Intentional Tuesdays

Are you a New Year's resolution person?

I'm not. At least I have not been for 15 years. For me, resolutions didn't stick. I'd go strong for a week or even a month, then I'd drop back into my old habits and routines.

I love the concept. The idea of making a commitment to myself to become a better person feels right to me.

How can we follow through on the commitments we make to ourselves? I have three ideas for you.

Idea #1 - Instead of making a resolution, choose a theme.

I didn't invent this concept. I've heard many gurus recommend this over the years. There's a reason why this idea has endured. It works.

The idea is simple. Pick one area of your life where you want to make progress. Then turn that into a punchy tag-line. I like to boil it down to a single word. For example, the year I started dating my wife, my word was ... Bold. Last year, my word was Connection.

Once you've identified your theme for the new year, give some thought about how you'll go about it. Identify...

I love a good debate, but I think that one of my biggest areas for personal growth is my ability to preserve the relationship while advocating my position.  I often find myself so wrapped up in making my case that I forget I am engaged in conversation with another human.  My attention is consumed by ensuring the soundness of my argument rather than the soundness of the connection between us.  Although I may end up getting the conversational upper-hand, I do so at the cost of damaging the relationship.  Why do I allow this to happen?  It happens because I am choosing the wrong mode of discourse.  I am using debate even though I rarely find myself in a situation that requires true debate.  Normal, everyday situations require dialog.  These two words, debate and dialog, sound alike but they are very different both in their form and in their purpose.  Debate is a formal argument, the point of which is to persuade, although the target of your...