The Blog

A 100-year-old Stayman Winesap apple tree in full bloom is a pretty majestic sight.

That's all my wife and I remembered from a tour of the 38-acre farm in Check, Virginia that we purchased soon afterward.

We raised our two sons there, in addition to dogs, cats, chickens, fruit trees, berry...

• “I’m not good enough.” Or, “I’m a work in progress.”

• “I’m stuck.” Or, “I’m ready!”

• “I can’t catch a break.” Or, “There’s opportunity in every obstacle.”

• “I’m...

Grace is the act of extending forgiveness or mercy. The word itself comes from the same root as that of gratitude and is embedded deeply into the practice of generosity. Grace requires and promotes excellence of character which includes both moral virtue and ethical will.

Grace is central to many...

Is “what happens next” due to fate or the exercise of your free will?

It's comforting to believe you control what happens next. But do you? What if what happens next has already been decided? What if everything that happens is fated?

"My formula for greatness in a human being is amor...

Art transforms culture. Art elevates and enhances generations. Philosophy and jazz are just two examples of art that changed the culture in which they were born.

Yet when these arts were dragged into the halls of academia to be dissected and disseminated, they died. Sure, you can argue that...

Contemplating life's big questions can make you really uncomfortable. But if you seek meaning and significance, it's worth it.

Here are some that I've asked myself many times:

• What is the meaning of life?
• Why am I here?
• What's the point?

And the answers I arrive at are never final....

Certainty and confidence are tools of the status quo. They cultivate fixed mindsets, false beliefs, and inertia. Certainty and confidence discourage imagination, innovation, and investigation. Even worse, they dissuade the human instinct for curiosity, courage, and creativity.

And the...

It begins, like an itch, with awareness. You see a challenge or an opportunity.

You pay attention. The itch intensifies. You begin to ask questions like  "What's going on here?" "Is this worth paying attention to?" and "I wonder what happens next?"

It's time to decide. Are you...

In the game of life, are you playing a finite game or an infinite game?

James Carse's short book about this is worth tracking down and reading.

The Finite Game Approach to Life

A finite game has clear rules and ends with clear winners and clear losers. 

Winning a finite game of life means...

Communicating with Intention and Integrity

Not everyone wants to stand up and be seen or speak up and be heard. But if you do, have something to say worth sharing and lean into learning how to say it well!

Here are some questions we ask in Seth Godin's The Marketing Seminar that you can ask...

What's your relationship with adversity? What's your posture when faced with a problem? How about your mindset when misfortune comes to call?

I say, "Bring it!"

Seriously, life's inevitable trials and tribulations are opportunities.

"It is difficulties that show what people are." - Epictetus

...

Is a sure thing worth pursuing?

“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost but the call of a potential...