I Made A Mistake

I believe it is important to be punctual and do what you say you will do. Occasionally, I am late to a meeting or event, or I don’t get something done that I promised to do. In the moment when I am confronted with the reality that I have not acted with punctuality or dependability,…

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What Am I Meant To Know?

I am a data junky. I love to know things. How things work. How things came to be. How things are made. I want to know. This is not a bad thing in general. Knowledge can be good when it enables us to move ourselves and those around us in positive directions. Knowledge can lift…

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Other Stories

Many of you know that I keep a journal. I started journaling in high school because of the example of a dear friend. He went on to become an architect, but even in high school he would draw and sketch in his “book” alongside notes and lists. He once told me that he wrote anything…

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The Rent Is Due

A highlight of my week is spending time each Monday evening with guys at one of the HIA houses. If you haven’t heard of Hope Is Alive, check them out. Almost everyone is affected by addiction, and HIA offers what I believe to be the most successful support for recovery I have ever seen. This past Monday, I was…

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Follow The Leader

When I was little (and maybe not so little) we played a simple game called “Follow The Leader.” Maybe you have played it too. One person is picked as the “leader” and everyone else lines up and follows the leader around, mimicking whatever the leader does. It’s a simple game, but it has very important…

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No Use Going Back To Yesterday

The other day, I was watching a butterfly busily fliting from one pansy blossom to the next in a flowerbed next to where I parked my car. It was a Cloudless Sulphur Butterfly, common to Oklahoma and most of the eastern and southern United States. For a moment I was transported back to the still…

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Unpack Your Adjectives

In March of 1974, the Schoolhouse Rock episode “Unpack Your Adjectives” aired for the first time. Schoolhouse Rock originally ran from 1973 to 1984. I saw all the episodes many times, and I can still sing most of the songs. The adjective song helped children understand how to verbally describe what things are like instead…

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Illusion Of Control

I was recently in an office building downtown. When I arrived at the elevators, there was another person waiting, and the call button for “up” was already lit. In a few moments, a third person approached the elevator and forcibly mashed the already lit “up” button. Moments later, a fourth person arrived, and the already…

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Opportunity Knocks Softly

While watching Ford vs Ferrari with my wife and two youngest sons this past weekend, I was struck with the example of a management style that creates a toxic environment. If you are unfamiliar with the film, or the story it portrays, let me catch you up. In the mid-sixties, Henry Ford II decides to…

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The Spirit Of Leadership

I was fortunate to get to see the movie, “Rush: Cinema Strangiato 2019” last week in the theater. It showed all over the United States at basically the same time on Wednesday night. If you are a Rush fan, then you understand why this was a significant event. If you are not a Rush fan,…

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