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So much has been in the news recently about boards of directors, seemingly to be asleep at the wheel while major corporations crumbled. Good or bad, boards of directors effect the direction of a business. What about a life? Who sits on the “board of directors” for your life? Who has made an imprint upon you in such a way that their influence has cast a direction for your life?

So much has been in the news recently about boards of directors, seemingly to be asleep at the wheel while major corporations crumbled. Most boards are designed to provide oversight and guidance to the direction of a business. Good or bad, boards of directors effect the direction of a business. What about a life? Who sits on the “board of directors” for your life? Who has made an imprint upon you in such a way that their influence has cast a direction for your life?

Recently, I have been reviewing who sits on the board of directors for my life. Here is a snapshot:

My grandmother who was adventurous, mischievous and somewhat risqué all rolled up into a southern farm woman. She loved a good joke, and a dirty one even better! My mother taught her how to drive. She then bought a car and drove around our small town without ever getting her license. She cheated when she played cards and could make losing fun. In the early 1960’s, she hopped a plane and flew to the west coast in order to be with a daughter that was very sick. Prior to this, the greatest distance she had traveled before was about a 25 mile radius from her home. She taught me a lot about courage and adventure.

My father sits on my board. Of the many things a parent teaches you, the one thing he taught me that I wish he hadn’t was how to die gracefully. He endured a very horrible demise with quiet grace and courage. I hope I die that well.

My friend Faye has walked with me through the darkest period of my life. She was a beacon of light when I thought the darkness would envelope me. She taught me a lot about continuing the journey, even when I didn’t think another step could be made.

Often times many people come into your life right out of nowhere. My friend Andrea lives up to every description of a best friend. She has been a rock of consistent strength, no matter how rough my edges. She has taught me how to give and receive the gift of friendship from a healthy place.

Some people that sit on my board haven’t necessarily had an initial positive impact. While in high school, I received a recruiting catalog from a university. This particular person was there when I opened the mail and responded, “What are you going to go to college for, you’ll never amount to anything.” As deep as the words cut they have impacted me to be a high achiever, driven to success.

Some people will always be on my board; others will come and go based on where I am in life. What about you, who sits on the board of your life? What impact have they had in shaping your journey? Whose board do you sit on? What influence do you have?

Jan Hinton is a coach, presenter, and humorist. For more information visit: http://stonesoupcoaching.com

I’ve been blessed with a very creative mind.

I even have proof! I still have my little trophy from third grade when I won the “Most Creative” award.

Creativity - blessing and curse

For the most part, creativity is a blessing. The ability to look at something that has always been there and see something that has never been seen before is a lot of fun and helps with the bottom line.

At the same time, creativity can be a curse. Creativity is a curse when you get so caught in the excitement and high of being creative that you don’t see anything through to completion.

You can go from lots of projects that are working to looking like the guy in the circus sideshow trying to keep all the plates spinning very quickly.

Creativity and completion

One of the best things my former father-in-law (is that the correct term) ever did for me was sit me down in his office in front of a big dry erase board.

He then drew a circle on the board and called it the business cycle. The business cycle begins at the top of the circle, or 12 o’clock if you will, and comes around full circle to 12 o’clock again. Beginning with an idea and ending with a cancelled check, that’s a complete business cycle.

What I was able to see in this model is that I was getting bogged down half way thru the cycle and then going back and getting excited about another new idea.

When I learned to go from idea and excitement to cancelled check and completion, many things changed for me.

Many things can change for you as well when you follow the business cycle from creativity to completion.

Visit Building Your Ideal Practice.com for tips and tools for creating your ideal practice and filling it with your favorite clients.

Learning to overcome procrastination is not an easy task in itself, but down the road it will pay off greatly. People suffer many losses in their lives due to procrastination. There are numerous reasons why people procrastinate. Some of the most obvious and most common are:

1. Perfectionism

This person does not want to fail at anything. They will go so far not to fail that they won’t get the project or task done at all. They put it off and put it off and if they do not complete the task, they don’t have to face any mistakes that they may have made. What they do not realize is that by not doing or completing the task, they have failed.

2. Fantasizing

This type of procrastinator has great intentions and grandiose ideas that sound great. However, they are so grand that they can’t put it all together. In the end, they have no results at all.

