Everyone talks about goals at the end of each year. That’s good. We all should have them. The end of one year and the beginning of another is always a time to think about the future and goals. However, absent an appropriate context, forward-thinking can be useless. That context for me is in thankfulness for all of my life’s many blessings. Every reader of this blog is blessed in many ways. I hope you and I will always be thankful for our blessings. Then, we can talk about goals.

My blogging activity recently has been a bit slow.  I haven’t learned the art, if that is what it is, of blogging during intense periods of work.  This post is offered as a form of apology for my absence from ChrisMercer.net. I was in Tokyo earlier this month and spoke on the topic of “The […]

We all have demons. This post discusses our professional, rather than personal, demons. The lesson is that if we name them, we can begin to do something about them. We can take the little steps that get the stone moving to the point where it has (or you have) momentum. And when you have momentum, you can leave your demons behind.

Miles Mason, Sr., of the Miles Mason Family Law Group in Memphis, has written a book, The Tennessee Divorce Client’s Handbook, is a great primer for divorcing persons and for anyone who has not yet started but is contemplating divorce. As a divorce attorney, his basic advice is “think seriously before you enter into this […]

In light of the events of December 14, 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut, the Memphis Men’s Chorale, of which I am a member, offers our Prayer of the Children in honor and memory of the children and teachers who were killed, and for their families and friends — indeed for the millions everywhere who have been so deeply charred and jarred by this tragedy.

We are what we think, and if we think about a predetermined goal sufficiently, our minds will work toward achieving that goal. There is cognitive theory science behind all this, but it is amazing what repetition of a goal, or keeping it in front of you, can do.

In June 2010, I participated in the video interview series “Conversations with the Masters,” hosted by Brien K. Jones of the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts (NACVA). In the first part of the interview, filmed at the NACVA/IBA Annual Consultants’ Conference in Miami, Brien and I discuss the growing influence of LinkedIn and how […]