What is Emotional Intelligence, Really?

What is Emotional Intelligence, Really?

Emotional intelligence, or EI, is the ability to identify what you are feeling and manage that feeling rather than suppress it.  Which doesn’t necessarily mean express it, because another attribute of emotional intelligence is understanding the impact that your...
Develop Intrinsic Motivation That Lasts All Year

Develop Intrinsic Motivation That Lasts All Year

Intrinsic motivation is the holy grail of any self-employed, entrepreneurial creative.  “I can only get stuff done when it’s for other people, but not when it only matters to me!” Yeah, that’s the thing about what matters to you: it often doesn’t much matter to...
Developing Commitment Stamina

Developing Commitment Stamina

Commitment stamina is the key ingredient of resilience. If you don’t tether yourself to something via a commitment to it, you’ll bail as soon as the going gets tough.   When the going gets tough, you must move through and rebound from the toughness of...
The Error of a Life Spent in Pursuit

The Error of a Life Spent in Pursuit

This is how it seems to me: pleasure is in charge when deciding anything.  What will produce the next pleasurable result?  What action is most likely to produce a compliment?  What to eat? Where to be? On the face of things it seems as though pleasure...
The Meaning of Things

The Meaning of Things

I threw something out today. It was a silk scarf. Grey, with a black and white square pattern. My grandfather wrapped his violin in it. I’d already sold the violin, which had felt like a betrayal and did not come easily. Even though I did it for the instruments...

Health and the Holidays

Haven’t been here in a while. Recovering from the somber fact that I must take more agency over my health. In doing so, I’ve forgone my daily glass of wine in the last couple weeks (yes, good for the heart. but bad for sinus problems), am avoiding gluten...