Time is strange. It can move fast and slow at the same time—a month can feel like an entire year and (somehow) a single day. Last quarter is gone. You’ll blink and this next quarter will have disappeared. When it does, you might be left wishing you’d started with a plan. The good news? Now […]

Bad news first: You don’t default to doing good, hard things. You probably default to conserving energy and hedging your bets. It’s nature’s way of protecting us. But it’s not very satisfying, is it? Most of the time, it’s the struggle and sense of adventure a challenge presents that leads to the greatest personal satisfaction. […]

Goals are, without a doubt, among the most powerful tools on the path to transformation. They clarify our destination. They focus our effort. They marshall our motivation. The result? They invite us to change. But goals, by themselves, aren’t enough. You can have successful days and even successful years and still fall short of a […]

Hopefully, by now, you have two to three SMARTER goals you intend to focus on for the next 90 days. You may have taken the first step or two in the right direction. But big goals can be daunting. And we never start without facing opposition. What are we to do? The answer might sound […]

When General Electric pioneered the SMART goal framework, they taught goals should be realistic. And they were dead wrong. Ultramarathoner Dean Karnazes is an ultramarathoner who has run more than 350 miles nonstop. Crazy? Maybe. But listen to what he said to Outside magazine: Western culture has things a little backwards right now. We think […]

Dreaming matters. But if dreams stay dreams, they won’t take you anywhere. In fact, dreams that stay dreams can work against you—keeping you stuck instead of leading forward. That’s why we forge aspirations into goals. There’s a world of difference between an aspiration and a goal. Aspirations can hang vaguely in an imagined future. Good […]

Have you seen the Academy Award-winning film, La-La Land? It’s full of beautiful moments, but perhaps the most haunting is a song that captures the entire film. It features these lines: “Here’s to the ones who dream / Foolish as they may seem / Here’s to the hearts that ache / Here’s to the mess […]

Where Did I Win? Listing your wins helps you begin from an abundance mindset. And it’s easy to lose track of just how much you’ve accomplished. So make a list. Review your calendar, journal, and planner (especially your Weekly Previews). What did you make happen in the last three months? What has that made possible? […]

Everyone knows you can’t succeed without discipline, yet few possess it. Here are 5 steps to develop more of it.

The United States Military Academy is an elite, selective institution with an acceptance rate of less than 10 percent. Despite this, not everyone who matriculates graduates. Psychologists Amy Wrzesniewski and Barry Schwartz decided to find out why. Drawing on 14 years of data detailing the motivations and outcomes of over 10,000 cadets, they found intrinsic […]

Many of us are familiar with the game of Jenga. At first, you confidently place the blocks on top of each other and see them build, but as the game progresses and the structure starts to weaken, the blocks seem heavier, the Jenga tower becomes unstable and ultimately, it collapses. At times, life can feel […]

Ralph Waldo Emerson once proclaimed: “The world belongs to the energetic.” Well, Mr. Emerson didn’t have to navigate the many complexities of 21st-century life, but his statement still holds true. How many of us feel that mid-afternoon slump? Or flop into bed exhausted but unable to fall asleep until midnight? Juggling our seemingly endless personal […]

Dread. Shame. Frustration. Hopelessness. We all feel many of the same things when we’re trying to make changes in our lives and just aren’t getting to where we want to be. We’ve all experienced the disappointment that comes with not being able to stick to a habit that really matters to us. As a Full […]

If we’re truly honest with ourselves, we are all involved in work that we love but aren’t necessarily the best at. Consider for a moment Florence Foster Jenkins, an American socialite who had dreams of being an opera singer. The problem? She simply could not sing.  Her social standing, wealth, and passion allowed her to […]

“I haven’t seen you in forever. We should get together soon!” How often have you had this conversation with a friend you ran into at a birthday party or going for a jog in the park? It’s been months since you’ve seen one another and, unfortunately, it’s looking like it might be a few more […]