One morning in 1972 Yogi Berra awakened his wife and three sons and piled them into the car to drive to his Hall of Fame ceremony. They were in a bit of a hurry, and it soon...
Not the Days in Your Life, But the Life in Your Days
by Parker Houston | Dec 14, 2023 | Family Leadership, Personal Leadership
Last month my wife lost one of her closest friends. They met in fourth grade and had been friends for more than 30 years. Casey Lynn Wakefield lost her battle with cancer at...
Whatever You Do, Stop Multitasking!
by Parker Houston | Dec 7, 2023 | Productivity Best Practices
“If you chase two rabbits, you won’t catch either one.” —Russian Proverb The BIG IDEA—Once you have recognized the importance of carefully investing your...
Get Off the Hedonic Treadmill
by Parker Houston | Nov 30, 2023 | The Science of Happiness
Extensive global research on happiness exists. And understanding how happiness works is a key life leadership skill that has a huge impact on your life and your family. The...
Stop Zooming and Take a Break: New Brain Research from Microsoft
by Parker Houston | Nov 16, 2023 | Boost Your Organizational Health, Productivity Best Practices
Have you ever raced from one video meeting to the next without enough time to pee or eat? Funny how we used to have time for this when we had in-person meetings, but now...
Persistence and Acceptance
by Parker Houston | Nov 9, 2023 | Personal Leadership, The Science of Mindset
I have always considered myself to be a very persistent person. It was something my dad instilled in me early on. For most of my life, I’ve been proud of my persistent and...
Allow Obstacles to Transform You
by Parker Houston | Nov 2, 2023 | The Science of Mindset
People with a strong mindset handle obstacles in a very different way than other people. And how they handle obstacles depends mostly on how they think about obstacles. They...
Lead YOU First
by Parker Houston | Oct 26, 2023 | Personal Leadership
My friend Trey asks great questions. Shortly after starting my blog, he asked, “So why did you call it lead you first?” That inquiry inspired this post. What does it mean to...
Be More Partner, Less Boss
by Parker Houston | Oct 19, 2023 | Boost Your Organizational Health, Personal Leadership, Top Teams Made Simple
The Big Idea: A recent survey suggests that you can give your employees a happiness boost equivalent to doubling their household income. How? By behaving more like a partner...
Your Habits–Over Time–Will Make or Break You
by Parker Houston | Oct 12, 2023 | Personal Leadership
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” –Aristotle It would be impossible to talk about personal leadership without talking about...
Disentangle Yourself From Device Addiction
by Parker Houston | Oct 5, 2023 | Productivity Best Practices, Self Leadership
“I fear the day that technology will surpass human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” -Albert Einstien If the photo above looks anything...
Great Leadership Always Includes Gratitude
by Parker Houston | Sep 28, 2023 | Self Leadership, The Science of Gratitude
Here is today’s BIG IDEA—The research is very clear that gratitude changes your brain chemistry and wiring, your leadership results, your physical health, and the health of...
Embrace Experimentation and Fail Forward
by Parker Houston | Sep 21, 2023 | How People Change
“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure.” -Thomas Watson, CEO IBM Today’s BIG IDEA:...
The Top 5 Regrets People Have at the End of Life
by Parker Houston | Sep 14, 2023 | The Science of Happiness
“Regrets are illuminations come too late.” –Joseph Campbell The BIG IDEA: What if you could know what most people regret at the end of life and use that information to...
Can Leaders Have More Impact on Employee Mental Health Than Therapists or Doctors?
by Parker Houston | Sep 7, 2023 | Boost Your Organizational Health
Many years ago, I had a terrible work experience I will never forget. I was halfway through my doctoral program, working on my dissertation, trying to pay the bills, living...
Mudita: The Antidote To Envy
by Parker Houston | Aug 31, 2023 | Personal Leadership
“It is in the character of very few, to honor without envy, a friend who has prospered.” –Aeschylus There is a famous story about the Buddha which teaches an essential life...
Your Brain is Fooling You Every Day, Without Your Awareness—Here is What to Do About it
by Parker Houston | Aug 24, 2023 | Personal Leadership, The Science of Mindset
The Big Idea: The phenomenon of Cognitive Bias has been studied for more than 50 years. Despite decades of research, most leaders are not aware of how these errors in...
5 Essential Leadership Principles for Parenting
by Parker Houston | Aug 17, 2023 | Family Leadership
Today’s BIG IDEA— “Your greatest contribution to the world as a leader may not be something you do, it might be someone you raise.” –Andy Stanley When my first daughter was...
Time Blocking—Join the Top 5% of the World’s Most Productive People
by Parker Houston | Aug 10, 2023 | Productivity Best Practices
“If something is going to get done, it must occupy a physical space in your calendar.” —Stephen Covey Now this sounds really simple—but how...
Fly or Die? The Counterintuitive Truth About Power
by Parker Houston | Aug 3, 2023 | Personal Leadership
Herds of buffalo are extremely loyal followers of one leader. They do what the leader does, they go where the leader goes. If the leader isn’t there, they stand around not...
Enantiodromia: When Extremes Become Their Opposite
by Parker Houston | Jul 27, 2023 | Personal Leadership
“Old Heraclitus, who was indeed a very great sage, discovered the most marvelous of all psychological laws: the regulative function of opposites. He called it...
Self-Compassion Is Not Fluff. Research Shows It’s Inseparable from a Champion’s Mindset.
by Parker Houston | Jul 20, 2023 | The Science of Mindset
“Having compassion starts and ends with having compassion on all of those unwanted parts of ourselves.” –Pema Chodron The Big Idea –One thing is certain—leaders cannot...
Never Train It, Never Get It
by Parker Houston | Jul 13, 2023 | Optimal Performance, The Science of Mindset
I was recently mountain biking with several friends when my friend Kelly said something profound. One of my friends was asking him how he is able to remain standing (as...
In an Over-Committed Culture, Margin Is Your Secret Weapon
by Parker Houston | Jul 6, 2023 | Self Leadership
Today’s BIG IDEA—“Overload is the disease of our time. Margin is the cure.” –Richard Swenson, M.D. Probably my favorite thing in the world to do is backpacking. For me,...
Successful Failures
by Parker Houston | Jun 29, 2023 | Personal Leadership, The Science of Mindset
“Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, double your rate of failure.” –Thomas Watson (CEO of IBM) I don’t know about you, but I personally...
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