The BMG record label EVP Recorded Music exec JoJamie Hahr didn’t get to the top of her trade by waiting for opportunity to come to her – she relentlessly pursued her goals.

She told a classroom of my NYU music business students that in one case, she kept sending ideas to the person she wanted to hire her – that’s the difference between chasing after opportunities or willing them to happen.  Of course, you know – how could anyone resist that.  She got that job and was on the way to what eventually would be her dream job in the record industry.

There’s a difference between looking for opportunities and creating them.  We all have the ability to succeed and the secret is never, ever stop trying to get what you want.

“Opportunities don’t happen. You create them.” — Chris Grosser

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Travis Langan, an off-duty FDNY firefighter and former U.S. Marine, was driving home last week when powerful floodwaters overwhelmed parts of the Jackie Robinson Parkway. He spotted several cars nearly underwater and immediately pulled over.

One of those drivers was elementary school principal Carmen Pinto, whose Tesla had stopped working as floodwaters rapidly filled the vehicle. She tried to open the doors, roll down the windows, call 911 — nothing worked. The water kept rising.

Langan saw her face pressed against the sunroof and started punching through it with his bare fists. He grabbed a Yeti cup Pinto handed him, smashed through the remaining glass, and pulled her out alive.

On Friday, the pair reunited at FDNY headquarters, where Langan was honored by NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani and FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore.

Pinto was emotional. She noted that Langan had a pregnant wife and daughters waiting for him at home.

Heros are everywhere independent of politics, race or gender which lifts us all up.

“If it were my family, I hope someone would do the same.” — Travis Langan

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I saw an article the other day that basically said don’t even try being happy and there is, in a way, a lot of evidence that this sentiment has something to it.

Harold Kushner wrote in his book When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough: “Happiness is a butterfly—the more you chase it, the more it flies away from you and hides. But stop chasing it, put away your net and busy yourself with other, more productive things than the pursuit of personal happiness, and it will sneak up upon you from behind and perch on your shoulder….”

The brain doesn’t do happiness.  It keeps us safe.  Micropractices train the brain to make us happy while we engage in other pursuits.

“The happiest people I know are people who don’t even think about being happy. They just think about being good neighbors, good people. And then happiness sort of sneaks in the back window while they are busy doing good.” 

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I asked my music industry mental health class to work with me on a drill – think about the worst thing you could say about your best friend (believe me, they hated this, but stay with me).  I asked for volunteers to share the insults – and a few brave souls started.  But these “insults” were tame.  So, I asked them to dig deeper.  A few more volunteers piped up.  When we were done, I suggested that it is so hard to insult someone you like, love or respect but why is it so easy for us to come down so hard on ourselves.

Then I asked for bulletproof statements:  tell me something about you that no one could challenge and we filled the room with positivity that lifted all of us.  I got answers like “I’m dependable”, “I care”, “I’m a great listener”.

It’s easy but not helpful to be our worst critic – a little more love for ourselves and some grace could change the way we feel.

As Brené Brown puts it “Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.”

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That’s the message Lynn Anderson’s “Rose Garden” delivered (“Along with the sunshine there’s gotta be a little rain sometime”).  Being a broadcaster, I’ve done my share of weather forecasts and while Mother Nature does as she pleases, we don’t have control over a lot of things in life.  Amit Sood, the Mayo Clinic physician and resilience expert likes to think of it like this – we can’t control the snow, but we can carry an umbrella.

Some things are just out of our control and yet we give up a lot of happiness moaning about it.  But we always have some control and that is reason for great optimism.

Jon Kabat-Zinn is the founder of the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program – he says “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”

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MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of billionaire Jeff Bezos gave away $7 billion of her share of the fortune in 2025 – more than her husband gave away in his lifetime. $471 billion was given by others to U.S. charities in 2020.  All in all, an estimated $1 trillion in kindness every year.

Oxford University researchers asked more than 600 volunteers to perform a small act of kindness every day for one week – nice little things, not measured by money – things like picking up litter or leaving a slightly bigger tip and they found that the good-deeders were measurably happier than the control group who went about their lives as usual.

We know two things:  the brain’s that main purpose is to keep us safe can be programmed by little micro-practices to do other things including be kinder. The benefits go both ways.

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” 

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We’re living among people who wear earbuds, noise-cancelling headphones and the many distractions that come with a phone in our hand.  My students show up to class connected elsewhere until we put our phones away (me, too).

Others are often waiting for someone (us?) to break the ice.  We can show compassion by understanding that we are not the only ones who have to overcome daily challenges in life.  We do meet-and-greets before every class and judging from student input at the end of the semester, they like it (“all classes should do this”).  Since the pandemic we have been less likely to start a conversation than prior.  No special skills are required.  Everyone has the ability.  By recognizing that humans crave social interaction in person, we can be the one who goes first.

“The greatest gift you can give someone is your undivided attention.” (attributed to Richard Moss, physician and author).

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There is lots of anxiety surrounding artificial intelligence – will it eliminate jobs putting people out of work, replace live relationships or even make hit music.  Streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify can’t keep up with the fake music that is being uploaded from content farms.  And consumers like my music business students who have been interviewed only get AI right about 50% of the time when they hear a real and fake song in comparison.

