“Remember this day, boys,” I said to my twin sons last week at breakfast. “Remember what it feels like to arrive at a milestone in your journey through challenges and uncertainties. It’s the last day of a difficult school year and you’ve done well. Remember that you chose to persist and grow throughout the year
With the release of “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” this past November, I have fully jumped on the Mister Rogers bandwagon. Or shall we say, “neighborhood trolley.” Even though “Mister Rogers Neighborhood” was on air for all of my childhood, my puppets of choice at the time went by names like “Cookie Monster” and
Recently, I watched a colleague present at a conference, and something about the presentation moved me. The passion, the mastery of the material, the risk this person took to be on stage — it all just hit me. Suddenly, my chest felt full and tears started streaming out of the corner of my eyes. And
In 2008, my good friend Jeff Dykstra* faced significant fear of the unknown. He’d already taken a huge risk leaving the private sector and moving his entire family to Lusaka, Zambia, in 2006 with World Vision. Now, he was only a few months away from finishing his commitment in Africa. His next career move weighed
What scares you? What do you avoid? Or what would you avoid if the opportunity arose? A big speaking engagement? Starting a business? Telling your boss what you really think? Leaving your job? Selling something? Fighting for a cause? Many things can scare me. A lot of them came to the surface for me and
I have this recurring nightmare. It’s like the one where you are late for class or show up at school in your underwear. In my dream, I’m presenting to a large group of people and no one can hear me — or wants to. Everyone in the audience is either distracted, obscured behind physical barriers,
Ever since I wrote about courage, I continue to see examples of how confidence determines your willingness to do difficult things. Confidence allows you to say “yes” to a good but hard thing or “no” to something bad yet alluring. It’s trust in yourself — your values, self-image, and capacity. I’ve especially been noticing it
It seems hard to believe now, considering more than 367,000 people work for his company and its subsidiaries, but for years, this man had arranged his life around his fear. Fear had limited him in his leadership and in his ability to connect with others. But he had the courage to overcome that fear. In
Perhaps you’ve heard about the historic feat climber Alex Honnold accomplished on June 3rd. He became the first person in history to free solo climb (by himself with no ropes or equipment) El Capitan in Yosemite, which is a 3,000-foot vertical wall up the Freerider path. He did it in under four hours. Mind-blowing. I
“He’s gone.” Even now, more than seven years removed from the day, Cory Wessman can still picture the doctor’s grim face as he shared the news that Cory’s son Micah had died. Each of us has a story, narratives that shape who we are as human beings. Sometimes, our most difficult stories to tell are
Matt Norman is president of Norman & Associates, which offers Dale Carnegie Training in the North Central US. Dale Carnegie Training is a global organization ...READ MORE