Today is the start of International Coaching Week. You can probably guess what that means: It’s a week when people in the coaching profession step up their efforts to celebrate the coaching profession. What is coaching? Here’s a short video explaining what coaching is. I like it because it indicates how prevalent coaching has become […]
Random Acts of Kindness Week Starts on Sunday
Many people are still marveling at Lady Gaga’s half-time performance at the SuperBowl. There is no doubt she is talented, and it turns out she is also civic-minded. In addition to flexing her musical muscles, she has also joined forces with the Dalai Lama to meet with mayors of cities across the country, encouraging them […]
Turtle Steps: When Progress Is Slow to Come
TV, radio, and the Internet told me that the start of a new calendar year is a great time to take on new projects and establish productive habits. Like I do every year, over the holidays I got excited at the prospect of doing these things. Then the new year arrived, and not much changed. […]
Be Yourself by Being Assertive
At the suggestion of a friend, I picked up The Assertiveness Workbook: How to Express Your Ideas and Stand Up for Yourself at Work and in Relationships by Randy J. Paterson, Ph.D. The book describes four different communication styles and argues that assertiveness tends to be the most effective style in terms of clarity and […]
After the Presidential Election: Three Questions I’ll Ask Myself
I was stunned by the results of last Tuesday’s election. I am not alone in feeling this way, given that many pundits described Donald Trump’s win as the biggest political upset in modern history. Even the President-elect himself was purportedly shocked. Some people I know are devastated. Some are resigned. Some are jubilant. Some are […]
What’s your Positive Intelligence Quotient? Making Your Brain Work for You
I love horoscopes. Fortune cookies. Tarot cards. Anything that purports to reveal something about my personality and give me insight into my particular brand of insanity—what motivates, inspires, frightens me. I like such things because they increase my self-awareness, or at least remind me that increasing my self-awareness should be one of my ongoing goals. […]
The BJJJ: Come for the Jiu-Jitsu, Stay for the Jawn
If you saw the 2015 movie Creed, you got a crash course in Philadelphia-ese, in the form of the word “jawn.” “Jawn” is basically synonymous with “noun,” but it is a noun with a bit of Philly sass. Confused about how to use it? Use it in place of literally any person, place, or thing: […]
Taking Your Own Good Advice
Before I started studying life coaching, I thought it was cheesy and New-Agey, because I jumped to conclusions based on assumptions rather than evidence. I started to realize I might be wrong about life coaching in recent years, as I took on more leadership roles in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I began to notice that I […]
Got Passion?
This weekend I was surrounded by scores of people who are passionate about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. On Saturday, my friends Emily Kwok and Art Keintz threw a grand opening party to celebrate the move of their baby, Princeton Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, into a fantastic new space. On Sunday, I received a warm welcome from Team Link in […]
Learning and Creating History
I had a terrific visit to Revolution BJJ in Richmond, VA, this past weekend, and I am grateful for the hospitality. I got a tour of the beautiful facility, I caught up with old friends and made some new ones, and I did what jiu-jitsu people do: I trained. I also got to participate in another […]
