Is unpredictability a bug? Or a feature? Any good story worth telling hinges to some extent on not knowing what’s going to happen next. — To be clear, I’m actually a big fan of roller coasters. Except for the oddly-named “Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit” coaster at Universal Studios in Florida, of course. That thing was brutal. …

Are those well-crafted memories and anecdotes that we’ve been refining for years and decades serving us? Or are they slowing us down? — “Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.” Stephen King offered this advice in his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. It’s not original to him, of course. Or to William Faulkner or Oscar Wilde, who both expressed…

Sometimes reality hands us a much better story to tell than the one we might have come up with if left to our own devices. And that’s okay. — A few weeks ago, somebody on my LinkedIn feed posted this meme, which has been making the rounds on the internet for years now, in blog posts and on social media. It illustrates the difference between “your plan” and Reality. Most people who see this for the first time either…

Sometimes when things get strange and stressful, as they have, we need to be willing to imagine and tell ourselves a new story. — Late last night, after a long day, long week, and even longer month, with the family room to myself, I sat down and did something I haven’t done in a while. I started flipping around the TV channels. Normally, when I do watch TV, it’s something available on demand, or…

During these trying times, how do we juggle grieving the loss of the Old Normal while still embracing the possibilities of the New Normal? — To be honest, I’ve had a hard time writing these past couple of weeks. Yes, I had to deal with a sinus infection, and yes, our hot water heater died last week, and yes, it’s tricky when the two breadwinners, a college student, and a high schooler are all trying…

A sudden interruption of freedom and normalcy as the result of a crisis can trigger profound grief in kids, adults, and those in business. — Half a life ago, my sister passed away at the too-young age of 31 as a result of complications that inevitably arose from being a juvenile diabetic. And then, as if that weren’t enough, the following year, my biological father took his own life. Needless to say, for the few…

Some companies still don’t like the idea of working from home. It simply doesn’t fit the story they tell themselves. But times change … — The stories we tell ourselves often exist to bring us comfort. Predictability. Certainty. Even in the face of change or crisis. Or maybe because of it. For instance, some companies don’t like the idea of letting their people work from home. It simply doesn’t fit the business story they tell…

Any story worth telling is meant to drip, word by word, into the mind of your customer, accumulating weight and meaning. And trust. — The other day, as I sat at the kitchen counter, I happened to look up, and saw that what had been a rather small yellow stain on the ceiling the week before was growing. This filled me with dread, of course, because it meant we probably had a water leak…

Thanks to my glasses, I can see just fine with my eyes these days. But the path forward into the future is not so clear. — As we head into 2020 soon, it seems like a good time to talk about vision. Growing up, my vision was always 20/20 or better, and it stayed that way throughout my childhood and teenage years. But the thing is, I read a lot of books back then. Let me…