We look to leaders to drive results, to set the tone for an organization's culture, to think strategically, and use high levels of discernment and judgment to ensure they are setting and maintaining the best possible path forward. Cultivating high performance habits, and demonstrating the discipline of leadership throughout one's career is no small feat. However,  even those high standards do not quite capture what we can, and should expect of our leaders. Nor do they capture the scope of what they should expect of themselves.

Leadership today does not exist in a vacuum. On the contrary, leaders need to understand situations and circumstances as holistic and integrated systems. Being a successful leader is more than increasing profits or achieving strategic outcomes. Being a leader in today's world means having an eye for the bigger prize, the larger impact; the way in which your leadership can impact society and humanity as a whole.

Leaders have an obligation not only to their...

Are you afraid?

Maybe you don’t call it fear, maybe you call it something else.

How about this…

What are you missing out on?

Is the fear of missing out drowning you?

Fear is the ultimate paralyzer. And even the most high achieving person you’ve ever met has experienced its affects at some point in their personal and professional lives.

As parents, we are fearful that we aren’t exposing our kids to the right experiences, that we are spoiling them, that we are not teaching them the ‘right’ things, that they will not grow up to be the adults we hope they will be.

As spouses and partners, we fear that our relationship has lost its luster, that our partners don’t see any magic in us anymore, that romance is a thing of the past, that we  may be missing out on real romance or excitement.

In our careers we fear that others are getting farther, getting there faster than us. We fear that others know things we don’t and have help we...

Diving into the actions that will lead you to your 'dream life' can be incredibly daunting. As much as we may aspire to live more fully, to push ourselves to bigger, bolder things, we may also have an equal amount of fear and hesitation tethering us to the status quo. We may doubt ourselves. We may doubt our resources, our abilities, our support, our commitment.

Change is hard. There is no doubt about it.

And pursuing an unknown future at the possible expense of current comfort does not improve our desire to tackle change, even if it is likely to bring us good things!

The whole 'nothing ventured, nothing gained' adage is timeless and true. Uncertainty and fear of the unknown are a given.

But what will you do to overcome them?

I find that whether I'm coaching someone on their career, or their personal lives, there inevitably comes a point where their dreams and aspirations are asking more of them than their fear and trepidation are comfortable allowing. Meaning, we reach a place...

Mother's Day is a more complex holiday than our brunch and flower-filled culture gives it credit for. I love the idea of celebrating motherhood. But if you peel back the curtain on this day of card-giving and perfume, there is quite literally blood, sweat, and tears.

It is a day to celebrate the best of humanity. The love of mother and child. The blessings of family. And indeed those are all amazing reasons to celebrate.

But there is so much more.

My own mother is a tiny powerhouse of resilience, faith and generosity. She is the most determined and hard-working person I have ever met. And looking back on my childhood, I recognize so many ways that she tried to bring magic, and fun into our lives. We lived in a small, rural mountain town, and resources and amenities were definitely limited. She would sit down at her sewing machine and make beautiful costumes, dolls and other clever things for my sister and I to play with. She made birthdays something to remember, she played piano and...

It's been a while since I posted any career-related items, and this one has been sitting with me for a while. As I work with my clients, and push them to explore their potential in work and in life, there is one thing that stands out as both a 'no brainer', and huge red flag for me. I don't bump into this often, but I still feel that it's worth addressing.

You see, there are some people who frankly do not believe that they actually have to work.

For real! I'm not kidding.

For all of the career advice, coaching and encouragement I can provide, nothing can take the place of a front and center commitment, and understanding that you still have to DO THE WORK!

Yes. I know you are special.

Yes, I agree that you are a unique, and truly gifted person that is deserving of love, respect and success!

However, no amount of beauty, poise, wit or charm will nullify the impression laziness creates. (And yes, not working, not producing to the level of your innate capabilities is being lazy.)

...

