In a recent coaching session a client was blessing their ambitious goals with ‘inshallah’ (if Allah wills it). And ‘Deo volente’ (God willing) has been woven into my thinking through Stoicism. I love the power of being all in and going for something amazing, while simultaneously embracing whatever happens.Sometimes it works.Sometimes it falls apart.Sometimes it takes an unexpected turn, maybe just after you start or maybe just before you thought it would end. A doubtless and powerful focus,...

I was working with a client recently on creating time blocks for creating more focus in his work. It’s not exactly a groundbreaking idea, and we had talked Cal Newport’s Deep Work before, but he admitted that he hadn’t actually tried it yet. He was worried about being too rigid – i.e. too consistent, too structured — the scary story of self-discipline becoming a prison. Here’s the metaphor that I gave him: when you consciously create your routines (vs trying to mimic what someone else does or...

“Growth lies just outside your comfort zone.” There’s a lot of value in this maxim:It helps kick us out of stagnation and into action.It helps us question our habits, our playing small.It helps us pry our attention off of our past and realize that we can keep learning and growing. But… it also smuggles in an assumption that keeps you from truly flourishing. It gets you halfway there, while eroding your sense of aliveness along the way… Because the ‘comfort zone’ isn’t really about comfort!...