My friend John Piippo saw this cartoon in the New Yorker Magazine.  I grew up directly behind this barn out in The Land of Numb!"This is the barn where we keep our feelings. If a feeling comes to you, bring it out here and lock it up."

This glass IS completely full!How do you see the glass?  Half full?  or Half empty?Mark Miller in The Heart of Leadership, says the glass is completely full -- half full water and half full of air.Optimists see the glass half full of water.  But realists see the glass also half full of air.  Translation: Never pretend. Continue reading "The glass is not half full … It’s COMPLETELY full!"

Yearning for a new way will not produce it. Only ending the old way can do that.You cannot hold onto the old all the while declaring that you want something new. The old will defy the new; the old will deny the new; the old will decry the new.There is only one way to bring in the new. YouContinue reading "Yearning for a new way"

I always think it's funny when football rolls around and I start hearing both new and old coaches talk to the media. "We have some young men out there who want to take the hill, whatever the cost.""You saw what happened last year.  What I'm hearing this year is some guys who are tired of surrenderingContinue reading "Anybody who truly knows, knows they don’t know!"

At the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit in  early August, one of the best talks, in my opinion, was by Joseph Grenny, co-author of the best-selling Crucial Conversations. After Grenny gave his talk, I read his book.  I liked it a lot.  And, not surprising, my thoughts ended up as my Sunday column today in theContinue reading "Crucial Conversations Make Life Meaningful"

Brooklyn, New York Cemetery"Young man, as you walk down the pathway of life toward an unavoidable bald head bordered with gray hairs it would be well to bear in mind that the cemeteries are full of men this world could not get along without, and note the fact that things move along after each funeralContinue reading "Graveyards are full of indispensable people"

I talk with lots of people who feel stuck.  Here's the direction I try to go when someone says, "I'm stuck and I just don't know what to do..." 1.Spend less time asking “Why?” and more time asking yourself “What now?”2.Be grateful for the emotional support others give you.  You need those people on yourContinue reading "Are you stuck? … Well, give thanks!"

I've done enough prison ministry to realize that although repentance is often accompanied by sorrow, simply feeling bad does not prove that one is repentant. There is a big difference between remorse and genuine repentance...  Ken Sande writes, "Worldly sorrow means feeling sad because you got caught doing something wrong or because you must suffer theContinue reading "Let the fruit of true repentance keep ripening!"