I often hear people say to me, “Well, I am not in a position to do (fill in the blank)…,” and I always find it interesting that many people place limits on themselves when, really, no one else on the outside does. It’s all in your mind. You’re choosing not to be your big self, you’re choosing not to live to your full potential and you’re choosing not to be who you were born to be. Because YOU are choosing to do little to nothing, when in reality if you’ve convinced yourself that you can’t do great things, would you […]
Life lessons
I Quit! Thanks for the Memories
Now before you get too excited, I am not quitting my blog or podcast, but I am going to quit the hanging on to memories that cause me regret. I love the quote by Mason Cooley, “Regret For Wasted Time Is More Wasted Time,” and, frankly, my time is limited, and I don’t need any more time consuming sad memories, so for 2016 I have quit hanging on to what I thought would happen in my life, and I’m moving forward…on to what else I can make happen for the rest of my amazing life. Recently I saw a video […]
May you respond to the call of your gift
May you respond to the call of your gift and find the courage to follow its path. (From the poem: The Blessing by John O’Donohue) Recently, I was introduced to the words from the poem that prompted my title today. May you respond to the call of your gift and find the courage to follow its path. I will give the full poem in a bit, but for now, I want to stop your world and ask you to focus on the idea that you have a calling. You have a gift, and you need, with all you have in you, […]
Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude
Recently I was flying to a speaking job, and as I left for the airport that morning it was raining. I looked out the window while we were waiting to take off, and I could tell it was going to be a cold wet and rainy ride, in fact, that was the outlook for the entire week where I was heading to speak. Sitting on the plane determining what I was not going to be doing on this trip (since I don’t like to be out in rainy cold weather), within a few minutes after we took off and went […]
Be sure you put your feet in the right place
You know, it is a fact of life that sometimes you fall–you just hope that you don’t fall in water on a leadership training excursion. A few years ago I was with some friends, and we were doing the typical leadership adventures of bonding with the other team members. Now, something you need to know about me is, although I enjoy the outdoors, I have never liked the said “team-building programs.” It’s never been my ambition to fall backwards in trust and hope (and prayer) that my teammates will catch me. I don’t have faith or fun on a zip […]
You’ve Got A (Toxic) Friend
Recently, a client of mine who wants to the change the world was taken aback when I told him that he would do well to walk away from his “loser” friends. “How do you know my friends are losers?” he asked. I told him that with all of his community service, non-profit ventures and summer trips helping others that he had been telling me about, he’d also said that he’d been doing all of this on his own. To me, this was a sign that he needs different friends. “Out of your massive buddy group,” I said, it’s obvious that […]
Sometimes when you least expect it – you will win
Every once in a while something happens that restores my faith in how the world works… Recently, I came upon a story of hope where the good guy (or gal in this case) has a shot to win. Not to say the others in the race are not as worthy, because frankly they are, but this story touched me, so I want to share it with you. I’m talking about the Oscar nomination for Best Original Song sung by Joni Eareckson Tada for the movie, Alone Yet Not Alone. What makes this nomination so unusual is that both the movie […]
It is not the critic who counts.
“It is not the critic who counts…” You know this phrase as well as you know your name but have you really thought about the truth contained in those seven words that have gone down in history? The fact is that the world is full of critics whose words don’t count because they don’t know you, your story or your future. And the sad part is that they really don’t care to know you; they find great delight in tearing you down because they need a stepping stone in their quest for significance. Never be misled by the critics who […]
Running away from your problems is a race you’ll never win
As I’ve gotten older I’ve really tried to keep myself out of trouble and I’m doing pretty well, thank goodness! It’s not that I go looking for trouble but sometimes it just seemed to find me – usually because of something I said OR it was something someone said I said. So I have had to be more careful because I don’t want to hurt anyone and I don’t want to cause harm. I want to be thought of as kind person. But often I look around and see that some of my peers, friends and colleagues seem to look […]