No need for AI to scare anyone.  The industrial revolution caused panic among workers but when the dust settled new jobs were created in other industries.

Mayo Clinic doctors now use AI to record conversations with patients allowing them to see more of them.  And they’re doing trials on an AI-led system that identifies pancreatic cancer three years before the symptoms show up.

As I told my students many of whom are recording artists or musicians, don’t let AI scare you – be authentic and one thing AI cannot do is know what you are going to do next – it can guess, but only you know.

David Bowie said “Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming.”

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I met a positive young person from Idaho last week who helps her retrain her brain to think more positively than negatively.  Example:  somebody cut her off as they are wont to do these days while driving.  Instead of saying something negative back which would put her in a negative mood, she came up with positives.

1) Maybe the rude driver had to get someplace faster than she did with good reason.

2) She wasn’t hurt.

3) She reminded herself that she doesn’t cut people off.

The brain exists to keep us safe.  But we can program it to do other things that enrich our lives like making us a more positive person.

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose.” — Viktor Frankl

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Research shows that modern workers switch tasks as often as every 45 seconds; this constant “multitasking” increases stress, lowers productivity, and causes more errors in high-stakes professions like medicine and aviation.  Yet many people including young college students think they can adequately handle multitasking.

Successful creators like Isabel Allende and Maya Angelou use “commitment devices”—strict rituals or physical constraints like locked doors and stripped hotel rooms—to force the brain to focus on a single task.

To improve focus, you should treat attention as a limited resource by batching administrative tasks (like email), using “focus modes” on devices, and taking “little mind” breaks (rote activities like beading or crosswords) to let the brain recover from intense concentration.

According to University of Virginia cognitive scientist Dr. Daniel Willingham:

“Multitasking is a misnomer. In most situations, the person is actually switching tasks… and there is a ‘switching cost.’ Your brain has to shift its internal map of what you’re doing and what the rules are. That takes time, and it’s why you’re slower and make more mistakes.”

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In late 2025, Selena Gomez admitted she nearly walked away from her music career entirely. Burned out by public scrutiny and the pressure to meet industry expectations, she seriously considered “giving up” on recording to focus solely on acting and her brand – one of an endless stream of musicians and artists plagued by stress and anxiety.

However, during the production of her latest project in early 2026 a collaborative album I Said I Love You First, a joint studio project with her now-husband, producer Benny Blanco she experienced a creative breakthrough that changed her mind.

“I reached a point where I thought, ‘Maybe this just isn’t for me anymore.’ But then I stopped trying to make music for everyone else and started making it for me. I didn’t give up; I just gave up the version of myself that was trying to please everyone.”

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In early 2026, the psychological community highlighted a powerful surge in “Animal-Assisted Socialization” specifically for those under 30. A study published in The Journal of Youth and Adolescence found that young adults who participated in community-based dog walking and foster programs reported significantly higher “social confidence” and lower levels of isolation.

In Philadelphia, the “Sidekick Program” paired university students with shelter dogs for weekend outings, creating a “social bridge.” Participants found that having a dog present acted as a natural conversation starter, facilitating low-pressure interactions with neighbors and peers.

By April 2026, data from the American Pet Products Association noted that nearly 45% of Gen Z participants used pet-related activities as their primary method for meeting new people. This “paws-on” approach is replacing the ones where you never know if the picture you see is recent or old.  This replaces traditional networking or dating apps that can be emotionally draining, replacing digital fatigue with genuine, grounded connection.

“A dog is a natural icebreaker; it turns a high-pressure social interaction into a shared experience. Instead of the digital fatigue of a dating app, you’re looking at a real wagging tail…” – Spokesperson for the Philadelphia “Sidekick Program”

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To address shortening attention spans, educators are implementing a combination of behavioral resets, environment shifts, and curriculum adjustments. According to the reporting by Ariel Gilreath, the primary “tricks” include:

• Brain Breaks: Short bursts of physical activity—such as jumping jacks—to reset the brain when a “critical mass” of students loses focus.
• Practicing Mindfulness: Schools are integrating guided meditation and visualization techniques to help students center themselves.
• Time Management: Teachers are shortening the duration of individual lessons and activities to match current focus levels.
• Tactile Engagement: Increasing hands-on projects and “wiggle chairs” to help students maintain physical and mental engagement.
• Digital Boundaries: Implementing stricter cellphone bans and limiting total screen time to reduce the influence of short-form digital distractions.

The goal of these strategies is to facilitate “repeated attention over time,” which research suggests is the only way to move information into long-term memory.

“There is debate over whether screen time reduces people’s ability to focus or their desire to—many developmental experts lean toward the latter, suggesting that it is possible to help students regain longer attention spans.” – Ariel Gilreath

Focusing on what you can control is a survival mechanism. Philadelphia Flyer’s defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen’s approach to the NHL trade deadline this season provides a masterclass in this philosophy.

While fans and media debated his contract and injury history, he remained insulated from the noise by a simple boundary: if he didn’t have the power to influence the outcome, he didn’t give it any mental real estate.

