Blog

“I am optimistic about some things in my life, but you also have to be realistic,” writes an astute reader in response to Saturday’s note from What I’d Say if You Wouldn’t Roll Your Eyes… love notes to my child.  This belief in a trade-off between being optimistic and being realistic is something I hear [...]

  You may have heard people say, “you’re only as happy as your unhappiest child…”  I try to remind myself: that’s only true when I choose to let it be. I try to remember this when my child is going through a tough time.  It can feel more painful to see her suffer than to [...]

Is Happy the New Black?

April 4, 2013

Now, it seems that “how to be happier” is everywhere. And here’s the irony: it dawned on me today that now when I read about happiness, I sometimes think, “Am I happy enough? Are my kids happy enough? Are my clients happy enough? Am I doing enough of the right things to make us as happy as we should be?”

Suddenly, I get it. I see why people can feel worse when they see and hear all this happy talk. [Click title to read full post].

Love the Idea- Again

December 4, 2012

How often do you do something for the joy of it?  Because you love what you’re doing?  In “Flow,” I kept trying (and crashing) because I loved the idea of it.  The 100-mile runners in  Born to Run race for the love of it, says Christopher McDougall.  And if you’ve ever loved the feel of [...]

Love the Idea of it

November 19, 2012

Remember when you so loved the idea of something– your next job… a new project… your future wife– that nothing could stop you from pursuing it (her… him)?  The best motivation is when you love the idea of it so much that you don’t really care how you’re doing at this moment: you’re having so [...]

Have you ever found yourself trying to think more positively about something but in your gut or your chest you feel a clenching that says, “I don’t really believe this” ? If so, you’re not alone. Sometimes when we try thinking positively about a difficult topic,  not only do we not feel better, we may even [...]

People — students, recent graduates, parents, adults– are always talking to me about finding their “path.”  The notion being that if they can just figure out all the elements of what they’re good at, what careers they’re suited to, and where they can earn the living they want, they’ll discover  the path they should walk [...]

Did you know that you are a storyteller?  Or that you are just one story away from what you really want? Most of us don’t realize that we have a few central narratives running through our lives because the stories we tell ourselves are so familiar that we don’t even realize they are stories.   [...]

Videos with Christine Duvivier

February 14, 2012

See All of Christine’s Videos as she works with students, speaks to a group, and responds to interview questions.  Watch  Christine Duvivier’s youtube channel.

Not seeing the best in our students is not as much an issue for them as it is for us. Many of them go happily along feeling free and knowing they just want to stay under the radar of parents, school, teachers and traditional expectations. Jimmy, for example, is a C-student who, “… trained us. [...]