Category: The Knowing (Self Awareness)

A partial view of a waterwheel with colorful buckets set against a bright outdoor background

Read time: 2 mins

Filling the 7 Buckets of Your Waterwheel

One way to approach living your life or achieving any form of success is to think of yourself as having 7 buckets

A dalmatian dog with a tennis ball in its mouth in front of an outdoor background

Read time: 2 mins

Finding Your Tennis Ball

If happiness/success is finding a goal or path that one follows with the unrestrained joy of a dog chasing a tennis ball,

hand holding red clock with stop sign and pause reflect text on grunge yellow background

Read time: 2 mins

Your Reaction Does Not Need to Be Your Response

Your 1st reaction tends to be emotional, often driven by the ‘reptilian’ brain and defensive/protective in nature. An effective response goes to

An illustration of several people standing at a crossroads with multiple paths and open doors, symbolizing choices and decision-making.

Read time: 2 mins

Your Unlived Lives

‘Your Unlived Lives’ refers to the set of choices you didn’t make—and the selves you didn’t become. Call it the unrealized self

Two opposite left/right arrows, one cutted from the yellow paper curved up of two sides on the yellow paper background other made as an arrow shaped hole in the background with green paper underlay

Read time: 2 mins

Opposite Me

Confirmation bias, the tendency to see what we expect and want to see, is one of the most common human mental shortcuts

A person holding a stylized iceberg graphic labeled “hard skills” above the surface and “soft skills” below, illustrating that soft skills are deeper and less visible.

Read time: 3 mins

A Curious Reluctance

I am by training an accountant and an attorney, and worked briefly as an auditor; all hardheaded professions, grounded in hard skills.

Hand drawing a heart and brain concept about the EQ emotional intelligence and IQ intelligence quotient.

Read time: 2 mins

Soft Strengths are the Hardest

I have relentlessly pursued mastery of my craft my entire life. My home library has over a thousand books, I have three

Vector cartoon illustration of many roads leading in different directions, along which people go—one path leading to a goal with a final golden mark.

Read time: 2 mins

Sliding v. Deciding

Are you paying attention to your life? The difference between sliding v. deciding is usually awareness. Sliding is like being on a

A woman standing in front of a large, well-lit mirror, likely in a dressing room or backstage area. The mirror is framed with bright round vanity lights. She is holding a plain white mask up to her face, covering her nose and mouth, while looking at her reflection.

Read time: 2 mins

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life is the title of a 1956 seminal work by sociologist Erving Goffman. His thesis was

Silhouette of bird flying and broken chains at beautiful mountain and sky autumn sunset background

Read time: 2 mins

Mind-forg’d Manacles

The phrase ‘mind-forg’d manacles’ comes from the poem ‘London’ by romantic author William Blake, written in 1794. Over 200 years ago, Blake

The image is a flat, vector-style illustration with a soft purple background. In the center, a man in a dark purple suit stands in a thoughtful pose, with one hand on his chin and the other on his hip. Above his head are three interlocking gears, symbolizing thinking or problem-solving. Curved white arrows point from a large question mark on the left toward the gears, and from the gears toward a bright yellow light bulb on the right.

Read time: 2 mins

Sensemaking

We live in an ever more complex, chaotic world where the pace of change seems to be accelerating daily. How to make