How to Find Your Purpose

Person looking out at the ocean

“What is your purpose?” “What is the meaning of your life?” Have you ever thought about these questions for yourself? The concept of purpose is broad, transcendent, and certainly not something you bring up in casual conversation, but knowing our purpose is critical to our success in life. It gives us focus, meaning, and a prism to view our life through to determine whether we are focused on the right things or not. If you look around, the people with the deepest sense of purpose seem to do the best.

How to Manage a Micromanager

9 Strategies to Help You Overcome Bad Management

Martial Arts Legend Bruce Lee does his classic pre-battle face down

In my post, “Confessions of a Micromanager” I talked about what’s really going on inside the head of a micromanager – using myself as the case study. In that post, I talked about “the problem”, how micromanagers operate primarily from a place of insecurity, fear, or a lack of control or trust. In some cases, […]

Confessions of a Micromanager

Fist around a flower

Early in my career, I worked for a person who was the very dictionary definition of micromanagement. It was so bad working for them they actually gave me heart palpitations for months. Because of that experience, I swore I would never become a micromanager. Until about ten years ago… I was in a leadership position […]

Why I want a Divorce…From Perfection

5 Reasons to Embrace Imperfection

Girl punching guy in the face

Hello, my name is Mark, and I am married to Perfection. I’ve been married to Perfection for over 30 years, but I’ve come to realize that I have a problem. Perfection has not been the spouse that I thought she would be. High achievers have high standards and high expectations of themselves and others. Often […]

Why we Need a Holiday from our Screens

Girl on Mobile Device

If you look around in any waiting room nowadays, you notice people doing one of several things, but mainly one: they are using some kind of screen (phone, tablet, computer, TV) to pass the time. While our electronic devices are necessary for work, communication,  connection, and re-creation, at what cost does it come? I believe […]

How I Learned to Let Go

Man Cliff Diving

Have you ever been in a situation where you had an unproductive thought or emotion and could not let go, no matter how hard you tried? Several years ago, I was working with a talented colleague that didn’t have a good sense of time management. We were collaborating on a project and they didn’t subscribe […]

The Toughest Thing I’ve Ever Done as a Parent

The Good in Suffering

Child looking out of a hole

As a parent, one of the things I dread is seeing my children suffer in any way. Several years ago, I was out walking with my kids, my [then] 4-year-old daughter was running far ahead of us, and my [then] 2-year-old daughter lagged behind. The younger one was approaching a hole in the ground and […]

Letting Go of Power, Opinion, and Control

Man opening accordion

3 Ways to know if you are your own person Abraham Maslow the renowned 20th Century psychologist, proposed a theory of human behavior that is primarily driven by “needs” – The need for food, shelter, safety, security, love, acceptance, esteem, confidence, and respect. The needs actually fall in a hierarchy of needs. The bottom of […]

Would you invest in you?

Stock price movement shown on computer

It takes complex calculation on Wall Street to determine how much a piece of a company is worth. I would venture to say that we could probably apply some of the same logic to determine how valuable we are to the organizations we own, run, or belong to. This is more of an internal gut-check measure, […]

How to Know if You Are Present

8 Signs That you are Actually Here Right Now

Kid Jumping

One of the most challenging things for those of us who are planners and future-oriented is the ability to be in the present moment on a consistent basis. Often we focus on the mistakes of the past or terrorize ourselves over every future scenario. We blow through our to-do list at the expense of the […]