Don't Be Defeated Again! 24 Top Tips To Make 2024 Better Than Last Year!

By now, you will have already broken one or more of your resolutions for the new year. You didn't mean to... it was just so hard to keep that major commitment. While I do believe in setting worthwhile and measurable goals for a new year, I prefer identifying small changes I can sustain throughout the year as opposed to vague or emotionally-driven resolutions. For example, using the quote, "Do creative work first, reactive work second" was a small yet powerful change I made in my daily plan a few years ago, and served me much more effectively than saying something like, "I resolve to be happier."

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Nine Ways To Make This Holiday Season The Highlight Of Your Year

There are a couple of “dad rules” at my house that are challenged each November. Okay… MOST of my dad rules get contested through the year.

The ones I’m referring to in this instance are: No Christmas decorations should be put up or Christmas music played until after Thanksgiving. My official reasoning is that Thanksgiving is such an important time to reflect on how blessed we are as individuals, families, and as a nation. And that’s true.

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Does Delegating Feel Like You Are Giving In To The Dark Side?

I will never forget sitting in a movie theater in 1977 watching Star Wars Episode IV-A New Hope. As a middle schooler looking for adventure, the Star Wars saga was an adventure of a lifetime. The scenes of Darth Vader inviting Luke Skywalker to come to the “dark side” were especially troubling to me because there were so many moments where I believed Luke might actually give up and join his father.

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3 Time Saver Boundaries To Create More Freedom In Your Day

Today, I found myself outside, indulging in one of my absolute favorite activities — picking blueberries. It’s a time when I can truly escape and become immersed in deep thoughts, self-reflection, and the invigorating sensation of breathing in fresh air. However, I must admit, there are moments when I can get carried away and lose track of time, neglecting other important tasks. As a result, I often find myself grappling with a sense of guilt afterwards.

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Will A Distraction Free Environment Free You To Focus Better?

One of the things I hear from so many people is they want to improve their ability to focus. If they just had a distraction free environment, they could get the right things done. Well, I’m writing this from one of those distraction free environments, from one of the booths they have at the airport where you can use it to make video calls and have privacy.

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When More Than Money Is Necessary For A Memorable Retirement

I’m currently reading the book, Die With Zero, by Bill Perkins. This book is a revolutionary game changer that upend our traditional ideas of retirement, later years in life, and even the choices we make right now. He argues that it isn’t necessary to accumulate wealth or save for retirement; instead, we should focus on creating a life of meaning and purpose. The big idea in the book is that we need to die with as close to zero monies as possible at the end of our life.

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Are You Working Hard Not To Focus On Work?

"My life is a lump!" The person on the call was a colleague who was lamenting how their work-life satisfaction had shifted so much in the past few months. She even had the audacity to challenge the three rings model I share in my book, Juggling Elephants (No offense taken). "Being confined to home while I was already working remotely with a global team requiring extended work hours has reduced my life to one ring-WORK!" To be fair, she did also mention that she was grateful to have a job in these uncertain times.

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Why You Keep Getting Work Life Balance All Wrong

I’ve written in the past about my disdain for the term, “work life balance.” I think there are way better lenses to use to assess the overall health and success of our lives. They include asking questions like:

  • What is my purpose and how are my daily choices aligning/not aligning with that purpose?

  • What fulfills me? How can I be more intentional in including (or acknowledging) those kinds of activities in my day or week?

  • Where am I allowing myself to feel like a victim of my circumstances? What's one small step I could take to exert greater control over my current situation?

  • How could I improve my efficiency or effectiveness in one of my roles to create more time for what's most important?

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Have Elephants Ever Fallen On You?

While cleaning off one of my desks I found an insightful article on beating stress from Reader’s Digest. It's a good prescription for beginning the healing process after an elephant you were attempting to juggle has fallen on you. The list also gets you started on preventing them from falling on you again. They include:

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