Why People Struggle to be Happy
People struggle to be happy. One of my friends is always happy. She sings, smiles, and brings joy to everyone around her. Another friend is consistently a grump. His glass of life is half empty, from morning to night. Why people struggle to be happy Why are some people consistently unhappy? They can’t seem to […]
You Can’t Palm Big Balls With Small Hands
“Follow your dreams! You can do it,” encouraged Mom. “Go for it,” said Chubby. No kid could have tried harder to make the high school basketball team. My toes were bloody, my knees ached, and my palms were raw. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t palm big balls with small hands. Even […]
Look for the Big Moments in Life
In the late 1970s I was invited to give a 20-minute presentation to over 1,000 Shaklee distributors in Cincinnati, OH, where I grew up. I had just completed the Dale Carnegie speaking course and did pretty well. So the local director chose me to give the talk. He wanted to sell training by illustrating that […]
The Fatal Assumption
Crunchy sweet graham cracker crust. Organic, extra-tart lemons. Glistening meringue exploding from the top of a pie like a billow of clouds in the sky. Katie’s pies were magnificent. But a fatal assumption was on the horizon. For years everyone said, “Katie, your pies are so good, you should start a pie business.” And so […]
Dancing With The Facts
The year was 1968 and Audrey was a childless widow in her fifties who dreamed of dancing like Ginger Rogers. So when a friend invited her to a dance party at a local Arthur Murray studio in Clearwater, FL, Audrey was excited to attend. When Audrey arrived, a dashing young dance instructor whirled her about the […]
Lightning Bolts and Mystery Spots
My friend Bruce has a talent for changing the way I think. A few years ago he shared one single sentence that changed the way I hug, kiss, love and live. I consider these Bruceisms to be lightning bolt sentences. It started when Bruce invited me on a motorcycle trip to Mexico with our mutual […]
Learn Twice as Much in Half the Time
At the age of 60, I decided to do something my friends thought was insane: take the Arizona bar exam. I graduated from law school way back in 1974, but my father developed emphysema, so I decided to help him manage his real estate firm instead of practicing law. I later founded several real estate […]
Put Enough Paint on the Brush
My grandfather was a house painter. In his lifetime he must have painted hundreds of houses inside and out. He was a happy, outgoing man who made friends easily. It wasn’t hard to tell that he loved his work as well as his life. He was also an excellent painter. No one could paint a […]
FEAR
When I was 12 years old, I lived next door to the most beautiful girl in the world. Ok, maybe not the entire world, but my world, for sure. I had a massive crush on Pam Diekman, the proverbial girl next door. A Heavenly Four Minutes Every school morning, I would stand poised at our […]
Special Skin
I didn’t have a dad growing up. Mom raised me, for the most part. I did have an uncle who was like my father. His name is Greg Hague. Uncle Greg taught me something special about me. It was 1981, another bleak, freezing Cincinnati winter. My name is Jason. I was five at the time. […]