The Blog

How would you answer the question, "What do you want?"

The most common answers I hear are attached to "more."

More money. More status. More stuff.

But here's the thing, "more" rarely gets us closer to what we really want.

Through conversations with clients in midlife, I find...

What does it mean to decide?

Decide comes from the Latin decidere, literally “to kill off from” (de “off” + caedere “to kill”).

In other words, when you decide to do a thing, you are also deciding to not do (kill) a host of other things.

And...

Do you catch yourself having some uncomfortable conversations with yourself over and over?

I sure do.

One of my least favorites is the one where I tell myself that I'm "almost there" with achieving a goal.

With goals about my physical and financial health, the "almost there" conversation can go...

My first experience with a girlfriend was in the 8th grade.

After three days of holding hands on our way to classes, she dumped me for a 9th grader.

I never dated again...

Okay, of course, that's not true.

My first decision about who to ask out turned out to be bad.

But I made lots...

Coaching is a weird business.

Unlike a teacher or mentor who teaches you something you don’t yet know, the essential job of a coach is to help you recognize you already possess everything you need and embrace your hidden wholeness.

Coaches remind you that you are sufficient...

To make a difference is to make change happen.

And to make change happen is to take on risk.

Exploring and exploiting the edges of what's possible in the pursuit of better means also embracing uncertainty and the possibility (indeed likelihood) of failure.

Difference-makers wrestle with "This...

Calling me a lapsed Catholic would be a gross understatement for my relationship with the faith tradition I was born into.

However, it is a filter through which I witnessed the world for many years. 

One frame that continues to help me practice a “less is more” approach to my...

Do you ever catch yourself chalking up an unreached goal, desired outcome, or misfortune to “bad luck?”

I know I do.

Being down on my luck has been just my luck more often than not.

Better luck next time, I guess.

When things go my way, it’s just the luck of the draw.

But of...

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...

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 ...

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 when it was...

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...