
Pack Your Survival Kit
When my kids were young we attended a survivalist class at our local nature center. Over the course of a few weeks, we learned what to do if we got lost in the woods or the desert, how long we could survive without water, how to filter water,…

How to Adapt Your Personal Vision to the New Normal
When I was a girl, I played with Barbies, arranged my stuffed bunny collection, and imagined that my adult life would look something like this:
?? Job: waitress, teacher, or nurse (or first woman president—yes, seriously) ?
? College: 4-year…

The Biggest Lie of the Self-Help Industry
There is a pervasive lie in the self-help/self-development world. That lie is this:
The same level of success, wealth, health, and ambition is available to all of us right now. In fact, all you need to do is act now. All that holds you…

How to Know if the Time is Right
In the last post, I talked about how the massive societal changes we've experienced this year have caused many to realize that they crave change in their own personal lives. Perhaps you feel this way. Whether you’re realizing that you simply…

Change Fosters More Personal Change
There’s an embarrassing story about me that lives on in our family lore. It's a story that always elicits laughter and sometimes a raised eyebrow. Forgive me if I’ve told you before. ?
But before I get into it, let me take you back…

How Writing Down My Ideal Vision Changed My Life
There seem to be two answers successful folks have when it comes to the question: “Did you ever expect to have this kind of success?”
One answer is something like:
“No, this is crazy. I just got lucky. I wanted to do this ______________…

Who was the first woman to inspire you to be successful?
“Pink Cadillac, cruising down the street…,” Mom would sing and do her signature shimmy, as we drove down the street in her blue Chevy Nova to another Tupperware party in a nearby town. Mom wanted the pink Cadillac—that was the big…

Aretha Franklin’s Tough Choices
on the Way to Success
I was heartbroken to learn of Aretha Franklin's death yesterday. It was the kind of loss you feel based on some wish that I'd had a chance to get to know her. Like now the (irrational) opportunity was definitely gone. I've always kind of seen…
on the Way to Success

I’ll Do Well Anyway: How to Not Allow Failure to Define You
There's a blurry video from 1986 making its rounds on Instagram lately. Have you seen that old video clip of Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes interviewing Oprah?
In December of '86 The Oprah Winfrey show had just launched and our beloved icon…

How to Deal When Someone You Dislike Wins
Have you ever experienced something like this: Someone you can't stand gets a win.
You know them to be a [fraud/asshole/full-of-shit/fake/abusive/condescending/fill-in-the-blank nasty trait] and yet they won an award, or got a big client,…