Do You Have A Couple Of Minutes

The second lesson I take from marathons is the importance of finishing.  There are certainly runners with a goal of winning the race or winning their category, however, there is a high value placed on finishing. I am always amazed to see the emphasis placed on people that finish the race long after most of the lights and the crowds have vanished.  It's a reminder, that following through...

Marathon Lessons Part 1 of 5: It's A Journey - Life is a journey. I am not a marathon runner but I know a few.  One of the things they all do is prepare for the Marathon.  They take inventory of where they are, what they have and try to understand where they need to be and what they need to have in order to be prepared for the journey.  The preparation helps ensure they are ready fo...

Recently on one of my Facebook live #MorningMusings, I talked about incremental learning and growth in the context of stretching over time increasing our capacity for learning, growth, and greater success.  Stretching doesn't seem too hard in the moment, but if done repeatedly, it makes a great difference.  Training is like this, in that training can result in great transformation. When...

In the Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, there are song lyrics that say "Whistle while you work and while you play..."  I have always liked that song.  For me it has always spoke to the necessity of work and attitude.  It has always made me think that one can have the same joyful attitude while working as they can have while playing. I like that thought. Work is work, and it can be c...

This message is for those who find themselves in leadership roles or who strive to be in positions of leadership.  Leaders teach people to fail successfully - Again leaders teach people to fail successfully.  Failing is a part of the learning process.  This is something that is not rewarded in our systems of learning. We reward people for getting it right, but not necessarily the ef...

Part of being more fulfilled and successful in life has to do with having a good understanding of yourself so you can practice self-management.  We can begin to understand ourselves by taking self-inventory of our thoughts and behaviors.  Understanding ourselves, also helps us to better understand others through an exercising an empathetic approach.  Two areas that can provide a lot...

I recently heard someone ask, if we knew and really believed that obstacles were really just the doorways we needed to go through to realize our fullness, would we seek them out?  This is an interesting thing to think about.  I think it's been my experience that the problem solving that comes about because of inefficiencies and shortcoming propels us forward.  Think of how we solve...

Creating and solidifying a vision for yourself or for an organization is hard work.  But it is worth it! When creating a vision, keep in mind that greater clarity can emerge over time.  So don't be afraid to start where you are with what you know. Sharing the vision is important.  It allows others to support the vision and it can help elicit valuable input to help further refine the...

Benchmarking is the practice of measuring performance against a performance metric that is usually established by looking at organizations or people believed to be at peak performance or the performance of a group of organizations or people. I have a love/hate relationship with benchmarking.  Though benchmarking usually looks at organizations in similar industries, it fails to account for the...

Some people schedule "free" time so they can be intentional about rest and time to spend time doing things they want to do.  Some people dread unscheduled "free" time because they don't or can't see it for the opportunity that it is. Why not be intentional about making your "free" time a positive benefit for you. I want to encourage you to get comfortable with how you purpose your time. &nbsp...

It's easy to hold onto things that no longer have value or serve us.  In fact, sometimes we hold onto things that actually take our energy and cost us value.  This happens to individual people in their personal lives and it happens in organizations.  It can create physical clutter, mental clutter, and lack of process and purpose clarity.   It's important to take inventory of th...

This past week my sister shared a tory with me from her childhood.  She told me of a teenage boy being raised  by his single mother, who had to walk everywhere because his mother had to work and use the only car.  My sister wanted to help and gave the bike she had bought with her own money to the boy so that he could save time and ride to his destinations.  She later learned sh...

It's easy to find things annoying or bothersome sometimes.  But why?  Are we just in a bad mood, are we projecting a bad experience we had?  It is important to understand our emotions in order to deal with them.  As parents, friends, work colleagues, and just people in relationship they can be things in the relationship that seem to annoy or bother us.  If we take the time...

It's easy to get overwhelmed when we try to take care of things that we do not have control over.  Instead, we should focus on the things in our span of control.  When we take care of the things currently in our control, it helps to build some stability that allows us to see more, do more, and avoid overwhelm. Early in my career I learned that in some cases, I was not the decision maker...

Things are not always as they initially appear.  Our frame of reference and personal experience impact how we interpret behavior and situations.  However, there are often many unseen or unknown circumstances in any situation.  We must not forget that to fully understand a matter, we must investigate and ask questions.  If we are diligent in doing investigative research we will...

When sharing information, it is important to get to clearly share the point of your message quickly.  This helps the reader or hearing to engage with what you have to share and to decide if they have interest in the content or not.  When people are distracted by not understanding the main theme of what is being shared, it can be difficult to get their attention again.  When people k...

As a child I was blessed with an encouraging and realistic mother.  My mother was a person of faith, who valued education, hard work, truth, and integrity.  One of the greatest gifts she gave me was the gift of confidence and perseverance.  In word and by example, my mother believed that I would be able to achieve whatever I put my mind to.  I remember her saying, if you want s...

Key Points: Words cannot be taken back.  Words may be "struck from the record" but remain in the mind. Words create mental constructs - like a house with varied rooms.  "Remodeling" of the mind can take time.

The words we choose matter - for example at the end of each show I say I hope that I have provided an inspiring topic to help you think, learn, grow, and live more fulfilled Instead of fulfilled, I could have used a word like successful, significance.  How does being more fulfilled vary from success and significance?  What is the measure of fulfillment versus success, or significance? Ho...

Words can build up and tear down - build strong bonds, destroy bonds Song : Angry Words - don't let angry words slip out, make sure you check those words with your heart, Angry words can damage meaningful relationships Words can give hope Words can provide comfort Words can spark action Be intentional about your words.

Words help us bring otherwise unknown thoughts to the consciousness of other. Word proved context and vision Words provide clarity - we can speak to be clearly understood without mistake Words express emotion

Words evoke thought, pictures in the mind, allow us to share common experiences more deeply and from varied perspectives. Words allow us to share our stories and our lives.  Sharing our stores allows us to live and work more cohesively in community. Words help us set boundaries Words help us share expectations Words help us share empathy and sympathy Words help us to share appreciation, grati...

Are You living a life You've crafted or one that's "off the shelf?" - Different Levels -Different Experiences - You are the Selector, but not the designer -Off the Shelf Has Limitations -Know where you're at what you are workig toward, or living for -Life is a gift to be treasured - it's also perishable, but you can leave a positive ripple effect and legacy

Continuing our series on asking ourselves questions in order for us to operate from a place of strength, understanding what we have to learn and contribute, making decisions aligned with who we are, and positively impacting our relationship with ourselves and with others. Next we want to ask the following questions: What Are You Attracting and Why Is That? What are the stories that keep repeating...

Continuing our series on question to know yourself better to help you operate from a place of strength that will help you with alignment of decisions with who you are and want to be, and to help you in relationship with others.  Knowing who we are and acting in accordance with who we want to be and how we want to be known, is intentional work.  We must take time to know ourselves. Our ne...