What Independence Requires

People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take. – Emma Goldman As we pause in the United States to have cook-outs and watch fireworks, let’s take a moment to reflect on what our Independence Day is all about. Back in 1776 Thomas Jefferson gave us…

Impossible, or Just Hard?

Everything hard was impossible, until someone did it. What’s “impossible” for you? What was once “impossible” for you? The only thing you need is to believe you can start. You don’t have to believe you can finish, or succeed, just some clarity that it’s worth starting. After you start, just keep going until either 1)…

No Big Problems

There are no big problems, there are just a lot of little problems. – Henry Ford So it is in life. We have no big problems, only lots of little problems that combine and feel like big problems. *  *  * The only thing between a fulfilled, authentic life is the solving of these little problems….

Play Your Cards Right

Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well. – Josh Billings Life is perfect. “Perfect” in the sense that everything happens because of the choices each of us makes, and the combination and accumulation of all of our choices. Things are perfect because they cannot be any other way….

The Three Stages of Success

I was recently thinking about the nature of “success.” Of course, it’s a process and a journey and not a “completion” or a destination, but how can we better understand the process, the journey of “success?” Well, I came up with three phases, each marked by three key ideas: Responsibility, Maturity and Wisdom. *  *…