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It’s an illusion to think we can avoid the line of fire.  Agony cannot be inoculated against. No matter how many precautions we take, no matter how many islands of safety we seek, and no matter how lucky and blessed and abundant we feel, hurt comes for everybody.  The hard part is growing our ability to extend compassion to all the uninvited visitors that inevitably enter.  Here’s a scenario:…

Wooten’s book about the spiritual search for growth through music was transformative for me. Quite possibly the best twenty bucks spent on my artistic education.  Here’s one passage that was especially striking.  It’s always easier to build upon beauty than it is to pretend it is not there and try to create it from scratch.  This insight is especially helpful when our project screeches to a stop because the task…

Kanata, the thousand year old alien and spiritual adviser to the young jedi, makes a powerful point about growth in her famous call to adventure speech.  “Whoever you’re waiting for, she tells the young apprentice, they’re never coming back. The belonging you seek is not behind you, but ahead. Feel it. The light, it’s always been there. Let it guide you.” This scene brought tears to my eyes. Because each of…

Toffler once wrote in his bestselling book that change is avalanching upon our heads and most people are grotesquely unprepared to cope with it.  That was fifty years ago. These days, it seems as if change is not coming, it is here, and things are only going to get changier.  The question is, how can we come to enjoy change as an opportunity for renewal? What do we need…

Vandik’s enlightening book about calming the emotional storm was written specifically for people who find it difficult to understand, express, and process intense emotions.  One of the key insights the cognitive behavioral therapist shares is what the actual definition of what an emotion is.  An emotion is a full system response that includes physiological reactions, which are changes in body chemistry and body language, thoughts, which are triggering images…

One of the great unexpected advantages of being the world’s foremost expert on nametags is that complete strangers not only start conversations with you, but also send you bizarre gifts in the mail.  Apparently there’s an entire cottage industry of nametag related paraphernalia. After eighteen years, my office is now collaged with these fine items.  Cups, belts, shirts, pens, coasters, cocktail napkins, buttons, onesies, full body costumes, ties, business…

Imagine you just got fired after working somewhere for a year.  Boss says your performance simply wasn’t cutting it, and she simply has to let you go.  It totally sucks. You feel angry and rejected and helpless. As you perfectly should.  But in a few weeks after those feelings fade away like the weather system they are, you have an opportunity to recognize that for every failure, there are…

In the cinematic world of screenplays and protagonists and hero’s journeys, rule number one is as follows.  Each scene must bring in something that advances the narrative, adds new threads to plot and propels the character forward. Otherwise the story isn’t worth telling.  Strangely enough, career journeys work in a similar fashion. Because your body of work, everything you create and contribute and affect and impact, is not unlike…

Plants have fascinating methods for moving their seeds.  Wind dispersal is my personal favorite. Because it’s rooted in acceptance and faith and surrender.  The seeds are released and blown about and land in all different kinds of places. And to help their chances of landing in a place suitable for growth, plants have to produce lots and lots of them.  But there’s no guarantee. All the plants can do…

Every time I give a presentation to a group of businesspeople, somebody inevitably asks me how many books have been sold.  And of course, I have no idea. Inventory management isn’t my thing.  Besides, since so many thousands of copies have been given away, stolen and downloaded over the past sixteen years, it’s literally impossible to quantify.  But that’s not my concern. I am in the business of making…