On Fire: Finding Your Gift And Using It

Steven Pressfield writes about watching a famous trainer work with his thoroughbreds. To Steven’s surprise, the trainer takes great pains to make the training sessions “fun” for the horses. The trainer explained: Horses understand the whip but I don’t want a racer that runs that way. A horse that loves to run will beat a…

Let’s be honest. Life is good, bad, fun, terrible, beautiful and painful. Filmmaker Patrick Solomon reports he “struggled with hardship, suffered defeats…and tried to make sense of [his] world.” Seeing life through the lens of Joseph Campbell’s “hero’s journey” strengthened Patrick; so much so, he decided to bring the hero’s journey to life on the…

I fill my large Einstein Bagel coffee cup with vanilla hazelnut. The woman next to me mumbles, “I should know never to book anything before 10:00 o’clock on a Monday morning.” She explained she got lost on her way to an appointment and missed it all together. Now she’s getting coffee and regretting the day—already.…

Henry Linder is a 93-year-old shoe cobbler in a tiny town in the Carolinas. He’s an internet sensation right now, even though he doesn’t own a computer. Erik Olsen’s documentary on Henry just won first place in iReport’s Community Choice category. Henry retired from the shoe business in his seventies, Olsen reports. But he returned…

In a funk, I picked up O Magazine. Inside Oprah interviewed Dr. Brené Brown, Houston sociologist famous for her research on shame and vulnerability. I had viewed her TED talks. Even read Dr. Brown’s latest book, Daring Greatly. I knew the interview would be awesome: two bright women discussing threats to our relationships and well…

As he steered his Lexus 430 SC onto the freeway in early morning traffic, John kicked himself. Why do I feel so…flat? He had finally achieved the stability for which he worked so hard–a good job with a profitable company, a new sports car, a steady girlfriend, bills paid…he even had the quickest route to…

Every person has been created by God with a Gift to give for the bettering of mankind. This message—along with writing and teaching—is my Gift. This morning, upon waking, I pull my laptop onto the bed and open it to compose a blog post. As ideas come, an enemy also appears. Will my writing be…

Be you. You don’t have another choice. Copying someone else gets the same results as lighting a firecracker that is a “dud:” a very short-lived blaze of glory followed by a fizzling fall to the ground. Next. Developing and using your talents toward the causes you care about results in slow growth and, ultimately… You…

Somewhere each day we have to fall in love with someone, something, some moment, event, phrase. Somehow each day we must allow the softening of the heart.  Otherwise our hearts will move inevitably toward hardness. We will move toward cynicism, bitterness, fear and despair. That’s where most of the world is trapped and doesn’t even…

I lost my reasons to live in midlife. My husband walked out. Our teenagers left home. My home and possessions disappeared. Friends slithered away. I was so blindsided by hurt and chaos, I could barely work.  But over time things changed. Not a different husband and house and a new social setting. No, I found…

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