I love writing this letter each year but I also dread it. It’s the closest thing to a true love/hate relationship I have. On one hand, it’s great. I get to reflect on the last year, give thanks to those who’ve made significant contributions and provide a roadmap of the…

Practice doesn’t make perfect — Practice makes perfect, right? Well no, not really. A lot of researchers have examined the art of practice and just doing it turns out is not enough. What’s been coined “effective practice” involves four predominant elements. …

When the will to change isn’t enough… — Modern day alchemists aren’t turning paper into gold; they’re turning their bad habits into good ones. Master modern day alchemy and you will gain a remarkable degree of confidence and control over your own personal and professional life. …

A rare skill that’s only getting harder to find… — Email murdered focus. Facebook nailed its coffin shut. Twitter buried it. Inside schools and offices across the country a highly mobile contagion is infecting the productivity of our nation. Cellphone chimes deploy dopamine to disengage us from the task at hand, every 5 minutes. A vibrating cellphone environment is also…

The secret to lasting success… — Why do so many people love America? After all, America has had some bad years. 90ish years of slavery, a boatload of small pox blankets, the Macarena — ugly stuff. Here’s why: America adjusts; most of us stay put. America iterates; most of us repeat. “The American Way” will never…

I was constantly afraid of failure. Most people are too. Armed with our prehistoric tendencies every society has manipulated our minds to fear failure above all else. What’s the worst grade your teacher can give? What does it stand for? Exactly. I’m fascinated by the idea of failure so much…

The biggest scariest question most people never answer… — What..the hell am I going to do with my life? I was a sophomore in college and despite declaring a major I had no answer to that question. I felt like I was standing on the tracks with a train, two years away, approaching. I couldn’t move. I was doomed. …

All mornings aren’t created equal… — I struggled to get out of bed today…at noon. I wasn’t tired, I just didn’t have any faith in my ability to do anything of value before it was time to get back into bed. Nothing seemed possible. And despite the insanity of that statement — surely I could at…

Push your pile of chips in… — Studies have shown that motivation is most illusory around the halfway mark of any given project. The logic is you’re past the initial surge of excitement that propelled you at first but not yet close enough to be energized by the sight of the finish line. Progress between points 25…