Sole in the Soil

“The universe is wider than our view of it.” -Henry David Thoreau My last message  discussed how to create a culture of trust amongst the groups you belong to.  Trust creates safety, which in turn increases the potential for creativity, which can come from every member of your circle if they are encouraged to explore it, feel safe to share it, and are recognized for it.  “I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way.” - John

“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.” -Mike Tyson In the video Capture Your Flag , author and speaker Simon Sinek poses a couple of simple questions: Why do you do what you do? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? Those are valuable and insightful questions that we’ve explored since the beginning of January in our messages about Goals,   Values , and Limitations . But how do you take those insights and turn them into a plan to help you design the fut

“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something.  You certainly usually find something, if you look,  but it is not always quite the something you were after.”  ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit In my discussions with young professionals about their goals, I generally hear slightly different versions of the same story, and it goes something like this. Start in an entry level position to gain experience, move into a better role or to a better employer to pad their res

“How did it get so late so soon?  It's night before it's afternoon.  December is here before it's June.  My goodness how the time has flewn.  How did it get so late so soon?”  -Dr. Seuss   Your time, energy, & resources are all finite, which means that you need to be deliberate and intentional about how you choose to spend them. But how do you make that decision? What deserves your attention from the infinite list of choices? I believe that if you make a habit of choosing wis

“Life is a journey, not a destination.”-Ralph Waldo Emerson In my last post, I talked about the importance of looking in the rear-view mirror to reflect upon your greatest successes. Now we look ahead, with a New Year bringing new possibilities. The “journey” that Emerson speaks of in the quote above is unique for everyone…a journey they will navigate with the help of family, friends, colleagues, and mentors.   Your chosen career path is but one facet of that journey, and I b

46 years ago today, American swimmer Mark Spitz became the 1 st  competitor to win 7 gold medals at a single Olympic Games (setting 7 world records in the process!). While the world focused on the end results of those Olympic Games, those results were produced by Mark’s dedication to the hard, less than glamourous, unseen, and unnoticed work preparing for his moment to shine.  It is that space…the work that nobody sees that is the subject of today’s email. How much time did M