MY FIVE COMMUNITIES AND WISDOM STREAMS Wisdom is knowing what matters, what is good, what lasts, what is real, and especially, what is best for all concerned in the long run. I have five sources of truth from which I draw regularly, to guide my life and my work. They all confirm each other, so […]
STRUGGLING WITH MONEY AND WORK DISORDERS: HOARDING, GAMBLING, UNDER-EARNING, BINGE-SHOPPING, AND WORKAHOLICS by Dr. Paul Schmidt Forty years ago, some research I was doing proved that people with upper-upper income levels tend to live their lives in some ways very much like people with lower-lower incomes. Both groups were preoccupied with money […]
ARE YOU IN DEFIANCE OF MEDICAL COMPLIANCE? Has your doctor told you that you are making yourself sick, that your pain or disability will continue to get worse until you change your lifestyle? Perhaps you have had trouble complying with doctor’s orders about alcohol, cigarettes, street drugs, prescription pills, physical therapy, losing weight, getting […]
Marijuana: Thoughts on its Use, Abuse, and Legalization by Paul Schmidt, Ph.D. I have never really had a position or opinion on marijuana, and in recent weeks I have grown weary of this ignorance. To prepare my thoughts on this subject, I have done three things. First, I have obtained professional training as a […]
HOW TO QUIT SMOKING Wise people have had lots of trouble with nicotine. Mark Twain said, “Giving up smoking is the easiest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I ought to know. I’ve done it a hundred times.” Sigmund Freud died of a cancerous jaw caused by smoking cigars. He was clearly aware of […]
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE: How does Yours Stack up? Like mental intelligence, emotional intelligence is a combination between inborn giftedness (temperament) and learned abilities (acquired skill sets). It is easier to learn if we didn’t inherit an extreme emotional disposition, and if we have had healthy role models, or chosen them for ourselves. The theory and […]
A CHALLENGE FOR INTROVERTS TO CELEBRATE WHO THEY ARE In 2014 a powerful and introverted New York lawyer Susan Cain wrote an influential and popular book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that can’t Stop Talking. She documents conclusively that in the last ninety years America has been developing a clear bias […]
Game Players, Team Players, and Game Changers As a psychologist, I’m not much on typologies. They assume all people fit nicely into one of several personality types, and I keep seeing bell curves from the research. Nevertheless, I am going to give you here three approaches to life that I see, three mindsets if you […]
THE LOST ART OF THE EFFECTIVE APOLOGY Imagine that you have messed up big time—physically abused your child, cheated on your wife, stole money at work, or lied to your husband about where you were. And let’s say you really want to make sure that both you and the people you’ve hurt can trust that […]