Posts Tagged ‘success’

Mother’s always said I was an adorable baby who charmed everyone during the day then screamed nonstop through the night. By two, I was slipping around the house in the dark. By five, I was hiding flashlights and comic books under the bed. In high school, after Mom finally threatened to pour water on my head, I’d just go into the bathroom, lock the door, curl up on the floor, and go back to sleep.

Nature made me a night owl. And it’s a tough habit to break … especially since I set my own work hours. Believe me, I’ve tried every possible formula for re-setting my circadian rhythms—the internal dials that control such things as sleeping patterns and body temperature. For most people, circadian rhythms are influenced by light. So those people naturally begin to slow down as night falls. But that’s when I seem to rev up.

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In grade school, my favorite place on campus was the library. Ours was an old school, and the library was small with dark wood floors, tables, chairs, and shelves. To this day, the lemony scent of certain wood-care products makes me feel a wonderful sense of nostalgia as I’m taken back to that old library and the adventures I found in the books it housed.

We all know smells can remind us of people, places, and events from our pasts. But recently Israeli researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science began studying how the link between odor and memory might be used to help treat trauma patients.

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One of the great ironies of having cancer is that if it’s caught relatively early, you really don’t feel sick until after you start receiving treatment. So there you are in your pre-diagnosis ignorance, probably the closest you’ve ever been to death … and you feel just fine.

On the other hand, you could have an everyday, run-of-the-mill flu—coughing, fever, runny nose, sore throat—and feel absolutely miserable … like I have for the last week.

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As a pro football fan, I’ve often wondered what it would be like to stand on a confetti-strewn field and hoist the Lombardi Trophy after winning the Super Bowl. It’s a fantasy shared by every NFL aficionado. But it’s probably safe to say none of us has fantasized about being on the other side: facing the cameras at the post-game press conference and trying to explain how we lost the biggest game of our lives.

Think failure isn’t an option? Think again. People fall short of their goals every day. But imagine falling short before an estimated worldwide audience of one billion people. And if that weren’t nightmarish enough, imagine then having to sit in front of the mics and say to the world, “We couldn’t get it done” … “They made the plays they had to make” … “We needed to stop them but we didn’t” … “I’m proud of what we accomplished this season, but it wasn’t enough” … “They played great football. I think that we played good football, but, you know, not great.” (Yes, Arizona Cardinals safety Antrel Rolle really was honest enough to say the last lines after his team’s Super Bowl XLIII loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.)

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It might surprise Americans to learn one of the qualities that make them stand out among people of other nations is their shiny white teeth. But as health care in the United States becomes more expensive and fewer people are able to afford dental insurance, Americans need to take precautions to ensure their pearly whites don’t lose their luster.

The American Dental Association recommends children begin visiting the dentist before their first birthday. And the best way to get children to visit the dentist is to lead by example. A recent National Health Interview Study of children age 2 to 17 found that those whose parents visited the dentist were more likely to have seen a dentist as well.

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A few years ago, I spent several hours each week volunteering in one of the local Habitat for Humanity offices, sorting paperwork connected to the mortgage-holders’ loans. That’s where I learned about the concept of “sweat equity.”

Habitat for Humanity isn’t a charity, as most people have come to define the word—meaning it’s not an organization that simply provides help to the needy. Habitat provides a way for the needy to help themselves. In order to qualify, Habitat homeowners must make a down payment and monthly mortgage payments—and they must contribute a large amount of “sweat equity.” That means they have to put in hundreds of labor hours building not only their own house, but other Habitat houses.

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As someone who’d been self-employed since his mid-twenties, my dad understood the ups and downs of being your own boss. He knew the worries of watching your business dip with a downturned economy. He knew the responsibility of providing for your own retirement because there would be no company plan. He knew the fear of losing everything when a cancer diagnosis prompted your health insurer to cancel your policy though you’d never been late with a premium. He didn’t want his children to face similar stresses.

So when his son announced he was leaving a secure management job with a major retail chain so he could gamble on law school, Daddy was not happy. Some parents may dream of their children becoming doctors or lawyers. My dad dreamed of company pensions.

To drive home the point that my brother should rethink his choice, Daddy scoured the newspapers and presented him with articles about failing attorneys. Yep, believe it or not, if you look hard enough, you can find articles about starving lawyers.

My brother was confident in his decision, shrugged off my dad’s concerns, and is now a successful partner in his own law firm. My dad couldn’t be prouder. And the major retail chain where my brother had his “secure” management job? It went belly-up before he finished law school.

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They called it “Showtime”—the decade from 1979 to 1989 when the Los Angeles Lakers dominated professional basketball by winning five championships. And in the midst of it Michael Cooper was named NBA Defensive Player of the Year.

Fast forward to 2010. After an illustrious career in the pros, Cooper is named the new head coach of the University of Southern California women’s basketball team. He delivers BIG, beating archrival UCLA 70–63. The former Showtime star strides confidently into the post-game press conference and offers up his pearls of wisdom on the game: “My opening statement is [expletive] UCLA.”

Uh-huh. Man knows how to make an impression. Too bad it’s not a good one.

Fortunately for Cooper, a contract and a big win under his belt afforded him the opportunity for a do-over. He released a public letter of apology to UCLA’s coach and players, and his blunder will soon fade from the headlines.

But what if you screw up when you don’t have a safety net?

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Feeling blue? You’re not alone. Major depression has been cited as the fourth most disabling condition in the world and the second most disabling in the west.

But by exploring other colors in the spectrum, you may be able to ward off the blues before they become crippling.

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When you’re trying to get across a delicate point, how you display your words can be as important as the words themselves. That’s why I recently changed the font in my personal e-mails from 14-point Tempus Sans ITC in maroon on a white background to 14-point Garamond in navy on a white background. (Your system and browser will decide whether you can see the font samples.)

You wouldn’t think a simple font change could make a huge difference in how people perceive your messages. But it can. After I made the change, my brother wrote to say how happy he was that I’d dumped the old font. A business associate almost immediately stopped complaining that my e-mails were too long, even though they were the same length they’d always been.

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