Your life is good. You have a loving partner, great home, wonderful kids, and decent-paying job. You're in good health, and your finances in order. But something always feels missing -- a void you can never quite seem to fill. And this makes for a life you perceive as not entirely fulfilling.  It may very well be that you have what I like to call Bigger Better Syndrome, or BBS. As you can probably guess, it means always being on the hunt for something bigger or better.  That could be the latest iPhone, a new car every year, or a different job. Maybe you just had a kid and are already thinking of the next one, or the condo you purchased recently is no longer cutting it.  You see the grass as always potentially greener on the other side. You become deeply invested in something, but once you acquire or succeed at it, you're on to your next conquest. It's as if you live more in the future than in the present.  Just why do we do this? Seeking others' approval Keeping up w...

Donald Trump takes the oath of office today and officially becomes the 45th president of the United States. While I didn't vote for him, I still plan to tune in. The peaceful transfer of power has been a hallmark of American democracy since Thomas Jefferson defeated John Adams for the presidency in 1800. Though I disagree with Trump on a bevy of issues, loathe his antics (Twitter, anyone?), and have found many of his remarks toward women and other groups to be reprehensible, I still wish him well. The bottom line is that if he succeeds, America succeeds, and if America succeeds, the entire world succeeds. America spoke loud and clear in last year's election. Tired of the broken system in Washington, it wanted to see an outsider take the country in a whole new direction. Whether Trump can live up to all the promises he made on the campaign trail remains to be seen. He enters office with the worst approval rating of any president in modern history, so surely he has ...

And this is coming from someone who voted for Hillary Clinton. The election is over. Done. Finished. Donald Trump will be the 45th president of the United States, whether these protesters like it or not. It's time we move on and end this bitter diviseness that has greatly fractured our country. While people have a right to feel dissatisfied with the outcome, holding protests does nothing to unify us as a country. When Obama was elected in 2008, I don't remember seeing people marching on the streets, destroying property, and burning Obama in effigy. We should be aiming to heal the wounds that this election has left, not aggravating them. As long as the media pressing on with its reporting of these mass demonstrations, people's attention will continue to be diverted from the issues that really count -- the economy and terrorism among them. President Obama and Hillary Clinton struck a conciliatory tone in their speeches yesterday, with the former saying that w...

We're a couple of days into November. Before we know it, Christmas and the end of the year will be upon us. What are you most looking forward to this month? Some people say it's Thanksgiving. The most budget-minded among us await Black Friday with great anticipation. Still others are preparing giddily for colder weather. I'll be frank: While Thanksgiving is surely one of the things I am looking forward to the most, it doesn't sit in the top spot in my book. That distinction belongs to Election Day! I can hardly contain my excitement as I write this but, indeed, it all ends -- finally -- in three days. While there's no doubt we'll continue to see Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the news well after Tuesday -- no matter who becomes president -- it's a relief to know that one of the nastiest elections in American history is drawing to a close at last. I think most of us have grown very tired of the mudslinging and want a winner to be declared...

...raise your hand. Did you raise it?  I sure did. Between incessant mudslinging, accusations of groping, email controversies, and non-stop coverage of every little thing Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton say and do, I've just about had it. Thankfully, we're less than two weeks away from the end of it all. This is an election year unlike any we've seen before. It has felt more like reality television than anything else, and I think we can all agree that Donald Trump has had a lot to do with that. Still, most people find neither candidate likable or trustworthy. It seems their aim is merely to vote for the person they hate the least -- the lesser of two evils, if you will. I want to go back to the time where I could tune into CNN or Fox News and see at least a few stories peppered in about the economy, a breakthrough innovation, or something significant happening around the world. I suppose Trump and Hillary bring in the ratings, and that's why they get so...

Actress Susan Sarandon's clothing -- or lake thereof -- caused quite a stir at Saturday's SAG Awards. She wore nothing but a cleavage-baring bra under a white jacket, a look some deemed inappropriate given that she presented the in memoriam segment of the show. Needless to say, Sarandon is making the rounds on social media today. While some are saying she pulled it off nicely, others feel she dressed in poor taste. While we can expect the debate over whether her getup was too unseemly for an in memoriam tribute to rage on for days, there's another question that's worthy of discussion: Should the 69-year-old Sarandon be dressing this way in the first place? Jennifer Lopez, who's 46 but sports the body of someone half her age, similarly gets flak for dressing very provocatively. Some people feel she's setting a bad example for other young women out there, especially considering she's a mother of two. I feel women like Sarandon and Lopez are entitled to...

Many people insist that New Year's Eve should be spent with family. Those who are single or have no kids, however, say they're just as happy spending the night with only their partner or closest friends. I'm of the belief that New Year's Eve can be spent with anyone you hold near and dear to your heart -- whether it's your best friend or a group of long-time neighbors. I've never thought of New Year's Eve as being strictly a family affair -- unlike Thanksgiving and Christmas, which I do deem family occasions. It's interesting how people get into the habit of compartmentalizing different occasions. This day should be spent with such and such people, and that day should be spent with so and so. But shouldn't every day be considered Thanksgiving? Shouldn't we aim to spend any day of the year with family? Our time on this planet is short. We ought to make every effort to spend as many days of the year --above and beyond birthdays and holidays...

As the year winds down, it's always interesting to reflect upon the issues and events that people took to Google to learn more about. Interestingly, Lamar Odom topped Google's list of most-searched terms in 2015. The former basketball star, who's still legally married to reality TV personality Khloé Kardashian, was found unconscious in a Nevada brothel in October. Behind him came "Jurassic Park" and "American Sniper," in the U.S., two blockbuster films that went on to generate big bucks at the box office. Globally, Charlie Hebdo and the mobile game Agar.io came in second and third place, respectively. The most searched-for moment of 2015 was the Paris terror attacks, which generated close to 900 million queries. That dwarfed the more than 439 million searches for English pop singer Adele, who came out with a new album this year called "25."  Here are some other highlights about this year's top searches: Not surprisingly,...

Today's quote comes from Winston Churchill (1874-1965), who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A prolific writer, artist, and historian, he won the Nobel Price in Literature and was made an honorary citizen of the United States. "A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth  has a chance to put its pants on." - Winston Churchill What I feel Churchill was trying to say is that lies spread like wildfire, and even if the truth later surfaces, it isn't easy to undo the damage at that point. It reminds me of kids I went to school with who would spread rumors about their peers that were later discovered to be flat-out lies. Whether it was that one kid slept with another or that someone cheated on an exam, they had no basis in reality and often were started to undermine the target for a specific reason (they disliked or envied the person, etc.). We've also seen this play out in the media with poli...