Lynn Carnes

Dancing the Tightrope: A Guide to Being Better Under Pressure

As 2025 drew to a close, a new project began stirring with me. After I finished Dancing the Tightrope, I developed a 5-week introductory course to help people be better under pressure. Then it sat in my computer for several years. A few went through it, but I knew from the beginning that an introductory […]

Closing the Year with Gratitude—and Purpose

Feelings of gratitude washed over me, choking me up this week. Once again, I was reminded that we don’t walk through life alone. What makes a good life are not the easy times – it’s the people who walk beside us through the difficult times, even when we are not at our best. In that

The Other Side of the Tightrope: Learning to Trust Myself

As he stared at me with glaring eyes, I knew the project manager Bart was about to make a bad decision. My problem? I couldn’t find the words to interrupt the freight train of his plans. We were in the middle of the biggest of the many change projects we had going at the bank

From Green Beans to Meetings: The Power of Setting Context

Sometimes it takes something as small and ordinary as a green bean to show us how quickly our assumptions take over. When Jen handed me that single bean and said she found it on the “boat dock,” my mind immediately jumped to conclusions—about people, places, and even intentions. Only later did I realize she had

Resilience Isn’t Born, It’s Built: Lessons from a Year of Recovery

This last week marked one year since Hurricane Helene roared through Western North Carolina, taking with her homes, trees, and the illusion of safety. The last year has been a lot of things for all of us. Many of our critical roads are still YEARS from being open to the public. Businesses are starting to

De-Pressure, Depression, and the Power of Changing the Story: Part 3

A few weeks ago, I began a blog on “depressure = depression. What started as a simple observation turned into a series. So many avenues offered insights worth exploring. Then I got stuck. Or maybe I just had to do some field research. After the second in the series, I found myself in a space