Top 10: May 2013

May’s most-viewed articles for your reading pleasure — what’s your favorite?

1. Lighting Up the World, One Empty Bottle at a Time by Vera L. Dordick. Before you throw that empty two-liter bottle into the trash (or recycling bin) consider this: in many areas of the world, that empty vessel is bringing light to impoverished homes for little more than the cost of the beverage it used to hold, with A Liter of Light.

2. In Praise of Abercrombie & Fitch by Erica Holthausen. Earlier this month, the internet exploded in response to some very old news about Abercrombie & Fitch. It turns out that the popular clothing retailer has established very clear criteria for the types of young men and women who should—and should not—be wearing their clothes. And most of us don’t make the cut. This is not new news.

3. Would Your Business Change If Money Were No Object? by Lisa Berkovitz. Even if you are already doing work that matters to you and that you enjoy, you may have blind spots to where you may be compromising in order to make ends meet: offering something because you think the market will pay for it, rather than because because it truly reflects who you are at the deepest levels.

4. Standing at a Crossroads & What Really Helps by Diane Bolden. Though change may be knocking or has already busted through the door, you don’t have to tear everything down and start over. You simply need to see things differently-your opportunities, your challenges, your very self.

5. Top 10: April 2013. Oodles of our readers made sure to check out April’s Top 10 list last month — did you? Well, you know, here’s your chance!

6. Need To Say “No” More Often? Here’s How! by Lisa Berkovitz. Lisa has a somewhat radical way of assessing questions: if you don’t feel a full body YES!, a knowing inside that has truly magnetic quality to it, then it’s a no. Can it really be that simple? Yes, although it’s not necessarily easy before that muscle is built.

7.  What to Do When Trying Harder Doesn’t Bring Success by Molly Gordon. In the fog or darkness of our lives, we have to stop looking outside for answers. We must stop struggling to see what is obscured and turn our gaze inward, attending to another source of information and guidance.

8. When Good Isn’t Good Enough by Eric Barrett. Bad employees aren’t the threat to organizations chasing excellence; it’s the mediocre employees that are the real problem. So when you look around your organization, what do you see? What are you? For some, I suspect, that answer will be a bit surprising.

9. What Do You Have to Believe to Prosper? by Molly Gordon. A “have-to belief” is a way of understanding that resonates so deeply with your sense of purpose, meaning, and service that you willingly embrace it and subordinate your choices to it. A “have-to belief” is one that you hold with conscious commitment and self-reflective awareness, knowing that it is a belief (not a fact) and being responsible for the ways this belief endows your life with meaning, purpose, and focus.

10. [Video] Your Answer in the Midst of Chaos by Diane Bolden. Have you ever felt bombarded by a wave of frustration that leaves you at your wits end? In this video, Leadership Coach Diane Bolden demonstrates a method for accessing the solution you need to navigate through whatever is happening.