How often have you heard the phrase, “you can’t give up” or “you can’t quit”? It is a phrase most all of us recall from our years of growing up from our parents, or from a teacher or a coach or two. Then as we go through our journey of life, sometimes we have the great opportunity to parent, and we then find ourselves saying the same thing to our kids. They may get involved in an activity or sport, and the “heat” gets turned up or they don’t enjoy it and want to quit. We as life lesson teaching parents take the golden opportunity to have a teachable moment and tell them “you started it, you can’t quit”. Over my parents 50th wedding anniversary weekend we went out to eat with some family

We all have a gift. Our individual gift is something we are good at, something we are passionate about. We have all been given a special gift, a special talent that it is up to us to put to work like a muscle and grow that gift or that muscle. Some of us sit back and think of the popular people, the professional athletes, singers, actors, and think “I am just not that good”. And following that thought, we settle in and ignore our gift. We then don’t unwrap our gift and share it. It is similar to our gold mine. We each have a gold mine, and it is up to us to mine it. That gift may be an ability to cook awesome foods, it could be leading school-aged children in sports or scouting program

Tragedy strikes every day. Someone somewhere that you know, have known, or may not know is experiencing a tragedy today. It could be the sudden loss of a loved one, a weather event that destroys their home or takes all their belongings, a car accident, or a financial crisis. These things happen all the time, and sometimes they involve us. No one wants it to be “them” in the crosshairs of tragedy, and we are never ready when it comes. But with pain comes personal growth. Tragedies are painful but are also a necessary part of life. We often endure the pain at night, but a new morning brings joy. Often times we feel buried by the weight of the situation. And often times it feels as if God

We often talk about servant leadership, and I have begun to think why do we say “Servant” before leadership? Isn’t Leadership being a servant leader? The two are or should be synonymous and if you aren't serving with courage, you aren't leading. And sometimes it takes great courage as leading your people also means you are taking your people to places they normally haven’t been. The goal is to push them to new elevations that no one else has taken them nor has expected of them, and we must talk about that. In the last week, I have had the opportunity to mentor and challenge two awesome young growing leaders with some of their “people” problems. These two young courageous leaders have pas

Do you have aspirations of being a leader? Or maybe you are a leader now? Regardless, we can all lead in our own way from where our feet stand currently. We don’t have to be the President of a company or the Principal of the school, or own the business, or be the Head Coach. We have influence on those around of each day and with that comes the opportunity to lead. But if you want to be a leader, it needs to be for the right reasons and we must purify our reasons. We can’t do it for fame or fortune, and we absolutely can’t do it if we think it’s about our own desires and accomplishments. Great leaders do messy things. Courageous leaders hire people better than themselves. Confident lead