I write this from New Zealand, which is very VERY far from my home. I am not in the same hemisphere, or even the same DAY as my fellow Californians–and that has been profoundly helpful. Seeing new sights, hearing new sounds, smelling new aromas: all have had a salutary effect. When life as you know
This past year, 3 companies I loved working with failed spectacularly. At their peak, all 3 were places I (and countless others!) wanted to work—each characterized by a strong sense of purpose, learning, and commitment to making the world a better place. It was a joy and privilege to work with each of them. Tragically,
Here in the US, a coup is underway. There is so much happening so quickly that it is not possible to integrate it all. You may feel your nervous system being overwhelmed in trying to take everything in—and as a result you may feel yourself ping-ponging between the poles of panic and shutdown. It’s not
I started writing this post a few weeks ago, during the Los Angeles wildfires. And then…I stopped. I suppose I was a victim of the very shock I was trying to write about. This week, Trump is up to all sorts of “shock and awe” tactics; people and organizations are reeling. The question on everyone’s
As a child, we had a ritual around the family table at Thanksgiving: my grandmother would ask us kids to say something we were grateful for. After much eye-rolling and squirming, each of us would come out with… something. Rather than being a real moment of introspection and appreciation, “saying what we are grateful for”
Someone tried to assassinate Trump this past weekend. I read the headlines and watched the news coverage of what little was known in the immediate aftermath. Within hours, lurid speculation and accusations began to circulate online in a nauseatingly familiar way. My dad was an old-school TV news anchor, and he drummed into his staff
Recently, I was listening to Brené Brown’s podcast on AI, with futurist Amy Webb [“What’s Coming, and What’s Here” https://brenebrown.com/podcast/whats-coming-and-whats-here/] What struck me most about their discussion was a comment Amy made about the huge changes barreling our way: “Where I grew up, we had terrible wind, terrible cold. And when you learn how to
One of the most important things I learned in coaching school was the impact of a powerful question. A lazy or unimaginative question doesn’t spark much, but a powerful question can break open entirely new vistas of action and inquiry. It is one of my favorite parts of being a coach. When my clients are
It has come to my attention that I live for the future. Since I was a child, my focus was always on a goal, or an experience, or a reward situated in a time yet to come. That Future Thing was what motivated, beckoned, and teased me forward, out of my humdrum or challenging present
I’m one of those people who typically takes stock at the end of the year, looking back over my challenges and goals and seeing where I made progress—or where I stalled or even regressed. Usually I set intentions for the upcoming year, and try to greet the new year with some sort of hope, optimism