3. Fear

The procrastinator dreads or fears doing a specific task. They are out of their comfort zone and can’t handle change. They simply put off the task for fear of upsetting someone else or for fears that they may not do the job right.

4. Crisis Maker

This type of procrastinator thinks that they work better under pressure. In reality, they do not. Their work is put off until the last minute and then they are stressed under pressure.

5. Angry

When someone gives this type of procrastinator a task that he/she may not want, they resent it. They tend to finish the task, however, it is usually done poorly.

6. Overdoer

This procrastinator will purposely take on more tasks that are of lesser importance. They will avoid the rel task at hand and then use the excuse that they were way to busy to complete the task.

7. Pleasure Seeker

This particular procrastinator wants to put off the work until after the playing and having fun is complete. The end result is usually a task that is poorly done and without heart.

To overcome each of these types of procrastination, here are seven observations on each specific type of procrastinator.

1. The perfectionist needs to learn that he/she is human and they need to start allowing for errors in their life. They need to concentrate on the deadline of the task first and then go back and look at details.

2. The fantasizing procrastinator needs to think before they speak of some of their big ideas. They need to learn how to tone their ideas down a notch and when and if the project is done by a certain time, then maybe they can go back in and correct it, and fine-tune it.

3. The procrastinator that shows signs of fear needs to face their fears head on. Tackle that dreaded project or task and learn to think outside the box. Change is inevitable and we all need to get used to it.

4. The crisis maker needs to realize that by working under too much pressure, they are not getting the best work finished.

5. The angry procrastinator likes to be in control. Simply put, they need to just get over it. There will be many times throughout our lives that we have to follow rules and regulations that we do not like.

6. The over doer needs to learn to prioritize and get the most important tasks done first. This type also needs to spend a little less time on minor details.

7. The Pleasure seeker needs to get the work done first and then go hunting, fishing, playing and etc done last.

Peter Murphy is a peak performance expert. He recently produced a very popular free report that reveals how to crush procrastination and sustain lasting motivation. Apply now because it is available for a limited time only at: motivation techniques

Peggy Lee was one of my favorite vocalists growing up…and I don’t mind dating myself. She sang a song which I occasionally hear still today called “Is That All There Is?” The ballad tells the story of a child who, with every experience she encounters, including the destruction of her home by fire, asks “Is that all there is…is that all there is to a fire?” To go beyond the obvious…beyond what we literally see and experience…and begin to imagine what else that experience might portend is what a child does best. It is what children know and what adults tend to forget. We need to keep in mind that our imagination born out of our unconscious minds is the key to creativity while constantly turning to our conscious thinking powers limits that potential.

I remember my granddaughter at the age of about 10 months at her brother’s birthday party with about 30 mingling guests. She was crawling around on the carpet when a piece of lint caught her eye. She stopped, picked it up albeit with some difficulty, sat down and began to examine it carefully akin to a scientist running an experiment. She spent about a minute in that task then dropped it and went onto her next adventure. Today, she’s fourteen, beautiful, intelligent, inquisitive, is the leading scorer on her hockey team and talks about becoming a veterinarian. She lives in a rural community and has at least six animals she diligently cares for.

Fear and doubt are spawned by our inability to take risks…to experience new things…to gain knowledge. When we choose to stay stuck there…and it is a choice despite its being an unconscious one…life becomes a boring, humdrum experience. There is no sense of adventure or creativity. There is only the plotting and plodding of our next move as we obsessively are preoccupied with not making mistakes so that we will be “perfect”. Of course we know that we can’t accomplish that across the board but some people stay awake at night thinking about ways to accomplish the impossible instead of living and enjoying life to the fullest.

I believe that there are three secrets to a happy and successful life. The first is to always have something to look forward to. This will allow us to view life as an adventure within our control in our need to experience it more and more everyday. The second secret is to bring as much love into our lives as possible. I believe that the key to mental health and happiness is the sense of loving and being loved which is probably why so many songs are written on that topic. The third is to develop and maintain a sense of humor…including our ability to laugh at ourselves. There is nothing more therapeutic that a good, ol’ fashioned belly laugh shared with someone we love. Beyond those three secrets, one can only imagine the possibilities leading up to the question “Is that all there is”?

