A sports team starts the year off playing above its potential and it is as if it cannot lose. Then one loss leads to another, and before long it is as if it cannot win. The early momentum is lost and a downward spiral has taken over. Or you start your round of golf off with a couple of pars, then a birdie, and you have visions of your best ever score. You hit a bad shot, then another, miss a short putt, and before long all that positive energy has dissipated and you’re hacking and wacking your way to a terrible score. Positive accomplishment has given way to negative momentum.

In life and in your business experience nothing is more critical and impacting than establishing and maintaining momentum. It is so critical at this time of year, because ending a year with negative momentum can have a crucial effect on the way your new year begins.

Here are a few keys to understanding this thing we call momentum…

» Continue reading “Finish The Year With Momentum”

One of the most important exercises I lead while coaching, is to get the person to engage what I call a “Personal Inventory”.  At the end of this inventory process I always ask for the person to identify their “achilles heel”.

Achilles, according to Greek mythology was the most handsome and bravest hero of the Trojan war.  When he was a baby, his mother, Thetis, took him down to the river Styx, where it was believed the water had magic powers, and she believed would protect him for life.  She held the baby by one of his heels, and neglected to get that heel under the water.  Later, as the story goes, Achilles was killed from behind by Apollo, and the phrase achilles has remained as a metaphor for our most debilitating weakness.

Do you know what your achilles is?

» Continue reading “Achilles…”

“… there is a knowing I feel that guides me toward better stories, toward being a better character”
Miller book

“Humans are designed to seek comfort and order, and so if they have comfort and order, they tend to plant themselves, even if their comfort isn’t all that comfortable … characters don’t want to change. They must be forced to change”

“… the second you stand up and point toward a horizon, you realize how much there is to lose … as you point toward a horizon, life no longer feels meaningless. And suddenly there is risk in your story and a question about whether you’ll make it”

“… every other person, faces resistance when trying to create something good … resistance that comes against you when you point toward a distant horizon, is a sure sign that you are suppose to do the thing in the first place …”

“… there is a force in the world that doesn’t want us to live good stories …”

“… great stories go to those who don’t give in to fear”