Tiny Bites of Wagaliciousness

Don’t you just love pithy truths? You know, the kind of little sentences that get bandied about the internet, spreading little puffs of inspiration in their wake? Attribution is important – I don’t want to steal anyone’s truth, yet sometimes finding the origin is beyond even Google. No attribution on this one – it’s too good not to share, though. “Their opinions don’t pay your bills.” Because of s...

Have you ever thought about how the world was on the day you were born? You weren’t on the planet, and then suddenly you were. If you were a first-born child, your parents weren’t parents and then suddenly they were. What songs were playing on the radio? What was the most popular car? What new technology was born that year, who was the President, and where was the trendy vacation spot? Seriously,...

You don’t have to tell me – just be honest with yourself. Are you ever just the littlest bit envious or jealous of someone? You might like them, or even love them, and yet now and then you feel a flash of a green eyed monster inside yourself. Envy and jealousy are cousins, not twins – envy is softer and lacks the anger/revenge feelings that often are present with jealousy. With envy we long for wh...

Do you believe that you can be in charge of your thoughts? Think about it – how many times a day do you let thoughts run rough-shod through your head, vs. how many times you notice a thought that doesn’t feel good and stop thinking it? I think part of the beauty of being older is to realize that I own my brain – it doesn’t own me. That’s true of you, too. If you can think of your brain as your bod...

Do you know the phrase, “Take the high road”? Going back to the 1600’s, the phrase has been used to indicate choosing a moral way to react or behave, and the earliest references were about the high road leading to heaven and the low road leading to...well, you know... Now, think about that person in your life who seems to never pick the high road – they live to stir the pudding, they pit one perso...

Do you know anyone who is always waiting for things to be a certain way before…whatever? They can’t sign up for a dating app until they’ve lost 20 pounds, and they can’t ask for a raise until they’ve worked there for two years, and they can’t get a new car until they drive this one for at least four more years, even though they hate that car with a passion!! Maybe you might be just a little bit li...

Think about the people you work with, and write a list of names of those you interact with on a daily basis. Next to each name, write the words you think of when you think of them – words like brainy, quiet, worrier, bossy – whatever is the predominant personality trait you associate with each person. Humans assemble a kind of shorthand about the people in our lives, and then we adapt our interact...

Before Ryan Seacrest became the host for the longest-running music countdown show, American Top 40, Casey Kasem hosted it. He signed off every week with the same phrase: “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.” Do you remember the younger version of yourself – that person who didn’t have a mortgage, a career, and maybe a marriage and children? That younger version of most of...

Are you a little tired of all the talk about happiness? It’s OK – you won’t hurt my feelings. A lot of contrarian articles have been published about the pitfalls of putting a happy face sticker on everything, as if that’s what the goal is. The goal isn’t to pretend things are great when they’re not – the goal is to make things better by teaching your brain to focus and process differently. I worke...

Does someone owe you an apology? Yeah, me, too. Think we’ll ever get them? Mmmm…maybe, and maybe not. I screwed up at the salon and created chaos in my hairdresser’s schedule. I didn’t mean to, and didn’t know I’d done it until much later. When I went back in the next time, I made it a point to let her know that I felt awful for creating chaos in her day, apologizing more than once. Some things ar...

Quick – do you have a deadline looming? Something you are in charge of doing, producing, leading, or creating? How does it feel to you? Looming deadlines don’t usually feel very good, and thinking about all the steps that still need to be taken in order to meet that deadline can be very stressful. That nagging little voice in your head can start in with the “you’ll never make it” and “it’s impossi...

Are there things you believe are absolutely, positively true? Most people have at least a handful of things they believe non-negotiably. Maybe their parents taught them things they absolutely, positively believed, and maybe schools and clubs and religious institutions deepened those beliefs for them. Some people generalize their beliefs, assuming that since some things they believe are true, then...

