How Losing Personal Attachments Can Help You Realize Ambition

My friend Susanne and I were recently playing a trivia game, a game in which she excels. However, at one point, she got a couple wrong answers in row. “Urgh,” she blurted out, “every time I have a gut answer and change it, it was actually correct.” This made me curious. Malcolm Gladwell, in the […]

How to Be Selfless by Being Self-Centered

I travel the world extensively. And during these jaunts, I am always interested to hear of the differing points of view held by others about American culture. One commonly-held perception is that Americans are self-centered, believing that they are the center of the universe. There is some truth to this perspective. On the whole, American […]

Making Resolutions that Work

It is that time of year when everyone sets their New Year’s Resolutions. Here is an article a wrote a while ago, but is indeed timeless: Resolutions That Work I was going to post the entire article again, but I just received news that this will be published nationwide in a major newspaper in a […]

Why We Crave Goals

As many of you may know, my second book was called “Goal-Free Living.”  Although it was originally going to be a book on how to be more creative, it morphed into a manifesto for a counter-cultural way of living. In fact, the “goal-free” philosophy will be featured in a major newspaper early next year.  Stay […]

When a Goal is Not a Goal

This post marks the 500th entry on this blog. Today I want to discuss how to have goals that are not goals.  How do you do this? For most people the present is designed to give them a future they want.  For me, the future gives me the present I want. Here’s what I mean […]

What is Your New Year’s Theme?

New Year’s Eve is just around the corner.  Many of you know that I have a tradition of setting a “theme” for each year rather than a resolution. My theme for 2009 was “cool things.”  And it definitely was a year of cool things. I signed a 2 book deal with Penguin’s Portfolio imprint.  I […]

Goal-Free Testimony

I recently sent a copy of my Goal-Free Living book to someone I worked with 20 years ago. I hadn’t seen or heard from him since the late 80’s. The wonders of social networks reconnected us after all of this time. After reading the book, he wrote the following… The time is right for your […]

Goals Gone Wild

My book, “Goal-Free Living,” provides counter-cultural perspectives on goal-setting.  I suggest that we are a nation of goalaholics, and that this is reducing creativity, productivity, and happiness.   Harvard Business School recently published an interesting paper, “Goals Gone Wild,” that supports my perspective. The authors say… In this article, we argue that the beneficial effects […]

Why Being Self-Centered is Good

This may seem like an odd blog entry, but it has been the topic of conversation over many dinners recently. Although we are taught from a young age that being self-centered is a bad thing, I think that more people would benefit from being this way. Let me explain. To start off, I am not […]

Happy New Year

In just a matter of hours, 2009 will be upon us.  If you have not done so, please read my article on setting New Year’s Resolutions.  You may also be interested in some statistics about New Year’s Resolutions. Happy New Year!