The Fire Within

What a difference a year can make. Last year in March people were scarred, there was a dark cloud hanging over everything. It was unknown how bad the future might actually get. And of course, toilet paper was impossible to find. But a year later, hope is everywhere. It is spring, it is supposed to be in the 70's for Easter weekend, our daughters are returning to the stage for dance, we have avoided getting sick thus far and my wife and I have our appointments for our first dose of the vaccine. And of course, toilet paper is readily available in any store. We are still a long way off from things being like they used to and this virus and the new strains have their risks that don't disappear. But the risks come with hope now rather than hopelessness.  I've talked before about how there is always some hope . Sometimes it is our responsibility to also manufacture some hope for ourselves, and for those around us. We all need hope, sometimes that is all we have left. Luckily it ...

Every organization has a culture. Some cultures are very defined, extremely clear to see what it is they stand for. Other cultures are less defined. It might seem there is a clear definition the heart of it is usually just about an organization that is built to feed the ego of the owner or head of the organization. You see this in departments or companies where every person that has a good idea is let go and only those who submit and cater to the leader are allowed to stay. Building a culture is one of the single most important things any organization can do to be successful. A culture is not just what is important to the leader, it is about what is important to the employees and to the customers. Strong cultures exist when all parties understand and support the culture. It is believed at every level, not just at the top. Patrick Lencioni says, "An organization has to institutionalize its culture without bureaucratizing it." This is what so many organizations get wrong. You h...

There are times when things look utterly hopeless. You are exhausted and feel like there is no way out of a situation you are in. In those times we need to remember there is always hope. There are always choices and alternatives to consider. There are more options and you have more control than you think you do. When I start to feel hopeless in a situation, I remind myself it is an emotional response and I try to focus harder on non-emotional aspects. What are the facts of this situation? How can I logically think through the options? We are blessed with having both a heart and a head. We need to recognize when one is doing more work than the other and things are out of balance. A few ways I have learned for myself that help me: Make a list of all of the options/choices available. No matter how extreme or off the wall they are. An option always available, no matter the situation, is to sell everything and move to an island in the Caribbean. That option has never been selected, bu...

Expectations have been on my mind lately so I started doing some searching looking for quotes. I was amazed, most of the quotes coming up first had a very similar tone: No expectations, no disappointments. The secret of happiness is low expectations. When you have expectations you are setting yourself up for disappointment. It made me sad. I get I can't expect to play for the winning Super Bowl team next year. But to have expectations so low, basically expecting nothing good is going to happen will almost guarantee nothing good will happen. I believe what you expect is likely what will happen. Realistic expectations are always good, but if you expect that people will disappoint you, that is likely what you will see, all of the areas they disappoint you. If you expect people to do great things, to surprise you, to exceed your expectations, you will see all the ways they do. The definition of expectation is a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the ...

This post was first published on Christmas Eve. Can we even call it that anymore? We live in a world where we are all striving for political correctness. We either don't want to offend or are told we must not offend. Christmas has become the time of year where we take the notion of not offending anyone to an extreme. Society seems to believe we can no longer say Merry Christmas for fear of upsetting non-Christians. We simplify it as generically as possible to "The Holidays". I understand that not everyone believes in Jesus Christ, but even if you don't believe, it doesn't change what the day is, Christmas. We haven't renamed December 25th as Consumerists Day to celebrate the massive amount of retail spending that we do, though maybe we should considering what we focus on. It is called Christmas. Even if you don't believe chances are you work for a company that is closed on Christmas Day. My hope is never to offend anyone, but I'm also not going to ...

A lot has been written about Tiger Woods recently and his latest major win at the Masters. It had been over a decade since his last major victory. With all of his health issues and surgeries most people thought he was done, that his career was basically over. But at the age of 43 he did what so many thought couldn't happen. There were some people that believed in him, but the vast majority didn't. There are a lot of things some people think you can't do. However, what others think doesn't matter. What matters is if you believe that you can.Don't let what others believe about you become what you believe about yourself.

