Did you ever steal something from a store; shoplift a candy bar; anything?” asked my college girlfriend. She had just told me that, as a little girl, she took something from a gift shop without paying for it, and how her parents severely scolded her.I shook my head, “No.”“Seriously, never?”Susan was so disappointed. It was apparent that she wanted a story; and immediately my imagination kicked in. So, I replied, “Well, never intentionally.”“What does that mean?”“There was this one time, when I was twelve years old, that I accidentally stole something. And, I probably shouldn’t be talking about it because I could still get into trouble for it.”“How could you get in...

Did you just call me stubborn? If you were trying to motivate me – you just failed. Before you call anyone stubborn, consider this: there is no such thing.Stubborn is a non-word like greed. It’s a meaningless term that only exists in your mind. It’s make-believe; it’s simply your subjective perception. Its meaning falls apart when subjected to scrutiny. Think about it; you never call yourself stubborn. No one would ever genuinely refer to themselves as stubborn. If they do at all, it’s because someone important to them has called them that; and they feel guilty that they can’t please this person whom they care for.Am I frustrating you? If you find yourself foiled in getting me...

I still recall the time I led with intimidation and... wow, did it backfire!“Bobby, you gotta help us.”“What’s up?” I asked the three scouts who stopped me on the trail to the lake.“It’s Benjy. He pulled a knife on us,” replied one kid.“A really big knife,” added another.“Yeah, big like a sword,” said the third.“What do you mean, he pulled it?” I asked.“He pulled it out of its sheath, and threatened us with it.”“And, he poked it at us, and said he’d cut us.”“And what did you guys do to provoke this?”“Nothing, he’s trying to act tough, but he’s scaring us.”“And, we’re not the only ones, he’s done it to several other kids.”“Why...

I carefully filled the cake cone  from the frozen custard machine, pushing it up at just the right moment to create a perfect ball; then as I shut off the machine, I pulled the cone away with a circular motion to give it the company’s signature curl on top. It was beautiful, and I was proud of the way it looked, knowing that my customer would be happy.As I turned away from the machine, I heard, “What the hell is that?”It was the franchise owner. Baffled, I asked, “What do you mean?”Snatching the cone from my hand, he replied, “This is too much ice cream; they only get six ounces.” (Note: this was not a corporate policy, but his own.)With a large kitchen knife, he cut off...

Are you a succulent Eloi ripening for a Morlock feast?Last weekend, as I was clearing clutter, I found a copy of H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine.As I thumbed through it, I recalled that Wells, in his future world, describes man’s descendants as evolving into two distinct species: the Eloi and the Morlock.The Eloi live in a Garden of Eden like setting where their food and clothing are provided for them by the Morlock. The catch is that the Morlock harvest and eat the Eloi at night. These creatures are Wells’ metaphor for the divisions in English society. I see them as metaphors for the concepts of motivation.If you’re living in the Garden of Eden, you have no motivation to till the...