The BOLD (Nurture Happiness) Your feeds are full of New Year’s energy, I’m sure. “Jump on this one moment, the only one in which new starts are possible, and make massive plans to conquer space and time itself.” No pressure. My feed is bubbling with the stuff. I love this time of the year. I […]
The Aspiration Audit: Harnessing FOMO To Design Your Best Life
The BOLD (I Could Have, You Know) When the exhausting and imperious Lady Catherine De Bourgh demands her part in the conversation in Chapter 31 of Pride And Prejudice (see the quote above), she declares that she is sure that if she had ever applied what she believes to be her considerable natural talent to […]
The River’s Flow: What Brings You to Joy?
The BOLD (Dip Your Toe in The Water) In 1927, Max Ehmann wrote a poem called Desiderata. The last line is excerpted below as our quote for this article. In Desiderata, Ehmann lays out the basic building blocks of a good life. What are the basic building blocks of your best life? I suggest that they are the things […]
The Pivot Price: Why Are You So Tired?
The BOLD (Sleepy?) At the end of last week, I realized that I was exhausted. And I noticed that many of my friends, family, and clients were exhausted as well. What, I wondered, was at the root of this exhaustion? We are all having a personal version of a global experience. That means that there are things we […]
The Motto Code: Are You Living YOUR Values?
The BOLD (Deep Courage) Dreams thrive on challenge. If there were no challenge, there would be no reason to be innovative and resourceful and daring. And dreams love it when we are innovative and resourceful and daring. Dreams require courage. I’ve talked a lot about courage, both here and in numerous client sessions, deep conversations with friends and […]
The Artist’s Letter: Self-Knowledge, Boundaries, and Kindness
The BOLD (Hopper at the VMFA) This past weekend, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts completed an exhibit entitled Edward Hopper and the American Hotel. Hopper is the artist responsible for the painting Nighthawks. I completed my third visit on Friday with yet another companion. I enjoy going to art exhibits with different people because the art […]
The Special Sauce: The Graceful Execution of Strength
The BOLD (Special Sauce) Knowing your secret sauce means you invest your effort in the places most likely to bear fruit and where you are most likely to experience the state of flow. Or, in other words, life is too short to do too much of what you aren’t good at and what you don’t enjoy. […]
The Authenticity Paradox: Own Yourself and the Room Will Take Care of Itself
The BOLD (Own the Room) Own the room. It’s advice I’ve heard. But how do you avoid the overbearing presence of Nora Desmond making her grand entrance in Sunset Boulevard? Or, if you wish, the Carol Burnett version, the great Nora Desmond (she descends the stairs at moment 1:53). Perhaps we need to rely instead on owning […]
Prepare for the Unexpected: Part 2–Design Clarity
The BOLD (By Design) I’m excited about this topic, which is part two in a three part series about preparing for the unexpected. We are going to explore designing clarity—setting ourselves up for success by building capacity before the surprise arrives so that we can make a different choice in the space between stimulus and response. […]