When you travel frequently, your time home with your family becomes that much more important.  Recently, my wife and I realized that if we didn’t have a good greeting at the airport, then our time together would be off as well.  Not bad, just off. So we decided to create a ritual.  I put together a playlist of songs that she and I both like and put them on our respective iPods.  When the airplane touched down, I texted her to start...

Growing up, I was always a fan of options…choices.  Clearly having more choices gives you more options and more chances of accomplishing your goal.  But it has become clear that not everyone views options in the same way. I was recently speaking with a friend of mine who’s trying to start a family with the help of modern medicine.  Fortunately, they’re both in good health and have several options from which to choose.  They...

“Will I?” or “I will.”  Which one seems stronger.  At first glance, the “I will” has a much stronger stance.  It is solid.  Stronger or not, the real question is, “Which statement produces better results?” Now it is not often that new ways to approach goal setting make their way onto the scene, but psychologist Ibrahim Senay has done just that.  In his research, Senay studied the impact...

While we all want success, sometimes the best path to success is through failure.  Tom Peters popularized the idea of “Fail. Forward. Fast.”  While we understand this on an intellectual basis, where it really becomes valuable is in creating a culture that values and rewards risk taking.  There is no doubt that success is great but the problem with success is that we become emotionally invested in the particular way that we...

At first glance, it makes sense that your personal life would affect your wallet.  After all, bigger toys cost more.  However, I’m not just talking about expensive hobbies.  One of the biggest costs you can have is poor personal relationships. The cost of a divorce aside, think about the hidden costs.  I’m talking about the personal problems, that are detracting from you doing your job and getting things done.  Clearly, one of...

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Make your vocation your vacation.”  But I want to also add on the idea of location as being an important factor as well.  For many of us, being a top performer, a 7 percenter, also means spending a good deal of time at the office, wherever that may be.  So making it a vacation, by doing what you love absolutely makes sense.  But what about location, doesn’t that also have an effect on your...