learn and grow from the experience — from what was said, done, and felt — you will always look at your life through the same old lens.” ~Marc and Angel Chernoff, Marc & Angel Hack Life Sometimes we keep repeating the same mistakes while expecting different results. Or maybe we’re sinking so deeply in a rut that we can’t figure out why old patterns of behavior and outdated opinions or preferences aren’t working for us anymore. We like to think we’re “loyal” or consistent, but sometimes we’re just … stubborn. This can apply to everything from redecorating the kitchen to mending relationships. The older…