The Blog
So many words, so little time.


Fun at work
Fun at Work: Not an Oxymoron

Are you having fun yet? Years ago, I found myself in a job that JUST WASN’T FUN ANYMORE.  I complained about it just like that, too ­– in an all-caps, whiny-voiced kind of way that likely made The Husband feel the same way about his life (or at least about me). I’ve had jobs that...

Longest Day of the Year
Try Not To Ruin The Longest Day Of The Year

June 20th is the longest day of the year, which means we can either savor or squander the extra two seconds of daylight bestowed upon us by the people who made up astronomy. (And I am being exact here: Chicago, for example, will enjoy 15:13:40 of daylight compared to the depressing day before with a...

Retirement reality
Our Pseudo-Retirement Reality

If you’re working past 65, you’d might as well love it. Every single day 10,000 people in the U.S. wake up to celebrate their 65th birthday. After blowing out cakes laden with more candles than they are likely able to blow out, these boomers are faced with the reality of what it means to be...

WakeUp Call Blog
How I’m Making Meaning in a Pandemic

COVID-19 has made us painfully aware that things aren’t what they used to be. For many, it’s also helping us realize that the “used to be” version of our lives needed a kick in the pants anyways. Maybe we needed a catalyst—like a global pandemic—to both value and experience our lives to their fullest? Aldous...

Midlife Crisis
Listen to Your Mid-Life Crisis

It might be your gut trying to help you. I’m working with a client right now who’s convinced he’s having a mid-life crisis, and it’s not sitting well with him, at all. He’s 24. In addition to clarifying that this particular stage of WTF is actually called a quarter-life crisis (they exist!), I’m trying to...

Personal board of directors
Why You Need a Personal Board of Directors

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with,” is one of those slap-you-in-the-face quotes that has you side-eyeing all the regulars in your life. Jim Rohn said those words, which Tony Robbins pounced on, and then Tim Ferriss had his way with them. Oprah even paraphrased it. It’s kind...

Positive thinking
Positive Thinking*, with an Asterisk

Putting positivity in perspective. Norman Vincent Peale, grandfather of the think-yourself-happy movement and author of the enormously popular The Power of Positive Thinking, once said, “There is a deep tendency in human nature to become precisely what you visualize yourself as being.” If you think you’re a talentless loser, things might not go so well...

Career myths
Career Myths Keeping You From Your Dream Job

When it comes to doing what you really want to be doing for a living — not the thing you got sucked into doing right after you graduated, not the thing your spouse hopes you’ll grin and bear until the kids are through college, not the thing that makes the “suck it up, buttercup” memes...

What if you don't want to be a leader
What if You Don’t Want to Be a Leader?

We think we’re supposed to want to grab that Boss brass ring, because many our co-workers are clamoring to break out of the cube farm and earn the right to an office with an actual door. But what if the glamorized idea of leadership just isn’t for you? What’s a stellar individual contributor in a...

Would you hire you
Would You Hire You?

The person you are today, not the you that showed up on your first day. Think back to the first day of the job you’re in right now. Ignore the sweaty palms &/or pits and think about the version of yourself you brought to your cubicle. It was the best version of yourself, wasn’t it?...

Dream Job Part Two
The Dream Job Project: Part Two

Buckle up for the roller coaster. So, you’ve given yourself permission to dream about what this proverbial “dream job” might look like in your life which means you read Part One, and you’ve started imagining what it might feel like to get paid to do something you don’t have to merely tolerate. Something you more...

Dream Job Part One
The Dream Job Project: Part One

Giving yourself a permission slip to dream Henry David Thoreau probably didn’t know when he wrote, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined,” that it would end up on fridge magnets all across America. We don’t do magnets in our house but we do do books, so this is...

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