Want to have a minor existential crisis? Visit a cemetery with your kids; bonus points if they’re really young. After an hour-long deep dive on mortality, gravestones, and living the good life with my children, I found myself in a somber mood on the way home. As we’d been walking between the rows of headstones,… Continue reading Visiting a Graveyard with Your Kids: Thoughts on the Reaper Waiting for Us All

I’m a pretty typical guy. I have a lovely wife and two rowdy young kids, both boys. Since the pandemic began, I’ve been working from home, and in that time, I’ve completely changed the way I live my life for the better. This past couple years was a challenging time for many, but it’s ended… Continue reading 3 Simple Rut-Busting Behaviors that Helped Me Reclaim My Life and Can Help Reclaim Yours Too

It was about halfway through business school when I figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up. During a project for a double-credit leadership development class, it dawned on me what really jazzed me up: helping lead teams to victory. That sounds like a bunch of rah-rah malarkey bullshit. I get it.… Continue reading I Used to Sell Missiles, Now I Sell Books and How Online Writing Brought It All Together

You hear a lot of trite bullshit on success these days. One of the usual suspects I always hated was, “Lean into your strengths.” I never really gave this too much credence because of two reasons: 1.       It seemed perfectly fucking obvious 2.       I didn’t perceive that my strengths were different and unique from others… Continue reading The Strange Story of How Daily Vulnerability Finally Got Me to Lean Into My Strengths

Perhaps I should preface this by clarifying I am not talking about running without clothes on. All the perverts can stop reading now I guess, unless you’re interested in daily writing that is. No I’m talking about about finally crossing off those big, hairy, audacious goals that sit unfulfilled on bucket lists all over the… Continue reading An Essay About Streaking

The pandemic has affected everyone differently. For me, it caused that “man in the mirror” moment. The world was seemingly falling apart at the seams, and I was failing to rise to the occasion.   There was a painful realization that I was overweight and unhealthy, disengaged both at work and home, and doing absolutely… Continue reading 3 Simple Mental and Physical Band-Aids to Restore a Bruised Ego and Get Back to Living On Your Terms

I don’t know if hitting the publish button tomorrow will result in achieving your hopes and dreams. But I do know that you won’t get closer standing on this side of that “post” button. The answers are out there. Few things are as exhilarating as taking that leap of faith. Things are going to be… Continue reading Final Safety Briefing to New Shippers: Leaving Safe Harbors

It took me years to get “ready” for my first month of writing online. For nearly a decade, I’d gathered research and fragments of essays and posts and newsletters and everything things else in between. Waiting for the right moment to unleash my heretofore untapped creative genius onto the world, or something like that. It… Continue reading A Cheat Code for New Creators

From 2007-2015, I spoke to over 2500 high school scholars from around the country. For some this may sound like a nightmare, but I loved every second. The students would come to Washington, DC for the National Youth Leadership Forum on National Security. It’s a weeklong event for high-achieving students interested in foreign policy, intelligence… Continue reading What I Miss About Speaking to Thousands of High School Students

It recently dawned on me that I needed to get a hell of a lot smarter; and fast. With a new opportunity at work comes a large increase in responsibility and ownership. I am going to need to tap into greater mental energy, maintain patience in the face of certain frustrations and come up with… Continue reading Getting Stronger and Faster in Order to Get Smarter?!?