My fears are most powerful when they’re simmering just under the surface of my awareness. I’m resistant to a new idea, I’m defensive about holding on to my old ways, I feel excited and panicked at the same time - these are sure-fire signs that there’s some fear under there.

Shining a spotlight on my fear has been the best (and only) way to get to the other side of it.

“Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love” - Ranier Maria Rilke

My fear is there for a good reason - to protect me. If I can have compassion for my fear, and understand what it’s looking for, I’ll be more ready to let it go.

I’ve been thinking about how fear and creativity often go hand in hand. As creative artists, what is our fear looking for? What does it think it’s protecting us from? In exploring these questions I decided to brush up on Abraham Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs”.

Abraham Maslow suggested that all human beings have the same basic needs, and that we spend our lives striving to meet them. His famous hierarchy of needs explains that at the basest level we need protection from the elements, food, water and other physiological needs.

Then, we need to feel safety and security within our family, our home and in our place in the world around us. We need to feel that we fit in and understand where we fit in and how everything works.

Next, we need to feel love and belonging - that we’re accepted and appreciated.

We need to feel competent and masterful and that we’re being recognized for our talents.

Finally, when all of those needs are met, we strive for the “top” level, “Self-Actualization” - to really live up to our highest potential, to feel a oneness with God, the universe and all of our fellow travelers on this Earth.

For some of us, long after the needs HAVE been met, we still fear losing them and having to meet them all over again.

Maybe that’s why creating our art can evoke so much fear. Creativity is a direct form of self-actualization. When you’re feeling fear about putting your creative ideas into motion, which of Maslow’s needs are you concerned about meeting or losing?

* If I commit fully to my art then I won’t be able to support myself financially - I could lose everything and be penniless and homeless

* If I put my creations out into the world, people may not like them - that means they won’t like me, they may laugh at me, I won’t fit in

* If no one likes my work, I won’t fit in. No one loves, understands or knows me. I’m not fulfilling a need in the world - no one needs me. I’m not serving a purpose.

* If I try to create, I could make a mistake. I’ll feel stupid and no one will like me.

To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.
- Joseph Chilton Pearce

* If I go another year without trying to get my creative projects off the ground, I may never break free of my limitations, and I may live the rest of my life with unrealized potential. I may die with my creativity still inside of me.

Even the fear of death is nothing compared to the fear of not having lived authentically and fully.
- Frances Moore Lappe

Have I missed any? Probably. Of course each of us have our own unique fears - and these are more universal ones that relate to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and to our creative hopes and dreams.

A well-known acronym for fear is:
FEAR = False evidence appearing real

In other words, even though what we’re fearful of seems very real to us, it’s usually something we’ve made up in our heads, as opposed to something we’re facing in physical form. Studies on the stress hormone cortisol show that our bodies react to our thoughts regardless of what is actually in front of us. Our fears feel VERY real. And……they’re not.

SARK, author of Make Your Creative Dreams Real suggests you to try this acronym on instead:

Fill yourself up creatively - Julia Cameron advocates something similar with her “Artists’s Date” assignment in The Artist’s Way. What sparks your creativity? A long drive in the country? Making a vegetable soup? Meditation? Prayer?

Explore what stops you - looking at your own unique methods of self-sabotage is a cornerstone of the Everyday Self-Care Workbook (http://www.genuinecoaching.com/esc-workbook.html), and of my upcoming book just for creative artists.

Accelerate movement - Do something, anything, to combat the inertia of staying still. SARK advocates “micro movements” that take anywhere from 5 seconds to 5 minutes to complete. Those micro movements are the building blocks for our creative dreams and most importantly, get us moving!!

Repeat - luckily for us, this process continues as long as we’re up for it!

Courage is fear that has said its prayers.
- Dorothy Bernard

(c) Copyright 2005, Genuine Coaching Services.

Linda Dessau, the Self-Care Coach, helps artists enhance their creativity by addressing their unique self-care issues. To receive her free monthly newsletter, “Everyday Artist”, subscribe at http://www.genuinecoaching.com/artist-newsletter.html

Sure it sounds easy… “Be happy.” Let’s face it there is a little art and a lot of personal measures you can take to reveal true and lasting happiness. Happiness is not just a series of warm fuzzies. It’s a combination of simple know-how and energetic effort that starts from within.

