A man I’ll call Andrew Erickson, a 50-year-old executive, told me he outworks just about everybody he knows. The other day, his sister called to see if Andrew could drop in and eat breakfast with their 88-year-old dad, who lives down the road. “I can do it at 5:45 a.m.,” said Andrew, “because I have to be at work by 6:45.” “But Andrew,” the sister protested, “Dad doesn’t wake up until 7:30.” The truth is, Andrew doesn’t have to be at work at 6:45, he just behaves like

For most, major decisions are a fact of life. Impactful life decisions include the following: Do I want to pursue college education or beyond? What major or academic focus makes the most sense for me? What kind of work do I want to do? How will I manage the sometimes competing values of meaningfulness and financial security? Do I want to find a life partner? What’s important to me in a life partner? Beyond love and work, what life pursuits most fascinate me? Do I wa

Emotional cutoff refers to the process of reactively separating, isolating, withdrawing, running away from or denying the importance of a family or other life-defining relationship. Cutoff typically gets expressed by “not speaking” to another for an extended period of time, and/or going out of one’s way to avoid someone. Cutoff is prompted and kept in place by a mix of lower maturity and higher anxiety. Higher-maturity families and organizations experience less frequent an