Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff at Work by Richard Carlson, PH.D.

I know you’re already judging me…wow, can’t you pick that up at the airport discount book bin? I thought this same thing when I got it from my mom about 10 holidays ago. I actually didn’t read it until about six months after receiving it when I came across it under a pile of clothes waiting for the Goodwill pick up. I was so busy with work and my kids and, well, that’s when I took five minutes and flipped through it. And that’s the beauty of it I discovered. It’s an adult flip book — you can read a couple pages or ten and take away some small nuggets of truths or suggestions and then next time you pick it up it’s either an annoying reminder of what you were going to do or you pick up something new. Annoying, or not, it’s been in my bedside book pile for the last 10 years and I still find myself leafing through it when I just need reinforcing that there are things I can/should do to manage the crazy. Anyway, if you find the balance of work and life is a little unequal sometimes, check it out on your next layover at ORD.

Of course, now that retirement has kicked in, and the crazy (for the most part) has been left behind, I’ve found there are lots of things that are much more important including finding the perfect blueberry…a bucket list item ever since reading Blueberries for Sal many years ago!