— “I’m in.” During the past 10 years, those words never fail to bring a smile when I read them in an email from one of the members of a low-stakes poker group I belong to. I started the group because I decided it was something that was lacking in my life. My efforts have since been rewarded with a great group of guys whose friendship has extended way beyond our fun-filled, raucous, once-a-month get-togethers, including several annual events that include our wives. I started off by asking guys to join that fall on the sidelines of sporting events my kids were involved in, at high school band concerts and…

No matter how optimistic or positive a person you claim to be, there will always be days where some external circumstance comes along and steamrolls over you and flattens you out, making you feel like you’ve just had your teeth kicked in only further adding insult to injury after you already feel life’s knocked you down. It’s these challenging days in particular where it suddenly becomes far to easy to lash out, blame and hopelessly dismiss other people or things as the sole reason for why circumstances turned out the way they did and why you now feel the way you do because of them, and if you can you…

My Husband Had An Affair: “After finding his love letter to another woman, I made him leave” thonephoto/ShutterstockSandra Barrett* had what she considered to be not just a good marriage but a great one. She and her husband, Bill, laughed together every day and had two kids they doted on. Bill shared the chores and childrearing, planned trips for the family and often wrote her poetry. After 17 years of marriage, they still had sex regularly. But earlier last year, things suddenly changed. Her formerly attentive husband started going on more business trips and, when home, was becoming emotionally distant and spending more time texting. She suspected he was having…

— A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to. — Rosalynn Carter In the business world, people call it leadership. They talk about being innovators. Forward thinkers. Doers. Why, then, when I introduce the idea that one partner can be the front-runner for change in a marriage, do people tell me, “No way. That can’t possibly work”? The party line about marriage—what many therapists think and most books espouse—is that it takes two. Marriage is a two-way street, people say. A fifty-fifty proposition. Successful couples are those who are willing to meet each other…

When you’re working hard and doing all you can to achieve your goals, anything that can give you an edge is powerful and will streamline your path to success. Mind tricks won’t make you a Jedi, but using the brain’s natural quirks to your advantage can have a positive impact on everyone you encounter. As soon as you become aware of these 11 tricks, they start popping up wherever you look. With minimal effort on your part, their unconscious influence on behavior can make a huge difference in your day-to-day life. 1. When a group of people laughs, each member of the group can’t help but make eye contact with…

We all know our friends are sometimes far better at picking dates for us than we are for ourselves. But if you want to be the best wingman for your BFF, you should learn a few things first. Since Wingman launched earlier this year, they’ve been helping people play cupid for their nearest and dearest. In a recent survey, they asked their top 50 matchmakers (those who’d had the most connections accepted by both parties) what their proven strategies were. The answers, which they’ve shared with Mashable, are both intuitive and surprising. So what are their secrets? Be selfless  It seems obvious, given that you’re setting out to find a…

1. Be Grateful Tony Robbins has said you can’t be angry and grateful at the same time. It’s just impossible. You also can’t be fearful and grateful at the same time. Fear and anger are emotions that dominant and wreck us in our everyday interactions or conversations with one another. So spend some time really feeling grateful, like deep in your bones, in your soul. That level of gratitude can change your state and how you feel. Studies have shown, and in my own experience, writing it down seems to be much more effective, and really embody the gratitude. I use the Five Minute Journal to write down what I’m…

. I’m a fragile snowflake. So are you. I don’t mean this ironically, and I don’t mean it in the same sense as “We’re all racist.” I mean that, in the eyes of someone else, someone who doesn’t know you, you’re too sensitive about something. So am I. Most of my friends and social media contacts are liberal or progressive. My Facebook feed is filled with people who refuse to put the words “President” and “Trump” next to each other; it’s more common to see him simply called 45*, or something more offensive. Last year, reading my feed, you might have thought the election was between Hillary Clinton and Bernie…

My girlfriend and I have been together for over 3 years now, with 2.5 years of long distance under our belt. Ironically, while technology has been the saving grace in our intercontinental relationship, it has also been the surprising source of any arguments we have had. “Can you not announce that on Facebook?” “But…how will other people know what we are up to?” “You can tell them directly. Do we need to publicize our lives to people you haven’t spoken to in years?” “…yes? I like seeing what’s going on in the lives of our acquaintances. Perhaps they do too!” Some variation of this exchange happens every few months. When…