To celebrate our most recent wedding anniversary, my wife and I hiked The Narrows at Zion National Park. It is a beautiful hike in a slot canyon through a shallow river. Depending on when you go the clarity of the river water can vary from clear to opaque. What makes the water opaque is the dirt and sand that has washed into the river. When we hiked The Narrows, the water was opaque. With each step it was a mystery to know what would come next. The bottom of the riverbed has various depths (from a few inches to a few feet) and various terrains (from soft sand to large uneven river rocks) making each step its own unique challenge.
(more…)Courage Requires Work Before it is Needed
Last year I shared about our family motto Climb Mountains. Since then, we have worked together to produce family values which are Courage, Faith, and Integrity.
I often get the privilege of speaking with leaders in times of difficulty and I recently witnessed an act of courage that inspired me to stick to my family values.
(more…)Overcoming Barriers to Personal Growth
I love to teach and recently had the opportunity to visit and facilitate a college course at Wichita State University. The course was hosted by the Kansas Leadership Center. The curriculum is based on principles of Adaptive Leadership from Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky.
The definition of leadership shared in the course is:
(more…)Sequencing Learning
For those who have been reading the blog, it is no surprise that I have been working on my purpose and my values. As I have done this, I have followed a loose process that in hindsight has been instructive to me.
(more…)Life Alignment
My family and I love to go hiking. Regardless of where we hike, if there are rocks on the trail you will inevitably discover cairns along the path. For those unfamiliar, a cairn is a stack of rocks on top of each other balancing in a statue like shape. They are beautiful, peaceful, and often look impossible or against the laws of nature.
(more…)Drawing the Perfect Unicorn
A few days ago I watched my daughter as she attempted to draw a picture of a unicorn. After a few pencil lines she would crumple the paper and start over on a new sheet of paper. I soon learned she wanted the picture of her unicorn to be perfect and if it wasn’t perfect she didn’t want to keep it.
(more…)Calories and Counsel
A few years ago, after our third child was born, I realized I needed to lose some weight and decided to track my calories and exercise more often. Tracking calories is the most effective way to understand what you are putting into your body and how much of an impact it has on your weight. With diligence and persistence, I lost a little bit over twenty-five pounds and tracked my calories for over 1,000 days in a row. It felt like a new lifestyle I had created, and I was proud of it.
(more…)Joseph
As I have studied leadership, I have become increasingly convinced of the importance of living values that you hold close.
Those that have integrity in living their values immediately gain my respect. When an individual lives values that I strive to live by myself, this individual now has the potential to influence me.
(more…)What I See vs My Goals and Values
Over the last several weeks I have spent a lot of time with family since we wanted to be close to family after the birth of our fourth child. During that time, I have observed in a few relatives a prioritization approach that made no logical sense to me. After careful consideration and reflection, I realized this kind of prioritization also happens in my life more often than I would like it to happen.
(more…)Leading a Community
To lead you need to know something about building a community. Building and leading a community is not based on the “leader” but rather on the values they communicate through their actions and words.
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