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Stand By You
“You can stand tall without standing on someone.” (Harriet Woods) One of the interesting conundrums the Self-Esteem movement created goes as follows: we try to praise our kids into competitive accomplishment, then we want to protect them when they fall short by telling them life is not about competition, it’s about just being yourself. Similarly, we […]
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Mastering Adulthood
“From where can your authority and license as a parent come from, when you who are old, do worse things?” (Juvenal) Ever since the dawn of the Industrial Age in the 19th century, we started losing the ancient practice of mastery. With assembly lines and factories replacing artisans and workshops, gone is the age of […]
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Go Ahead and Mess Up
“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing” (George Bernard Shaw) So many of us find ourselves paralyzed by possibilities. Whether it’s choosing how to interact with a potential partner or one of our children or choosing a new career path, the stakes seem […]
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How to Be Heard
“Be sincere; be brief; be seated.” (Benjamin Franklin) Say what you will about his politics, FDR has rightfully been acknowledged as one of history’s great orators. And now you know the secret to his success. As the new election cycle gets ramped up, we should be talking about the big issues of life — at […]
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Worry Sucks
“Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.” (Benjamin Franklin) Worry sucks. It sucks away your time, your energy, your joy, your hope. And yet we are a society of world-class worriers, fed by a 24-hour news cycle, 500 cable channels, and ubiquitous internet alerts. Everywhere you turn, […]
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Speaking of Our Kids….
“Children are apt to live up to what you believe of them.” (Lady Bird Johnson) How we talk about our children is more important that how we talk to them. One of the reasons is because how we talk about our children is very reflective of what we really believe about them. If we complain […]
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More than Power
“We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.” (Stuart L. Udall) Everyone has at least a little power — over family members, co-workers, neighbors, or even strangers. The question isn’t whether or not you have power. The real question is: What are you going to do with it? Too often we believe power is an […]
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The Momentous Conquest
“The honor of the conquest is rated by the difficulty.” (Baron De Montesquieu) Self-control is rather important. Humankind has assumed control enough of atoms that we can destroy an entire city in an instant, but all that power is useless without the self-control of those in charge of the button. Self-control is rather hard. We […]
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Risk More, Regret Less
“Ideas without action aren’t ideas. They’re regrets.” (Jeff Haden, Inc Magazine) I just spent a few days in Las Vegas with my family. We had a great time — without gambling one cent. Don’t get me wrong; my stance against it is not a moral position, and it’s not because I’m not a gambler. It’s actually quite the […]
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Leave it to Beaver’s Dad
“Whenever you make a mistake, admit it. When you don’t, you just make things worse.” (Ward Cleaver) Regardless of how you feel about the idyllic show Leave it to Beaver, this little nugget of wisdom from the Beav’s dad is worth consideration. Its truth lies in its simplicity. Everything you need to know is right […]