OK, I know my mission here is to write nice, upbeat positive pieces. I’m not here to save the world, and I try not to preach my views. My goal is highlighting the positive things in the world — and to maybe, just maybe, make a small contribution to making the world more positive.
They say fortune favors the bold, which I take to mean that sometimes in life, to make things happen you must take a chance or two. Abba sang “Take a chance on me.” In life you often benefit from taking a chance on yourself, even if it means stretching your boundaries.
Last week I decided to enhance my happiness coaching by taking another happiness class. While taking the class I learned of the work of Amy Cuddy.
These days, society feels more divided than ever. This division is exacerbated by algorithm-driven social media that creates echo chambers, reinforcing our own views and making us believe that opposing perspectives are not just wrong, but sometimes even crazy.
This is my third week in a row writing about the Olympics. Please bear with me (or don’t), but the Summer Olympics only come along once every four years, so I see them as something special.
As we headed into week two of the Olympics, I’m excited to share some of the positive highlights. While I acknowledge that there are always non-positive events associated with the Olympics, just as with any major event, it’s not my focus or expertise to comment on them. Besides, there’s enou…
Every two years, the world comes together for the Olympics. For the most part, I consider this a very positive event.
Well, last week was an interesting one. My wife had a conference in Chicago and my son came home from Buffalo to watch the Wimbledon finals, which is our tradition. I love pickleball, but tennis, along with baseball, were my first sport crushes. Sunday we enjoyed the tennis, hit some ping-po…
The reason why I like playing and watching sports so much is there is a lot of positive stuff that comes from sports.
They say when one door closes another opens. I find it can be good positivity practice to think about the main times in my life when one door closed (either by my fault or not) which hurt at the time but led to a better fitting door opening.
Everybody fails. Roger Federer, one of the greatest tennis players of all time, recently gave a college graduation speech where he noted that he played over 1,500 professional tennis matches, winning 82% of the time. Which is quite amazing. Yet, he also noted that despite that record, he won…
Relaxing is important. I try to be a pretty mellow fellow. After all, a good part of my job is to help people be happy and to make up fun stories. But sometimes, deadlines or waiting for a contract to get signed or waiting for the development team to finish a video game can get me a bit less…
Alert: Readers may have noticed my column has been missing for the last couple of weeks. That’s because I have been vacationing in Costa Rica.
There’s no question that the Finger Lakes Region has a lot of fine dining and drinking options. For food, we offer barbecue, Italian, French, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, pizza, burgers … you name it, we got it. Heck, you can even dine on a boat or two. We also seem to be getting a new winery or…
This week marks 33 years of my wife, my partner in life, dealing with and being patient with me. We celebrated in a fitting way by going to a Syracuse Mets game.
For the last couple of weeks we’ve been dealing with some ligament issues in our 7-year-old English Shepard, Daisy.
Mother’s Day is coming this Sunday. I figured what better time to talk about the positive power of moms.
We all look at the world with our own perspective. When we look at an object or a person or a concept, how we perceive it has a lot to do with our education, values, current life circumstances, our DNA, the environment we were raised in.
In today’s world, social media has become an important part of our lives. For better or for worse, social media influences how we communicate, share information, and perceive the world around us.
I try to avoid politics on social media and in my columns. After all, I am a positivity coach, and there really aren’t a lot of positive things you can say about either social media or politics.
On Monday, the Finger Lakes witnessed an eclipse like they haven’t seen in, well, decades — at least in my lifetime. Today we know eclipses are events where the sun, moon, and earth line up just right and potentially create an awesome sky show.
I was away last week, visiting my niece and great nephew in Colorado, so I haven’t had a lot of time to write my column. (I’m also working on a TV show that’s going into production in May, so that’s had to take some priority.) I decided to go with an edited version of a classic: being positi…
In many ways, Geneva has come a long way in the last few years. The lakefront itself is beautiful, a great place to walk, bike, exercise, fly a kite, or just hang out and take in a concert. I don’t love the new highway structure down there, but I can sort of see why that was done.
In a world where there is a lot of division and, well, arguing, finding common ground has become more important than ever before.
These days it’s easy to overlook the importance of building good relationships with our neighbors, yet being a good neighbor isn’t just about living in close proximity. It’s about growing a sense of community, empathy, and mutual respect.
