My dining room looks like a bomb went off in it. The chaos matches that provided by the recent snowstorm that dropped thousands of trees, rendering all infrastructure in our area useless. No power. No internet. No roads. What else is someone to do but tackle those “someday” projects in the house? The upheaval has reminded […]
In the last 10 years, I’ve had the privilege of sitting in deep conversation with hundreds of people working in Corporate America. When the shields are down and the corporate façade comes off, almost everyone shares one secret in common: they fear failure, especially when operating in the pressure gap. The pressure gap is the
About 20 years ago, I had three experiences that literally changed – and maybe saved — my life. If you have seen my TEDx talk “From Raging Bitch to Engaging Coach”, you hear the story of how I learned to assume positive intent, and the ways that practice shifted my perspective. What I didn’t share
One of my favorite reads of the year was the book Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue by Ryan Holiday. What made this story so gripping to me was Holiday’s weaving of three storylines together to create a narrative about the use of power, secrecy and yes, conspiracy.In the very second paragraph,
I’m writing this in the midst of Hurricane Florence – in Western North Carolina, now just a tropical depression. She continues to dump rain and is taking her time moving on out of here. She has changed people’s plans – and their homes – in both dramatic and subtle ways. She is everything from an
We have recently finished renovating 3 old cabins on Mystic Waters. After a dramatic search for the water connection for one them (it’s a long story), the basics are mostly done. Now it’s time to make them beautiful. The walls really need to be dressed up – and seeing my old art through new eyes
Last September, I had a one of those “well duh” epiphanies that revealed a hidden not-so-pretty secret and freed me to advance in my skiing for the first time in a couple of years. It reminded me once again how very useful it can be to understand what is REALLY driving my decisions and actions. In
“The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself
When I worked in Corporate America, the harshest feedback I got was around my competitiveness. All too often people told me that I was “not a team player” and that I was “too competitive”. Along with the feedback came the promise (threat) that I would not be promoted with this approach. So I did what
Over the last two decades of sitting with leaders in Corporate America, I’ve noticed a hunger for creativity equally balanced with a belief that sounds something like this: “I don’t have a creative bone in my body.” Or sometimes “I can’t draw a straight line.” What do I then hear, especially after they have