Productivity is  where the rubber meets the road. The best laid plans in the world won't see the light of day, unless you are productive, that is EFFECTIVELY using your time to get to your goals.

However, this is where our culture has gotten it wrong, and where you have likely found yourself victim to the trap of the cult of 'busy'.

You see, being 'busy' is not necessarily being 'productive'. In fact the two can be mutually EXCLUSIVE.

I found myself in this very situation, when after over 10 years in high pressure politics, and corner office pressure (read: intense days and nights of work with no end in sight), I realized that I was judging my productivity on how full or sparse my Outlook calendar was on any given day.

If it wasn't full, I felt like a failure.

If it was full, I felt panic that I couldn't follow-up on everything that the full schedule necessitated.

A catch 22 to be sure! And a no- win situation for the most productive among us.

I was literally working my ass...

Today I'm going to dive into the second critical  High Performance concept, and that is ENERGY!
I have to admit, this one is my Achilles heel. I have NEVER been a high-energy person, in fact, quite the opposite. As a kid I was asleep before the car pulled out of the driveway, I struggled to stay awake in school, and I typically required lots of pressure from my friends to get up and go out! I know, kind of a downer, but I truly couldn't help it!

In hindsight, I know that I was likely suffering from Lymes, even way back then, I just didn’t know it. But my half-empty battery has been a struggle of mine for most of my life. I was always truly jealous of people that seemed to overflow with an abundance of energy. I couldn't imagine what that felt like, and my low energy always felt like an anchor holding me down.

That’s why I was so grateful to find High Performance coaching, and learn specific strategies to help me navigate my low-energy self. There are indeed ways...

"High Performance Living is the ongoing feeling of full engagement, joy and confidence that comes from consistently living your best self."  Brendon Burchard

Who doesn’t want more engagement, joy and confidence in their lives? I'm guessing we all could use a lot more of all three!

And not just bursts of these highly desirable states, but an 'ongoing feeling', or a state of living that persists over time. That is definitely something we would all love to achieve!

If someone asks you, "How are you?";  how do you typically respond?

Are you “fine”,? Are you “good”? Or maybe you are “hanging in there”?

What if I were to ask you to describe the last time you felt 'joy'? Could you recall a specific moment? Would it bring back a flood of memories of all those times you felt joy?

Or, would you be stumped? Would you struggle to respond to the question?

If trying to recall when you last felt 'joy' felt like you were digging around your...

Sometimes things don't work out despite all of our best efforts. We plan, we prepare, we focus, and we do everything possible to lay a solid foundation for a successful outcome.

And then it doesn't work out. Or it doesn't happen at all.

And yes, it's painful. Yes. It's a bummer.

But it's also ok.

When things we strive for don't manifest into a real outcome, it's all part of a bigger foundation. A bigger achievement. A better outcome.

I'm not saying that 'things work out for the best', because frankly, I'm not sure I buy that.

However, I do believe that passion, persistence and commitment applied towards a goal (whether achieved or not), builds healthy habits and skills that will serve us well no matter what.

If it doesn't work out, there is another thing that will.

And when you find the right thing, you will be ready.

You will have done the planning.

You will be prepared.

You will be focused and you will already have your foundation.

Closed doors just get us moving towards the ones...

It's easy to forget what a miraculous gift we have in this thing called life. We are alive, we are breathing, we have options, we have opportunities.

Yes, we also have challenges and hardship.

But the sheer fact that we exist at all is simply incredible. We exist. And we choose how we navigate the challenges of our lives.

We can't control what others do to us, or what obstacles we may face. But we can control how we deal with them. We can control our mindset, our resilience, our faith in our ability to overcome even the most challenging of circumstances.

We've all been given the same gift. We don't all experience the human condition in the same way. Some of us are more fortunate than others. Some of us are lucky enough to start our lives in a place where we don't have to worry about food, shelter, water, safety. Others of us will struggle to survive from the moment we are born.

For those who have the luxury of being able to function past the level of sheer survival, we face other...