A couple of days ago I was making my iced tea for the day (I’ve learned if you keep iced tea for more than a day it doesn’t taste as fresh). For some reason I thought it would be fun to throw my new teabag into the pot of water. So, I tossed my teabag a good five feet into the pot — and gave…
First off, I want to say happy actual birthday to all those people out there who were born on Feb. 29. With that out of the way, I want to get to the core of today’s column: How actually admitting to your silly mistakes can be a positive thing.
This is going to be a basic list of how people can increase their positivity and happiness. I figure we’re in February, in an election year, and we can all use as much positivity and happiness as possible.
I thought for a bit of positive fun I’d give my thoughts on the Super Bowl, but since I’m a Bills fan, I figured I’d concentrate on the commercials — the ones that stuck in my head. After all, humor creates a lot of positivity.
I thought since the Super Bowl is coming this weekend, and I’ve got a lot of jobs on my plate, I’d bring back a classic “Positive Vibes.” This one was written three years ago. I believe it’s still an important topic today.
Once again, February has arrived. I often say that February in Geneva, N.Y., may be the shortest month of the year, but man, somehow it feels like the longest. The days are cold (usually) and the nights colder.
Locally, a lot of people have been talking about the future of Geneva, especially the lakefront, and the Buffalo Bills.
The power of being positive extends beyond the song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy!” It’s a way of thinking that can help make the world, or at least your little part of the world, better. Plus, when you’re me and work in a field where rejection happens A LOT, it helps to stay upbeat. Not to mentio…
When you google the meaning of resilience you get, “Resilience is the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.”
This is going to be another holiday fluff piece. I’ve pretty much spent the last week and a half on vacation, surrounded by relatives — three of them being 8-year-old triplets. I did my basic routine: work out, walk the dog, throw Frisbees to the dog, and write stuff. But, since it was break…
Saying I’m sorry may be hard for some people, but “I’m sorry” has several positive effects, such as, but not limited to:
This is going to be a truly fluff holiday piece. I mean, ‘tis the season of Hallmark movies and lights. If I can’t write a fluff piece now I never could. To make this super fluffy, I’m going to list my favorite things about Christmas.
It’s that time of year when we sit back, reflect, and take in what’s happening in the world around us, now and over the course of the last year.
I’ve heard people complain, “Christmas is just too commercial,” and I don’t disagree with that view. But, that said, and being a positive kind of guy, I’m going to write about the positivity of this commercialization.
As winter descends upon us, it’s easy to get caught up in the nostalgia associated with warmer days and longer daylight hours. Many of us dread the cold, the snow, and the seemingly endless darkness that accompanies this season.
Well, this week marks the arrival of another Thanksgiving. It’s an interesting day, since people around the United States gather as family and friends and eat turkey with all the fixings. There’s also football and a parade to watch. It’s a pretty full day of family and friends time.
Once again, we are now accelerating into the holiday season.
Twice a year, most of us in the United States and Canada and a bunch of other countries go through a strange ritual.
After watching the Buffalo Bills’ victory over Tampa Bay last week, Josh Allen said something that really stoked my interest. On the Amazon Prime postgame show, he noted that he was “sore, but you’re never quite as sore after a win … ” I’m paraphrasing but you get the idea.
As I write this (a week before you read it), there is a lot of negative stuff going. The Middle East and the situation in Gaza is a huge of example of two wrongs just make things a lot worse. I feel sorry for the civilians caught in the crossfire on both sides.
With all the problems and turmoil in the world (which are way above my pay grade and intelligence level), I thought I would go with a nice, simple column this week and focus on the healing power of reading and writing.
Here’s a quote from our representative in Congress, Claudia Tenney: “Instead of working together to pass spending cuts, gain operational control of our borders, rein in Biden’s bloated bureaucracy, and hold the corrupt Biden family accountable through oversight functions, Republicans will re…
Ever since I turned 60, when I would show up for my yearly physical my doctor would ask, “Have you fallen and gotten hurt?”
With an ever-growing number of pickleball players and courts materializing consistently, I thought it fitting to discuss some basic pickleball ethics and sportsmanship, focusing on when and how to properly call a ball out.
I’m veering off the path a bit today. I often hear people say, “I know what’s best for my child!” Heck, I’m sure I’ve said it on occasion when “discussing” issues with officials and administrators.
