Using the legendary football coach Bear Bryant in the first chapter is a great method for capturing a sport-minded person’s attention to continue reading. After all, even the non-football fans living in the southern United States are familiar with Bryant’s accomplishments on the gridiron. Just look at how often any mention of football at a …
Category: Habits
Stick-to-itiveness
Post-it Notes…this is the answer I provide to students when a discussion arises over the question, “What do you wish you had invented?” Not only would I be financially secure, I would have been responsible for creating an item with perfect balance—enough stickiness to adhere where it’s needed, but not too much that it destroys …
Eulogy Virtues
How do you want to be remembered? An awkward question to say the least, but one, I propose, if more people would ask it, might create a better world. Some people choose not to consider their own mortality, but we’ve all heard some variation of the saying, “Nothing is certain but death and taxes.” We …
I Quit
Dear University President, I Quit…those words appear on a sheet of paper rolling upward from an old manual green typewriter on the front cover of a workbook created by Jeffrey L. Buller for ATLAS leadership training which addresses the Great Resignation that is currently being experienced in higher education. In the following pages, Buller shares …
Functioning Not Flourishing
My sincerest apologies to anyone within the sound of my voice who is becoming so exhausted by my use of the word flourishing that you are ready to strangle me. Enamored by the word several years ago, it encapsulates the idea in my mind of what optimal health and human performance looks like, and the …
Belly Button
I know something about you that you usually keep hidden from the majority of the world. It’s not a secret, but you tend to keep it private…Guess what? You, my friend, have a Belly Button! Not a topic that regularly arises in conversation, does it? However, it is indeed a fact of human existence—you have …
Who Am I?
Who Am I? A deep, existential question that is not always easily answered, especially for Emerging Adults in a season of exploring their identity outside of the homes in which they were raised. It’s not even a simple question for someone in her fifties; although, there are some settings, and depending on who is posing …
Won’t You Reconsider?
Have you ever had anyone use the inquiry, “Won’t You Reconsider?”, conceivably in an attempt to express concern that you were about to make a poor decision? It’s a really polite version of Have you lost your mind? or You really think that’s a good idea? Really!?! Perhaps it would be an effective question a …
Still Learning
“I haven’t learned that yet” is a phrase that I’m choosing to embrace as an idea of Still Learning because I believe it has practical applications to all five Habits of a Flourishing Life. Shauna Niequist wrote down this sentence after an experience with her sons as they were navigating a move from the Midwest …
Noticing
Who in your life has a unique gift of Noticing? This terminology arose this week during a conversation about Forest Bathing and our attempts to capture what it means to be deeply aware, not only of our amazing creation, but of the Creator Himself. What one word might capture the magnitude that the Power of …
Flourishing @ Life 