Marc Chernoff's Blog, page 50

20 Things My 90-Year-Old Grandmother Told Me to Stop Worrying About

Worry gives small things a big shadow.

Some people wait all day for 5pm, all week for Friday, all year for the holidays, all their lives for happiness. Don’t be one of them. Don’t wait until your life is almost over to realize how good it has been. The secret to happiness and peace on the average day is letting each moment be what it is, instead of what you think it should be, and then making the very best of it — less worry, more presence, every step of the way.

So go ahead and sing out loud in the car with the windows down, and dance in your (more…)

10 Wake-Up Calls We Often Receive Too Late in Life

There’s a big difference between empty fatigue and gratifying exhaustion. Life is too short not to focus more on what matters most.

Before you know it you will be asking, “How did it get so late so soon?” So take time to figure yourself out. Take time to realize what you want and need. Take time to take calculated risks. Take time to love, laugh, cry, learn, and forgive. Life is so much shorter than it often seems.

In our line of work we speak with people on a weekly basis who have been forced to ‘wake up’ to life’s fleeting nature. Consider these two excerpts from people’s stories that we recently received in our email (more…)

10 Things We Wait Too Long to Do for Ourselves

Opportunities are like sunrises — if we wait too long, we miss them.

Too often we waste our time waiting for the ideal path to appear. But it never does of course. Because we forget that paths are made by walking, not waiting. Let this be your wake-up call!

If we always sit around until we feel 100 percent ready for the journey, we will likely be sitting around for the rest of our lives. Most of the time we just have to get up and go for it. And no, we shouldn’t feel any more confident before we take the next step. Taking the next step is what gradually builds our confidence. Now is the time!

Yes, it’s finally time to admit that… (more…)

40 Quotes for Letting Go and Coping with What You Can’t Control

The goal every day for the rest of the year is to gradually grow stronger on the inside, so that less and less on the outside can affect your inner wellness without your conscious permission.

Truth be told, how you cope with unexpected stress and frustration can easily be the difference between living a good life and living an unhealthy one. If you choose unhealthy coping mechanisms like avoidance or denial, for example, you can quickly turn a tough situation into a tragic one. And sadly, this is a common mistake many people make.

When you find yourself facing a disheartening reality, your first reaction might be (more…)

Sharing These 20 Truths with Your Child Could Change Their Life (and Yours Too)

“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.”
— Margaret Mead

Our children grow up so fast. Before we know it they’re out there somewhere in the real world, and we’re left hoping that we’ve done enough to prepare them for everything they’ll encounter. Marc and I talk to course students and coaching clients on a daily basis — mothers and fathers alike — who share these sentiments. They worry about their children. They wonder if they’ve done a good enough job parenting up to this point. And Marc and I can relate too, because oftentimes we feel the same way. We’re concerned about our son Mac’s well-being and education, and we discuss it frequently just like most parents do.

In fact, from what we’ve researched and studied, the well-being and education of their children is more important to most parents than just about anything else — more important than health care, cost of living, public safety, and even their own (more…)

3 Common Dreams You Will Regret Chasing in Life (If You Aren’t Careful)

If it keeps you busy, but will hurt you someday, it’s something you will regret. Don’t sell yourself short.

There’s a big difference between empty fatigue and gratifying exhaustion. Life is too short not to focus more on what matters. And life is definitely too short to chase things that leave you with lingering regrets.

So let’s discuss three common dreams — or prevalent fantasies — many of us quietly strive for (myself included for many years), that are really just traps. These pursuits tend to lead us in circles and gradually move us farther away from where we ultimately want to be in life. Because despite what our better judgment tells us, we (more…)

6 Things We Often Waste All Our Time On (Until it’s Too Late)

Life is short, and it is here to be lived.

I recently received a thank you email from a reader named Hope. She said our articles helped motivate her through an arduous recovery process following a serious car accident last year. Although her entire story was both heartbreaking and inspiring, this one line made me pause and think:

“The happiest moment of my life is still that split-second earlier this year when, as I laid crushed under a 2000 pound car, I realized my husband and 9-year-old boy were out of the vehicle and absolutely OK.”

Dire moments like this force us to acknowledge what’s truly important to us. In Hope’s case, it was her husband and son. And in the remainder of her email she talks about (more…)

20 Things My Now 80-Year-Old Dad Was Right About

“One day you will look back and see that all along you were blooming.”
— MHN

Twenty-seven years ago, when I was a freshman in high school, my English teacher gave my class a homework assignment entitled, “Advice for a Younger Generation.” The concept of the assignment was simple: Each student had to interview a person who was over the age of 25, gather enough information to write a basic biography of their life and find out what their top tips are for a younger generation. I chose to interview my dad. He was (more…)

10 Sticky Notes We Need to Read Every Morning for the Rest of the Year

Where you ultimately end up is greatly dependent on your daily attitude and response.

This morning one of our clients, Monica — a recovering victim of a fairly recent and debilitating car accident — was smiling from ear to ear the minute our FaceTime coaching session began. “What has you in such good spirits today?” I asked her. “I’m thinking better about things… about how lucky I am to be alive,” she replied. “I thought the injuries I sustained in that accident earlier this year signified the end of life as I know it, but now I realize they signify the beginning.”

All details aside, Monica decided to begin again, in her mind first and then in her life. It’s taken her several months of healing and practice, but she has gradually let go of the “shoulda, woulda, coulda” attachments in her head about her circumstances. And she has stepped forward with grace, determination, and a healthy mindset.

Let’s follow Monica’s lead and practice thinking better as we move through the final quarter of the year, so we can begin to build momentum, together, as we head toward the New Year… (more…)

4 Daily Habits that Keep Holding the Best of Us Back

You ultimately become what you habitually do. If your daily habits aren’t moving you forward, they’re holding you back. Here are four common and widespread examples of the latter, and how to let these bad habits go so you can make the best of the days ahead:

1. We weigh ourselves down with unhelpful and stressful thoughts.

Twenty years ago, when Marc and I were just undergrads in college, our psychology professor taught us a lesson we’ve never forgotten. On the last day of class before graduation, she walked up on stage to teach one final lesson, which she called “a vital lesson on the power of (more…)