1. Believe in Yourself. Know who you are. Strive to love yourself for all of your unique, exceptional and distinctive qualities. Embrace your right to be happy! Get in touch with all the small, silly and substantial things that make you smile. They are uniquely yours. You have your own blissful happiness support system deep inside of you.

2. Be Open. Try new stuff. Discover more people, places, ideas and activities that delight and amuse you. There is no end to the supply of wonderful, beautiful, pleasurable, enlightening, tranquil and exhilarating experiences just waiting in the wings to dance with you! Play with the possibilities and be open to finding lots more happiness that’s personally yours… more ideas await you at www.shesite.com.

3. Be Active. Actively seek out happiness and take small actions to sustain you. If you were hungry, you’d seek out food. Until and unless you get up, decide what you want to fulfill your happiness and take action to bring it into your life, your happy hunger won’t be satiated.

4. Be with Others. People are powerful magnets that can help pull you toward your vision for happiness. Find people who share your common loves. Share small happiness miracles and blessings that pop up around you daily. Be thrilled when friends and family members around you feel happy. Celebrate it with them! The more happiness you give the more you will receive. See the infinite possibilities of seeking, sharing and spreading happiness.

5. Be Attentive. Wrap all of the above B’s with a bow of attention! Know each and every feeling, action and reaction that feels good and supports you. Be mindful to add more into your life. The more happiness you are willing to add, the more it compounds and sinks deep into your soul.

Think of your happiness as interest bearing bank account… the more you mindfully collect and deposit, the greater the compounded value. Invest in simple pleasures and redeem priceless returns. Your spot for simple happy essential ideas is waiting for you at www.shesite.com.

Julie Hunt is a female icon and founder of SHE, the foremost inspiration and personal development resource for women who want to live brilliant, happy, successful lives. Marketing consultant, sales expert, copywriting guru, improvisational actress, yoga instructor, author and just plain cool chick… she’s an inspiration to oodles of women who land on her free teleclass series ‘The Essentials.’
Don’t miss out! She’s on a mission to scream, skip, advise and acquaint with women around the globe who want live a vivacious life busting at the seams!

Helen Keller once remarked that there was one thing she knew of that was worse than being blind; it was to be able to see but have no vision.

In case you do not know the story of Helen Keller, she was less than two years old when she suddenly came down with a fever that left her unconscious. The fever left just as suddenly. But she was left blinded and, very soon after, also became deaf. Despite these handicaps, she went on to live a passionate, meaningful and important life.

You can read a brief biography here… http://www.rnib.org.uk/wesupply/fctsheet/keller.htm

This is one of my own favorite and oft repeated sayings, “A person without a definite purpose in life is more handicapped than the most disadvantaged or disabled.”

This is the sad, sad, sad truth about most people’s lives…

They have eyes that work; they can see, but they have no vision.

They have ears that work; they can hear, but choose not to listen.

They have a tongue that works; they can speak, but have nothing to say.

The vast majority of people lead mediocre and purposeless lives. They are stuck in this mediocrity because they have no vision for their lives. They are mired in this mediocrity because they refuse to listen to the quiet internal voice that keeps telling them that there must be a better way. They are trapped in mediocrity because they have not the courage to gather their voice and speak their truth; instead they mumble/repeat the inanities learned from the likewise mediocre folks they hang around with as they fulfill the oft repeated truism, ‘misery loves company’.

Thoreau wrote that most people lead lives of quiet desperation.

People are so desperate for a vision to lead their lives by that they follow mendacious politicians that are even more mediocre than they themselves are.

People are so desperate for a message to give meaning to their lives that they buy into whatever story they are fed.

Desperate and mediocre people hang around in packs sharing the BS, lies and stories hoping to find succor in being a part of the commonality of mediocrity.

Happy, successful, fulfilled, self-destined and self-motivated people do not mind solitude and quiet. They have no need to fill up empty hours with noise to cover up the still quiet internal voice. They have no need to stuff their days with the eye candy of television to hide from the fact that they have no inner vision. They have no need to continuously chatter loud inanities in an attempt to disguise their lack of message.

Thoreau also wrote, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear.”

Do you want to come to the end of your life only to find that you have not lived; you have only merely existed?

If you want to be fulfilled, to live a happy life, to be successful and to have prosperity, then you must develop your own vision and your own message. You must become your own disciple and follow your own truth.

