How to Ask for What You Want Asking for what you want is an essential life skill that yields enormous positive benefits (e.g., the thing you want!). But like so many other life skills—budgeting, doing laundry, cooking breakfast, driving in snow—no one teaches...
5 Ways to Have Deeper Conversations In September, my friend Shell called and said, “I had some tests run recently and I wanted to share the results with you. It’s cancer. I’m calling you because I believe you are one of the few people in my life who actually...
How to Fix Passive-Aggressive Communication Direct, affirmative communication promotes peace and power. Passive-aggressive communication kills both. When you want something from someone, expect resistance, and then try to circumvent it by going covert with your...
The 5 Laws of Listening If your listening is effortless, you’re doing it wrong. You probably take listening for granted. To many, it doesn’t even seem like a skill—it’s something that just happens without even trying: Noises come out of a mouth in recognizable...
The Antidote to Resentment & Contempt If you see a good deal remarkable in me I see just as much remarkable in you. Why, what have you thought of yourself? Is it you then that thought yourself less? -Walt Whitman I don’t read poetry very often...
How to Make Small Talk Less Awkward I hate small talk. At least, I used to. In social interactions, I used to plaster on a fake smile, fumble my way through uncomfortable questions and answers, and secretly wish I could be shoving toothpicks up my fingernails...
