Archive for clarity


  • Design Your Life

    Posted on 01.08.09 | 76 Comments

    design-life1.jpg
    Photo by the incredible Tom Palumbo of Anne St. Marie, 1959.

    By Tina Su

    Are you tired of setting New Year’s resolutions only to find yourself faced with the same resolutions a year later? Don’t you just hate that feeling of guilt rising in your stomach at the thought of lost time, lost opportunities and lack of self-discipline?

    I was at the gym last night and was shocked to see 3 times as many people there than normal. Rushing out of a locker room filled, hip-to-hip, with half-clothed ladies I’ve never seen before, I hopped on the last of twelve treadmills and gazed around the room in amazement – nearly every machine was occupied, the personal trainers were fully engaged, and there were countless new faces.

    This is what I call “New Year’s Resolution Syndrome”.

    It is well-known that gyms will overbook annual memberships at the start of each year, banking on the fact that many people will not follow through and will eventually stop showing up. Over the next few weeks, the traffic will slowly die down and the gym will be back to its normal and quiet self again.

    What’s the problem here? The problem is that resolutions do not work. Especially the socially coined, “New Year’s Resolutions”. It’s a cliché that only 12% of people actually take action on and resolve.

    What we need is a different approach. We need a system of designing our lives to sustainably improve the quality of our daily experience.

    This article details a step-by-step system that I personally use for creating and living a balanced and meaningful life. Throw away ‘them TO-DO lists, and resolutions, because they don’t work – at least, they don’t last long enough to make a sustainable impact. Let’s drill down and focus on what really matters.

    (read more…)



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    Filed under: clarity, motivation   

  • 15 Simple Ways to Overcome Anger

    Posted on 11.25.08 | 73 Comments

    anger.jpg
    Photo: Simón Pais-Thomas

    Can you recall the last time you were really angry at someone? So much so that you were physically shaken just at the thought of them? Rarely does this feeling of anger help us in getting what we want. Often, it will work against us, resulting in more pain, unnecessarily.

    Even the most gentle of personalities can temporarily turn into a vindictive rascal, if pushed far enough.

    A friend of mine is going through a divorce with a spouse who is unreasonably prolonging the process. He’s sad, hurt, upset, frustrated and very, very angry. Words of anger and hatred spout out of his – otherwise polite and thoughtful – mouth. He was no longer his authentic and peaceful self. And he didn’t like who he was becoming.

    Through helping him come to a place of understanding and forgiveness of his ex-spouse with love, compassion and humility (we had to dig deep), I realized that the same tools can be used in dealing with other negative emotions.

    For sake of simplicity, we will use anger as the target emotion to overcome. Keep in mind that it can be applied to overcome other non-conducive and intense emotions such as jealousy, guilt, hatred, regret and fear.

    (read more…)



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    Filed under: clarity, happiness, health, relationships   

  • 15 Tips for Writing Effective Email

    Posted on 11.19.08 | 60 Comments

    effective-email.jpg
    Photo: Lucia Holm

    Have you ever needed to email someone – a stranger, asking them for a favor? How can one compose email such that they will be read and responded to? How do we effectively email someone who gets a lot of email?

    Whether personal or business, the ability to compose efficient and effective email is super useful – both in terms of productivity and responsiveness.

    We’re all busy, and we’ve all received long, ambiguous and rambling email. Ironically, most of us have also been guilty of writing such verbose email while requesting for someone else’s time.

    Now that I’ve had a little taste, on the receiving end of such email, it quickly became obvious which kind of email works and which do not. I have made some interesting and useful observations on effective email – particularly,

    • What not to do when emailing someone (ie. a stranger).
    • How to write email that people will actually (want to) read.

    The point of this article is to share tips on how to approach people via email in the most efficient way possible, along with some common pitfalls on why some emails do not work.

    (read more…)



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    Filed under: clarity, productivity   

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