“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're doing something.”

                                                                                           - Neil Gaiman

Every six months, I receive a new group of Black Belt Candidates from our martial arts organization to train in preparation for their upcoming Black Belt Testing with me. 

Since most of these candidates are my student’s students, this is the first time many of them have trained with me.  As you might imagine, many of them are quite nervous, not knowing what to expect in their first classes with me.  This oftentimes causes them to freeze and make errors that they wouldn’t regularly make.  This then causes greater nerves and trepidation which then leads to even larger ins...

"Making a choice that is one percent better or one percent worse seems insignificant in the moment, but over the span of moments that make up a lifetime these choices determine between who you are and who you could be.  Success is a product of daily habits - not once-in-a-lifetime transformations."

                                                                                            - James Clear, author, Atomic Habits

It is once again the beginning of a new year, and many of us have great aspirations for making monumental improvements in various aspects of our lives.  This is usually the time of year when we set intentions for improving our health (usually in the way of releasing weight or improving our diets and/or exercise habits), our careers, our relationships and/or financial standing.

Having a clear vision on where we want to go is integral to the attainment of any worthy vision.  However, what gets most of us on track is not just lack of clarity for where we w...

"Quality questions create a quality life.  Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.”

                                                                                                       - Anthony Robbins

Questions.  I have heard innumerable times in my life that the quality of our lives is in direct proportion to the quality of questions we ask ourselves.  This is particularly true when are dealing with challenges.  

As leaders in our lives and in our organizations, challenges are indeed a constant.  Ask any leader who embarked upon something big, and they will almost always tell you that they never arrived at their desired outcome in the way they had planned.  Challenges which required their flexibility, perseverance and creativity to course correct, were the one constant in their journey.  They will also most likely tell you that their ability to move through these challenges were best served by asking themselves and their teams empowerin...