Last year, Cindy and I attended a Cardinals baseball game in St. Louis. Just in front of us sat a father with his young kids, a girl and a boy. The girl, who was probably about five, had her baseball hat and her glove, ready for anything. At one point, the following...

Recently a mother shared this comment from her son: “Mom, I’m not a kid anymore. Kids have single-digit birthdays!” Which left me wondering about whether we have forgotten what it is like to be small and to feel like we have no voice. Have we forgotten what it’s like:...

For a long time I thought I had these flaws—things about myself that weren’t consistent with the person I wanted to be. I would say nasty things to my kids. I would have judgmental thoughts about others. Even worse, I would say them. I’d lie to my boss about having...

Learn to communicate so your players feel more capable, valuable, and loved. You must see capability when there is no evidence…see value when evidence is to the contrary…and see what’s loveable even when it’s hard to find.  —Tim Gallwey (paraphrased) It is easy to...

Self-confidence is described as the aggregate set of thoughts that we have about ourselves. We pick up these thoughts when we are small. Certainly we add other thoughts over the years, but that initial set is still likely to be hanging around and influencing our...

I expect you’ve learned by now that immediate, in-the-moment reactions aren’t always the most useful. My kids certainly taught me that I sometimes needed a little time, a little distance, or a different perspective before I responded. Some old sayings that suggest...

Happy Holidays, A colleague shared with me a wonderful holiday mantra from her meditation instructor, Joe Zarantonello.     Stay Present, Be Kind, and Lower your Expectations. We’ve all thought about who we want to be for our family and friends before, probably many,...

Hello, Last week in class an older gentleman, Mark, approached me on one of the breaks with this statement: I have a good relationship with two of my sons. They are also engineers, and we have a lot in common. My middle son and I don’t have anything in common, and I’m...

Even if we are wonderful as parents, it’s easy to lose the mindfulness that makes us wonderful. Look for these four common pitfalls: 1. When we become very familiar with people, we stop noticing things about them. We’ve all had the experience of driving ten miles to...

This a question I encountered on Rachel Macy Stafford’s blog—handsfreemama.com—which I highly recommend. She said it’s a question she gets often from teens. I get a similar question in my training programs after a listening exercise gives people the experience of...