My Favourite Posts of 2016

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It's been a long time coming, but I've finally looked back on 2016 and picked out my top posts from this past year. I pick these posts based on the importance of the experience or based on how much I learned from writing about it.

The ten posts below are in order of preference. And, because it's often hard to narrow it down to ten, I have a few "honourable mentions" again this year.

I hope you enjoy perusing this list as much as I enjoyed compiling it.

Ten Favourite Posts of 2016

1. You Just Never Know: By far one of the toughest posts I've ever written but it was worth sharing an important life lesson that has influenced my actions over the past twenty years. 

2. Lion or Lamb: Hope is a powerful feeling but when it's mixed with near-desperation, it can lead us to make sometimes-crushing mistakes in judgment. And that's what snake-oil salesmen are banking on.

3. Your Baby's Ugly: Surrounding ourselves with people who will tell you the ugly truth is extremely valuable. Here's one of my experiences with constructive feedback.

4. Careful, You Might Actually Make It: Exploring the consequences of my fear of success.

5. The Unexpected Power of Putting Your Best Foot Forward: I never knew how powerful it could be to know how to "put myself together". 

6. How to Live Like a Little Prince: I revisit this powerful book I'd read as a child. It's a simple book, but it delivers a profound message about what matters most.

7. Here's What Kills Our Negotiation Power (Parts 1 & 2): The best way I've found so far to explain why the rich get richer. Money & need changes how we think.

8. Gratitude & The Lost iPhone: The tale of my surprising reaction to losing a precious little gadget.

9. Thinking Ourselves Right: I have a problem (ok, more than one, but bear with me). I've been a habitual rationalizer for years. But I'm learning that "know better, do better" applies just as much to catching ourselves in the act of thinking as it does in the act of doing..

10. A Secret Happiness Principle - Try New Things...and Then Quit Them: Trying new things helps us learn about ourselves. 

Five Honourable Mentions

These posts didn't make the top 10, but they come to mind quite often:

  1. The Fast Forward Effect
  2. The Hidden Costs of Convenience
  3. Knowing vs Doing (Parts 1 & 2)
  4. The "Want To" vs "Have To" Ratio
  5. When Ideas Have Sex

What to expect in 2017?

More book reviews, writing influenced by talks I've been delivering and, of course, continued musings & random thoughts as I come across them.

Image credit/copyright (in order of appearance): Pixomar, Maggie Smith and David Castillo Dominici / freedigitalphotos.net