My dog, Happy—a gentle, twelve-year-old golden retriever—and I recently went for a walk in a massive, wooded park. Because it was very early in the morning and no one else was around, I let her run off leash. Things were peaceful until Happy trotted a short distance ahead of me up a hill, rounded a
By the time you read this, my son will have performed his guitar and vocal solo. It’s his first and final high school solo concert performed over three nights, in front of hundreds of people. He has been anxiously anticipating this moment on the stage since the tryouts months ago. That anxiety comes from a
What potentially meaningful thing are you avoiding right now? For me, it’s networking. Specifically, the proactive outreach required to open up new business opportunities. I’m naturally introverted, my schedule is already packed, and I certainly don’t get any dopamine hits from scraping through LinkedIn. I’ll admit, I even looked into using an AI agent to
For a few months in my 20s, I struggled to leave my apartment. Depression and anxiety felt so heavy, it was nearly incapacitating. One thing that stands out from the fog of that period is something my mother-in-law told me (or maybe she told my wife to tell me): Just take the next step. Don’t
We were worried entering this summer that we didn’t have enough activity scheduled for our kids. And yet, it turned out to be one of the best summers for our family…in large part because it was so unscheduled. We ended up filling the unscheduled time with great spontaneity and connection. In a similar way, I
Recently I went running with some friends. It started out rough, though, because my stomach hurt and I felt lightheaded. “Oh no!” I thought. “I’m not going to be able to keep pace with them, and this is going to be awful.” My muscles tightened, I started to worry, and I did slow down. Then
My life has been full of terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened. I love that quote by Michel de Montaigne because I used to constantly worry about terrible misfortunes. I had a bad case of the What Ifs. Do you ever suffer from the What Ifs? Do you ruminate on questions like: What if
In his book “A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life,” Parker Palmer observes that human beings — especially in group settings — often behave like animals in the wild that remain in hiding and only allow themselves to be seen when it’s safe and worthwhile to take the risk. The only difference in
In August 1921, an athletic, healthy 39-year-old man awoke at his family cabin in Maine with a strange ache in his back. Despite trying to shake it off with a swim and a jog, the pain and fatigue increased. Within 48 hours, paralysis set in across his arms and legs. He lost all control of
Sometimes we experience alarm signals that aren’t cause for alarm. Every month our city tests its emergency response sirens. It’s just a test. The dryer in our house buzzes several minutes before the clothes are actually dry. Stores fail to remove security tags, triggering alarms when shoppers leave with paid items. The human brain also
Matt Norman is president of Norman & Associates, which offers Dale Carnegie Training in the North Central US. Dale Carnegie Training is a global organization ...READ MORE