When I was living in Japan, my primary goal was to learn to speak Japanese. And I became fluent. I worked in a Japanese-speaking environment, I interviewed CEOs in Japanese, I wrote articles in Japanese for a business newspaper. But there was one word that always tripped me up. I’d be in a conversation with […]
Are you familiar with this image? Some people see the young woman first, some the old woman. And often they have trouble seeing the other even when someone points it out, “See her hooked nose? Her scarf?” Everything that happens in our lives is like this, open to interpretation. Typically though we stop at seeing what’s […]
In the world of basketball, everyone’s talking about the Houston Rockets — and not for the right reasons. In Game 7 of the Western Conference finals, they were up against the Golden State Warriors, the team to beat going into the finals for the fourth year in a row. The Rockets had spent the last […]
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 […]
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 […]
During one of my piano lessons at The Juilliard School, my teacher told me I “played like a mouse” and asked me if I had considered going to law school. At my taekwon-do black belt test, I failed to pass the first time round because I didn’t break the boards (and it took another 12 months […]
I’m living in Paris for the next few months and psyched to have found a Crossfit-style bootcamp so I can keep up with my training. The group is all French, and they have been friendly and welcoming, including me in the customary bise — greeting each other with a kiss on each cheek — each […]
Do you know the story of the Chinese farmer? When his horse ran away, the neighbors came around to commiserate, “So sorry to hear your horse ran away.” And the farmer said, “Maybe, too soon to tell.” The next day the horse came back, bringing seven wild horses with it, and the neighbors came around to say, “Oh, […]
In one of the more heart-wrenching stories from the Rio Olympics, US cyclist Mara Abbott was one of two leading the pack in the women’s cycling race as they climbed the steep 19% incline. Racing down the descent, the other cyclist crashed and Mara was alone in the lead — until, 200 meters from the finish line (and a gold medal), […]