Turn off your television and turn on your inner vision. Find or create your own vision. Without this vision, you cannot see where you are going and it is most unlikely that you will ever end where you want to be.

Your life will have meaning and purpose only when you assign it a message. Stop buying into other people’s stories. Write your own script. Examine your core beliefs and discard those that do not serve you.

You will be fulfilled only when you discover or design your own truth and then, live it. Only you can decide what is true and meaningful for you. Happiness is not found in any philosophy that is offered to you. It is not ‘on sale’ at the mall or superstore. No one can give it to you. It is only found within your own heart.

Are you after prosperity? An abundance of all the good things that life has to offer? A way out of mediocrity?

You will find that life offers you prosperity as soon as you use your will to create a congruency of ideal (vision), word (thought) and deed (action). It really is up to you.

Take responsibility now for your life.

© Leslie Fieger. All rights reserved worldwide.

Leslie is the author of The DELFIN Knowledge System Trilogy: The Initiation, The Journey and The Quest plus many more success publications. He also the co-author of The End of the World with Hugh Jeffries and Alexandra’s DragonFire with his daughter Ashley. Subscribe to his free and ad-free eZine at http://www.ProsperityParadigm.com or http://www.LeslieFieger.com

Reprinting and republishing of this article is granted only with the above credit included. Permission to reprint or republish does not waive any copyright.

Almost 90% of all individuals lose their basic ability for creativity by the age of eight years old. One could look to many excuses or reasons why this happens, but it happens. One of the most commonly attributed reasons for this has been the apparent lack of emphasis on individual creative thinking during an individual’s normal day at elementary school.

Granted, a greater awareness of this problem and the necessity of creative thinking in life is being addressed, But there are new forces brewing that continue to adversely affect creativity. The most commonly pointed to being the multiplicity of mindless video games.

Recreational playing (meaning occasional playing) of video games may not be too harmful. Taking into account the nature of the individual games and their unnecessary levels of violence (another subject to be addressed). But when individuals become obsessed with the play, one is wasting all too much time in this mindless “entertain-me-attitude” activity. It then completely removes the opportunity for real creative play and activity.

At any rate, the purpose of this writing is not to discuss my personal feelings on the subject, which I suppose are obvious, or even not to discuss what not to do with one’s time. The purpose is to discuss what one can do to turn the tide and rejuvenate creativity inside oneself.

There are so many positive activities that encourage creativity. The following list is by no means comprehensive, but may, at least, stimulate you thinking as to all the many others at your fingertips:

1. Hobbies requiring physical activities

2. Hobbies requiring the use of the mind in collecting, assembly, and research

3. Journal writing

4. Creative writing and poetry

5. Various means and expressions of art

6. Scrapbooking

7. Personal analysis of problems or challenges in the world around us (armchair scientist)

In order to foster creativity, one must frequently think outside the proverbial box. Often there are more possibilities and solutions than we presently see. But we must be willing to open our minds to see the broader spectrum of possibilities.

One can increase their ability for creative thought with simple daily exercises. Functions performed in the mind while actually doing something else.

Something such as mathematical progressions: 17 plus 17 plus 17….etc. What is X squared, squared, squared….etc. Or something like how many words can be made ending in “ed”?

Something I thought of the other day: Create new words, then create their definitions. Some may actually already exist.

Someone mentioned the word “happify”. That’s a real word. It means “to make happy”.

Here is a list of new words I created:

* beautificate: to administer beauty upon a subject.

* liftificate: to discover the most elementary methods of raising an object up.

* felicitate: assisting the pursuit of happiness (not to be confused with “facilitate”).

* euphoritate: assisting the achievement of absolute joy.

* ecstatify: to lift one’s attitude into an intense delight.

* imagification: to assist others in enabling them to conceive of new concepts or ideas.

* fantalization: to fully imagine the reality of positive pending situations soon to come.

* studiousation: the act of applying oneself to intelectual pursuits.

* antiquantification: being engaged in the act of refuting seemingly solid evidence contrary or totally irrelevant to the research at hand.

* hyperstatistification: aggressively pursuing a research discipline requiring immediate attention.

Will any of these words make it into Webster’s Dictionary? Will any of yours? Who knows….unless you write them!

So get on your thinking caps and get busy. There is so much potential locked away in your mind, just waiting to be discovered and revealed to the world.

