Between the Lines

Bruno Bettelheim was a Holocaust survivor who achieved fame and fortune through his work as a child psychologist. The opening line in his book The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (Penguin Psychology) is: “If we hope to live not just from moment to moment, but in true consciousness of our [...]

I love a great “feel good” movie. Many of our wonderful feel good movies revolve around sports – Hoosiers, Rudy, The Rookie … we all have our favorites. Mine is about a horse (still athletic, just four not two legs). It was 1938 – a year of monumental hardship and challenges, not unlike 2009. People were [...]

No one likes a ‘know-it-all.’ Yet, the world is full of folks who simply love to espouse their wisdom, opinions, and judgments trying to add value, show their smarts, pound their chests, exercise their control, cover their real insecurities (or just classic CYA), and in some cases just belittle the other person to make themselves [...]

Every year, if you are like me, we make a list of resolutions to concentrate and ‘align’ our intentions for the New Year. I am actually one of those characters who love making resolutions – and I post them front and center on my desk. They help me stay focused. And at the end of [...]

Over the past few weeks the number of people who have lost their jobs, filed bankruptcy, had their homes foreclosed upon, dipped severely into their retirement nest egg, etc. has grown to epidemic proportions. I have met with a least a dozen individuals and clients who are simply at a loss as to ‘what to [...]

As we come upon the Thanksgiving holiday, I struggled with what to share which may offer a new set of lenses through which to look at our lives, as so many face a Thanksgiving filled with loss. We are living in a time where the good in the world is often over-shadowed by a myriad [...]

A very wise person in my life (thank you Liz King) shared with me something I carry with me as a mantra: “You only have control over three things in your life; they are your ABC’s. Your Attitude, your Behavior, and your Choices.” At dinner with friends and colleagues one night recently, I listened as [...]

Business executives (and society in general) have a tendency to latch onto words, phrases, and cliché’s that become ‘the word Du jour’ which capture where we ‘are’ as a society of individuals. We fall in love with the word – or the ‘spirit’ of what the word represents – and we just use it over [...]

“You know, I would be just fine if I just wouldn’t compare myself to everyone else” a colleague lamented to me the other night. This person (don’t want to assign gender as this goes both ways), by many peoples’ measures, ‘has it all’ – monetarily successful, happily married, has two precious, well adjusted children, healthy, [...]

I bet there isn’t a single one of us who has not asked the question, “What’s it all about Alfie?” at one point in our lives or another. Work. Promotions. Competition. Corporate politics. Wealth accumulation. Stock options; strike price. IPO – acquisitions – venture backing. Investments. Retirement plans. Capitalism at its finest – hallelujah!! Being [...]