The Christ the Redeemer statue is one of the new seven wonders of the world and a cultural icon for Rio de Janeiro. A past summer Olympics cemented this image into the minds of millions. What really struck me was this video of workers making repairs from lightning damage. The workers take a real walk of faith on several levels (starting at 1 min.…
Category: Personal Leadership
Early Decisions
The fall semester of a college-bound, high school student’s senior year is filled with many decisions about his/her next chapter. One of these is whether or not to select “early decision” for a given college. “Early decision” means that you have decided, in advance, to commit to that university if they choose you and thereby…
My Very Best Friend
In Healthy Leadership, the chapter on Positivity addresses talking yourself up. That section starts with: “You talk more to yourself than to anyone else in the world. You are the only one who is with you 100 percent of the time. The conversations you have with yourself have an overwhelmingly high impact on your mindset compared to…
Learn from Adversity
Most growth occurs when you are uncomfortable. That’s why adversity can be our friend in growth. Since adversity has an uncanny knack for paralyzing us, it becomes critical to keep moving through it. Otherwise, we will be stalled in its grip. At 19, Amy Purdy was living the life she had always dreamed of as…
Create Mental Space
As you capture data about the impact of your leadership, before acting on it you must create mental space to reflect on it, filter through it, and identify patterns and root causes of others’ perceptions. The hyper-speed nature of today’s information-saturated, time-deprived world forces us to run, run, run—and this is just to keep pace.…
Encourage Others
Although it’s an ambitious goal to change the world as a whole, we often underestimate our singular power to positively change the world for those around us. While we might not all be Gandhi, Mother Teresa, or Martin Luther King, Jr., each of us has the power to change someone’s world with the gift of…
Talk Yourself Up
You talk more to yourself than to anyone else in the world. You are the only one who is with you 100 percent of the time. The conversations you have with yourself have an overwhelmingly high impact on your mindset compared to conversations with others. If you are not your biggest cheerleader, you might just…
What Do You Believe?
The book, Stick with It: Mastering the Art of Adherence, describes how reinforcing rituals creates connections that ignite passion for any team or family. Rituals help ignite passion, which is one of three components in the Adherence Equation: For years, I have written personal “Letters from Dad” to my wife and each of my three children…
Manage Your Mind
Your mind can be your best friend or your worst enemy. It can liberate you or imprison you. We know more than ever that how we think and feel directly affects our brain and body. Effective mind management supports sound mental and physical health. Your intangible mind, which includes thoughts and emotions, changes your tangible…
Positivity
When Sara was a student, she was a terrible test-taker and had a very hard time retaining what she read. At 16 years old, her parents separated, and she lost a close friend who was run over by a car while they were riding bikes together. This trauma, coupled with Sara’s learning struggles, created intense…