My wife has long dreamed of having a large world map hung on a wall in our home. To this large expanse, she would drop different colored pins for each of the places we visit, places we read about, places we have friends and family, and so on. One day, she asked if I could […]
Who Does Anger Really Punish?
After reading the post, Living with Integrity, a friend asked me to share my thoughts on the following: My mother (a huge Pittsburgh Steelers fan) did not watch any Steelers games this season. Pittsburgh hired Michael Vick a convicted animal abuser. She is very upset he is there but stuck to what she said. Not […]
Lodged Driftwood
Driftwood and other Flotsam talked about forgiveness and how, like pieces of driftwood, our hurts may need to be thrown back out into the surf many times before they finally go away. The day after posting that article, I was walking around Lough Derg (in Dromineer, Ireland) and came across this. This is a piece of driftwood that has […]
Driftwood and other Flotsam
Driftwood is interesting. It washes up on shore and just bakes under the sun. You can throw it back into the ocean, allow it to toss around in the surf, and watch it wash right back up on the beach. Then, you throw it in again. And the process repeats…until it doesn’t. That is, eventually, the driftwood will […]
The ‘I have to’ Lie
You’ve been there. So have I. You find yourself in the familiar situation of not “being able” to do something because you “have to” do something else. It’s the perfect reason…or escape…or excuse. Not only do you avoid hurting anyone’s feelings by eliminating any illusion that you have a choice in the matter, you are […]
Learning Confidence from my Daughter
Saturday morning I found myself home with two kids feeling under the weather. My wife and eldest daughter were out for the morning and, while ‘the littles’ slept, I was catching up on some work. Shortly after starting on a small project, my smart, creative, middle child (and second daughter) came and snuggled into bed […]
Sure it’s awesome…but will anyone want it?
As an engineer, I am prone to bouts of the “Field of Dreams” syndrome. You know the one. “Build it and they will come.” (If you don’t get the reference, click here.) Have you ever found yourself there? Have you ever just known that you were working on the most amazing project (or product) only […]
Busyness is a form of Hiding
A couple of weeks ago, a friend was talking about where he works. Long story short, there is a massive collection of people generating lots of reports. Day in and day out. Some of these reports are beautiful. They are not mere simple efforts to get the job done to the least possibly acceptable level. […]
Attending Meetings Better
Meetings. Love them or hate them, they are a regular part of most of our careers, and as we have all experienced, some meetings are much better than others. We have all been in that meeting that goes on and on, meandering through all sorts of ideas without coming to any resolution, often creating more […]
SMART Goal Checkup
In Setting Goals (is hard), I set a personal goal to get one more customer for my business. And, per our guidelines, this was a SMART goal. It was specific. The customer had to be a new account worth $10,000 or more. It was measurable. It’s pretty easy to tell if we’ve added that one […]
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