Encore Living

"I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do." Sound familiar? Maybe you've run into a customer service brick wall like this, where the representative says they can't help you any more. Oh sure, you could throw a tirade and end up on someone's TikTok (or worse, maybe you end up in jail.) Instead, manage the situation using a four-step process I talk about in this episode...

Are you someone who likes to try new things. To be honest, I don't. Generally, I like things I like, that I'm use to. Like lemon-flavored Lacroix sparkling water. But when I saw a new flavor at the store -- hibiscus flavor -- my first thought was: is that flower flavored water? That sounded terrible. I next wondered why I was feeling resistance about trying this new flavor. In this episo...

Albert Einstein supposedly said "If I had to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem, and five minutes thinking about the solutions."  It's an interesting quote that has become popular over the years, and it's easy to see why. It sounds smart. And Einstein invented the theory of relativity, so who's to argue with him? But did he really say tha...

Remember the "That Was Easy" button you could get at the Staples office supply store? You'd push this button and it way say one thing: "That was easy!" In this show, I bring back that button (including the sound effect) and ask: what could we accomplish if we thought it was easy. Too often, we overcomplicate things. We imagine something will be harder than it is. And so we...

In today's show, I  talk about how to say no. Yesterday, we talked about saying yes, and I realized that saying no is equally important. Sometimes saying no is easy, but there are times when you need to think about the ramifications of your decision and how it might affect your relationships. Today, I want to discuss three things to keep in mind when saying no. First, decline with kindness. W...

In this episode, I explore the idea of saying "yes" and really meaning it. I talk about how often we say "yes" without really thinking about it and how it can have negative consequences. It's natural that we want to be helpful and make things easy for others, so we tend to say "yes" automatically. However, it may be better to pause and think about it before respo...

Today, I'm going to ask if we're thinking too small. What if we could become "Off the Page" great. You're probably familiar with the idea of a graph where it has a vertical scale. And if you think about that vertical scale, you might be where you are right now relative to your goals, your ambitions, whatever you want to achieve, you might be near the bottom of that scale....

In this episode, I introduce a new series on the show called Travel Tuesday, inspired by my book "Best Vacation Ever." With the spring break and summer travel season coming up, I share idea number 223 from my book, called "This is Where We're From." The idea is to create an album of 10 to 20 pictures of where you're from to enhance your travel experience. Often, when...

In this episode, I share the idea of radical responsibility. It's a mindset where we take responsibility for everything that happens in our life, even things we can't control. Adopting this mindset can be a game-changer because it shifts us from a victim mentality to one where we see ourselves as capable of taking action and finding solutions. It helps us to rewire our brains and train o...

In today's episode, I'm going to talk about facing our fears and how it's similar to watching a scary movie for the second time. When we face something that scares us, it's like watching a movie for the first time. However, if we face it again, we know what to expect, and it becomes less scary. This idea can be applied to situations that we are afraid of in life, such as uncert...

In this episode, I talk about the idea of reframing our perceived failures in life as foreshadowing for future success. I share a personal story about how I viewed not achieving the rank of Eagle Scout in my teenage years as a failure, one I regretted for years. I also talk about my career as a writer. I didn't have the success I wanted, but eventually realized that the skills and relationshi...

In this episode, I talk about how our own limiting beliefs and negative self-talk can act as imaginary speed bumps that slow us down on the road to our goals.  I discuss the example of a street painting experiment in London, where simulated speed bumps were painted to slow down traffic without actually installing physical speed bumps. The drivers slowed down mostly out of curiosity and uncertainty...

In today's episode, I talk about million dollar ideas. Do we have enough million dollar ideas? I think not, and the reason for this is that it's hard to know what an idea is worth until you see it come to fruition. I've personally experienced the idea-to-success journey when I was a writer, working on screenplays on speculation, hoping to sell them in a bidding war. If a screenplay...

In this episode, I invite you to think of your life as a TV show, where you are the writer and executive producer. Drawing from the practices of TV showrunners, we can approach our lives with a bigger picture perspective, mapping out the broad arcs of where we want to go and what we want to achieve. Take popular TV shows like "The Last of Us" and "Succession." In those shows, t...

I am concluding my multi-part series on how I got and gave a TEDx talk. Today, in part six, I talk about my how I prepared on the day of the event, including my mindset and visualization approach to giving the talk. I share my own personal approach to preparing for the day of the talk, including: How many times I practiced the speech before the day of the event The different ways I rehearsed it Th...

I'm continuing my multi-part series on how I got and gave a TEDx talk. In this episode, part five, I talk about my own process of researching, applying for, and ultimately landing a TEDx talk. For me, the first step was to search for a good fit by going to the main TED site and looking for events that were in the timeframe I wanted to give a talk. Once I had a list of potential events, I rese...

This is the fourth episode of my multi-part series on getting and giving in a TEDx talk. I share my personal experience of preparing for a TEDx talk. In previous episodes, I covered what a TED talk is, how to craft an idea, and the process of getting from applying to giving the talk on stage. Today, I'll talk about how much work goes into preparing for a TEDx talk. Let me tell you, it's...

In this episode of "Every Day A New Thought," I share my personal experience of giving a TEDx talk at TEDx Anchorage 2023. In case you missed them, I recommend checking out the first two episodes of this series. This episode will focus on the logistics of giving a TEDx talk, specifically the time frame for the talk itself and the preparation process. First things first, a TEDx talk can b...

I'm sharing my experience on crafting my TEDx Talk in a six-part series. Today's episode is part two, so if you haven't listened to part one, go back and check it out. To create a TEDx talk, you need to distill your idea down into an easily recognizable phrase. For example, "Most people think X about a topic. But really, Y is true." This framework works because it frames y...

Ever wondered what goes into getting and giving a TEDx talk? In this episode, I begin a multi-part behind-the-scenes series on my own experience of giving a TEDx talk. Today, I start by talking about what TED and TEDx talks are and the differences between them.  I discuss the key elements of a TEDx talk, which is an idea worth sharing, and what that means for the speaker. I also highlight the impo...

In this episode, I share my thoughts on the things I don't like about the show. This is the 60th episode, and as I reflect on beginning my third month of the podcast (Woo hoo!) I talk about the discouragement I felt when I realized that I couldn't do everything I wanted to do with my show. From disliking the opening to the limited marketing time I had, I reveals the many misgivings I had...

Have you heard of invisible fences? They're used to keep dogs within a certain area without having a physical fence.  Thinking about this recently, I wondered if it's possible we might have invisible fences in our own lives? What if there are beliefs that we hold onto so tightly that they create a barrier between us and what we truly desire? In this episode, I talk about how we might hav...

In today's show, I talk about the power of giving lunchbox notes.  Do you remember when you were a kid and you would open up your lunchbox and find a little handwritten note inside from your mom or dad? It was always something encouraging like "you're the best" or "we believe in you". Didn't it just make your day to get one of those? Well, as adults, we don'...

In today's episode, I want to share with you my recent experience giving a TEDx talk in Anchorage, Alaska. I was the first speaker of the day and I had to deliver my talk in front of 100 people. I have to admit, I was pretty nervous about it. But there's one thing I did to overcame that nervousness and deliver a talk that I was proud of. If you're ever in a situation where you have...

You could live without your cell phone, right? I mean if you really HAD to? In today's episode, I recount a recent mishap that almost derailed my trip to Anchorage, Alaska.  On the way to the airport, I discovered my cell phone was potentially missing.  Worry set in as I considered the worst-case scenario and the huge inconveniences of traveling without it. Could I live without my cell phone...