Better Today Than Yesterday

"I was too tense to appreciate the beauty around me, too preoccupied to listen inwardly or enjoy the people I love." -Tara Brach Hi friends, Last weekend, three teenagers stood on a small lake beach. They watched me while I willed my muscles to remember how to rig up a little sailboat—a sunfish. I’d done it 1,000 times before, but that was thirty years ago. I was sure going into this that we would...

"Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear, said the headmaster." (Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, Totto-Chan) The table was glass with dimples and a metal frame. The ones from my childhood —a cheap table on a patio, and we were almost in the pa...

" No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be good." - Marcus Aurelius Here are a few words I’m considering this week. I was reflecting on where I need to lean in or make a change. These are important words but not exhaustive. Some I get right, others I get wrong. I’m just a work in progress and thought I’d share in case you find them helpful too. I’m including my thoughts about the word...

“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.“ -General Colin Powell Teams exist to do what individuals cannot. Leaders exist to maximize team performance. Here is an acronym I use daily to remind myself what my job is as a leader - C.A.R.E. Clarity Central to the execution of anything is clarity. W...

"Leaning back in my recliner each night, staring at the ceiling, I tried to settle myself. I told myself: Life is growth. You grow or you die." -Phil Knight Hey friend, I graduated from the infantry school at Ft. Benning two decades ago. Next week, a dear friend’s son will do the same. While our time there was likely very different, there are similarities. The pain, the push-ups, the heat, and the...

"Our narrative defeats our surroundings. Every time." -Seth Godin We find ourselves in a magnificent era where it is increasingly easier to create — first paper, then the printing press, then computers, and now almost independent machines. The future is bright. Creating is easy. Deleting it is hard. To delete the long-held beliefs about ourselves, the world, status, money, fear, love, or insert yo...

“It’s hard enough to create something good deliberately and with intention. And it’s no guarantee just because we believe something can happen, it will happen. But we know that unless we believe something can happen, it will not happen inadvertently by itself. And so it becomes really important that we imagine a world that we want, that we imagine solutions we want and believe that we can make the...

If a person gave away your body to some passerby, you’d be furious. Yet you hand over your mind to anyone who comes along, so they may abuse you, leaving it disturbed and troubled—have you no shame in that? —EPICTETUS A little one in our family was playing the other day. It was reckless in all the good ways. High energy and relentless in the pursuit of his interests. The world’s pressures, expecta...

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn’t read all the time – none, zero .” -Charlie Munger They say we are the sum of the five people we spend the most time with. I say we are the sum of what we consume—food, relationships, entertainment, and media. For the first time, the number of people who did not read a book in the last 12 months eclipsed 50% of the US population. I understan...

"The true price of leadership is the willingness to place the needs of others above your own. Great leaders truly care about those they are privileged to lead and understand that the cost of leadership privilege comes at the expense of self-interest.” —GEORGE J. FLYNN, LIEUTENANT GENERAL, U.S. MARINE CORPS (RET.) With the right paperwork signed and physicals completed, replete with 77 X-rays (that...

"When circumstances scare us, our imagination tends to take over, filling our minds with endless anxieties." This gem is from Robert Greene’s book The 33 Strategies of War . Knee deep in this massive volume of stories and lessons, I was delightfully surprised when Kindle recommended another book by Greene, The 50th Law. Robert Greene’s books are big, deep, and well-researched. You may know his oth...

A message came in that asked for a document only I had. While walking, I found the file on my phone (a 42-page document), attached it to a teams message, and hit send. Please take a moment. That is some Jetson’s level stuff. It’s incredible, and there is a man that, in many ways, made it possible. Andy Grove, a first-generation immigrant, arrived in the US in his early 20s. In his memoir, he descr...

Hi friend, Edvard Munch. If you don’t know that name, you probably know his most famous piece—The Scream. Painted in 1893, The Scream has widely been interpreted as representing the universal anxiety of modern man. A pastel version would sell for $119 Million 68 years after Munch’s death. Munch described his inspiration for the piece this way, I was walking along the road with two friends – the su...