Imagination awaits the desire of your own heart.

Bob Curtis has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, and has been writing about the elements of relationships for a number of years. He is the manager of the Essential Sunshine Association, a new website for positive relationship development at http://www.essun.blogspot.com

In 1957 and ‘58, I was a soldier in the US Army serving in Germany as a peace keeping force. Without a war to focus our energy, we were left to our own devices to entertain ourselves. Two large buildings on the outskirts of town housed 250 soldiers apiece. Our thirty by thirty foot room on the third floor boasted one electric outlet and one 200 watt ceiling fixture in the middle of the room. Nine beds with footlockers comprised all of the furniture. Many of the soldiers were taking extension college courses, but found it difficult to see the pages. So I teamed up with a buddy and built a small side table for each man to hold a lamp and the needed books. Army rules prevented us from using extension cords longer than six feet, but there was no rule specifically forbidding the rewiring of the building. I didn’t ask, I just did it.

In summer we bivouacked at Grafenwehr near East Germany. Long known as a training camp, it also featured a nice golf course and skiing in the winter. An alternate location was situated on the North Sea. Our 91mm radar guns set up on the cliff overlooking the beach where they could take potshots at dummy towed by a PT boat. Every tenth shot or so, a cheer marked the destruction of a target. I’m sure the PT boat occupants wished for a longer tow rope. My job as a radio operator required eight hours on duty in the radio truck and forty eight hours off. I remember once a coworker threw a pencil at me which lodged across the main transmitting antenna while transmitting. A loud explosion and a six inch arc of light lit up the radio room.

Steep cliffs protected sandy beaches and crystal clear water at seventy five degrees.
One such cove existed irresistibly only two miles away from camp. Loading up a jeep with two shelter halfs, a badminton set, a walkie talkie, mess kits and a large German radio for music, a co-radio operator and I set off for the beach. Alternating current of 110 volts was improvised by plugging in to the end radar generator and running two miles of double E8 telephone wire to our impromptu beach resort. The Army rubber mattresses made for lots of water fun. Plenty of driftwood fed a fire where we roasted potatoes and grilled veal cutlets bought from the town butcher. A dozen bottled beer in a net on the end of a rope kept cool in the sea. Several German girls vacationing in the area joined us on the beach and in the sea for a good time.

All these activities may have been unsanctioned by the Army, but we were fit and ready to serve our country in a time of war.

Retired portrait photograper. Hobbis include graphic art, photogaphy, bicycling, refinishing and writing.

GOOD BUSINESS COACHING: Clearly, the right kind of coaching can alter a team’s or an organization’s performance. The implication for business is that if you create a climate of coaching in any organization, you can produce performance that exceeds your expectations and you won’t have to change the people to do so. Coaching can produce star performers in organizations, even when the players are people of ordinary talent and ability.

A COACH CAN MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE: This is a big claims to make. But consider this: when you look at a human endeavor where coaching is the norm, you see extraordinary results. In sports, for example, coaching is recognized as crucial among those who strive for extraordinary performance. No athlete would dream of training for the Olympics without a great coach. Great coaching shows up in sports all the time, but it’s as rare in business as pitching a no-hitter is in the major leagues. That’s because although a supervisor’s job is to coach, it is not always recognized as part of that job.

COACHING THE PLAYERS AT WORK: In order for coaching to work, the performer has to listen. That’s a big catch, because coaching is often heard as criticism. When people think they are hearing criticism, they can become defensive or invalidate themselves. Usually, they do both. In any case, people tend to ignore what they don’t want to hear. This further emphasizes how important empathetic communication is for effective coaching.

Copyright AE Schwartz & Associates All rights reserved. For additional presentation materials and resources: ReadySetPresent and for a Free listing as a Trainer, Consultant, Speaker, Vendor/Organization: TrainingConsortium

CEO, A.E. Schwartz & Associates, Boston, MA., a comprehensive organization which offers over 40 skills based management training programs. Mr. Schwartz conducts over 150 programs annually for clients in industry, research, technology, government, Fortune 100/500 companies, and nonprofit organizations worldwide. He is often found at conferences as a key note presenter and/or facilitator. His style is fast-paced, participatory, practical, and humorous. He has authored over 65 books and products, and taught/lectured at over a dozen colleges and universities throughout the United States.