Happy Wednesday, everyone! I wanted to share with you an inspiring quote from William Arthur Ward: "Opportunities are like sunrises. If you wait too long, you miss them." Whether a fantastic new job opportunity presents itself, a house you've been eying for some time finally becomes available on the market, or you serendipitously meet someone who seems to embody everything you want in a partner, when opportunity comes knocking, you must answer the door! It probably sounds cliché by now, but some opportunities don't come twice in a lifetime. If a great one comes up, don't rest on your laurels -- seize it before someone else does! Most people would agree that it's better to regret doing something than not doing something, so long as your gut doesn't tell you otherwise. At least when you do something that turns out unfavorably, you learn from it so that next time you can make a more sound decision. Experience steels us for future challenges. ...

On this day in 1767, John Quincy Adams, son of the second U.S. president, John Adams, is born in Braintree, Massachusetts. John Quincy Adams not only shared the elder Adams' passion for politics, but seemed to have inherited his father's cantankerous personality as well. At 14, he was already joining his dad on diplomatic missions; he entered the legal arena upon completing his schooling. As a young man, he served as minister to several countries, including the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Prussia, and England. In 1803, he commenced his first term as a Republican in the Senate and helped negotiate the Treaty of Ghent that ended the War of 1812. From 1817 to 1824, he served as secretary of state to President James Monroe. While it is Monroe who gets most of the credit for his eponymous Doctrine, historians assert that Adams was the true mastermind behind it. In the heavily contested presidential election of 1824, a tie between Quincy Adams and Democrat Andrew Jackson p...

It's finite. It's in short supply. And there's nothing we should be working harder to make the most of than this. Any idea what I'm talking about? It's time. Now, does making the most of your time necessarily mean that you ought to be taking as many vacations as you can possibly squeeze into a year? Does making the most of your time mean you should be having as many children as you can? Does making the most of your time mean you should aim to buy the best car and biggest house you can afford? If anything, such pursuits seem like they'd be an even bigger drain on your time. The question becomes: Do you think investing a lot of your time -- the scarcest commodity you have -- on these things is worth it? When it comes to travel, we spend a significant amount of time at airports, on flights, and in cabs. What's more, you have to factor all the time spent planning the vacation, including researching key sites and attractions, booking flights and tou...