My theme today is “Difficult Roads Often Lead to Beautiful Destinations.” Now, I know that today’s thought is probably the last thing on your mind when you’re slogging through hard times. I get it. We’ve all been there, but if you were truthful with yourself, you’d have to admit that, more often than not, when you do come through the storm and land on the other side, it’s usually never as bad as you thought or expected it to be. And if it was a miserable experience, you can count yourself lucky to have survived. The truth is that many […]
Life lessons
The beginning of wisdom is knowing which question to ask
What is the question that you would like an answer to? Is it a question about your life, your family, or your future? And is there someone who can answer those questions for you? I believe that deep inside, most of us pretty well know the answers to all of the questions that bubble up in our minds, and yet we choose not to answer those questions. We fear the answer we don’t like or want. We don’t want to admit that the answer may be something we don’t want to happen in our lives. Ah, questions! We are all […]
Hey Good Looking
When was the last time someone said that to you… I hope today or at least yesterday and maybe tomorrow…without a doubt, I know you’re good-looking and smart because you listen to my podcast and read my blog posts. But friends, how do you turn those good looks into opportunity? Opportunity to do all the things you dream of, opportunity to be the person you desire to become, opportunity to excel in your field of work or study…believe it or not, it has little to do with your good looks, smarts, and lineage and everything to do with the skills […]
If you can’t do great things, do small things in a great way.
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, bold, beautiful, handsome 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 […]
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 hanging onto 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 this year 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. I saw a video put out by Strayer […]
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
A while back, 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 […]
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 into the 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 backward in trust and hope (and prayer) that my teammates will catch me. I don’t have faith or fun on a […]
You’ve Got A (Toxic) Friend
Recently, a client of mine who wants to 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 needed different friends. “Out of your massive buddy group,” I said, it’s obvious that most […]
