Transforming desire into will

I’m reading a great book, Finding Your Zone, by Michael Lardon. Dr. Lardon’s work focuses mostly on athletes, however the wisdom he shares is as relevant in the office and at home.

Eric Heiden winning the 1,500 meters in speedskating at the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, N.Y. (Photo: Associated Press via the New York Times)

One concept that is particularly interesting to me is the energy we create as we transform our desire into will. But it has a dark side.

Many of us work endlessly trying to achieve our goals and satiate our desires. However, all too often our optimism and hope decay into feelings of confusion and disappointment.

The upside of is when it becomes our will.

[Desire] is an essential energy that exists in the pursuit of realizing one’s own life dream. However, only when this energy of desire is strengthen and transformed into the energy of will can your goal–whatever it is–be achieved fully and at the highest level.

So what is the different between desire and will?

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Posted on January 27, 2012 in Action, Leadership, Vision

Get out of a rut – A 30 day challenge.

Are you stuck in a rut? Check out Matt Cutts’ 3 minute TED talk on the power of 30 day challenges.

Then pick a 30 day challenge and get out of your rut.

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Posted on August 2, 2011 in Action, Leadership

Do one thing to become more stress resistant

Stress is a part of lives, yet some of us seem to handle it better than others.

In a recent article in the New York Times, Gretchen Reynolds introduced me to a recent animal study from researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health. The study of mice give us some powerful insights into stress and how we can become stress resistant.


© cloud_nine via Flickr

For the experiment, researchers at the institute gathered two types of male mice. Some were strong and aggressive; the others were less so. The alpha mice got private cages. Male mice in the wild are territorial loners. So when then the punier mice were later slipped into the same cages as the aggressive rodents, separated only by a clear partition, the big mice acted like thugs. They employed every animal intimidation technique and, during daily, five-minute periods when the partition was removed, had to be restrained from harming the smaller mice, which, in the face of such treatment, became predictably twitchy and submissive.

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Posted on July 7, 2011 in Action, Leadership

Creating success from our messes

When I was a teenager, I enjoyed waterskiing. With some springtime weather and a new driver’s license, I was anxious to get our boat out of winter storage. My father consented and I drove some distance to pick it up so that we could go to the lake later that week.


© atibens via Flickr

After getting the boat trailer hitched to the car by the guys at the boat storage place, I headed for the nearest freeway entrance. Half a block before the onramp was a set of railroad tracks. As I crossed the tracks, I heard a funny “clunk” from the back of the car, but thought nothing of it. Just a moment later as I slowed to make a left turn onto the freeway, the boat on the trailer passed by me heading directly for a group of cars waiting at a red light a block away. Sparks flew as the front of the trailer bounced on the pavement. I prepared myself to turn into the boat trailer to prevent it from careening into the cars stopped at the light. Thankfully, the boat continued to veer towards the side of the road, where several cars were parked angularly in front of a store.

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Posted on June 22, 2011 in Action, Leadership

The choice you don’t know you’re making

Everyday we make choices as leaders–choices about how to spend our time, who to meet with, what to focus on, and the way we engage our teams. We try to make choices that create the outcomes we desire. Yet, the choice with the greatest influence on achieving the future we want is the one we are completely unaware we are making. What is this choice?

Years ago, we lost a number of large oak trees in our yard during a massive storm. I thought we’d use a bit of the wood for firewood and with a wedge and sledge hammer, I quickly split some logs. I remember thinking how it was  much easier to split the wood with a sharp wedge than with the blunt force of a sledgehammer alone, yet how often in life I was content to use a hammer without a wedge.

Results are like the wood I was splitting. They are a lot easier to achieve when we use a sharp wedge–the Wedge of Results. The Wedge is the things we think and do that naturally build on each other in a way that leads to the outcomes we seek. Simply put, the wedge means results flow from action, actions from thoughts, and thoughts from our mindset.

Results < Actions < Thoughts < Mindset < Experiences & Truth

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Posted on June 6, 2011 in Action, Beliefs, Leadership, Strategy, Vision

Be the change you wish to see in the world

As a teenager, Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, was angry at the prejudice he experienced living in South Africa. Arun went to live with his grandfather in India for 18 months.

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

The power of Gandhi’s love and his example in living the values he taught changed Arun’s life. Gandhi often told Arun to “be the change you wish to see.” By living this powerful truth in his own life, Mahatma Gandhi led one of the largest peaceful revolutions the world has ever seen.

Click here to get a high resolution version of the image above.

Be the change!

Posted on March 4, 2011 in Action