5 Ways to Get Big Picture Thinking

How many times have you heard that you need to get the big picture? Or that you feel like you didn’t have the big picture? I’ve heard this phrase repeated too many times to count and each time I do the thought that runs through my mind is this: what exactly is the big picture […]

7 Attributes of an Effective Strategic Plan

When you think “effective leader” what comes to mind immediately? I attended a leadership seminar at local university recently. Within the first fifteen minutes we were given a task to go out and ask three strangers this exact question. What do you think the result was?  To be an effective leader you have to be […]

The Power Poses: Blowing Through Anxiety in Your Next Stressful Engagement

Researchers in psychology are uncovering amazing facts about how our brains are wired. The results benefit more than just the research scientists and psychologists. Even us engineers can benefit from this information and put it to good use in our daily lives. The brain is so impressive that it can help you improve your power […]

An Engineer’s Guide to Mindfulness Meditation

This post is an overview of Chade-Meng Tan’s book, Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace) If you enjoyed reading this review and think I need to provide others (I consume, on average, a book a week); let me know through the comments below. My journey in developing a mindfulness […]

Vision, Vista, and Volume: A Better Approach to Thinking About Success

Discussions about achieving success are typically approached in one dimension.  We talk about vision, breadth of experience and work/life balance in stovepipe segments as if one doesn’t influence the other.  Much of the blogging and books on success I’ve read follow this track.  They touch on the three dimensions, but only on that dimension.   The […]

The Answer to Work-Life Balance: Don’t Try

The issue of work-life balance is something relatively new to humanity.  Brought to light by British anthropologists in the late 1970’s, we now have libraries full of self-help books and courses in how best to solve this affliction of modern life.  I struggled with finding the best way to thread the needle myself as the […]

A Good Attitude is Everything

There are a lot of variables that go into determining whether we’ll successfully bring our goals and aspirations into existence.   However, I count one of them as the quintessential element that must be present to ensure success:  a good attitude.   Definitely having ideas, making plans, and taking action are important elements in the art of […]