There is a host of reasons folks have trotted out in recent years to be disdainful of our tradition of Thanksgiving: The way we celebrate has little in common with the way the original settlers celebrated. It’s a celebration of gluttony. It’s a celebration of genocide. We don’t focus enough on the giving thanks part. […]
Joy and happiness are not the same. Happiness comes from outside. It is that feeling we get when the things going on around us make us feel good. A victory, a lover’s touch, a frisky puppy can all make us happy. But a defeat, a lover’s absence, or a puppy ruining our shoes can make […]
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who […]
When someone wrongs us, we get angry. It’s really that simple. The greater the wrong, the greater the anger. And it’s easy to hold onto anger. If we don’t make an effort to get rid of it, it remains. It festers. It grows. Anger becomes a desire for retribution, for vengeance. It turns into resentment, […]
It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all–in which case, you fail by default. J. K. Rowling, from here and here This comes from Rowling’s commencement address at Harvard University in 2008. She doesn’t specifically mention courage, but it’s […]
Why you must be brave. I’ve followed Todd Henry via his Accidental Creative podcast for a couple of years. His advice is simple and straightforward: the key to succeeding as a creative professional (writer, artist, web designer, blogger, architect, etc) is to consistently produce brilliant work. His advice, then, is about how to become and […]
Q: Four frogs are sitting on a log. Three decide to jump off. How many are left? A: Four. Deciding to jump isn’t jumping. Most of us have said this to ourselves at one time or another: I’m going to do it this time. I didn’t do it last time because [insert excuse here]. The […]
Courage isn’t always easy to find in business, whether you’re looking among individual contributors or managers. After all, we’re taught from a young age to keep our mouths shut, follow directions, stay in line, wait for permission. Much easier just to follow the rules and let others take risks than to take them ourselves–we gotta […]
On Veterans Day, I talked about service members’ courage. I could say similar things about other groups: firefighters, police, merchant sailors, guys who work offshore oil rigs. But I left out a group that’s critical to success for all of them. It takes courage to be a family member left at home. Maybe as much, […]
Most of the time, we choose to fight when we don’t have to. Something makes us angry, our blood gets up, and we lash out. Or worse, we fight to be seen to fight, because we think it will make us look tough in front of the girl we want to impress. Or we think […]