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Action always beats intention.

A dream you don’t have to fight for isn’t a dream—it’s a nap. One changes your afternoon. The other changes your world. Keep fighting.

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The big reward of a small act of bravery.

Leadership/ Quitter November 30, 2012 • Comments

I fly a lot in the fall and spring. (Yes, like a migrating monarch butterfly, which is probably what you were thinking.)

A few weeks ago, while at the Nashville airport, I walked up to the security line.

There were three lines open for the station where the guy checks your ID and your boarding pass. The one on the left had 25 people in it. The one in the middle had 25 people in it. The one on the right? It was empty.

Nobody was in the one on the right, which I thought was weird.

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How to take your picture in front of a tornado.

Quitter November 28, 2012 • Comments

This is Audra Thomas. She is from Beaver City, Nebraska. Her mother Marla took this photo in 1989.

If you squint, you can just make out an F1 tornado in the background.

Did you see it? It might take a minute, you have to really look.

Marla was fine that afternoon. Her mother was fine. The tornado destroyed a barn on their property, but no one was hurt. (You can read the whole story here.)

The thing that struck me about this photo is Marla’s casualness. She’s standing perfectly still like she’s posing for a school photo. If she was here today, she’d probably tell you that taking a photo in front of a tornado was easy:

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This took me 36 years to learn.

Quitter November 26, 2012 • Comments

I used to think my purpose was to write a blog.

And then I wrote one and realized it wasn’t.

I used to think my purpose was to speak at events.

And then I spoke at some and realized it wasn’t.

I used to think my purpose was to write a book.

And then I wrote one and realized it wasn’t.

I used to think my purpose was to make money.

And then I made some and realized it wasn’t.

Those are short sentences, but they took me 36 years to live.

What changed? What did I learn?

The joy of serving other people.

I learned that helping change somebody else’s life is always more rewarding than obsessing about your own.

I got to be part of the Quitter Conference and helping other people chase their purpose, and I was completely surprised to find that became mine.

The funny thing is that I didn’t stop doing all those things I just mentioned. In fact, if anything, now I write more blogs, speak more places, publish more books, and make more money. But now they matter. Now they’re not about me. Now they have purpose.

This simple image, that I did not create but do love, sums it up perfectly.

What’s purpose? I’ll let the picture finish the story:

 

Happy Thanksgiving – ish

Misc November 21, 2012 • Comments

I say “ish” because maybe you’ll read this post on Wednesday or Thursday or Friday or well, you see where this is going.

We’re in Washington D.C. and Chapel Hill, North Carolina this week and will return on Monday. (As will this blog.)

What are your plans for Thanksgiving?

If we ever have coffee, please expect this to happen.

Social Media November 16, 2012 • Comments

From here on out, if you and I have coffee or dinner or lunch or a spirited game of racquetball, do you know what I’m going to do?

I’m going to tell you how fun it was. Right to your face. Live, right there in the moment, as we wrap up our coffee or lunch or racquetball, I’m going to say “thank you.”

Then I’m going to leave.

Know what I’m not going to do?

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For anyone thinking about self publishing…

Creativity/ Writing November 14, 2012 • Comments

The other day I met a guy who told me he had an idea for a book, but there was no way he was going to self publish it.

He was vehemently against the idea.

I self-published two books before my first traditionally published book, so I asked him why he didn’t want to self publish. His concern boiled down to a fear that readers wouldn’t take the book seriously if it was self published.

If that’s a fear you have about self publishing, let me give you a really simple task:

1. Ask your friends what their favorite books are.

2. Ask them who published those books.

3. Giggle at yourself for how silly it is to think people only buy books from certain publishers.

There are a lot of reasons traditional publishers are still awesome. (Despite what all the hype about self publishing might say.) There are lot of reasons self publishing is awesome.

Make your decision based on the reasons that make the most sense for you, not the fear that people won’t take your book seriously if it is self published.

Question:
What are your favorite books?

 

What new leaders know & old leaders fear.

Leadership November 12, 2012 • Comments

Old generation leaders think:

“If I share my weaknesses, my followers will never be able to trust my strengths.”

That thinking helped create leaders who, in meetings, and in speeches only share their successes or mistakes they made twenty years ago. The ridiculous assumption is if you don’t share your weaknesses, people won’t know you have any. Usually, the people you lead are already well aware of your weaknesses, even if you’ve been fronting like you’re perfect.

This next generation won’t stand for that line of thinking.

New generation leaders know:

“If I don’t trust my followers enough to share my weaknesses with them, they’ll never trust my strengths when I share those with them.”

The days of fake leaders are drawing to a close.

Don’t overshare as a weapon or a way to manipulate, but don’t think you can be an authentic leader without being an authentic human first.

Question:
How would you define “authenticity?”