Recently, I had a wonderful, tremendously productive day that felt like a failure thanks to one crucial mistake. It's a mistake you and I make all the time. I'll start by saying I find it incredibly helpful to plan my day the night before. As I've gotten older, my approach has gotten wiser. Rather than trying to squeeze everything into unbending blocks of time, experience has taught me to build in breathing room for the inevitable swerves that arise. Still, some days never have enough breathing room. On this particular day, one project took waaaay longer than I expected, …
You & Improved
No is a Gift, Not a Monster
"NO" is a monster that frightens many of us. It's so intimidating that we'll forfeit the chance of getting something awesome because the mere chance of hearing "No" keeps us from even asking. Granted, no one likes to be turned down for a job, a date, or entry to a school we hoped to attend. But No doesn't have to be the enemy we think it is. Our team once worked with a sales consultant who helped us to see the value in a No. She conceded that because No is so powerful, prospects are afraid to say it, so they offer up a maybe instead, which she warned is worse than a No. "No is a …
The Prepper
When my wife told me she was pregnant with our first child, my heart filled with joy. Two seconds later, panic arrived at the party. All I could think about was how profoundly our lives were about to change and I didn't have the slightest idea of how to prepare. I immediately began searching Amazon for the latest owner's manual for babies. Kim, on the other hand, seemed to calmly slide into the nesting phase that's common to many moms in the animal kingdom. In preparation for a new life, they instinctually work to create conditions for that new life to thrive. In the years since …
My Dumb Resumé
The whole reason Kim and I started our own business was so that we would never have to write resumés. Ok, maybe not the whole reason. But it's at least 79 percent. Kim recently took one for the team when she was required to write our resumés for an organization that wanted to hire us to speak. The funds were coming from grant money and apparently, a resumé would make it more likely we'd get the job. She was, let's say, less than thrilled about having to do it. I'm just glad she did it because I would have refused and we wouldn't have gotten the gig. To be honest, I'm not sure if we …
One Piece at a Time
The time between Christmas and the New Year is Puzzle Season in our household. (Except for my wife, who is not the least bit interested in them, but is eager to take advantage of the fact that we are all distracted.) Me and the kids usually enjoy the 1000-piece varieties but hate the unnecessarily hard ones. (All double-sided puzzles, or those made entirely of pieces that are mostly one color, should be rounded up and incinerated.) Our biggest accomplishment thus far was a 3,000-piece behemoth that featured Peanuts characters. At first I thought, "This is totally …
Do You See What I See?
Kim and I may have named it in 2005, but it's been around for centuries. Dickens wrote it into the essence of Ebenezer Scrooge. It was personified in the Grinch by Dr. Seuss. And Buddy rescued his birth father Walter Hobbs from it in the holiday movie Elf. I'm referring, of course, to Adultitis. Do you see what I see? It's everywhere this time of year, in one holiday tale after another... The people who don't believe in Santa Claus have Adultitis. The other reindeer who make fun of you for being different have Adultitis. The people who run the Eastern Syndicates that run …
Do You Ever Feel Invisible?
The sun has disappeared. Stolen, perhaps. Or maybe it's sleeping, on vacation, or vanished into thin air. Not really, of course, because its morning light enables me to clearly see everything in my backyard. And yet, I cannot see the sun, the source of the light. I can't even tell where it might be, because it is hidden by such a dense layer of fog that I can barely see the lake beyond the yard. I take it as a good reminder for those times when I wonder how much of a difference I am making. It never seems to be as much as I'd like. But maybe the light I put into the world has a …
A Deluge of Awesome
Something awesome happened to you yesterday. Did you notice it? Perhaps something epic immediately comes to mind, causing you to think, "Omigosh, how did he know?!" More likely, it was something a little less epic, but no less awesome. But it may have been overshadowed by an emergency that popped up. Or you might have been distracted by something else that didn't turn out quite how you'd hoped. Earlier this year, we hosted a secret meeting of the Wonder & Whimsy Society. We discussed "awesome things" under the premise that we need to be reminded of awesome things to help …
The Freedom in Hard Choices
Once upon a time, there was a couple. They had three kids and a good life. He made his living as an accountant and she was a doctor, but their real dream was to live on a ranch and breed dogs. One day, my wife Kim suggested they do that. The woman laughed. "It's not possible," she said. And so they didn't. The end. This is a true story, and similar stories just like it are lived out every day. Of course, the woman was wrong about it not being possible. Oh, she gave a list of reasons, but none of them made the option impossible. Risky, perhaps, or unconventional, or …
Ghosts In The Road
It was like driving through a sea of black ink. The trip back to our hotel from the Lamar Valley was harrowing. It being Yellowstone, the specter of animals hanging out on the road is always a possibility. We'd reveled in the wildlife of the North American Serengeti, but now the sun was gone and darkness blanketed the winding way home. My knuckles were white on the steering wheel and Kim's clear anxiety was less than helpful. We snaked around curve after curve, my eyes peeled for any signs of movement. Then we saw it: a small coyote trotting down the middle of the road. As we came upon …