perform surgery, my friend told me that surgery was not always necessary and that some non-surgical procedures were worth trying out. But first, he wanted to conduct a hands on physical exam to see what was going on in and around my knee. My conversation led me to think about how we’ve become reliant on “big data” to guide discussions with others. Managers may look at “team engagement” studies to see how well supervisors are managing staff and will use...

For many years, I held Gold Status with one of our now bankrupt airlines, but then lost it one year when I could not accrue enough miles or airline flight segments to qualify for that vaulted status. Given the state of airline flying these days, I don’t miss the effort it took to gain it. However those few perks were certainly nice and helped make the travel a bit more enjoyable. As I waited for the plane to board, I...

Building and maintaing self esteem can be enhanced by remembering to focus on several key activities. Try some of these out and see how they work: You are what you think: Pay attention to the self-talk you say to yourself. If your thoughts start getting negative then turn them off and say something positive. The technique is known as “thought-stopping” and there is a satirical video done by TV psychologist Bob Newhart in which he demonstrates this technique . Use...

A trip to Alaska was a big deal for us. We had planned to go several years ago but that trip got waylaid. Getting ready for this one meant borrowing some lightweight ski parkas, packing clothes for multi temperature zones, cross country flying and customs clearance (not for Alaska but for the embarkation out of Vancouver). Once on-board the cruise ship it took us a couple of days to transition to vacation mode but that first day at sea settled...