We’re always being told that we should learn from others. Find a mentor. Emulate a successful person in your field. Follow in the footsteps of greatness. Learn from someone else’s mistakes so you don’t make your own. Unfortunately, those lessons never really line up with our situation, do they? There’s no book with our problem outlined for us in exactly …

Many of the people in our sphere (our friends, our coworkers, our competitors) are moving forward, doing what they need to do to get better. Whether it’s officially going back to school to finish that degree, learning something new from a book or an online class, or upgrading the things they use in their business, they’re putting themselves out there …

Complaining. It’s easy to do. We all do it at some time or another. “They didn’t do this” or “They should have done that” or “I can’t believe they’re not doing it this way; it’s what we all want.” It’s easy to complain. All we have to do is talk (or type) and we’re done. The hard part is actually …

In most professional fields, we’re required to take continuing education classes each year, with the intent of maintaining (or advancing) our knowledge of our chosen field. Most students sit through these mandatory sessions (hopefully awake), watching the proceedings as if they were watching a new episode on Netflix. They’re in the class, not because they want to learn something, but …

We’d all like to be able to control everything; to have complete command over every aspect of our day. But, alas, that dream’s never coming true. So we can’t dictate everything that happens in our universe; so what? Do we let a perceived lack of control ruin our outlook (and our lives)? What if, instead of freaking out, we simply …

We like to think that we always choose to do what’s best for other people: our customers, our friends, our family, the random person we hold the door open for at the supermarket. It’s human nature to want to view ourselves in a good light. And while we may often (or almost always) do the right thing, there will come …

In a job like being a home inspector, we’re required to make judgement calls on thousands of items every day. We’re required to document our decisions using some sort of computer program and relay them to our clients. Sometimes, as is often the case when inputting data into a program, mistakes are made. We click something we didn’t mean to. …

We hear (and say) it all the time: “But it’s what the clients want.” It’s the excuse we use to explain why we’re not charging more for our product, doing more for our customers, or giving more of ourselves. We far in the trap of just enough. We do just enough to get us through the day, and that’s that. …

Same shit, different day. Unknown author Repetition. It’s the backbone of our lives. It can seem like we’re constantly stuck on repeat. Nothing much ever changes. Over and over, we’re reliving Groundhog Day. There’s certainly some comfort in knowing what’s on the horizon, but it can also be frustrating. Can’t we ever do something different, for a change? For a …

On the surface, it all looks pretty simple. But if we take the time to look a little closer, different layers start to emerge. That relationship is more nuanced than we thought. This client needs more attention than we anticipated. A seemingly easy job just turned into a four-alarm fire. All too often we stop at the surface, not knowing …