Relinquishee, Adoptee, MPE
Author, Speaker.

Driven to Succeed, Prisoner of Success, Workaholic, or Someone Who Can’t Say ‘No’?

With the Labor Day Holiday approaching, we all think about a weekend of leisure, whether that means a slow-paced Friday through Monday of solitude and barbecues, or an action-packed one of friends, parties, and go-go-go!

What Labor Day means on the calendar, however, is that summer vacations are over, people are back in the office, and it’s time to get things accomplished.

As you contemplate the number of hours you’ll be spending on your work in the months ahead, do you dread the thought? Will you have a mountain of work to do, yet still take on more with a smile (maybe forced) on your face? Will people be pulling you in every direction?

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Surviving (Tolerating, Accepting, and Eluding) Negative People, Places, and Situations

Bob Sutton, creator of the No Asshole Rule, posted Wednesday 8 suggestions for “enduring and triumphing against abusive bosses and co-workers” titled Latest Tips for Surviving Workplace Assholes.

Negative people, places, and situations can have a detrimental effect on your life. Similarly to seemingly insurmountable workplace obstacles and situations, in the form of people and situations, there are no instant fixes for these sorts of problems in our private lives, either.

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Returning from Vacation? Some Great Advice for Everyday from Penelope Trunk

Imagine my surprise when I picked up a copy on My Midwest Magazine, the in-flight monthly of Midwest Airlines, to find an article titled Smooth Landing quoting the Brazen Careerist Penelope Trunk.

Why was I taken aback? I’m a Penelope Trunk reader, after all. I shouldn’t have been caught unaware, as she’s featured in many publications and sites. What struck me was the topic: Getting back to work after your vacation is over.

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Does Efficiency Work for Those Who Have Overextended Themselves?

I’ve talked and written many times about efficiency. As a result, I was intrigued by this comment over at lifehacker:

“My problem wasn’t that I was insufficiently efficient. The problem was
that I was way too overextended. I had taken on more than even a very
efficient person could handle. Efficiency is great, but it can only get
you so far.”

I understand the problem. Many of us find (or should I say “get ourselves into”) ourselves overextended, over strained, and overstressed at some point in our lives, maybe even at this very moment.

In these times, is the solution to our troubles that we need to be more efficient? I think not.

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Understanding Opportunity Costs Leads to Better Decisions

Opportunity Cost is one of those concepts that all of us think we understand, but we’re often unable to calculate the real dollars involved.

In its simplest terms, Opportunity Cost can be defined as follows:

In order to gain something, you must lose something else.

How does, and should, this factor into the decisions we make in our everyday lives?

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Be Careful What You Wish For – Part 1: Losing Sight of What’s Important

OK, there’s something that you really, really want. You’re absolutely yearning for it with all of your soul and being. All you can think about is how much you want it. You ache for it and hunger for it. You become obsessed with it. You spend all of your waking hours thinking about it – consciously and subconsciously – and how to attain it. It consumes you.

You disregard your health – your diet, your sleep, your recreation, your personal time, your intellectual and creative nourishment. You rationalize that the things you’re doing in pursuit of this dream are for the good of all those involved in your life, yet you ignore them, erecting a wall between you and your partner, family, children, friends, and colleagues. Worse yet, you treat them in ways that leave in your wake a sea of emotional turmoil.

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Slashes and Fulfillment

Slashes are people who pursue many careers at the same time, according to Marci Alboher who wrote the book One Person/Multiple Careers.  Now that so

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relinquishment and addiction
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