In the playoffs Ristolainen’s, “monster” performance against Penguin’s star Sidney Crosby is about directing all his energy toward his on-ice responsibilities rather than front-office spreadsheets. By neutralizing Crosby for over 23 minutes of five-on-five play, he proved that internal stability leads to external results.

It eliminates the “phantom” stress of hypothetical scenarios and keeps the focus on the immediate task—in this case, preventing one of the greatest players in hockey history from reaching dangerous scoring areas.

When you stop worrying about the things you can’t change, you finally have the bandwidth to dominate the things you can.

“I can’t control it, so I don’t worry”.

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Perhaps the most successful college football coach in history is former Alabama head coach Nick Saban.  He rarely spoke about winning championships. Instead, he preached “The Process.”

Break every goal (game) down into individual plays warning his players to ignore the scoreboard and the clock. The goal was to “win the play” you are currently in, regardless of the score.

By focusing only on the next six seconds of effort, his teams avoided the emotional fatigue of the playoffs. They didn’t play to “win the game”; they played to execute a specific assignment on a specific down. Saban’s philosophy is a cornerstone of sports psychology, often cited by Dr. Kevin Elko, the consultant who helped Saban implement the mental framework at Alabama.

The “Inspiration” here is that high-stakes goals are achieved through micro-ambitions. When the finish line feels miles away, the most “inspirational” thing you can do is narrow your vision to the next 24 hours. As the saying goes in these locker rooms:

Or as influential sports psychologist Ken Ravizza puts it:  “Be where your feet are.”

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We have polls for everything and now prediction markets where we can bet money on almost anything.

Dolly Parton is the most admired non-political person in the US right now — Parton is widely seen as authentic and kind—qualities Americans consistently rank as most important in admired individuals.  Recent data suggests she holds a higher favorability rating than almost any living politician or athlete, often described by pollsters as “virtually untouchable” in terms of public affection.

People admire Dolly because she is a rare “triple threat”: a world-class artist, a brilliant business mogul, and a humanitarian who puts her money where her heart is—all while remaining the most charming person in the room.

“Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life” (A Dollyism).

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The return of the Artemis II crew on April 10 was more than a technical triumph; it was a masterclass in human connection. After spending ten days in the tight quarters of the Orion capsule, Integrity, Commander Reid Wiseman summarized the experience with a sentiment the world desperately needs: “We launched as friends and came back as best friends.”

The crew—Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen—displayed a profound emotional bond, even requesting that a lunar crater be named after Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll.

In an era of digital isolation and social fragmentation, their camaraderie serves as a vital reminder. As mission specialist Christina Koch noted, our “default is to be good to one another.”

If four people can find harmony while hurtling 250,000 miles from home, surely we can find common ground here on Earth.

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Consider the Free Library of Philadelphia, which eliminated late fees in 2019 and forgave existing fines. This wasn’t a feel-good gesture — it was a structural shift. Research had shown fines did little to improve return rates and often discouraged low-income patrons from using the library.

Instead of penalties, the system moved to access-based accountability: if materials aren’t returned, borrowing privileges are suspended until the issue is resolved. That’s enforcement without financial punishment. The result? Library access expanded, especially in underserved communities, without evidence of systemic breakdown. Similar outcomes have been observed in other systems, including the Chicago Public Library.

The lesson is clear: kindness, when paired with structure, can be more effective than punishment. It doesn’t remove consequences — it redesigns them to work better.

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Recent courtrooms and research labs are uncovering a startling reality: your smartphone might be aging your brain. In landmark cases against Meta and YouTube, juries are holding tech giants liable for “engineering” addiction. But, the most provocative news comes from the world of neuroscience.

Researchers at Georgetown and the University of Alberta found that heavy social media use triggers cognitive effects—on memory and attention — that mirror accelerated aging. That does get the attention of my young college student.

And there is a “reset button.” A study published in PNAS Nexus revealed that a simple 14-day digital detox can effectively erase 10 years of age-related cognitive decline.

By using apps to block internet access and turning smartphones back into “dumb phones,” participants saw dramatic improvements in sustained attention and mental health. Remarkably, even those who “cheated” experienced benefits.

The message is clear: short, intentional breaks can bridge the gap between digital burnout and cognitive clarity.

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We often think public figures are pre-loaded with confidence, but that’s not always so.

On April 10^th, Sabrina Carpenter walked onto the Coachella main stage as the headliner. Where two years earlier, she had been a newcomer playing a smaller set. Now, 20,000 fans screamed her name.

But just days before, she had nearly called her manager to back out. The voice in her head whispered: You’re not ready. They’ll see through you. (By the way, 100% of my music industry students this year say they also have moments of doubt and performance anxiety).

She remembered what Danielle Fishel had said about her—that Sabrina always trusted her instincts. So, she took a breath, walked out and hit it out of the park for 90-minutes to rave reviews .

“I can’t believe I’m standing here!” she shouted to the crowd. Then she grinned. “Okay, actually I can believe it.”

She didn’t banish her doubt. She just refused to let it hold the microphone.

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