Penecillin was discovered by accident. A sloppy workspace led to cross-contamination of Petri dishes. Dr Fleming had a choice to make: start over or explore the possible. He chose the possible. Many of us see the unexpected and react, with knee-jerk reflex... This isn't what I wanted. When we condemn the unexpected, we kill the possible. Dr. Fleming took the time to see what was happening in the unexpected. This kindled the possible. The result was a crucial advance in medicine ... The … [Read more...]

This afternoon I was in a car with a friend of the family. We were on our way from my step-grandmothers funeral to share lunch with family and friends. My friend lost his wife to cancer a month ago. She was his best friend. They shared the best of times, the worst of times and all in between. They had lived with money and all the trappings of wealth. They had lived with nothing. They lived "for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health". My friend told me something … [Read more...]

We're getting the band back together! OK, we're not really ... but we could if we needed to save an orphanage. Years ago, I was in the studio playing with a band. We were rehearsing for a show. Someone screwed up their part. Everything ground to a halt in a sloppy, messy way. "Let's start again from the chorus", someone would say. The drumsticks would click, we'd start from the chorus. If we ran into problems again, we'd all stop again. Here's the problem: What happens when we screw up … [Read more...]

I'm in a restaurant in Boston with my wife. We just enjoyed several hours of deep, rewarding conversation. Our cell phone batteries were close to dead after a day of travel. The bartender was cool enough to charge our phones. At first, I noticed the itch to look something up on my phone. Jen and I talked about the pull of the phone. Having the phones away from us made the pull palpable. This led into a conversation about our dopamine seeking nature. We talked about a rough day she had this … [Read more...]

When we run from something, the origin is always the reference point. We don't think in terms of where we've gotten, our success. We think of how far we are from what we don't want. What we don't want still defines who we are. The origin takes on a gravity. It has a mental mass in our minds. We feel it's pull …. Mmmmm, Donuts! … We don't see where we are. We see how far we are from where we were. Our life is defined by our past. Have you ever woken from a dream wondering if it was … [Read more...]

In the 80s there was a song by Flock of Seagulls and they sang, "And I ran. I ran so far away. Oh, I ran, I ran so far away. I couldn't get away." Are you running to what you want … or away from what you don't want? Running to fitness or running from fatness. To delivery OR from delay . . . To succeed OR from fail . . . To win OR from lose. It's easy to run from. We know what we don't like – about our life, our jobs, our bodies, our selves, our careers. We feel pain, we respond . . . … [Read more...]

At Southwest Airlines, we spoke of O&Ds - Origin, Destination. A plane departs from an origin. It flies to a destination. Life is a series of O&Ds. We are leaving one place and going to another. Sometimes we choose the destination. We make the flight plan. We prepare and take flight. Other times we don't like where we are, we leave our origin without thinking about what our destination might be. We live intentionally by choosing our destination. We look forward. We fly into … [Read more...]

The word "politics" comes from the greek, "politikos".  It means:  Citizen. The word Politics has evolved.  It now means something different.  Politics now symbolizes divide and rancor.  Politics polarizes.  It reveals what brings us to opposition.  It separates us from what we have it common.  Politics divides against itself.  It pits us against them. Politics now divides citizens.  It divides people. Politics cements differences.  Politics represents distrust.  Politics is zero-sum, … [Read more...]

It's good to stay in shape. There are plenty of health problems that come from being out of shape and over sedentary . Sometimes we create issues by focusing so much on one area, we wind up lopsided. A rower who focuses on pulling with one arm more than the other goes in circles. We run in circles by focusing on one area of fitness. There are many. Here are just some areas … physical, mental, relational, spiritual, intellectual. To be physically fit, we get off our butts a few times a … [Read more...]

Yesterday, I was speaking to a client. He referred to the reality that we are asked to do more, faster, with less. An engine is a machine designed to convert energy into useful mechanical motion. Engines breakdown when pushed beyond their capabilities. They come under stress when pushed to run faster. They run poorly when we fuel them with less resources. An engine is capable of operating under more, faster, with less conditions for short periods of time.  This can work if there is … [Read more...]