Recently, while on a flight from Nashville to Seattle I jotted down my first “bucket list,” at first through stream-of-consciousness and then refined and narrowed it to the best of the best before texting it to a few close loved ones. I want to get and stay happily married, and have a great relationship with […]
Wellness: The Key to Ongoing Success
I conclude this blog series on “doing what matters most” by emphasizing the importance of maintaining wellness across four key spheres of living: physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual. I’ve been blogging about these spheres for more than five years, and describe them at length in my Kindle book, The 4 Spheres of Intentional Living. I […]
Your Calendar Reveals Your Priorities
The next crucial step to executing “what matters the most” is protecting the most valuable activities on your calendar. Good intentions and thinking through potential challenges and outcomes are just what gets you to the starting gate. Execution and the capacity to win the race happen with consistency and excellence, when core behaviors are scheduled […]
Neutralize Your Hindrances
What potential hindrances might get in the way of accomplishing what matters the most to you? It can feel very motivating and encouraging to clarify what you want the most, think through the most valued roles that you play during this season, and establish some meaningful, high-level goals or mission statements for each of these […]
Goals for Your Roles
As I continue this series on “Doing What Matters the Most,” let’s explore how to create meaningful and achievable goals within the various roles that we play in each season of life. Think of a high-level goal for a specific role as a “mission or vision statement” for that role. If you’ve been professionally involved […]
Doing What Matters Most
Amid the onslaught of choices and information we face each day, the act of actually doing what matters the most to us is sometimes lost in the noise. This new blog series tackles specific action steps you can take to not just dream but accomplish what your heart desires. These steps are based on years […]
Simplicity: It’s Not Complicated
I’m not sure if “simplicity” is so important to me because I’ve never really had the ability to buy a lot of stuff, or if it’s just the way I’m wired. Either way, it’s clear to me that practicing simplicity is another mindful pathway to sustainable “Emotional Peace.” I view simplicity as “practicing contentment with […]
The Simple Goal of Self-Love
I’ve been captivated by the classic Lynyrd Skynyrd song “Simple Man” for much of the past year. The singer reflects on his mother sitting him down when he was a boy, and offering pearls of wisdom intended to guide him across his life. Among her words that resonate the most with me are, “You’ll find […]
Creativity Without Torture
Are you bought into the ubiquity of the suffering artist, whose creativity is best birthed in anguish? In her latest book Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, Elizabeth Gilbert writes: “If you want to be an artist of any sort, it seemed to me, then handling your frustration is a fundamental aspect of the workâperhaps […]
Intentions
This is my first online journal entry since Oct. 4 of last year. That’s a long silence for me, and it’s been a busy one. I wrote then, “Less, but quality. Simple, yet meaningful. Accessible, but transcendent. Present, yet emergent.” Since then, I’ve sold a house that was too big for me and filled with […]
