The Blog

You enhance your life most through work that serves others.

We’re inherently social creatures. Connecting and collaborating is how we survived as a species during our earliest days. 

Unselfish concern for others, approaching shared challenges with an attitude of service, and working...

To fully understand altruism is to embrace interconnectedness. Both are at the heart of what it means to be a healthy, functioning human being. 

Interconnectedness is swinging between you, the singular individual, and you, the minuscule piece of the entire whole. It’s a sophisticated,...

One of the reasons appreciation is such an effective and efficient mood lifter is that it returns us to the here and now. It cultivates presence and mindfulness.

You can’t be grateful and anxious at the same time.

Anxiety is often caused by attachment to unhappy stories you’re telling...

Community and culture are terms often misused and conflated.

Community is driven by proximity. The people you find yourself surrounded by defines your community. 

Culture is driven by ideas and actions. The shared ideas and idiosyncrasies of a group define culture. Culture isn’t...

Owning the influence you have over the community you keep and the culture you cultivate is powerful. It can also be a little intimidating.

The idea of a ‘digital campfire’ can help you baby step your way into this posture.

Of course, an in-person meet-up works too. But a virtual one...

Volition is one of my favorite words (although coddiwomple is still in the top spot).

Volition is the exercise of will. Pursuing a difference worth making with integrity and intention. Volition and will reflect your character, who you really are.

Volition requires a readiness to make decisions ...

Productivity and progress are too often confused.

Getting lots of different things done (productivity) can be a seductive way to hide from getting one thing done well (progress).

Productivity is the ability to create or generate goods or services. Progress is the more important activity of moving...

Today often looks and feels a lot like yesterday. It’s easy to assume that tomorrow will look and feel much the same. This is the seductive delusion perpetuated by the status quo. Every day is more-or-less another one of those.

And then something happens. Things go sideways. The world gets...

Life in the ancient world was full of adversity. If you lived to adulthood, you likely endured war, famine, plague, natural disaster, or some combination of these.

And yet…

In antiquity, there was a flowering of philosophical approaches to the art of living well and even flourishing while...

The pursuit of work-life balance was always an exercise in frustration for me.

I engage in multiple roles every day—husband, father, teacher, musician, writer, and coach, to name a few. 

I used to believe each role was a bucket and that all the buckets had to be filled equally. Even if...

We often unconsciously make value judgments about situations and others based on beliefs informed by our experience that confirm our existing internal narrative.

We find comfort in knowing where we stand and what’s expected of us. But what we really want is to know where we belong and how...

Who are you? Who do you seek to serve? Who are your collaborators? Who’s in your tribe? Who are your fellow travelers?

Ask these questions with intention and answer them with integrity at the beginning of any worthwhile enterprise. 

Do the hard part first and get the who right. The...