Note: This is part of a series of blog posts I’ve been doing about adopting a more positive mindset. You can find the others in my list of blog posts. You may know the phrase: “If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.” The problem is, sometimes you won’t succeed no matter how much you try. I know this goes against much of what our society believes, but as Shawn Achor points out in Big Potential: “In work and in life, when we repeatedly stumble and fall along a certai

I’ve written before about the challenges of eating while attending work conferences (conference food part 1 and part 2). But on my most recent trip, I noticed a couple of new oddities that got me thinking. Fancy vs. regular hotel Have you ever stayed in a fancy hotel? If so, you may have noticed an oddity about them: in some ways, they don’t offer as many amenities as regular hotels. Especially when it comes to eating and drinking. Take breakfast. A lot of hotels offer a cont

Note: This is part of a series of blog posts I’ve been doing about adopting a more positive mindset. You can find the others in my list of blog posts. You might already know this, but Americans are bad at recognizing when they need to take a break from a tough situation. And we might be even worse at admitting we need a break at all. As Shawn Achor points out in Big Potential: “We are told from a very early age that we shouldn’t avoid our problems.” (p. 172) But he also point

I was going to continue with the positive mindset posts this week by writing about the importance of taking breaks. But instead I’m going to model by taking a break from that. Because I definitely need a breather this week. Last Thursday, February 28, I had my beloved cat Salem put to sleep. She was 20 1/2, and she was very ready to go. She’d let me know she was on her way out when she stopped eating, and I could see it in how hard it was for her to get around. (For those who