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25 Things to Avoid for Better Relationships

By Daniel Wong Published in relationships

Life is relationships. The rest is just details. ~Dr. Scott Sticksel

Last week, I had lunch with my colleagues.

One guy from a different department (I’ll call him Dave) joined us at our table. I’ve only interacted with Dave a couple of times before, so I don’t know him very well.

When we all started to eat, Dave began expressively describing the problems he was facing at work.

He then went on to talk about some of his college experiences.

Next, he explained an issue his family was going through and what he was doing to resolve it.

With surprising ease, he transitioned to narrate, in great detail, a near-death experience he’d had five years before.

That brought us to the end of lunch.

50 Simple Ways to Make Others Feel Special

By Daniel Wong Published in Gratitude, happiness

It is the quality of our relationships that most determines our legacy. ~James M. Kouzes

A few years ago, I received a long personal email from a close friend. It was an especially hectic time for me, so I only got around to replying three weeks later.

I began my email: “I’m sorry for the delayed response. I didn’t have time—“ In a moment of painful clarity, I caught myself in the middle of a lie and stopped typing. Didn’t have time? That simply wasn’t true!

We always make time for the things that are important to us: eating, showering, Facebook, watching our favorite TV shows. If we don’t make time for something, it’s probably because that “something” isn’t actually as important to us as we profess.

9 Ways to Overcome Negative Emotions

Guest post by Daniel Wong Published in happiness

All emotions are pure which gather you and lift you up; that emotion is impure which seizes only one side of your being and so distorts you. ~Rainer Maria Rilke

My teenage years were difficult ones because I got bullied all the time.

The bullies called me names. They made fun of me. They spread rumors about me. They took my belongings and refused to return them to me. They once locked me in a classroom.

Not surprisingly, I became angry, resentful, fearful and depressed. I would cry myself to sleep, and I would dread the thought of having to face the bullies in school the following day.

Moreover, I developed a short temper and I’d react violently whenever I was provoked. I even allowed my emotions to overwhelm me to the point where I stopped talking.

20 Ways to Be Grateful

Guest post by Daniel Wong Published in Gratitude

I work as an engineer, and I recently returned to the office after a one-week break.

I checked my e-mail inbox: 100 unread e-mails. A sense of dread washed over me. “There goes the next four hours of my life responding to e-mails,” I thought.

Reading those 100 e-mails made me sad. Not one of them was written with the intention of expressing gratitude or encouragement! All of them were focused on customer complaints that needed to be addressed and problems that needed to be fixed.