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In the academic world, the peer review process is extremely strict.  Submissions must meet the high quality standards that have been established by the journal in order to be approved for publication.  According to a professor friend of mine, one of the most challenging guidelines for writers is to make sure their work isn’t incremental. That’s the classification academia uses to describe any work that fails to convincingly add new and…

During a recent interview, one of my favorite writers made a genius insight about the arc of a career.  It’s a short life, and if you keep repeating your success, you’re going to make it even shorter. Because you’ll be living your life in years, not sections.  His words are a dark and powerful reminder that if we want to make the most of our limited time on this…

Tippett once wrote that the reason problems seem overwhelming is because we’re using the wrong tools to understand them.  That’s the real problem. We were trained in society that tension exists to be resolved.  I will fix this somehow by taking radical action, we announce to ourselves.  And yet, it might be one of those situations in life that asks us to enter our way into the problem and just feel its pain….

Allowing myself to admit what I desire, getting in touch with the small things that matter to me, these aren’t insignificant moments.  They’re triumphs of the self. Exercises in meaning.  Like singing karaoke on the commute to work every morning, for example. That’s an act of joy that helps me feel a sense of delight and blissful expansiveness in my body. It’s my emotional on ramp to the workday. …

The problem with fear is, it tricks me into making a giant leap to global negativity.  It sells me on the story that when I make a mistake or miss the mark or get a bad result, it’s proof that I’m not good enough.  And so, when a coworker tells me that my idea doesn’t work, or when my client sends back a draft covered in red pen, I…

I recently met the coach of the women’s national soccer team.  He made an interesting point about player behavior.  He said that the women loved to beat the other teams, no doubt about it. But the fiercest competition was internal.  “They’re not just playing for the win, they’re playing to keep their spot on the lineup,” he said It’s a helpful kick in the ass for anyone working towards…

Lundholm is a former criminal, mental patient and homeless alcoholic uses stand up comedy to help addicts thrive in recovery.  One of his most well known mantras is, first thought wrong.  It pertains to individuals suffering with the disease of addiction and their impulsive mindset. The people who rarely take the time to filter through their thoughts that lead to inappropriate responses and behaviors.  The theory is that recovery is not the…

Rumi said that our task is not to seek love, but to find all the barriers within ourselves that we have built against it.  What’s interesting is, so much of life works the same way.  These things that we deeply desire, like happiness and joy and satisfaction and fulfillment, they aren’t so much pursued as they are allowed. They show up in our lives because of the permission we…

Thank god other people can’t hear the screaming inside my head, because the thoughts that seize me upon awakening are relentless.  Sometimes I feel like I need a defense team to fight the sea of voices clamoring for a hearing. Racing to keep pace with my own neural impulses, it’s like a second job.  But that’s okay. I accept and understand that I have been endowed by nature with…

Phelps is the most decorated olympian in history.  After twenty five years of work, he’s earned all the medals, shattered all the records, won all the awards and secured his spot in the history books as one of the most elite athletes of our time.  Mission accomplished.  And yet, that doesn’t mean he’s finished swimming. Far from it. Even in his retirement, the guy still shows up to the…