I was coaching a healthcare executive who’s caught between a rock and a hard place. The staff at his hospital are unhappy and at one point threatened to quit en masse if changes weren’t made. Why? They feel taken for granted and unappreciated. This executive is someone with great integrity and commitment to developing his […]
Too often, we get it backwards. We think it’s when we reach our big goal – the seven-figure revenues, ideal weight or championship trophy — that we can believe it’s possible. In fact, we have to embrace our vision before it actually happens: “You’ll see it when you believe it,” said Wayne Dyer. That’s what […]
If you’re a working human being in the modern world, you’re keenly, maybe even obsessively, aware of time, often thinking: “There’s never enough time.” “This is taking too long.” “I’m falling behind.” For sure, it’s hard not to come from a place of scarcity around time when our success seems to revolve around it. But […]
Dave Brodkey teaches shop class to sixth to eighth graders at New Brighton Middle School near Santa Cruz, CA. Eleven and twelve year olds are typically not known for their sustained attention at school so when Brodkey told me his students consistently get into a state of flow — or what he calls the “quality zone” — […]
Last weekend, here in Paris, I went with my sister, Carolyn, and her three kids, Emeraude, Henry and Ferdinand, to the Bois de Vincennes to do some bike-riding. For the last two summers, Emeraude and Henry had started learning to ride a bike when they visited their Grandpa George in Concord, MA but hadn’t succeeded in riding without training wheels. When […]
Wait, Renita, what are you talking about? Don’t you always say we have to get comfortable being uncomfortable? Well, let’s make a distinction between two kinds of uncomfortable: there’s the discomfort of going into the unknown, the unfamiliar, taking action when we don’t know how it’ll play out. And then there’s the discomfort where we […]
As you know, I think a lot about “mental toughness” and how we can train ourselves to have more of it. But I also think we can get so caught up noticing the times we aren’t mentally tough that we overlook or discount the instances when we are. Mental toughness doesn’t have to be reserved for some high-stakes situation […]
Standing at the crowded coffee bar, I waited patiently to catch the attention of the server frantically busy filling orders. A tall German woman strode up next to me and, with no hesitation, called out her order for two cappuccinos. I looked at her, incredulous, feeling the urge to slap her arm and say: “Are […]
Hard work: it’s the secret to success, we’re told from an early age — by our parents, society and pretty much every person who achieves notable success. But what exactly is “working hard” and how do we know if we’re working hard enough? Good question. We’re not really taught any nuance around what constitutes “hard work.” And because work in today’s world isn’t linear and we don’t get immediate feedback after […]
“Who here thinks they do better under pressure?” When I ask this question to the Navy SEAL candidates I mentor, most of them raise their hand. And most of us would probably agree. But guess what, the idea that we can be “clutch,” though widely celebrated, is a total myth. As Drs JP Pawliw-Fry and Hendrie Weisinger explain in their book, Performing under Pressure: The […]