Blog

How Do You Create Something Special?
Almost anything I have ever created, built, designed or written that anyone else in the world cared about, I did on my own initiative, out of love of the work, love of the process, love of the team, and the sheer enjoyment of the experience of creating something new. I’m not saying everything I’ve ever ...

How High Performers Think Differently About Stress
Talking in front of lots of people can be stressful, but it doesn’t have to be. Before I go on stage, I don’t think I’m nervous. Instead I think, I’m excited. It’s a subtle change of attitude that makes a big difference. The problem in our lives isn’t stress, but instead chronic, unabated stress. A ...

The Hardest Part is Starting
Last summer a couple friends and I took our teenage kids and cycled across the United States from Seattle to Portland, Maine, and I can tell you the hardest part wasn’t doing it. The hardest part was getting to the starting line. The adventure of cycling every day for two months in strange, beautiful places ...

Why Is It So Hard to Live up to Our Values?
I’ve known communication experts with dysfunctional relationships, professional speakers who decline events because they are horrified to go on stage, and time management gurus who are late to meetings. I’ve met renowned thought-leaders who fabricate some of their work to get published, and personal change advisors who are terrified of change. Why is it so ...

Growth After Crisis Is Possible
In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning. —Viktor Frankl Most people say they don’t like adversity. If you ask, many of us would say that this Covid19 situation, right now, sucks. And the last thing we want to hear is, “You’ll grow from this.” Please. Don’t start ...

Gratitude Is Not About the Past. It Guides Our Future.
We think gratitude is about the past. It’s not. Gratitude feels like an emotion in which we reflect on a past event, or previous moment, or sometimes a specific person, and what they did for us or how they made us feel. We think about that past place and time and person and feel a ...