As my kids have grown, and I’ve been fortunate enough to step away from a brutal workaholic schedule and watch them grow up and become young adults, I’ve really enjoyed learning how children just seem to understand balance, and they can teach it to us when we’re willing to learn.
Of course that’s a big if.
by David B. Bohl Productivity seems to be the Holy Grail of the twenty-first century. We spend tons of money, and even more time, on
After I titled this post “Living Around Principles,” it occurred to me that might sound like I mean living by getting around your principles, shoving them aside and living the life you’d be leading if you didn’t have any principles.
Uh, no. I left the title alone because I wanted to go ahead and bring up that idea, and then talk about why it doesn’t work and what I really meant.
Getting around your principles will not create the kind of life you want.
Have you ever driven past an accident scene and craned your neck to see what happened? In life, I’m a rubbernecker. I want to know and do everything. I want to be as informed and active in life as possible.
by David Bohl I have always advocated that people should create Strategic Lifestyle Plans for themselves. What is a strategic lifestyle plan? Very much like
In my previous life, before I threw up my hands (and my career as a financial trader), moved to Wisconsin and started living a life I truly enjoyed, I didn’t have time for a hobby. I was like the guy in the recent New Yorker cartoon lying on the beach with his laptop. He says to his wife, “It’s not that I’m a workaholic. I just work to relax.”
If anyone had asked me if I had a hobby I would probably have said, “Yeah, I work. That’s how I spend my free time.” Well, as you probably agree, working between eighty and one hundred hours every week is not exactly conducive to having a hobby, and no, I don’t think working really counts as a hobby.
I have been giving some thought to what it means to be a master of life. I think “mastering” life breaks down into four areas, and I want to give some attention to each of these areas. I hope that people will think and talk about these ideas. We can all benefit from discussing what it takes to live the life we want, and these are some areas I think are really important.
I was recently asked by Dana Glazer, Director of The Evolution of Dad (“A Documentary-In-Progress about the Evolving American Father”), to write about something I’ve learned through my experience as a father.
Dana has graciously included this in his blog The Evolution of Dad Project.
This really got me thinking, as I’ve learned so much throughout my years of making mistakes, correcting them, learning from them, and attempting to change my habits and behavior to create a better life for myself and those around me.
by David Bohl We often hear someone say they’re “happy and fulfilled” at a new job, with a new living situation, even as a new
I love the saying that love is a verb. I believe it’s true, first of all, and I think there’s something very powerful about a phrase that almost everyone seems to recognize or remember hearing.
Lately I’ve been thinking about compassion, and I wondered if it could be a verb.
o you spend a lot of time chasing the next big deal, the next big success? Some people call it the Big Score. You probably know exactly what I’m talking about when I say ‘Big Score’ because most of the movies these days are about some big score – some big challenge.
In real life, as opposed to movies, many of us are always chasing the next big score, but in reality most of us don’t catch it. I spent years as a financial trader, working ridiculous hours and, admittedly, making ridiculous money. But I was always living in the future. It was always going to be different and better. I was always going to get what I wanted when I got “there.”
by David B. Bohl We’ve all been told since we were small children that money can’t buy happiness. And many of us rely on this
When you think of addictions you probably think of alcohol, drugs, gambling, etc. But sugar and caffeine can be habit-forming in their own rights, although to not as strong a degree and not in such a strong physical way.
I was amused recently to see that one of the major office supply stores now carries not only filing supplies but also, believe it or not, “piling” supplies. These consist mainly of plastic envelopes and folders where you can put everything regarding one project together and leave them on your desk. I haven’t talked to anyone who uses them, but I find it interesting that someone is finally noticing that we don’t always even want to keep our desks clear.
I ran across an article recently that mentioned the difference between ‘childlike’ and ‘childish,’ and called someone to task for childish behavior. The gist of the article was that we want to be childlike, but not childish.
That got me thinking about what childlike is for me, and how it fits in with my goals for personal growth. I also gave some thought to how childishness gets in my way, and how I can keep that from happening.
Just about everyone, at some point in their lives, dreams of starting their own business, getting “out of the rat race,” “being the boss.”
If you’re thinking about going solo, either as a freelancer or consultant, or as a business owner in some other type of business, that’s great! I really believe there is a lot to be said for owning your own business and running your own show.
However, I would caution you that things are not always black and white.
by David B. Bohl If you have a home-based business, you might not be as efficient as you’d like to be, because there are some
I’ve often been asked the best way to deal with difficult people. My answer is that the best way is to avoid them altogether. Of course, that’s not always difficult, so I also have given some thought to how to deal with the difficult people we can’t avoid.
These are people who are part of our lives, at least now, not by our choice but by circumstance, and we just have to learn to get along. We do have the option of not getting along, but that rarely feels good or works out well, so I highly suggest learning to deal with these people in a way that causes everyone involved the least amount of damage and turmoil.
