Blog

Every Big Thing You Have Ever Done Required This
Hello and welcome back to our newsletter! Last week I was musing about ultrarunning Japanese monks. How they can possibly fathom their own astonishing goals? Not to oversimplify it, but basically they don’t. They just take it one step at a time. This week I’m thinking about how our attention is fracturing. Our eroding focus ...

Drop the Brag List. What Will You Accomplish Tomorrow?
Achievement pressure starts young. By the time they hit high school, many kids today are overloaded with AP classes, injured or in physical therapy with non-stop athletic activities, and all the while pressured to pad out their community service resume so they can look better on college applications. The pressure is relentless. Episodes of depression ...

When Are You at Your Best?
What are you thinking about when you are thinking about the things you have to do? What are you thinking about when you are thinking about obligation? Now, what are you thinking about when you are thinking about the things you get to do? What are you thinking about when you are thinking about opportunity? ...

Don’t Let Someone Else Define Who You Are
Right now, over 2 million high school seniors all around the United States are applying to college. And many of those apply early, to receive an early response, and to possibly increase the odds of getting in to their dream school. Those who applied for Early Decision or Early Action, are hearing the news right ...

Who Are You Designing Your Learning For?
Remember the swings on your playground from childhood? Remember how they’re built? There’s a wooden or hard rubber seat and two long chains hanging from a metal bar. That design inherently either invites someone to run to it and play, or not. The swing requires people with two arms and legs, a certain degree of ...