Argument or Peace

Argument or Peace

After a presentation one night, a man came up to me and asked me what to do if you want to be positive but you live with someone who is very negative. I asked him for an example. “Last night my wife came upstairs and said, ‘You left the light on in the basement...

Offer What You Can

My friend and mentor, Christina Baldwin, often says: “Ask for what you need, offer what you can.” I’ve written recently about asking for what we need (click here and here to read those posts,) but that’s only part of the story. We also need to offer what we can....

Ask For What You Need II

A couple of weeks ago I drove home from a trip to Pennsylvania with a friend. About midday we stopped at a rest area on the Merritt Parkway. We got to the door of the restroom only to find a line of at least 8 women ahead of us. There were only two stalls in the...

Ask For What You Need

Two weeks ago I was sitting in the front row of a classroom, trying to listen to a lecture. The speaker projected her voice, but the two women sitting to my right were having an animated conversation, occasionally punctuated by giggles and chuckles. I found it...

Projection

There are times when I sense a lot of disapproval coming from the people around me. This is a classic example of projection, the psychological theory that states that people project onto others traits and motivations that they themselves feel. Knowing this, when I get that feeling that others disapprove of me, I check in with myself and find that, really, I’m the only one disapproving of myself.

Scary but Fun

Some of you may know I’m a member of Toastmasters, a public speaking club. I joined Toastmasters once, years ago, and did some speeches and contributed to the club, but I was really scared of speaking in public so I didn’t volunteer as much as I could have and I never...