Musings at the COVID New Year

As we approach the COVID-quieted New Year, my wife and I sit and chat, mostly about the quotidian: what to do tonight or that we have a new granddoggie. We wryly smile that excitement is a trip to the supermarket.

But in the silences and amid my pre-New-Year's walks, the following thoughts have entered my mind. I share them in hopes they might inform some of your New Year's thinking, feeling, and conversation.

When is it Worth Pursuing the Dream Career, Relationship, Home, and Vacation?

If life feels mundane, it’s understandable that we dream, grasping for something to make life more exciting: the dream job, the dream relationship, the dream home, the dream vacation. 

We may be especially likely to aspire to a dream amid the grayness that the COVID restrictions or disease have foisted on us.

But as a career and personal coach who has worked with more than 6,000 clients over the past 35 years, I’ve seen too many people chase a dream only to not achieve it even partially and perhaps worse, kill themselves to achieve the dream and still feel empty.

In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I make the best case I can for and against chasing the aforementioned common dreams.

Marty Nemko Plays Auld Lang Syne on the Piano

Here's a YouTube I just recorded of me playing Auld Lang Syne on the piano.

 

Musings on Our 44th Anniversary: Lessons from a relationship not made in heaven but made to work here on earth

Today is Barbara and my 44th anniversary and we discussed what has made our marriage work. It’s not a marriage made in heaven but my PsychologyToday.com article today shares how we've made it work here on earth. Perhaps it might help your relationship.

Aging Well: Tips for a better old age

Our final years are rarely golden but fellow Psychology Today blogger Meg Selig’s new book, Silver Sparks, offers practical advice on how to pan for silver. My PsychologyToday.com article today offers some of its nuggets and my amplifications and other thought on each.

Succeeding While Assertive: 3 tips for navigating that attribute, which can threaten other people

Conventional wisdom urges us to be assertive. But a number of my clients have found assertiveness to be a mixed bag. My Psychology Today article today offers three tips for navigating that attribute, which can threaten other people.

Succeeding While Shy: Nuggets for the introvert or socially anxious

The just-published new edition of the classic career guide, What Color is Your Parachute, updated by Katharine Brooks, includes a fine section on succeeding while shy. And she speaks from personal experience: “I myself have been painfully shy for much of my life, but no one ever guesses.”

My PsychologyToday.com article today offers nuggets from that section plus my additions.