Stories

Help Others Help Themselves: A Quick Guide to Mentorship

I have been a teacher on and off during my career. I’m currently “on” again, teaching an entrepreneurship course for undergraduates at a local university. Business courses tend to focus on team project work because that’s how businesses are run: a group of people working together to achieve a common goal.

Inevitably, whenever I teach a course that involves teamwork, at least one student hits me up mid-semester with a complaint about a teammate. Usually it is an expectation issue where one student hasn’t contributed as much to the project as other students would like. Generally, the students turn to me to resolve the issue, which wouldn’t be such a huge deal except every time this happens, no one has actually talked to the alleged “underachieving” student and tried to fix the issue themselves.

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You Can’t Be Anything If You Put Your Mind To It

By David Masters / 56 Comments

I feel a little stupid, because it’s taken me nearly thirty years to realize a simple truth. I’ll never be a Major League Baseball player, a Premier League footballer, or an Olympic swimmer. Call me glum, sour, or bitter, but those are the facts.

No matter how much I put my mind to it, no matter how much I conceive and believe, no matter if I had the stubborn will power of a donkey, no matter if I put in my 10,000 hours of deliberate practice, it’s not happening. To believe otherwise wouldn’t make me a go-getter. It would make me delusional. Not all seven billion of the earth’s inhabitants can be elected President of the USA. Not all of the world’s hundreds of millions of blogs can be in the Technorati top 100. Not all of the USA’s 315 million citizens will join the ranks of its 424 billionaires (unless the dollar becomes severely devalued). That’s not doom-saying. It’s simple math.

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Finding the Courage to Change Your Career Path

By Sarah L. Webb / 37 Comments

The work that you do to make a living takes up a large portion of your time and energy. Day after day, the average human works for years, logging in hours upon hours of labor.

That’s not a bad thing, if you love your work. Unfortunately, too many of us can barely even tolerate our jobs. We long to do something that manifests our true purpose in life. So why do so many people continue working at jobs that make them miserable?

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6 Lies Your Depression Wants You to Believe (& How to Not Fall Into the Trap)

By Kavetha Sundaramoorthy / 85 Comments

When depression hits, it hijacks your thoughts and feelings. It whispers seductive lies into your ears; lies that gradually start sounding like the truth. I know how that feels, because I have struggled with it too. If on the other hand, you knew the lies depression commonly uses, then you can ignore or replace them with your own inner truth. And every time you do that, you have healed a little bit.

So, here are some common ‘depression deceptions’ to watch out for:

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Falling in Love with My Imperfect Self

By Betsy Talbot / 43 Comments

When it comes to change, people are more apt to do it for others than for themselves. It was no different for me when I morphed myself to be the “right” kind of friend, the “cool” girlfriend, or the “most dependable” employee. In each of those instances other people really liked me, but I didn’t like me very much.

A friend’s snarky attitude made me less happy to be her confidant, even though I forced myself to patiently listen to her rants. I realized too late that the “cool” girlfriend meant the one who never disagreed with her boyfriend or made requests of her own. And the companies that adored my dependability easily forgot those countless overtime hours when it came time to promote or give raises.

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Why Chasing Success and Happiness Are Making You Unsuccessful and Miserable

By Alexander Heyne / 66 Comments

In the last two years, I was obsessed with “finding” success and happiness – because I didn’t have much of either.

I was feeling lost in life, stuck, and had no idea which way to go. And I also was struggling with one big thing that many people complain of today: I was trying to find meaning in life. And that’s how I got obsessed with finding happiness.

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Travel & Work Abroad Teaching English: Our Story

By James Kavanagh / 14 Comments

I’ve always been passionate about traveling, even as a young boy growing up England I was fascinated during our annual summer holidays to countries such as Spain, France and Italy. I am a firm believer that experiencing different cultures, languages and ways of living is something which is extremely special and helps you grow in so many ways as a human being.

In my adult life I have been very fortunate to have traveled and worked extensively in various parts of the world. My passion for travel and working abroad has taken me to numerous different countries in every corner of the world.

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Be Do Have

By Mike Martens / 21 Comments

My journey of change ran head first into a brick wall in 2012. I have never been one to follow the conventional route, so it certainly wasn’t the first obstacle I’ve met. This was different, it didn’t just stop me in my tracks, it floored me. I lost my health. Always a pillar in my life, my health and fitness were a constant that I relied on. In July, a headache started that never went away. It became debilitating before a bleed was discovered on my brain.

Fast forward to April 2013. I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. My energy is returning, I no longer have to nap every couple hours. I am going to be all right. The condensed version always sounds better, doesn’t it? In the context of personal pain or hardship, shortening the story somehow makes it more manageable. It isn’t so and we shouldn’t do it.

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How a Trip to Indonesia Taught Me to be Bold

By Candace Doby / 40 Comments

Five years ago, I took one of the boldest actions of my life. I traveled halfway across the world to Ubud, Indonesia alone. In June 2008, I was 27 years old and had never left United States soil despite a constant longing to. A combination of fear and comfort held me hostage in familiarity—until, however, I finished Elizabeth Gilbert’s bestselling novel, Eat. Pray. Love. It chronicled the author’s adventures through Italy, India and Indonesia as she sought to “find herself” after a divorce.

The book’s vivid descriptions of Indonesia’s rich culture and lush countryside converged with my imagination of ornate wood-carvings, colorful temples and sprawling rice paddies. It was this convergence that left no question about where my first trip abroad would be to once I mustered up enough courage to go. And whenever I decided to go, I wanted go alone—just like Elizabeth Gilbert.

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Why “Having it All” isn’t the Best Goal

By Deborah Fike / 21 Comments

Being a freelance consultant and full-time mom, I’m always interested in how parents (men and women) juggle their professional and personal lives. Not surprisingly, I’ve been following Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and her recent book Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead. More fascinating than the book itself is the reaction it has garnered in the media: from very positive reviews praising her stance on balancing work and life issues to very negative reviews that bash millionaire Sandberg for not understanding a more modest woman’s struggles.

All the arguments seem to boil down to one simple question for working parents: Can they “have it all” – the rewarding challenge of a full-time career and the joy of raising a child in such a way that you can be there for all the “little moments?” And therein lies the problem. By framing the question “Can you have it all?” I believe a person is setting themselves up for disappointment. Here’s why:

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How to Unhook From the Pain in Life

By Bobbi Emel / 46 Comments

I don’t feel good today. I have lived with depression for many years now and today is not a good day. What I want to do is go back to bed, curl up in a ball, and read something riveting like The Hunger Games.

Anything to take my mind off of how I feel and what that mind is telling me. (I just realized how funny that is: I want to take my mind off of my mind!) The worst part of depression for me is often what goes on in my head. My inner voice comes up with some doozies:

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