A couple of years ago I wrote about the idea about talking to yourself rather than listening to yourself from The Carpenter by Jon Gordon ( post ). This idea of your inner voice, how we speak to ourselves is so vital to the level of joy in our life. No matter what is going on around us in our lives, how we are able to cope in the situations life throws at us is predicated on what our inner dialog is telling us. These excerpts say it better than I ever could. From The Daily Stoic  by Ryan Holiday: "Someone can't frustrate you, work can't overwhelm you - these are external objects, and they have no access to your mind. Those emotions you feel, as real as they are, come from the inside, not the outside." From Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferris: "The power broker in your life is the voice that no one ever hears. How well you revisit the tone and content of your private voice is what determines the quality of your life. It is the master storyteller, and the stories ...

My latest read is Tribal Leadership  and two words jumped out at me reading it, entrenched mediocrity. It was worth reading the book for those two words alone. Two words that speak volumes about many issues in our teams, organizations and ourselves. It is so easy to start believing something about yourself because it has always been the case. This is the same concept when a team in any sport starts to lose and they continue to lose. Just like good teams find ways to win, bad teams find a way to lose. More often than not it isn't about talent, coaching or scheme, it is about the mindset of the team. Do you believe you are great and can accomplish great things? Or do you think that this is just the way things are? Do you believe that there are forces at work against you that will never allow you to rise above where you are at? If you think you can't win because of whatever reason, you won't. Instead think about how you can win in spite of it. People have overcome a lot...

One of the coolest things to watch is someone achieve something more than what they were expected to. To break through a plateau that they have reached. There are countless stories of someone getting counted out, put into a box or having everyone around them deciding who they were and what they were capable of. But I love the perseverance and determination in people to shatter expectations. Where their only limits are those that they put on themselves. Each of us have dreams and goals that we want to achieve. We have aspirations of the team we want to make or the job we want to get. To attain what you desire I promise you that you will struggle. Everyone will go through The Dip as Seth Godin calls it. But if you push through and overcome those obstacles, you will be amazed at what is possible. So often in life the one that holds us back the most is the person in the mirror. We believe what others say and we set the bar lower for ourselves so we feel good about reaching average rather...

We are just coming out of celebrating Easter and every year I reflect on how the followers and disciples of Jesus must have felt between the crucifixion and the resurrection. Here they thought there beloved leader, the one that was destined to lead them to a new kingdom and a better tomorrow, was gone, leaving them with no hope. That Saturday had to be one of the worst days any of them had gone through in their life. There was no hope for them, the feeling of complete darkness and despair had to overwhelm them. But then Sunday came, ushering in something greater than what they had even hoped for.  None of us will go through the trials that Jesus did, nor have a fraction of the impact on this world that He did. But we all go through events in our life that leave us feeling lost, hopeless, broken and defeated. I once was fired from my job, it led me to doing what I was better suited for. That time between losing my job and finding my next one was one of the worst feelings I've had...

I have never in my life gone surfing or rock climbing. The real rock climbing that is, not the kind with the plastic walls and the harness with the person assigned to ensure you don't fall. I don't think I ever will either, too many other interests to do in my life. So I really had no draw to read Let My People Go Surfing ,  but for some reason a book I had won years ago was the one that I happened to pick up off my shelf and was very quickly drawn in by. It is the story of Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia. It takes you through the history of the company and how it established its values. The second part of the book expounds on the philosophies that Yvon keeps as the focus of his life and what his business stands for. If you are in business there are obvious examples that you can take out for yourself, help to guide you on developing your own philosophies to guide you. But the really intriguing part for me is how it has made me rethink how I shop and how I'm going...

The current book I am reading is  The Carpenter by Jon Gordon . One of my favorite lines in it is that you need to stop listening to yourself and start talking to yourself. It sounds kind of funny but it is so true. One is a negative activity and the other is positive. There are always things in this world that will try to bring you down and your inner voice starts echoing them. Before you know it we start doubting ourselves. We question if we are good enough and we quickly start believing it. Instead of listening to those voices we need to speak positive words into ourselves. What we tell ourselves is what becomes reality. Something I repeat to my girls often, if you tell yourself you can't do something you are basically guaranteeing yourself that you won't. Any great obstacle that has been overcome has started with the belief that it can be done. When you look in the mirror, what do you tell the person you see?