The Blog

"What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him." - Viktor Frankl

Work worth doing is fraught. There will be delays, obstacles, misfortune, and failure. 

No amount of learning, preparation, or practice can prepare you...

You're in a conversation or an email or text exchange. You say or write something that unintentionally, or unconsciously, or otherwise causes injury. The person on the receiving end expresses that they feel hurt or harmed.

And so you say, "I'm sorry that you feel that way."

Let's be clear. "I'm...

In your endeavor, what are the values on which you won't compromise? What are the principles that serve as your north star?

Here are some of the guiding principles I lean on in my work at Creative on Purpose.

Values:

• Integrity - knowing who I am.
• Intention - knowing what I'm here to do.

Guiding...

When someone is celebrating an achievement or sharing a moment of joy, the signals sent are clear and easy to read.

When someone is anxious, angry, fearful, or suffering, the signals they send can be conflated, confusing, and conflicted.

When confronted or engaging with someone who's in anguish,...

"Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly." - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.56

When your time on earth is done, who will remember you? How will you be remembered? What will you be remembered for? 

Too often we treat legacy...

The problem with contribution is that too often we conflate it with credit or complaint.

When things turn out well, we forget we merely contributed to an achievement and take all the credit for it. When things don't turn out well, we deny our contribution and complain that it was all...

What does it mean to live fully? What does it take?

Here are some thoughts I'm contemplating.

• less certainty, more curiosity
• less waiting, more starting
• less detachment, more connecting
• less instruction, more invitation
• less cleverness, more craft
• less analysis,...

When I find myself succumbing to inertia in my endeavors, I usually don't need to look beyond the mirror to see what's bogging me down.

Spinning cycles on regrets about the past or anxieties about the future are common challenges for many of us.

What to do...?

I keep three questions close at...

It took me a long time to see it, but once I did, I couldn't unsee it.

The thing standing in the way of me and the me I wanted to be was myself. My situation and circumstances weren't holding me back from making the difference I wanted to make. It was the guy in the mirror looking back at...

There's plenty of science that supports the fact that practicing gratitude cultivates wellbeing. Yet, I struggled with weaving a gratitude practice into my daily life. I finally succeeded by developing two 1-minute micro-habits.

Gratitude Starts with You

It's difficult to be truly grateful for...

"We carry our fate with us - and it carries us." - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 3.4

Some people have a really hard time with the idea of fate. What's so upsetting about the idea that everything is happening as it was intended?

I think many don't like the idea that Providence* is in charge because...

When you create something and put it forth into the world, it's easy to fall into the "reach trap." "How can I get this in front of the most pairs of eyeballs possible?" Social media only amplifies the seductive delusion of  "reach."

Your work doesn't need to reach everyone to make...