Better Today Than Yesterday

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...

[00:00:00] I want to tell you a story about a farmer. Let's go back to the early 1900s when we're in Missouri, and a young man works on his family farm. This is the kind of farm where you take care of your crops and livestock, and you eat what you grow. You eke out a living and a life, and he's ambitious. [00:00:24] One of the things he wants to do is go to the military academy. He applies to West...

The last couple of weeks stacked up on me. The requirements at work, travel and other things have resulted in poor self-care - particularly sleep. As you can imagine, a trip to the west coast and back causes havoc with the routine. I can’t emphasize the importance of sleep enough, at least for me. When I’m sleep deprived, a few things happen: * I get more negative * Everything seems more difficult...

I found myself tucked into a small seat on a long flight. Don’t cry for me, I was sitting next to one of my favorite humans on the planet, and we were on a great adventure. That adventure turned out to be more than I could ever have hoped. I’ll share some of it another time. But this may have happened 👇 He slept, and I found myself deep in a new book. The Courage To Be Disliked: The Japanese Phen...

BTTY gets BTTY with three ways to take it in. Watch, read, or listen. I hope you find something helpful here. Take care. BTTY turns ten this year, but it’s the last year that has taught me the most. The concept of BTTY hatched on my office floor in 2013. It was a Sunday, and I’d been on the job for 39 days. My boss and dear friend, for almost 25 years at this point, told me, “don’t do anything for...

Inbox Zero The first email was sent on October 29, 1969. Yesterday, 347 billion emails hit inboxes worldwide - in one day. There are only just over 2.5 billion active email addresses. You do the math. That’s over 100 emails per account per day. It’s not simply that you never get through your email; it’s that the process of “getting through your email” actually generates more email. This is from Da...

When I think back to times and places that were difficult, they usually seem not as bad as when I was there. There is a reason for this, and it’s called Fading Affect Bias. But first, a memory. We were deployed in Baghdad and in the midst of it. 18-hour days of grind. I’d beat the sun up and stumble over to the secure room we set up to access highly classified material. The coffee wasn’t great, bu...

Coffee and A Lion Tracker’s Guide to Life is how I started 2023. This was my second time through this little gem of pithy prose. The Premise Boyd Varty grew up on a game preserve in South Africa. His grandfather converted a bankrupt cattle ranch into a lion-hunting enterprise. Spoiler alert: the lions were eating the cattle. His father would do the right thing and bring it back to its natural stat...

I've been giving a lot of thought to warriors. I’ve found myself using this word recently and more than the days when I was surrounded by what the box office stylized as a warrior. If you close your eyes, you can conjure the stereotype- the violence, the blood, the action. A warrior, for me, is something different. Violence is not the calling card of a warrior, but rather love. I've walked with wa...

New Year resolutions - I understand why we do them. It’s a natural cutoff point and easy to ‘start new.’ We can do that any time of the year, but since we are here together, let’s take advantage of the collective momentum. But first, I want to offer a contratarían point of view. Let’s Stop, Not Start As you think about what you will change in the new year, consider what you can take away. Not what...

Cream & Sugar, Please A few syllables of kindness can make all the difference. Whether at the coffee shop, the dinner table, or that video call. I see you and appreciate the part of your life you gave me. It’s saying “No, thank you” to recognize they didn’t have to offer. They aren’t there to serve you, even if you pay them with ducats, dollars, or Dominican pesos. They were being kind and helpful...

I interviewed someone recently and asked, “What do you look for in a leader?” They said, “Care. If they don’t care, nothing else matters. If they care, everything matters.” I think that’s right. We need competence, but first, we need care. This isn’t just caring for the team but caring about the mission. Care is a decision. No training, no experience, just show up. Here are a few things that come...

I think about energy. The energy I have for life, the energy I give off, and the energy I get from others—the encouragement, discouragement, and where it leaks. How can I maximize its use? How can I get more through good habits? How can I be satisfied with what I have? How can I replenish it when it’s gone? Most importantly, where am I letting my energy go to waste? I have two that lead my list. S...

General James “Mad Dog” Mattis served in the United States Marine Corps for 44 years. Ask a Marine about him, and you will likely hear the reverence in their voice. His book, Call Sign Chaos, provides a glimpse into his style, life, and perspective. Love him or hate him - there is something simple about his approach. Unapologetic, authentic, responsible, and relentlessly focused on better. His “Th...

Generally, speed limits are set for the maximum safe speed on roadways. A different approach uses Variable Speed Limit (VSL) signs that change dynamically to avoid heavy congestion or accidents. It may seem counterintuitive, but slower speeds increase the number of cars that can travel on the road. As driver anxiety decreases, the distance between vehicles declines, and stop-and-go reduces. German...