Growing up, did you hear things like, “Settle down – you’re too rowdy” or “you don’t have to talk all the time” or “wow, you really let your weird flag fly, don’t you?” Every person is different, and yet the pressure to conform to what others think is normal is immense! No matter what you call it – social norms, majority influence, group pressure – fitting in seems to be expected of us, right from...

How many times in a day do you should on yourself? You know, that little voice inside your head pipes up and says things like, “I should have been kinder” or “I should have known that would happen” or even “I shouldn’t be so gullible!”  When you should on yourself, you might as well wag a finger in your face, because you’re scolding, shaming, and bullying yourself. When you should on yourself...

Have you been questioning your value to this world? Maybe wondering what your purpose in this life is, or even your destiny? It’s human to wonder, and maybe even worry, if you’re doing enough for others, or for the environment, or for whatever it is you care deeply about. When you go beyond just thinking about these things to worrying over them, then you’re doing yourself a disservice. You’re putt...

Do you ever get white-hot mad about someone? You know the kind of mad I mean – that feeling of righteous indignation, of overwhelming anger over an injustice done to you? Yeah – I’ve never felt that way either. Not! It’s very human to react strongly to something that feels unjust, mean, and awful, and in our strong reactions, it feels to us like we’re doing something productive. It’s satisfying to...

Personal growth can be scary, and yet personal growth is necessary if you want to feel satisfied by your life. That sounds like a contradiction – it isn’t. Just as your physical body has grown and changed throughout your life, from infant to toddler to teen to what it is today, your mental body and spirit body has grown and changed, too. Every experience you have informs you about the world around...

Do you ever wonder why so many experts in many different disciplines tell you to de-clutter your home and your office? Why are they so insistent, and why do they even care? Like a parent, I’m going to tell you – it’s for your own good. And it’s for my own good, too. The neuroscience of clutter and stress is well-documented: the brain likes order, and the brain needs to have fewer things to focus o...

Do you often get blindsided by people you think you know? For instance, a co-worker you’ve had a congenial relationship with suddenly treats you like you killed and ate their dog? This is so uncomfortable, and when it feels sudden, it can leave you with hurt feelings as well as a distrust of yourself and your instincts. Don’t distrust your instincts – learn to hear them. Maybe you, like me, were b...

Have you ever thought about something a lot and it happened just like you imagined it would? That’s not an accident and you can do it on purpose, just like elite athletes. The process is called “visualization” and has been in use among athletes for decades, and it’s based in neuroscience. As I’ve mentioned in other episodes, our brain literally can’t tell the difference between what’s really happe...

Do you often feel pressed for time? Like there’s far too much to get done in one day by one person, and you’re constantly feeling a shortness of time? This Tiny Bite to the rescue! Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, “Time does not exist – we invented it. Time is what the clock says.” Humans invented time based on the repetitive apparent movement of the sun, planets, and stars. The breaking of th...

Is there someone in your life that you pour into, trying to help them survive and thrive? Maybe it’s a child, maybe it’s an extended family member, or maybe it’s a friend or co-worker? There are times in every person’s life where they need the help of others, and it does feel good to help, doesn’t it? It feels good, right up until it doesn’t. Maybe you’ve gotten there with this person you’re think...

Two four six eight – who do you appreciate? No, this isn’t a pep rally…or maybe it is. Really think about who you appreciate and why you appreciate them. Give yourself a few minutes today and put these thoughts on paper. Think about family members, friends, business associates, barristas, the person who cuts your hair. Think about your 4th grade teacher, who made learning fun by infusing it with g...

Do you know someone who marches to the beat of a drummer only they can hear? Maybe you know someone who isn’t afraid to express their individuality no matter what other people think. Or maybe, if you’re one of the very lucky ones, it’s you who’s comfortable enough in your own skin to live life your way and on your terms. Being different is the human condition – every single person is different fro...

Do you hate your job, but you stay because you feel you can’t make more money elsewhere? Or maybe you stay because you don’t want to abandon certain people you work with, or the mission you and your team are on. Yet you still hate your job – you get up in the morning dreading going to work, the stress building before you even walk in the door. Time to work on an exit strategy as you hone your stre...