The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.

—Warren Buffett

I recently asked my email subscribers where they were getting stuck in life. One of the most frequent responses I got was that people were getting stuck with prioritizing their overwhelming life—there’s too much to do, too many people fighting for their attention, and too many directions they’re being pulled in.

I’ve been there. We feel like we need to do it all, but we recognize that we can’t. We know we need to set some priorities. So, how do we do that?

Continue Reading

He was one of the most gifted photographers I had ever met. So, when he admitted to me that he often struggled with self-doubt and questioned his own abilities, I was shocked. His talent seemed so obvious to me. He was doing something I knew I couldn’t do. While my own photography skills were limited to pointing my phone at an object and pressing the little white circle, he was a professional photographer.

But therein lies the problem. He was in a world filled with great photographers and graphic designers. When he viewed his own work, he wasn’t comparing it to my blurry photos of my kids squinting in the sun that I captured on my phone; he was comparing it to the best of the best.

But as much as I wanted to tell him that he didn’t have to compare himself to other professional photographers, I couldn’t. Because I knew that I did the same thing with my own work.

Continue Reading

If you’re like most people, you probably started the year off with high hopes. You told yourself that THIS is going to be your year. You’re finally going to get healthier, get more exercise, and save more money.

Then, you encountered a hiccup. Maybe you were stressed or busy or tired. Or maybe you just plain didn’t feel like doing what you promised yourself you would do.

If so, you’re not alone. When psychologists John Norcross and Dominic Vangarelli tracked the progress of 200 individuals who made New Year’s resolutions, they found that nearly half of the participants had failed within the first month. In fact, nearly a quarter of the participants didn’t even last a week!

How we respond to our slip-ups can help determine whether we get ourselves back on track or fall off the rails completely.

Continue Reading