Tony Schwartz's Blog


Purpose, Spiritual Needs | February 9, 2012
Why are you here? It's arguably life's most important question, but is it one you ask yourself?I recognize it's a question some people might view as self-indulgent, while others would see it primarily through a religious lens. But is there any part of an answer we could all agree on?I've found a very simple one for myself, and it's provided me in recent years with an increasingly powerful sense of clarity, inspiration and even joy. It's this: I'm here to add more value to the world than I'm using up.

Spiritual Needs, Transformation, Values | August 11, 2011
I can't ever remember living through such poisonously polarized times: the left and the right, immigrants and their antagonists, warring religions, and perhaps above all, the haves, who have ever more, and the have nots, who have ever less. As William Yeats put it, "Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold, mere anarchy is loosed upon the world." Doesn't it increasingly feel that way?

Emotional Needs, Life Lessons, Mental Needs, Mindfulness, Physical Needs, Spiritual Needs | August 3, 2010
I've just rented a house for five weeks near the beach. It was my wife Deborah's idea. At first, I thought I'd work in my office in New York during the week and come out here Thursday nights for long weekends. But Deborah is planning to stay here for the full five weeks. I've been working really hard for the past year and the more I thought about it, the more it started to sound really appealing.

Leadership, Life Lessons, Spiritual Needs | July 27, 2010
In psychology, the term "identified patient" refers to a family member — often a child or a teenager — who gets scapegoated for behavior that is actually just a predictable response to dealing with an unhealthy family.Tony Hayward is BP's identified patient.

Spiritual Needs | June 8, 2010
Imagine you called someone you didn't know and reached an answering machine with this away message: "Who are you and what do you really want? Leave a message at the beep." How would you respond? Would you have a ready answer? "Who are you?" as in "What do you stand for most deeply?" "What do you really want?" as in "What's your purpose in life?" Deeply held values define who we aspire to be. They provide an internal compass that helps us navigate the toughest choices we make.