As I write this in August 2020, the schools are planning how to open in the fall. And, the various college sports are trying to decide how or if they will play. How do we decide to persevere or to change? Schools fulfill many vital roles in a child’s life. The younger the child, the […]
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In these COVID times, some people think they need to play zero-sum games. Those games are the ones where “I win, you lose.” While we might win short-term, we often all lose with zero-sum games. That’s because the game ends. However, there is another kind of game: infinite games. The point of infinite games is
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In How Do You Manage Imposter Syndrome? one of the commenters asked how I take that first step. It depends. And, it depends—for me—on these things: I can think, not just react. The state of my emotional resilience so I can access my courage. The risk of taking that first step. How vulnerable I can
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What does courage mean to you? Merriam Webster says: mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty Many people translate that to: “Blindly go into danger.” I don’t buy that blindly part. Courage is not fearlessness. Courage is what you can consider, in the face of your fear. If we break
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I chatted with a talented coach a few days ago. He’s between clients. He felt as if he was stagnating, not learning anything. He said, “This is one of those days, where I wonder if I have Imposter Syndrome (where you doubt your value). Do you ever feel that way?” Of course, I do. Not
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I listened to Marcus Blankenship’s podcast Finding Career Opportunities Through Experimentation with Josh Doody. During the podcast, Marcus said something like this (I’m paraphrasing): “I wonder which was the problem: the decision or the outcome?” I thought that was a wonderful frame for how we might think about decisions. I don’t always differentiate between the
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Right now, in July 2020, we have several problems: COVID-19 the disease, the effect of the virus on our economy, and a reckoning of our culture. Each problem shares a common characteristic. We can’t see the finish line. We might know what we want, and we can’t see how to get there. This is related,
How Do We Operate When We Can’t See the Finish Line? Read More »
Way back when I was a programmer, we had an expression, “Don’t change the compiler in the middle of the project.” If you “upgraded” the compiler, the product might not work the same way. Fast forward to the present. I desperately needed a new computer. My old computer was unreliable. It crashed, slowed down, was
When Should We Change Our Environment? Read More »
At a business workshop last year, I had a sort-of revelation. Everyone there struggled to answer this question: Where do we spend our time? Everyone I know, consultants, my clients, my writer friends—all of us share this concern. We all have too many possibilities for where we could spend our energy and time. We need
Where Do We Choose to Spend Our Time? Read More »
People keep talking about “bouncing back” from this pandemic. I wonder if bouncing “back” is the wrong metaphor. Back infers we will return to something similar to what we had before. Instead of bouncing back, can we consider bouncing forward, to something new? Here are some reasons why we can choose to move towards something
Do We Bounce Back or Bounce Forward? Read More »