When is the last time you took a really good look at what’s on the bookshelves and bookcases in your home? Do it now, and you may find some buried treasure! I’m not talking about knickknacks or works of art you have on display that may indeed be quite valuable. I’m talking about actual books. A coaching client of mine told me last week about a book she’s just started reading – one that she bought a long time ago but didn’t quite get through [...]
“It was a different kind of laughter,” my friend Tabitha said to me recently. “It was the laughter of hope.” She was telling me about a phone conversation she had with some of the girls who are going to be moving into the Miracle Village we are building in Uganda. During my first visit to Uganda, in October 2011, one of the things Tabitha and I did was visit a muddy slum, not far from Uganda’s capital city, where young girls were prostituting themselves for [...]
It’s been more than three years now that I’ve been helping and encouraging people to find their buried treasure – the gifts, skills, talents and strengths they don’t even realize they have. One of the many things I’ve discovered in that time is that the more I notice the talents and strengths in other people, the more I find them in myself. Part of the reason, I'm sure, is simply a matter of awareness. Once something is on our radar, we find more of it [...]
“Where have you been all my life?” That question is probably on the Top Ten list of lousy pick-up lines, but it’s something I find myself asking – or at least thinking – whenever I come across something or someone that seems like the answer to a prayer. Or the solution to a problem or issue I’ve been working on or struggling with for a long time. Like getting organized. If you’re a regular reader of this column, you’re somewhat familiar with my ongoing efforts [...]
Balance. It’s what many people today wish for, work toward, and try to achieve. Most of us would like to have more balance in our lives. But life is busier than ever, there are many demands on our time and energy, and we spend much of our time being pulled in many directions. Few of us ever seem to achieve the balance we’re looking for. Maybe we’re looking for the wrong thing. Say the word “balance,” and I picture an old circus act in which [...]
I’ve been going crazy trying to come up with an appropriate birthday gift for a friend of mine – especially since we’ve agreed not to buy each other gifts anymore. I’m not breaking our agreement by doing this, because we didn’t outlaw birthday gifts. Just buying them. She and I have been friends ever since we took a writing class together long ago. We stayed close even after my family moved – twice – to different and distant parts of the country. In the years [...]
I finally found it. It’s something that was missing for quite a while. At first I searched frantically for it, but then I just let it go. I knew it would turn up eventually. I also knew that when it did, finding it would represent an accomplishment in itself – and the information it contained would probably be even more relevant and timely than it would have been earlier. The missing item was an envelope containing a list of my professional dreams and goals for [...]
There are some days – as I’m reading about the latest scandal, shooting spree, or stalemate in Washington, for instance – when I wonder if and how we as a nation and a society are going to survive. On days like this, I truly worry about the fate of our country and the world. There are other days when I see such exciting signs of promise and potential that it’s all I can do not to jump up and cheer out loud. Last Friday was [...]
It’s been several years now since I started helping and encouraging people to find their buried treasure – the gifts, skills, talents and strengths they didn’t even realize they had. During that time, I’ve made a few interesting discoveries myself. One is that when you start looking for something and you do it consistently, it’s very likely that you’ll find it – and also that it will start finding you! Whether you’re searching for significance or looking for trouble, what you seek is what you’ll [...]