I have had an exceptionally powerful arrival into what a broken-less life can be, but it was only made possible by transforming the piece within me that needed to realize I was never truly broken in the first place.

How's that for a rich lesson? In real life, flexibility is synonymous with playfulness and open-mindedness. In the words of George Bernard Shaw, "We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing." Sounds a lot like rigidity, if you ask me.

The goal of this exercise is certainly not to replace social relationships with a reflective surface -- the literally fatal moment of the Narcissus myth -- but rather to motivate you to get off the couch and engage with others more purposefully, meaningfully, and effectively.

Nothing is more important than cherishing and understanding the amazing organ that is your heart. Honor it, pamper it, and lovingly protect it. Make this Valentine's Day a special one for your sweet heart. The one inside your chest.

This occurred to me very recently: I have the power to make my life easy or difficult. It seems like such a simple thing. If something can be distilled down into just a few words, it has to be easy, yes?

Writing is just one manifestation of this tension, this nagging, lifelong struggle to be you or be perfect -- to live a messy, real, vulnerable life, or an edited one. In writing, you get to arrange things just so, like a museum curator piecing together the perfect exhibit.

It's important to honor and acknowledge your past, to tease lessons from the stories that make you, you. But at some point the past becomes a crutch, something to fall back on when you're uncomfortable in the present or fearful of the future.

In America today, it seems like we are always striving for something. To be bigger, better than who we are. We're never content with what we have. But why? Where did this sense of not being enough come from?

When you kid yourself, then you don't actually have to do anything that causes change or ill feelings. Just think of what might happen if you add in some more good stuff and subtract some of the stuff you hate. Imagine it. Then make it so.

Feeling powerlessness is real. Being powerless is real. And acknowledging it can grow us. But let it lead you not to despair or destruction, but toward honoring yourself. Channel your powerlessness to bolster your strength, resources, authority, and capacity to act.

These two little "what if" words completely suck our power away. It's happened to me every year. Until this one. This year, I decided to follow the best leaders I know, the leaders who don't let those pesky two words come anywhere near their thoughts.

So, why are we so afraid of failure? What about the very concept of not turning out to be the winner terrifies us and stops us from even trying?

That's my suggestion for this holiday. Start looking at what you've bought into. Get some therapeutic help to look at why you overeat. Make a decision that you are just not going to give it all the attention you normally do. Ever again.

Sure, we need to pay the bills. We all have responsibilities. But taking the time to ask yourself what makes you happy and what doesn't every so often surely isn't a bad thing. Life is too short to spend it in a job, or a relationship, or a situation that makes you miserable.

Look above you into the sky and recognize the expansive majesty and mysteries of how great an opportunity to be on this rock floating in space. Recognize the universe and your part in it. It is beyond miraculous.

A wise man once told me, "Be careful of what you say -- your two ears are the closest thing to your own mouth!" You may not be aware of it, but you are constantly talking to yourself.

Aging and changing might be inevitable, but they ain't easy. They precipitate in us a great uncertainty. The myriad dramatic disturbances of modern middle life create an overwhelming crisis of identity and purpose for each of us.

As things begin to normalize in the Northeast and we begin to reassemble our lives, here's the realization that I came to: life happens. Life is going to turn out how it does. It's who I'm being that makes the difference.

What makes Halloween so fun is that it gives us an opportunity to be playful and to try out different aspects of our personality that don't always have a chance to emerge.