On my computer reside some unpublished drafts of a series about First Day Experiences in various situations, and I share a little on this topic in earlier posts such as The First 48 and FDE: College Athletics, but today the focus is on a positive opening day to a new semester that occurred this week …
Category: College Teaching
You Are Important
You are welcome. You are safe. You Are Important. Please picture this scenario. You and a friend are seated at a restaurant and that friend physically removes their phone from the table, placing it in a place to avoid distraction. Or perhaps, they make an intentional choice not to look at their wrist while engaged …
Wait, What?
Even if I opt not to create tally marks across a sheet of paper using a pen, I’m probably mentally calculating how often I hear the phrase “Wait, What?” spoken in the conversations around me. Because we live in a culture suffering from Continuous Partial Attention, I believe the frequency of this phrase being uttered …
Charitable Writing
As an avid reader and traveler, one of my favorite quotes (as I shared in Racing to Roam) hangs on the wall in my home, “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” Because this quote blends two of my favorite activities, it illustrates for me the wealth …
Flourishing Organizations
Today, I was deeply saddened to read a comment from a student in a graduate-level course who offered that my request for a book review was the first time they had been asked to complete one since seventh grade. My sincere hope is that this statement did not mean that during their educational formation they …
Find Your Flame
As someone who is employed in higher education, there is no greater delight for me than to be a witness to the moment when who God created a person to be sparks a lifetime calling to a vocation. To be clear, this is not a frequent occurrence in my life of a Defining Moment; rather, …
Rocky Road
Admit it, when you saw the title, you began thinking of ice cream! Unfortunately, the only connection this post might have to ice cream would be if you happened, this past week, to witness my personal pity party being celebrated on my back porch with a bowl of caramel delight from Kroger. Of course, it …
The First 48
If you have ever tuned in to watch the television show entitled The First 48 on the A&E Network, you have been a witness to the importance that the first 48 hours play in a criminal investigation, and I offer that just as a crime investigation often hinges on those precious first hours, how a student experiences the first hours enrolled in …
Gift of Failure
Regular visitors to this blog will be familiar with the concept of controlled floundering and the continuum that ranges from flourishing to failure; however, if this reading is your first visit to the blog, I encourage you to examine those ideas to provide a framework for this post on the Gift of Failure. Although Lahey’s …
Leaders Who Flourish
When attempting to flourish in any capacity, it’s important to know the person God created us to be and this can be accomplished by pursuing a Habit of Awareness. Learning about ourselves and others opens our eyes to see the talents, gifts, and strengths that each person possesses along with the unique situations where various …
Flourishing @ Life 