Life
A Year Without Alcohol
A Year Without Alcohol is an awesome blog post by Kelly Fitzgerald about her year without alcohol. Kelly's experiences are fairly normal for someone making a choice to become sober and lead a sober lifestyle. I am including her story because it is important for people to read the experiences of those who may be going through something similar and know it can and will get better.
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Providence Life Coach Career Success Series – Finding Your Life Purpose
For many people, finding your life purpose can be a challenging and frustrating experience. There was a time in my life when I did not know what I wanted to do professionally. I had met several times with a career counselor and did a full range of testing. After completing the tests, the career counselor and I went over the results together.
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A Social Experiment in First Impressions
I thought this was an interesting social experiment in first impressions. I do not think it proves anything, but it is still interesting. It is fun watching the different responses people have as they interpret characteristics of people based on little more than first impressions. I think it would be fun to conduct a similar experiment with a variable that isn't part of a marketing campaign....
Men That Try Too Hard
Men get a bad rap. If the only thing you knew about men in America came from watching TV, movies, and listening to music, you would think all of us are angry, violent, lazy men hanging out on the couch, watching sports, and playing video games all day. A chunk of the American male population indeed fits this description, but not all of us. Generally speaking, men that try too hard are rarely in the news or make headlines, we are doing what we do with humility and anonymity....
25 Signs You’re Succeeding At Life (Even If It Doesn’t Feel Like It)
Whenever I see posts like "3 easy ___" or 25 Signs You're ______", I am skeptical at best. Life rarely fits into neat little lists that are supposed to let you know anything about yourself that is productive or of substance. I do appreciate those who take the time to catalog information easily digestible. This is where the post titled, "25 Signs You're Succeeding At Life (Even If It Doesn't Feel Like It)" by Shannon Kaiser feels like it might at least point in the direction of what succeeding at life may feel like for a significant group of people. Not all listed apply to all of us, but I think there is value in reflecting on this particular list to see where you are seeing progress and where to focus more energy and attention.
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Maya Angelou Phenomenal Woman
Many years ago, I gave a friend the book by Maya Angelou, Phenomenal Woman. I remember the first time she read it and watching her face light up as if an angel had just touched her; maybe she was, in a sense. I have always been a fan of Maya Angelou. I flinched this morning when I read that she had passed. Although we had never met, I felt like I lost an old friend. Amazing and phenomenal people have that effect on those who have heard or read their words. Along with being an amazing writer, Maya Angelou had as beautiful a speaking voice as I can remember hearing....
A Sober and Healthy Life
I remember in the late 80s and early 90s when AA, NA, and all of the 12-step programs first began to gain mainstream popularity and support. At the time, there was almost a sense of hysteria about alcoholics and addicts finding a "new" method to create a sober and healthy life. In a matter of just a few years, there were registered 164 different 12-step programs based on the structure and foundation of Alcoholics Anonymous. Soon after that, the very popular book Codependent No More by Melody Beattie became a bestseller, and it seemed as if everybody was claiming they were now codependent or somebody in their life was codependent. Codependency was all the rage. It is funny to think that pretty much everybody was claiming somebody or themselves to be either an alcoholic, addict, or codependent as if these were goals to achieve in life.
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