I popped open the festive red envelope and pulled out the greeting card. Staring back at me was a dumpy, overweight, tired old woman with a sagging face wrapped in hog-like jowls. Clad in a frumpy sweater-skirt combo and sporting a mass of frizzy, out-of-control grey hair, her bosoms dangled around her knees [...]
Are You Moving to the Music of Change?
“Music’s alright, John, but you’ll never make a living out of it.”
John Lennon’s Aunt Mimi Smith
“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.”
Decca Recording Company rejecting the Beatles, January 1962
“They were very scruffy characters – but they had a beat in their music which I liked…I got [...]
The Benefit of the Doubt
“I don’t have time to deal with this now. I’ll just give them the benefit of the doubt and hope it doesn’t happen again.”
Time-stressed, crazy busy Type A’s often unwittingly make troubling situations worse because they choose to give the other person the benefit of the doubt rather than finding the time to address the [...]
12 Steps to a Work-Free Vacation
As the vacation season arrives, I am finding more and more clients struggling with how to have a work-free vacation. Let’s tackle this puppy so you can get away, unwind and rejuvenate without having to huddle in your beachfront condo with your laptop or conquer a fire-breathing email behemoth when you return.
Follow these twelve [...]
Seven Type A Career Mastery Mistakes
“I have to ask myself some tough questions. Why am I doing this work? In the whole big scheme of things, what real difference does my work make? When I’m gone, what will I leave behind? How will I be remembered? As the wife who was too busy to spend time with her husband? For [...]
When Perfect Goes Bad
Type A’s are notorious for setting a high bar and then pushing themselves and everyone else over the edge. This is especially true for Type A’s who have been bitten by the perfect bug.
Have you been bitten by the perfect bug? Check out these 10 signs and symptoms.
1. You believe it’s important [...]
Responsibility – Authority = Train Wreck
A reader writes:
“The train wreck analogy is an accurate description of my reality. As a supervisor, I am squarely in the midst of “do more with less.” Any suggestions on dealing with situations for which you are responsible but feel you have little authority to change?”
I have to rant. One the stupidest things a [...]
Decide to be Satisfied
“Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of [...]
Unraveling Type A Guilt Gone Awry
A reader writes:
Right now I could use a blog from you about how a Type A really needs to be sick when she’s sick. I’m proud of myself for NOT going to the conference this week because I’ve been so sick, but I’m feeling so guilty about letting down the conference since I was [...]
Lisa Dee: Power Off the Scale
“We had to dig the chickens out of three feet of snow yesterday.”
I chuckle at the surprising vision of this Type A power player shoveling snow while the chickens crow.
“I built my first company with a $5000 loan from my parents. I built it up to a $24 million dollar company.”
With [...]