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“landscape photography of woods” by Imat Bagja Gumilar on Unsplash Forest fires and the human mind have more in common than most people realize. Well actually, it’s not so much the forest fires that are like the mind, but rather the forests themselves. Let me explain. You see there’s this notion within those practicing mindfulness that… Read More »The Forest Analogy of the Mind: Radical Acceptance and Cultivating Inner Peace

credit: Oleg Laptev on Unsplash And 5 Ways to be more influential In some way shape or form, we all want to be influential. Whether our desired sphere of influence is merely our family and friends, or an entire market — to be able to influence is a valuable skill. But for as valuable as it is, it’s… Read More »The Art of Influence: A Different Approach to Having a Bigger Impact

photo credit: Alejandro Alvarez on Unsplash On the project of “personal growth” — what are we trying grow, how do we measure, and what do we do? I once worked with a guy who was in charge of a large amount of people in my organization. I pitched a project to him that had a lot of moving parts,… Read More »Mindful Measurement: How to Measure (and Master) Personal Growth

Photo credit: Samuel Austin on Unsplash On the Humble Purpose and Understated Benefits of Meditation, and How to Do a Minimal Viable Practice Humans have been doing some form of meditation for thousands of years. But it seems like only recently that we’ve started to warm up to the idea that it’s a form of beneficial exercise… Read More »The Real Point of Meditating

image c/o the author Fear, Failure, Falling, and How We Should Think About Achievement My son recently turned 1 year old, and like many who reach that age, he has learned to walk. I vaguely remember watching my daughter (who is now 4) do the same thing a few years ago, but this time around I… Read More »What My 1 Year-Old Son Taught Me About Procrastination

Photo by Noah Silliman on Unsplash Thoughts About Building Character in the Modern Era When you die, who will attend the funeral? And what — if anything, will they have to say during your eulogy? In his best-selling book The Road to Character, David Brooks discusses two kinds of things that we self-help consumers are trying to improve upon:… Read More »Résumé Virtues, Eulogy Virtues, and the Impact of Small Moments

Credit: rawpixel on Unsplash Simplifying Goal-Setting and Decision-making for a More Effective Motivation Simply changing the way that you look at a problem can drastically change how effective you are at solving it. As Steven Covey reminds us in his 7 Habits: the map is not the territory. When you change the way you look at… Read More »The Master and Servant Model: How to Approach Goals and Time Management

Photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash On the Unrecognized Virtue of Changing One’s Mind I don’t tend to write about politics — especially not elections. But there are some things that take place in politics that represent a more general phenomenon in the human condition. This is a piece of writing about one such instance. Specifically, there is a… Read More »The Hidden Wisdom of Contradicting Yourself

Credit: Ashim D’Silva A deceptively simple, game-changing practice that I discovered in a most unlikely place. There is no shortage (especially here on Medium) of writing about daily habits, routines, and practices that promise to change your life. Journaling, meditation, exercise, doodling, and so on. So far be it from me to add more to the already… Read More »The Daily Habit I Never Knew I Needed

Photo Credit: Mr Cup / Fabien Barral on Unsplash A Practice for Quieting the Noise of Life and Gaining Focus on What Really Matters For the past few weeks, I’ve found myself in a bit of a personal and professional crisis. You see, over the past 6 to 7 years, I’ve become quite good at recording and… Read More »Taking the Hundred-Year View