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Overall, the US economy may be doing well, but customers say they're feeling an inflationary pinch on their wallets, writes Christine Alemany, the chief marketing officer at i2c, who recommends clearly communicating pricing strategies and promptly addressing customer complaints or inquiries. "Train customer service teams to provide empathetic and informative responses by ensuring they have the knowledge to explain pricing changes and address customer dissatisfaction effectively," Alemany recommends.

Put it into practice: Identify and communicate with your most at-risk customers and show them your company is determined to meet their needs, Alemany writes. "Build trust with customers at the most difficult times, and you will secure it when things calm down."

Avoiding tasks can lead to them morphing into real problems, writes Gregg Vanourek, who offers 17 ways to accomplish your goals including noticing avoidant behavior, seeking its cause, setting deadlines and developing habits that lead to action. "If you get in the habit of creatively exploring ways to solve challenges instead of avoiding them, you'll build a valuable capacity for it and also your confidence when it comes to facing up to challenging situations in the future," Vanourek writes.

The clownfish in the movie "Finding Nemo" seem like such friendly creatures, but new research shows that common clownfish, which live in colonies and fight intruders, increase their aggression for each additional white stripe on an outsider. In lab experiments, the common clownfish, Amphiprion ocellaris, were roughest with three-striped members of their own species, "mildly bullied" other clownfish species with two or three bands and hardly engaged with stripeless fish.

If avoidance was an Olympic sport, I'd be a gold medal winner. I put the "pro" in procrastination. If something needs to be done, I'll likely find something else that needs to be done first. This is why my house gets so clean when I have a writing project to tackle.

Gregg Vanourek's advice hit home for me, especially his urging to look at the underlying emotions involved in avoidance and noticing when you're engaged in that behavior. I know I will be happy to finish my task, but getting started is sometimes difficult because I fear that I won't turn out my best work. (Hello, perfectionism!)

I get going by trying to turn around my negative self-talk and focus on that positive feeling of accomplishment. Then, I work on finishing a smaller part of the project or answering an email I've avoided to give myself some forward momentum. Start with any of Gregg's 17 pieces of advice, and soon you'll find yourself gaining steam.

How do you deal with avoidance and procrastination? Share your tips with us.

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