The Blog

Be selfishly selfless.

For most of us, this is a counterintuitive, even repugnant idea.

Only a narcissist would place himself in the #1 position in his life.

Right?

I don't think so.

Sure, a narcissist places his needs, wants, dreams, and desires ahead of everyone else's.

But only a narcissist...

If you're a difference-maker (and if you're reading this, you probably are or aspire to be), you're a risk-taker.

Difference-makers seek to make things better, and making things better requires coming up with creative, new solutions to persistent old problems.

For the difference-maker, navigating...

I've said it many times, human beings make sense of themselves, their circumstances, and each other through narrative.

Put another way, choose your story, choose your future.

And nothing makes a story more engaging than an open loop.

What's an open loop?

In storytelling, an open...

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...

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 (and still do).

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

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...