The Blog

There’s a time and place for learning new things and taking risks.

After all, difference-making and growth occur at the edges of our current understanding and abilities.

By definition, developing our potential, delivering on our promise, and making change happen means engaging in activities that m...

What is luck?

It helps to start with what luck is not.

What I notice is that luck is often confused with fate.

Fate is what is happening now. A moment predetermined by destiny (what's going to happen).*

Maybe luck is simply a story—a narrative we make up and tell ourselves about a fated moment.

What matters more, the way something looks or whether or not it achieves its intended purpose?

Based on the amount of time, attention, money, and effort being invested in the look of most brands' products, services, sites, and social media, the clear winner appears to be form.

Even independent coa...

The most important conversation you ever have is the one you have with yourself on your deathbed.

That moment is a reckoning—the time when you answer the question, “What meaning did my life have?”

After all, your life’s meaning is derived from what you did while it was yours to do something with.

Humans embrace a many-splendored life.

We crave comfort—a desire to know where we stand and what’s expected of us.

Societal, educational, and occupational institutions provide the external validation and rewards that encourage this monolithic, linear view of who we are and what we do.

But we also...

During my 4 years as a head coach at Seth Godin's Akimbo Workshops, I was consistently asked the same question by students a workshop was winding to a close.

"Which workshop should I take next?"

My consistent answer was, "Are you sure you need another workshop?"

Students were often taken aback by...

When I hit bottom in my "all is lost moment" in midlife, the famous line from the Bond film Goldfinger neatly summed up my experience.

"Shaken, not stirred."

This, of course, was Bond's preferred martini preparation. But I wasn't asked how I wanted my midlife crisis cocktail prepared and presented...

I was introduced to the Bhagavad Gita in the 7th grade by my English teacher.

Both the book and teacher remain important to my life to this day and my adventures in midlife.

Although the Gita is one of the world's oldest spiritual and philosophical texts (written well over 2000 years ago) it remai...

Life's challenges can precipitate a breakdown.

But life's difficulties (and disasters) can also catalyze a breakthrough.

My breakdown moment came just as I was entering midlife.

I thought I had myself and my life all figured out, and it was running more or less on autopilot.

And then it all came...

What keeps you from succeeding?

Failure may be the obvious answer.

But I think it's actually a level deeper. I think it's fear of failure.

And what is fear of failure?

A story you tell yourself about your self.

In Onward: Where Certainty Ends, Possibility Begins, I shared a riff (or was it a ra...

"What is the meaning of life?"

It's one of the most asked questions across all of human history.

But perhaps a more helpful question is, "What gives life meaning?"

I think we have to begin with the fact that life ends.

ANY meaning our life has comes from what we do with it during our journey fro...

How do think about the work you do?

Are you working at something?

Is it something worthy of your valuable (and finite) time, attention, and effort?

Are you doing that work in collaboration or community?

If not, why not?

Or maybe you're working for something?

If so, is it a paycheck or a cause?...