Welcome to the X.

I work out twice a week with a personal trainer, focusing on strength, balance, and conditioning. I met her when I was still working, as her space was in my office building. Since then, she moved the gym to her home, which was conveniently near…

For no apparent reason, I was thinking about my high school chemistry class. I remember watching the teacher talk about the reactions that occur when certain elements are exposed to water, air, or other elements.  Of course, the favorites were the ones with dramatic, loud,…

During our working life, scorekeeping is part of the “game,” measuring success by financial goals or promotions achieved. During Chapter X, it’s still important to keep score, but the prize is different. I keep my purpose (goals) front and center. Health, time with family and…

“Hope for the best, expect the worst” is the title of a song written by Mel Brooks for his movie The Twelve Chairs. This phrase popped into my head after I spoke with someone who is about to begin retirement. While he has completed his…

You know that feeling when your hands are cold, and you rub them together really fast? Well, it’s the friction that creates the heat. Friction is the force that resists motion when two surfaces touch or try to move past each other. In a human…

Throughout our lives, we’ve usually known what our roles were supposed to be, at least in a general sense. As a son, a student, a husband or partner, an employee, or a leader… we pretty much understood the goal and what was expected of us.…

My wife and I just returned from a weekend at Kripalu in the Berkshires. I’ve been going there since the mid-1990s. It’s definitely one of my happy places. While there, I did some yoga, journaling, and meditation. I especially enjoyed the outdoor walking meditation. Being…

It’s normal to think of failure as something bad, and indeed, in certain contexts, it is.  But failure, as we’ve learned from Thomas Edison, is often the step before success. Failure can be fertile ground for growth and learning. It can be the motivation for…