Each year, on November 11, we are given the opportunity to pause and remember those who gave their lives in various wars to protect freedom.
Karen and I like to watch various war documentaries each year on Remembrance Day, especially those that help us get a view inside the lives of the every day people that lived with war as their reality. This year, one of those documentaries was the story of Anne Frank. Please Continue Reading …
Don’t fall out of your chair – Yes, this is a blog entry from David E White – and I confess that it has been far too long, with some difficulty in between.
“An easy life is rarely meaningful and a meaningful life rarely easy.”
― Oliver North, Counterfeit Lies
What do you do when you feel that you are losing your bearings? I am not referring to ball-bearings, which would amount to mental marbles in this case (which, in hind-sight, may actually work) – but rather the coordinates for your life journey.
Let me cut to the chase – this past year has been a difficult one for me. For a variety of reasons, I found myself in unfamiliar territory. I have been depressed before – but never like I was during several significantly low periods this past year. Ironically, the speaker, writer, facilitator and consultant (aka: expert) on the topic of resilience, was starting to look like he wouldn’t be so resilient himself. Please Continue Reading …
A leader’s life is filled with a barrage of external challenge of adversity, change and crisis, as well as with personal failures and lapses in judgment or will power. As leaders, we all want to finish well, but at times we may be tempted to quit.
American author and Presidential advisor Napoleon Hill once said, “Character is to man what carbon is to steel.”
Steel is forged in fire. The evidence of resilience in any great leader will be forged in the fires of daily life, and it is the very heat of the challenge that forms the strength of character that makes us resilient. Though carbon is used for steel, it is also used for pencil lead. As such it is soft and smudges easily on paper. This would be our character, and our resilience, without the fire of challenge. Please Continue Reading …
Search “uncertain future” in Google and you will receive 56,000,000 results in .04 seconds. If you are feeling the negative affects of uncertainty in your emotions, take heart – others who also are feeling it surround you!
Over the past few months, I’ve been working closely with many people experiencing the effects of uncertainty, and the price they (we) have been paying emotionally, mentally and even physically is significant. Some of these people are going through work-related uncertainty due to role changes and/or the possibility of dismissal because of corporate downsizing. Others are going through health-related uncertainty, such as the second round of cancer therapy or a battery of tests to determine the unknown cause of symptoms they are experiencing.
As I reflect on our collective wrestle with uncertainty, I find myself wondering: Please Continue Reading …
I love baseball. I am not the kind of fan that follows all the trades and statistics, engaging in vigorous debate. In truth, I often don’t even know the names on the full roster of my favorite team.
I know where I was when Joe Carter hit his walk off home run to lead the Toronto Blue Jays to a come from behind victory in the over the visiting Philadelphia Phillies in the 1993 world series, and I know that Jackie Robinson was the first colored ball player and wore number 42 (thanks to the movie), but I couldn’t tell you much more for dates and big events. I just love the game. Please Continue Reading …
Who would have thought to be afraid that the commercial airline ticket you bought for your next holiday could hold the potential for you to disappear into thin air?
Now we can add mysterious commercial airline disappearances to the list of things to fear, along with tsunamis, tornados, food-borne illnesses, invasions & wars, random acts of violence and school shootings, unemployment and bankruptcy…the list goes on and on…and it grows.
Researcher Brene Brown, in her latest book Daring Greatly, gives us some insight Please Continue Reading …
Surveys show that more than eight in 10 employed Americans are stressed out by at least one thing about their jobs. Poor pay and increasing workloads were top sources of concern reported by American workers (Huffington Post, 2013). Workers are still weary and stressed out from years of a troubled economy that has brought about longer hours, layoffs and budget cuts.
There is a clear indication that high levels of stress are associated with job uncertainty. This isn’t news for many of you reading this, is it? It’s interesting to me to note that there can be a similar anxiety in those who are uncertain of their employment future to those who are currently unemployed. Many people who fear that their jobs are insecure want to quit – but feel trapped or obligated with no employment options, and this elevates their anxiety. Please Continue Reading …
My father was just 42 when he was permanently disabled and institutionalized. My mother was just 37 when she died. These two events have forced me to take the pursuit of the meaning of life seriously.
Some have suggested that when we think about the meaning of my life, we should think about what we want our eulogy to be, or what we would want to have on our headstone. While these may be valid, I think there is an additional way. Please Continue Reading …
We’re coming around the corner on yet another calendar year, and many will be setting goals for the next. This is a great time of year to reflect on where we are in relation to where we would like to be in life, and adjustments are important calibrations in the journey.
Photo credit: Doug Bisson – doug.bisson@icloud.com
“You can be anything you want to be in life if you want it bad enough and work hard enough”.
I did not hear this statement from my parents, but it seems to be a popular expression for parents of this generation. There are two major flaws with this statement, which warrant consideration as we make adjustments in our journey, and speak into the lives of others. First, it is not true. Second, it may be counterproductive. Though it may be expressed as pure loving sentiment, it holds the potential to lead us away from success and happiness. Let me explain. Please Continue Reading …
I believe that we all struggle with a sense of insecurity. I don’t know if this is the case, but I would be willing to bet that it is true for the vast majority of us at some time or another.
Insecurity is a difficult thing to live with. It challenges us in relationship. It leads us to compromise and to alter our behavior in potentially limiting and even damaging ways. It takes courage to overcome insecurity.
I have defined courage as the ability to act rightly in the face of discouragement. However, I also like Brene Brown’s definition. She defines courage in this way: “To tell the story of who you are with your whole heart”. She explains it this way: Please Continue Reading …
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“’Resilience’ describes the importance of having a compelling vision and working together to serve customers and create a profitably growing company. Thank you, David, for telling the Ford story!” – Alan Mulally, President and CEO, Ford Motor Company
