Why is breast cancer treated differently than any other disease — including the ones we are most likely to die from? I went for a mammogram recently — mostly because the breast cancer people would not leave me alone. About three months ago, I started getting reminders to go in for a mammogram. Not from my doctor, but from the cancer center who does the…
Category: Business

Do We All Really Need to Know You Said Thank You?
Why You Should Stop Driving Your Coworkers Crazy by Using “Reply All” If I could go back in time, there are many things I would be tempted to change about the world but possibly the most controversial is this one: I would make an extra effort to stop whoever invented the “reply all” for email. Seriously, there are few things…

Zoom Anxiety v. Social Connection: How Video Calls Are Triggering My Anxiety Disorder
I was participating on a virtual happy hour with some friends when I felt an anxiety attack sneak up on me. One minute I was nodding along and smiling at something a friend was saying, the next minute I felt a heavy weight on my chest. My heart was racing. My breathing became labored and shallow. Sweat dripped down my…

Working in Your Pajamas to Increase Productivity
Yesterday my city woke up to about an inch of snow – and a lot of black ice. Schools were canceled, buses were on snow routes, and the newscasters were gleefully running a continuous loop of cars sliding sideways on streets and crashing into things. If you live some place that actually has winter and snow plows it’s hard to…

Rolling with the Changes
“So if you’re tired of the same old story Turn some pages I’ll be here when you are ready to roll with the changes” — REO Speedwagon Today was my last day at my current job, where I’ve worked for 11 years. Regular readers may recall that a few months ago I put it out to the universe that I…

The Incredible Expanding Agenda
Yesterday someone on my team came into my office and apologized for not coming earlier. “When I saw the agenda, I thought my last meeting would finish early, but it wound up taking the whole time.” We’ve all seen this happen, right? You have a meeting that’s scheduled for two hours, and it always takes two hours, regardless of whether…

You’re In My Space!
I went to a meeting today and noted that all the people from one organization sat on one side, and all the people from my organization sat on the other. “We always seem to end us sitting on sides,” I noted. Another person replied, “That’s your chair – you always sit there when we meet and I always sit here.”…

Are We Really All That Different?
As part of my job I serve on a statewide board made up of program directors from all the counties in the state. When we get together, as we did this week, I’m always struck by both the differences and the similarities between urban and rural areas in our state. There’s been a lot of political discussion, particularly after the…

The Great Disconnection
Tragedy struck me today. I’m staying at a hotel with no internet and no cell phone service. I know. Take a moment to share my horror. I got to my hotel room and realized that I only have like half a bar on my cell phone, which means the phone is basically useless in my room. I have just enough service…

How Cultivating Gratitude is Changing My Perspective on Life
I’ve been thinking a lot about gratitude the last two months. It started, as many good things do, as part of my yoga practice. Although I’ve read a lot about cultivating gratitude I hadn’t really given it much serious thought – it seemed kind of trendy and forced, like when you’re at Thanksgiving and someone wants to go around the…