Nate was wrestling with God again.
He wanted to choose the path God had for him. He wanted to exercise good decision making in God’s will.
The problem was he didn’t know what God wanted him to do.
Oh sure, he knew God didn’t want him murdering someone or stealing their stuff. But, the situation he faced was not so clear cut.
How could Nate be sure the decision he was making would be pleasing to God and turn out well? (more…)
Have you ever thought you were making good decisions that promised to make life better… and instead things got worse?
Things go off the road… and you are now a passenger in the unfolding of events?
Then a friend of yours, trying to be encouraging, says “it will get better! The disaster is actually a blessing! It’ll eventually turn out good…”
After shooting them and disposing of their body, you want to scream, “Why did this happen? It seemed like I made a good decision at the time!”
What you may not know is there was something influencing your decision that you couldn’t see. (more…)
Stop and think for a minute.
Are there people in 
your world
with whom you’d like to experience a better connection?
Maybe even have them see you in a more favorable light?
One highly effective method to increase your connection and influence with people around you is to use the misunderstood relational superpower called empathy. (For more on this effective approach, see the article entitled, Empathy: an “Attractive” Quality That Boosts Your Influence)
A second method, called the mirror technique, can also help you increase connection. By mirroring others, the technique taps into a quirk in our brain (called mirror neurons), discovered by neuroscientists.
What’s great about the mirror technique is that anyone can do it, and its effects are quickly seen.
Do you want to make more and better friends wherever you go? Then read on!
Have you wrestled over how to make a difficult decision?
What makes that decision all the more difficult is when you remember previous decisions that blew up in your face.
You think, “God, I don’t want that to happen again.”
So, how do you choose wisely… and prevent an outcome you regret? (more…)
Trying to make better decisions today can be soooooo frustrating.
Even when you really, really want to make the best decision, and you take time to think it through, it often turns out less than you hoped.
What gives?
Here’s the problem — we typically make decisions based on a faulty process. No matter how deliberate you are, if the way you make decisions is screwed up… you will get screwed up decisions.
But, there is a simple approach you can use that will significantly increase the odds of a good outcome.
A secret desire for virtually every human being on this planet is to be seen as attractive by others. I’m not just talking about physical appearance, either.
Attractive [uh-trak-tiv]: A pleasing quality that draws people toward it.
We’d all love for others to be drawn to us like a magnet, to seek us out, to want to be with us, to hang on our words, laugh at our jokes… at least by the people we want to be with.
Can you relate?
We go to great lengths in a number of ways to accomplish this:
What is usually overlooked are attractive qualities that radiate from the inside out. These character qualities can draw people toward us… or repel them from us.
Empathy is a powerful inner quality that can help you be a magnet that draws people toward you… and increases their desire to be in your orbit.
“If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from his angle as well as your own. ” – Henry Ford
Thankfully, this undervalued people skill can be increased in your life… opening many new doors to a meaningful life with tremendous impact.
Read on to learn 5 ways to improve your empathy skills… and 5 things NOT to do that you might think are helpful (trust me, they aren’t).
If you were an executive coach who interacted with
thousands of clients over 30 years… 
… you would probably see certain characteristics
emerging over and over that were “make or break”
qualities in one’s success.
Dave Yarnes is just such a coach.
One of the qualities he noticed in countless individuals
that seriously limited (or accelerated) their ability
to succeed:
Self-Awareness – Understanding and addressing who you really are, and how you come across to others (but you can’t see)… yet everyone else can see.
In fact, this quality of “self-awareness” is so crucial that researcher Dr. Tasha Eurich called it, “The Most Important Skill of the 21st Century.”
You know people like this, right? People who are oblivious or self-deceived on how they come across.
Sure, everyone knows other people who have this issue… but here’s the real problem:
Everyone (yes, that means you and me, too) are blind to certain dimensions of who we really are.
“You can fool yourself, you know. You’d think it’s impossible, but it turns out it’s the easiest thing of all.” ― Jodi Picoult
Here is what executive coach Dave Yarnes repeatedly saw: Until you address your blind spot, you will continue to limit your ability to influence others and succeed at the level you desire.
I’m going to show you an effective method to overcome this blindness… so you can become a more influential, well respected and successful person (at home, at work/school, in life). (more…)
Imagine you are a caveman, and you are 
working really hard dragging a sled of
supplies uphill to your cave. You look over at your neighbor and he too is working to get supplies uphill to his cave.
… but he has wheels on his cart.
Sometimes, there is an easier way to accomplish you goals. The surprising news from research is that due to a quirk in human perception, you can “put wheels” on your efforts to make real progress toward your goals.
Using the technique I am about to share with you, one person said, “I found it surprising that I could do [what I struggled to do previously, but this time] without a tremendous amount of effort or commitment.”
In their fascinating book, The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact, Chip and Dan Health show us (among many other things) how we can alter and then leverage our experiences to see greater progress toward our goals.
“You must become more aware of how you see,
not just what you see.”
– Michael Kimmelman
“What you perceive depends a good deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.”
– C.S. Lewis
Reality, and your perceptions of reality are often two different things.
You are wise to recognize that sometimes your perceptions can’t be trusted, and must be examined… even challenged.
This was pointed out recently by Professor Steven Pinker in an article for Time Magazine. He noted that according to actual measurable statistics about life in the 21st century, people overall are…
… than ever before.
Those are the undeniable facts.
Yet, the average person’s opinion of the state of the world is much more pessimistic and worried.
What’s going on here? Why are people drawing conclusions that are the exact opposite of the facts?
I’m glad you asked. There is a phenomenon going on that you must understand and address in your life if you are going to experience a better, more hopeful life (that is rooted in reality).
“I want to make the best, mostI applaud that desire. It is a core message of this website.
Unfortunately, optimum decision making in a given situation depends on a number of factors… all of which can derail your best intentions.
Fortunately, there is one small factor that can quickly and easily be leveraged to improve your decision making.
“Small hinges can swing big doors.”
If you take this factor into consideration in your daily decision making, you WILL see better outcomes. If you don’t, well… all your good intentions will not be enough to overcome the results.