Hi Friend, Last summer, the family was off doing their own thing, and I found myself at home alone with three hairy and very barky friends. I didn’t feel obligated to participate in what they were doing. In truth, I wasn’t invited. That allowed me to be alone without pressures, family responsibilities, email, calendars, or other distractions - all guilt-free. But I wasn’t alone. I was in solitude....

Hi friend, A warrior once said to me, “Silos of excellence, that’s the US government.” I will keep her name classified. At the time, she had worked for the federal government for more than 20 years. Probably 30, I can’t remember. We had formed a connection, and for her counsel, I was grateful. She kept me out of a sticky situation or two and helped me get into ones that made a difference. She was...

Hi friend, I’ve been giving some thought to problems lately. I’ve concluded that two questions really matter. Life is full of joy, excitement, and winning - probably more than most of us tend to see. That said, try and see all the bright sides you want, but life will show up, punch you in the face, and drop a box of problems at your feet with a cheery “Hey, I think these are yours.” Sometimes they...

You are the only one here for the whole ride. Fortunately, we will have friends and foes join us along the way. They will teach us, torment us, and one day they will leave us. "There is nothing worse than having nobody important in your life, yet we easily take for granted these precious, fleeting overlaps as they are happening." ( David Cain, This Will Never Happen Again ) When this is over, you...

Coming at you this week with a few thoughts from Peter Drucker’s book The Effective Executive. As this is my second or third most highlighted book, I've whittled down these down to just over a dozen with some effort. No promises that this will be the last time I bring you wisdom from Mr. Drucker. Let’s get into it. 1. “Only three things happen naturally in organizations: Friction, Confusion, and U...

2,240 Were World Class 2,240 women participated in March Madness. This small group of elite women reached the pinnacle and represented only .00000028% of the world's population. A young girl watching with 9 million of their friends last month (a record!) has nearly no chance of attending that dance. So why try? There is no rational reason, but fortunately, humans have a unique ability to be irrati...

Beliefs come into our lives and often get stuck. They become a part of us — beliefs about ourselves, the world, how things should be, or how they could be. Like sweaters, we collect them, and they stack up in our closet. From time to time, we should see which are worth keeping, sharing, or tossing. Here is an idea I came across: “Read less, study less, but think more.” That is from Leo Tolstoy in...

I have a thing about station wagons: big ones, small ones, dark ones, light ones, and particularly dog-filled ones. When I see one, I get distracted from whatever I’m doing. Make, model, and other questions whiz by. What’s driving this? On the way to dinner with Princess Buttercup, we got into one. I started fantasizing about how great life would be if I had one. The absurdity of my happiness conn...

TL;DR 1. Insecurity is natural. Mixing it with ego and ambition can kill your dreams. 2. The first step to managing your insecurities is recognizing them. Look in the mirror and get real. Therapy, journaling, and meditation can help. 3. Insecurity becomes crippling anxiety for 1 in 10. Help when you can and get help if you need it. It’s okay to not be okay. 4. So far, you have survived 100% of the...

A book, coffee, and porridge sit with me in an empty dining room. With no calendar appointments and no emails, it’s peaceful. This feels more right than the usual mornings. A gentle human who is the cook, attendant, and server moves effortlessly, lighting his way with his smile. I am going to miss this place. We are tucked into a little harbor in Norway. The small town of Bergen has shuffled peopl...

Transcript Kelly Vohs: [00:00:00] I love historical fiction. Love! And I think it's the weaving of the stories, learning about what's happened. One of my favorite books is called Pillars of the Earth. And it follows a life of a medieval peasant. And that peasant ends up becoming a stone mason and playing a very significant role in the building of a cathedral. Then cathedrals would take more than a...

Transcript of Video [00:00:00] I was thinking about one of my favorite books I read a decade ago: Wooden on Leadership by Coach John Wooden. He was the head coach of the UCLA Bruins for quite a while, and they won 10 NCAA national championships for basketball. And I wanted to get this book, and I wanted to get it back in my hands. I wanted a hard copy. So I ordered it and showed up, opened it, and...