Category: Riffs

How could I have done that better? Like creativity, learning, and becoming better at something is an incremental process — bit by bit. You learn one thing, and that sparks questions, more curiosity, and you dive a little deeper. You begin to uncover edges you never knew existed. Once you’ve done something, ask yourself, “how could I have done that better?” Even if you only find one little thing, that would make it better, right? Then, what happened if you found one other little thing? And on and on. Incremental changes, over time, add up to significant change and improvement. …

Making the Most of Each Day? Are we really making the most of each day? When you hear someone say that, what does it even mean?  Does it mean we’re effectively utilizing every minute of each day?  Or, does it mean have we properly prioritized the things in our life and then focusing our energy on getting the highest priority things done? Or, does it mean if we had a chance to take a break that we didn’t take because that would mean we’re ‘lazy’ or unfocused? Does it mean we sat at our desk for 8 straight hours today …

It’s been nearly a year since I spun up my site The Winding Road to talk about careers. I didn’t quite know exactly what I was going to talk about but I knew it would have something to do with our careers and the non-linear trajectory that’s the reality for so many of us.  One of the first things I wrote about was fear.  Little did I know that fear would be such a prevalent feeling or so many of us a year later and not only as it relates to our careers and willingness to try new things, but …

We’re our own harshest critic. That’s a fact. Sometimes the criticism is more stinging than at other times. Sometimes we brush it off, but usually, that’s when the stakes are low.  The higher the stakes, the bigger the critic.  If we’re stretching our capabilities, learning something new, the nasty critic will show up again. Always trying to talk us out of whatever it is we’re doing.  It’s a big reason people don’t learn new things – adults at least.  We’re afraid to look like a failure at something we’ve never done and have zero experience doing.  Think about that for …