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Category: personal growth

Wrap it up with a bow

Tis the season for packages tied up with ribbon and string. There is something charming to a beautiful gift finished with the flourish of an artfully tied bow. When I made my first attempt at turning a length of ribbon into a bow I just remember feeling my hands and brain couldn’t cooperate to make anything with ease. It was a fumble of slow going mistakes. The results were less than satisfying. Many times I…

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How does counting help?

What does it take to get to happy? To content? To enough? Sitting on Sunday reviewing the Thanksgiving break I had this uneasy sense that I had wasted the four day weekend. I had made big plans for the work I’d get done. The books I would read. The family projects accomplished by the willing volunteers at home. You see I wake up with thoughts flooding my mind of action items. I only recently discovered…

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Give Thanks!

Enjoy this short video that I recorded a little while ago (pre-COVID). Whether you are a member of the Institute, a teacher, a parent, or an adult who cares about growth, thanks is a major habit we seek to develop in all our leaders no matter their age! Enjoy the turkey talk. I’d love to share more with you about developing a thanks habit not only during Thanksgiving but year-round. Sign up here to receive…

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Looking into the cloud

Growing up in the United States, November always feels like a big surprise. The attention around All Hallow’s Eve, known more broadly as Halloween, seems to divert from the very next day. As the lesser-known holiday, November 1st, All Saints Day, often slips quietly by. This year I was struck with the idea of an exercise to celebrate the day. I spent 30 minutes writing down the names of as many personal to me and…

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The stories we tell ourselves

Recently, my youngest experienced a locked knee. Of course, the knee locked on Friday afternoon at the start of a long weekend. Over the three day weekend, we reached out to every resource we had to help resolve the locked knee. We eventually took her to the Emergency Room, with the frustration of knowing the ER wouldn’t be able to resolve anything but feel we’d be negligent if we didn’t go. Out of the hours…

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River Rules

When my son returned from a deployment that was at the same time risky and monotonous he was looking for adventure. He has a ready-made group in his family so he extended an invite to join him on a white-water rafting trip. In the latter part of the summer weeks away, all of this sounded fun. In the dipping 50F temperatures of an early fall, this felt like risky business. The week before the trip…

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