Archive : Thoughts and Insights by Michael Gregory

Mindfulness, Meditation and Health

Beautiful sunset with mountains and reflection off of a mountain lake
October 28th, 2018

This is how to make your life amazing

From the bestselling author, Eric Barker, Barking up the Wrong Tree, I wanted to share with you his blog on This is how to make your life amazing: In short he offers these five points for your consideration: “"Career Wellbeing": Be engaged. Use your strengths. Hide from your boss. "Social Wellbeing": Spend time with the good people, not with the bad people. "Financial Wellbeing": Usually it's not about how much you have, it's about how you feel about what you have. Increasing the prior two factors prevents you from negatively comparing yourself to others. "Physical Wellbeing": Exercise, eat right and get your sleep, obviously. As we all know in our heart of hearts, feeling sexy is important. Restaurant choices can matter more than food choices. "Community Wellbeing": Helping others helps you. Therefore, helping me helps you. Why don't you call more often?

Eight happy cartoon faces all smiling
September 17th, 2018

This is how to be happy at work and life

hen we are happier at work, we are more engaged, more productive and we have a sense of purpose. In short there is no one right answer, because we all define happiness a little differently, but with a shift in our thinking we can have a sense of purpose, be engaged, have greater resilience, and be kinder to others.

A young woman with her right hand to her head looking down very concerned
June 4th, 2018

Wonderful ways to take on worry

We all have things we worry about.  Often we take our negative feelings and enhance them by makin

This is Why Emotions Matter in Negotiations
November 20th, 2017

This is Why Emotions Matter in Negotiations

Our brains are 98% and 2% rationale and yet we approach negotiations as if they are to be rationally resolved. This article focuses on your emotions and their emotions and how to address diffusing your and their emotions to focus on facts, issues, feelings and interests to work towards a resolution around particular issues.

Negotiations, the Brain and Stress
October 30th, 2017

Negotiations, the Brain and Stress Part II

This is the second blog with Part I having been issued October 23, 2017 at mikegreg.com/blog. Just the thought of negotiations can cause stress. More recent articles from neuroscientists provide some insights on what we can do to address stress proactively before, during and after a negotiation to minimize threats. Last week this blog focused on attitude, preparation and trying to be friendly. This week the focus is on clearing the mind of worry, balance and emotional charged negotiations.

Do Personalities Matter in Negotiations
October 8th, 2017

Do Personalities Matter in Negotiations?

Personalities do matter in negotiations.  In this blog I look at work completed by Myers and Briggs to help you and to help you with others, and then I offer you three ideas to improve your negotiation skills.  Not everyone can be a great negotiator, but everyone has the potential to improve their negotiation skills

Being Mortal and Discovering Interests – End of Life Decisions
July 31st, 2017

Being Mortal and Discovering Interests – End of Life Decisions

As a reader of this blog you know I focus on helping clients resolve conflict and negotiate winning solutions. Today I want to focus on the very real issue of being mortal and end of life decisions. I can’t think of a more serious conflict between our medical communities, a dying patient and family members. This article takes several of the insights from Dr. Atul Gawande book, Being Mortal, that address an area often full of potential conflict with family members, the dying patient and the medical community. Dr. Atul Gawande offers great insights related to family conflict and death punctuating key elements with very insightful stories that help bring these issues home.

Why is It So Hard to Change People’s Minds
July 24th, 2017

Why is It So Hard to Change People’s Minds?

Having a very close relative that is at polar opposites with me politically is hard, but I love him. Others have asked how do you do it? That is if you both feel very strongly in your beliefs how can you deal with these very strong polar opposite perspectives? I have found an article that explains it from the Greater Good Science Center exploring neuroscience and how we interact with one another. This makes sense to me so I wanted to go over it with you and maybe you may want to share this with others too.

Are you a person that likes or avoids conflict at work
June 19th, 2017

Are you a person that likes or avoids conflict at work?

Conflict at work is a given. Some people enjoy a good debate and discussion with colleagues while others would prefer not to have or be involved with this type of interaction and to avoid disagreements. No matter what these happen at work. So what should you do?