“Don’t give up at half time. Concentrate on winning the second half.” – Paul Bryant  In the sport of football, each game has four quarters with a 12-minute break between the two halves. This break has the not-so-clever, intuitively obvious name of half-time. This mid-game break serves several purposes, including…

Troubles come in every shape and size. Depending on how you define it, trouble may visit uninvited, stay too long, and then stubbornly refuse to leave. If that’s the way it is–if trouble, difficulties, and hardships are commonplace in life then our challenge becomes learning what we can. Is it…

I Can’t Decide  When making decisions you might notice you are more unsure, insecure, and hesitant than you want to be. Being filled with doubt can make life much more difficult. You might struggle with making decisions about social relationships, making purchases, choosing schools, selecting a career, finding a partner,…

Life is like hockey—you are going to get bumped. Someone on your own team will blindly run into with little concern and no apology. Don’t be shocked or upset if someone pushes you, is inconsiderate, or your move is perceived as a careless action.  “Why not be offended and upset?” the…

I run mental health therapy and psychoeducation groups at a residential treatment center for men. From time to time I’ll take a $100 dollar bill out of my wallet (no, I don’t always have one) and show it to the men. I ask, how much is this crisp bill worth.…

It’s easy to be distracted and lose sight of what’s important. When that happens, it is common to rationalize and excuse the missteps of inattention. “This is really important. Anyone would worry about this.” Don’t rationalize your worries. Don’t defend your distractions. Don’t mentally wander aimlessly into someone else’s backyard.…

Permit me to start with an automobile analogy. In the old days before fuel injection systems, when cars had carburetors, engine flooding would occur if too much gasoline flowed into the carburetor which would prevent the car from starting. This was most common under cold conditions or if the accelerator…