Let’s face it. Sometimes the easiest thing to do is to blame someone one else.

When the reality is that we should look to ourselves.

What do I mean by that?

For me it boils down to a very simple concept:

The most important state of mind in any situation is YOURS.

It doesn’t matter when or where it is – with family, in the workplace or a crowded airplane on a busy holiday weekend.

If your first thought in a…

Happy Thanksgiving!

As we take stock of all we’re grateful for this Thanksgiving, I have my own bit of gratitude to share: I’m thankful for perseverance.

Just to make sure I’m using the right word, I looked it up. Perseverance is defined as “steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.”

Yep, right word.…

Thanksgiving is approaching and I thought it would be a good time to remind our readers that ‘listening’ is a GREAT conflict resolution tool.

Extended time with family and friends can be rewarding and delightful and can also test our patience and tap into unresolved or brewing conflict.

If you are having difficulty with someone at…

Jeanette’s post this past Monday about parents who support adult children really hit home for me, and I felt I just HAD to respond. You see, I’m the “other” kid, the one who feels some resentment toward a sibling who has turned to Mom and Dad for financial support…and more financial support…and more financial support. You get the idea.

Jeanette’s right. When a parent financially supports one child but not the other, resentment often follows. And, the “other” child wonders–why…

Dear Parents: Sometimes your adult children experience difficult financial times and you want to help them out. Yet you might feel badly that you aren’t treating your children ‘equally.’

Dear Children: Sometimes, one of you may need financial help from your parents while the rest of you are economically stable or even better off. Yet, you may feel that it’s not ‘fair’ that mom and dad are helping your sibling through tough times (and perhaps…

Every morning, my routine goes something like this: wake up, curse the dogs across the street that WOKE me up, grab my phone, check the news, get my kids ready for school. And, in my early morning fog, I’ve been reading a lot about a football coach in Seattle who may be fired for praying at the 50-yard line at football games.The story varies a little from news outlet to news outlet, but the latest I’ve read is that mediation was (at one point, anyway)an option.…

Ah – remember being graded in kindergarten about your social skills? Did you play well with others?

Well, it turns out that what we are taught at this early age – things like sharing, caring and going with the flow — are also VERY applicable to our workplace.

A new study, conducted by David Deming, an Associate Professor of…

As a parent of schoolchildren, I share the fear that many mothers have (whether we admit it or not): will my child ever be suspended/kicked-out of school? With all the “zero-tolerance” policies put in place years ago, it doesn’t seem to take much to get suspended or expelled. And, I admit–I always wondered if there was a better way to handle misbehavior in school.

Turns out, I’m not alone. The Associated Press just came out with a really interesting article outlining how some…