Sole in the Soil

“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.” -Albert Einstein Last month I wrote a message  regarding how your mindset often determines the quality of your commitment to your actions. The choice you have is whether you regard the task in front of you as something you “Won’t Do”, “Got

“I know who I am and who I may be if I choose.” -Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote In his classic novel Don Quixote , Spanish novelist, actor, and playwright Miguel de Cervantes explores idealism, nobility, society, and chivalry in a post-chivalric world through the admittedly reality-distorted lens of Don Quixote de la Mancha and his squire, Sancho.  Together they battle fictional armies, giants and Quixote’s own sanity in pursuit of an ideal.  Quixote, driven mad by the lack

“Fear is gravity, always telling you to take the easier path, and always downhill. Walk uphill; it is the door into awe and freedom.” - Banksy What keeps people from becoming the best version of themselves? Is it lack of skills, desire, or motivation? Last week’s PGA Championship at Bethpage provides a familiar environment to examine these questions. While Brooks Koepka went wire to wire for his second PGA Championship and 4 th  Major title, my inspiration for this email come

“Sisyphus, of course, was worried; he’d come to depend on his burden, he wasn’t sure who he was without it.” Sisyphus and the Sudden Lightness- Stephen Dunn In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was the evil and cunning king of Corinth, infamous for his trickery and for twice cheating death.  He was punished by Zeus for his misdeeds in life by being condemned eternally to roll a heavy stone up a hill. As he neared the top, the stone would roll down again, so that his labor was everlas

“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