“You have been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn’t worked.  Try appreciating yourself and see what happens.”

                                                                                                          - Louise L. Hay

Today marks the 100^th consecutive week that I have published a Mind of a Champion Tip of the Week video and written blog. 

I want to thank all of my readers and viewers of this blog over the past two years who have supported me with your comments, “likes”, “shares” and words of encouragement and appreciation.  I am truly humbled to be able to share these messages with you.

I also want to acknowledge myself for...

“Can you imagine a life with no fear?  What if faith, not fear, was your default reaction to threats?”

                                                                                                               - Max Lucado

Leadership during challenge is multi-faceted.  Leaders must first be adept at dealing with challenges in the present moment.  When problems arise, and they will, organizations look to those in leadership to help weather the storm. 

Additionally, leaders must understand the past.  They must have a keen understanding of what worked and what did not in previous events and be able to discern from that knowledge how to proceed in times of difficulty.

...

“Leadership ………. is like a big door that swings.  But that big door of leadership swings on the small hinge of character.”

                                                                                          - Admiral James Stavridis (Ret.)

I was recently listening to an interview with Retired Admiral James Stavridis, who was out promoting his new book on leadership, Sailing True North: Ten Admirals and the Voyage of Character.   

I have to admit, I was half-listening to the interview while I was working out, when the admiral said something and made me immediately stop and go running for a pen and paper to write it down when he shared,

“Leadership is how we influence...

“Déjà vu is when you think you’re doing something you’ve done before; it happens because God thought it was so funny, He had to rewind it for his friends.”

                                                                                                         - Anonymous

Déjà vu, almost all of us has experienced it.  We are in the middle of doing something, and we get this overwhelming feeling that we have been at this same place doing this same thing before.  In French, this phrase is literally translated as “already seen”.  While some interpret this phenomenon as a paranormal premonition, mainstream science attributes déjà vu to...

“Speak your truth with compassion and care.  Own your mistakes and weaknesses.  We all have them.  And it is far more honest to accept and face them then ignore or hide them.”

                                                                                                      - Anil Kumar Sinha

Several years ago, during the early stages of my speaking career, I was on the phone with my mom. 

Despite being well into my middle age, my mom is still someone I turn to in times of disappointment, struggle and frustration.  During this particular discussion, I was sharing my frustration with how my new speaking career was not taking off at the trajectory I had intended. 

...

“Service helps not only the receiver, but the server.  Whoever offers service must improve himself in order to do what has to be done, must think about others rather than only himself.  He learns.  He finds value in what he does.  Thus, his self-esteem grows, and he is able to find meaning in his life.”

                                                                                                - Piero Ferrucci – The Power of Kindness

I am truly blessed.  As a professional speaker, I get to travel around the country and share my Mind of a Champion message with numerous groups each year and connect with scores of people I would never encounter if I was not doing this work.

What is so amazing is...

“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention."

                                                                                                - Herbert Simon

Focused attention.  It is no secret that we live in an age where massive amounts of information are literally at our fingertips.  What used to take hours or even days or weeks to obtain, can now be found simply by tapping into the browser of our smartphones or laptop computers.  However, with this comes another challenge.  With so much information available to us, and importantly, coming at us, it can be extremely difficult for us to focus our attention.  This not only impacts our well-being and productivity; it can also have a dramatic impact...

“Behavior wags the tail of feelings…..We do, then we feel.”

                                                                                - David Reynolds

How many times in your life have you said you will finally get to something that you have decided is important to complete when you “feel like it”?  I know I have. 

My weekly project list can be littered with things I have noted as important enough to have put my attention towards; but have remained incomplete.  While some of our mundane tasks do not bring with them a penalty for their incompletion, the problem I see is we often apply this way of thinking to the things we have identified as being the most important in our lives to complete. 

The phone call we...

“We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are.”

                                                                                       - Anaïs Nin

Our problems and challenges can seem very real.

However, as leaders, we’ve all heard the term “perception is reality”.  The preconceptions and the beliefs we bring to situations can dramatically alter the way we perceive the world. This is particularly true in dealing with problems and challenges.  It is not a new concept in leadership that brining positivity, inquisitiveness and proactiveness to a challenge, will most likely net positive results.  In contrast, we are also aware that bringing negativity, pessimism and fear to the same situation, will most likely...

“The meaning of life is to find your gift.  The purpose of life is to give it away.”

                                                                                               - Anonymous

Being a martial arts instructor has been one of my life’s greatest gift.  Not only has it shaped nearly every aspect of who I am, but it has also allowed me to connect with, teach and learn from an incredible array of human beings.   These countless people would serve not only as my teachers, students, training partners and fellow competitors; but most importantly they would become my friends and extended family.  These relationships have not only supported me throughout my life, but they have done something...