Sometimes we need to dig in, fight for our values and rights, and stubbornly refuse to budge. Other times we need to be fluid, flexible, willing to adapt to the river banks and go with the flow. (This isn’t weakness, though, as any deep-carved canyon will tell you). The trick is to know what each…

Learning new things is uncomfortable. It’s easier to communicate in your native tongue than sound like a two-year-old in a new language. It’s simpler to play a familiar sport than fumble around trying a new one. That’s why tend to stick with what we know. At some point in life we say “enough”. We avoid…

The leaves are turning colour. Days are getting shorter. The nights are cooling. All reminders that another summer season is coming to an end. We can’t stop the passage of time, but we can choose to enjoy and be more fully present in each passing moment. Take long breaths.

“What do you do?” is one of the most common questions we answer when meeting someone new. When we’re young, this question might frighten us because what we actually do might not match our aspirations. Our job title is unimpressive, and it it might be difficult to categorize all that we do and aspire to…

Last weekend I went ATVing in the forest with my daughter. We followed several trails, turned left here, then took a right at the next fork. I kept trying to memorize the trees and paths we followed, but when we turned around to go back, I quickly realized that I was completely lost. Fortunately we…

Today’s news feeds and social media streams do a great job of telling us what’s going on in the world right now. The appeal of refreshing our feeds and tuning into broadcasts is their promise to keep us “in the know”, and let us know what the world cares about at that very moment. One…

The dominant narrative, the one we hear and tell ourselves, is that we don’t have enough. Not enough time, not enough education, not enough energy, not enough money. And so we spend our time trying to get more of these things. Something happens though, when instead of looking at what we don’t have, we look…

One coffee-maker in Barista mentioned advice given to him by a mentor: “Never roast angry.” This, of course, is ridiculous advice, right? How could coffee-drinkers ever notice the roaster’s attitude when she roasted the beans that went into the coffee they’re drinking? But what if they can? What if your taste buds can pick up…

We get into routines, and they’re not always helpful. Habits slowly form into ruts that seem difficult to steer out of. Sometimes we need a shift to simply to pick up our head and check out our surrounding. A change of course doesn’t always happen without some outside force. The beauty of vacations, summer breaks,…

In his recent videocast, Dan Pick introduces us to “rubber duck debugging”. As it turns out, this is actually a thing. Essentially “rubber duck debugging” means talking through your problem with a toy rubber duck (or similar object with equivalent IQ). In staring into the silent, supportive eyes of a rubber duck and being forced…