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We love New Year’s Resolutions, making them, breaking them, and making fun of them (it’s the number one subject of the first Sunday comic section of the New Year). Anything but keeping them! Research suggests that about 45% of people in the United States make New Year’s resolutions and 75% of them keep them going through the first week of January (that would get you a C in school!) 46% make it six months, which is pretty impressive given that first week failure rate, but only 8% last the whole year. Not a very good showing.

It is not surprising that meetings have a bad name among business partners and in businesses in general.  Much too often, not a lot gets accomplished.  They are boring, time consuming and sometimes emotions take over when disagreements come up.  And yet, as a coach to businesses I insist that partners meet on a regular schedule and also with their teams.

I have always been fascinated by the intersection of science and spirituality. Not in the way the two clash as in the vitriolic, polarizing, and often political right/wrong arguments over evolution v. creationism, but in the way they come together like in Deepak Chopra’s book The Tao of Physics or the popular film from 2004 What The Bleep Do We Know? I recently had another experience that brought these two seemingly different worlds more closely together.

A question that we usually get during most of our seminars deals with the applicability of the Perceptual Styles Theory to finding the "perfect mate".  While there is no one factor or theory that can fully explain why, how, and with whom we fall in love, but the Perceptual Styles Theory (PST) can help individuals understand the challenges we’re likely to face in different types of relationships. This perspective can be invaluable in predicting communication issues, and in smoothing out issues when they do arise.

Have you ever been in one of those social situations in which the conversation is all in one direction? You know what I mean, the people you are talking to all focus on telling you about them and their lives, ask you nothing about you and your life, and generally show little or no interest in anything you have to say.

The Perceptual Styles Theory (PST) describes six distinct ways that different people see the world, what they value, and how they communicate, so—as one of the originators of this psychological theory—it’s only natural that people often ask me which style would make the best match for them in a romantic relationship.

I remember as a child the excitement of waiting for Sunday night television. The sadness about the end of the weekend and another school week about to begin was softened by the start of a tape recorder and the words, “Good afternoon, Mr. Phelps.” It was the opening signature of Mission Impossible.

Sitting at my desk, thinking about what to write for this month’s blog, out of nowhere the song lyric “what’s love got to do with it?” popped into my head.

In the 50s, 60s, and at least the early 70s the concept of finding a good job with a good company and having a career in which you worked your way up the corporate ladder was a mainstay of the image of American business. Throughout my childhood most of the fathers (mothers mostly still stayed at home) of my friends worked for the same company their entire career. Jokes, TV sit-coms, and popular movies alluded to the 25 year career followed by retirement with a gold watch and a pension.

Have you ever solved a problem for someone and instead of saying “thanks” the other person reacts with hurt feelings, leaving you baffled as to why they told you the problem in the first place?