1. Patience is an essential quality for success these days. It means that you understand that the only part of the success equation under your control is the part about attitude and effort. Results come on their own time, and at their own pace. Too many people focus on getting results quickly when they should be focused on having the right mindset and applying smart effort towards those results instead.

2. Balance is a wonderful tonic to stress. It means giving equal effort to play as you do to work, obviously. But is also means allowing room for laughter and appropriate anger, for winning and getting beat, for increasing breadth and depth of topic knowledge, for being unproductive at times and putting in long hours at others. Seek out balance in more areas of your life, and watch your stress levels decline accordingly.

3. As Darwin noted in his theory on evolution, it isn't the strongest of the species that necessarily survive, but those most able to respond and adjust to life's stressors. This is particularly true in today's business climate. Those companies that are most able to adjust practices and products to meet changing consumer needs will continue to thrive. Keep in mind how many examples you can find in today's news of companies that are "strong" in brand but are failing due to lack of responsiveness, forethought, or general ineptitude of leadership.

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1. The DrillMaster of Valley Forge: The Baron De Steuben and the Making of the American Army, by Paul Lockhart
   Interesting read on the secret weapon behind the rapid development of the American army during the Revolutionary War.

2. The Richest Man in Town: The Twelve Commandments of Wealth, by Randall Jones
   Great book by the editor of Worth magazine, who interviewed the wealthiest individuals in one hundred American towns and came up with twelve commonalities.

3. Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements, by Mary Buffett and David Clark
   If you feel like you don't know where to start with learning how to invest in stocks, you can do a lot worse than reading anything by these authors. My own picks this year, using Warren's methods, are up over forty-two percent. It ain't rocket science.

4. Ode Magazine
   An upbeat and positive-slanted magazine for "intelligent optimists." Recommended to me by the wonderful staff at the Denver Public Library. Nice change of pace for those tired of hourly reports from media on the coming end of the world.

There is a phenomenon in Britain (and Australia) known as Tall Poppy Syndrome, whereby those people that are highly successful but somehow come across as snobbish or undeserving are ridiculed. Those who criticize others and engage in this sort of negative behavior justify their actions as much needed; they are doing us a service by making sure others' heads fit through doorways. In Britain, if you are successful, it seems the only way you can avoid "getting cut down to size" is to have achieved your success in a humble, appropriate manner. So I guess Susan Boyle and her voice will be spared?

Here in the U.S., we see similar behaviors. We love to watch celebrities fall from grace. We can't get enough of "trainwreck" reality television. The list goes on, obviously. What results from engaging in such criticism, however, hurts us more than those we seek to ridicule. Anger and resentment are absolutely toxic, and tend to slowly destroy the container in which they are stored; of course, this container comes in the form of a human body.

If you find yourself feeling resentful, for any reason, you need to look within yourself for reasons. Resentment is never about the other person. The most highly successful people I know welcome successful company. They love hearing of your newfound success, or your new job promotion, or whatever. Thus, the resentment results from that gap that occurs between the life you sought to lead and the life you've created to this point. The bigger that gap, the greater the chance for despair, anger, sadness, and resentment.

The solution, obviously, is to close that gap via changing your perspective and changing how you operate on a daily basis. Life is difficult, no doubt, but we need to be flexible as we chase down our dreams and life goals. We also need to do our best to get out of our own way, as most obstacles come in the form of self-doubt. Bottom line: If you aren't happy with your life, the responsibility falls with you, and those storm clouds of resentment are of your own making. No matter your age or circumstances, you can start following your own rainbow, starting today. But you'll never get there if all you ever do is scream at the rain.

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