What should be first?  What’s urgent or what’s important? Short answer:  Important should come first, but urgent usually wins in practice; too often manufactured urgency. Why do many remarkable and successful people cultivate the discipline and mental clarity to distinguish between what’s important and what’s urgent, and focus on the important?  Why is it that…

Stop measuring life against the ticking of the clock. It’s not how time controls you, it’s how you engage the ebbs and flows of your energy and focus within any given time. Those who feel most in control of their lives aren’t the ones with more time. Those in control are the ones who’ve decided…

Who borrowed my crayons? Please give them back. I want to start something, even imperfectly. I want to explore, to push my imagination and dare to draw outside the lines.  To be expansive, and not confined by boundaries others want to impose. To me, to start imperfectly is exactly the right place, because to wait…

When you need to say no, say it with authority and grace.   With clarity and understanding you convey, “I respect you, and I also respect myself.” Constantly saying yes can create the illusion of kindness or selflessness, but sometimes it hides a fear of disappointing others, a fear of being rejected.  The key is awareness:…

Let go of the inner critic.  Take a risk and try.     Waiting until you are perfect paralyzes your progress.  You start by being good enough.   Start, and create the space to learn and grow.  To start where you are, with what you have, is often the hardest and most important step forward.

We are never quite ready to step into the ring and confront our next challenge.  Fear will try to convince us to wait, to be fully confident we are ready. The paradox is that being fully confident does not precede action — it tends to follow it.  We become ready enough by doing, not by…