davidNprogress

I met my wife over 26 years ago as a result of a blind date and our 24 year anniversary of marriage was last week. That simple lunchtime together led to more dates, marriage, a child and wonderful life that has had its fair share of ups and downs. Through it all, I have striven to be as good of a partner and a husband as I can. I have often failed to live up to my own standards and have tried to take in my inner lessons to be better with every year. It is almost cliche’ for some guys to joke about having married up but I can tell you for sure that is the case for me. I often feel unworthy of this woman I get to spend my days with and want to ensure I am doing my best to live up to being the man she deserves. This week is the start of our 25th year of marriage and a good time to reflect back on what has made our marriage a success and mistakes I have made along the way. It takes a proactive effort to live a life together that thrives through the grind of day to day living and...

Have you ever seen the movie, Gladiator? It is one of my all-time favorites and I have watched it many times. The lead character Maximus is one of those guys every man would wish to be. He is a true man’s man that is willing to die in the name of honor as he seeks to avenge the death of his beloved Emperor and family. My favorite scene in the movie takes place as Maximus is standing in line with the other Gladiators awaiting his first fight in the grand coliseum of Rome. Slowly he rubs some soil in his hands and soon after a terrified man in front of him pees on himself out of fear. There is no fear in the heart of Maximus. Instead, there is a steadfast resolve to face whatever challenge awaits on the other side of the gate. Soon after the epic arena battle has been won the evil Emperor and murderer of his family asks “who are you?” And here is his famous answer : In many ways, I see this as a picture of the battle that is our lives. Every day we are stepping into a...

Let’s face it.  We all have faults that make us at times less than the person we would like to be.  Awareness of these issues for me has been a bit of an obsession which I know is a result of my personality type. I have taken assessments galore, sought feedback from those around me and spent considerable time in self-reflection.(a true INFP)   Awareness of my gaps have been critical to my growth over the years and many times has served as motivation for education or behavioral changes. However, there is an important watch out that took me a few years to understand.  Back in my early days of introspective I more often than not found myself focused completely on “fixing” all the things that in my mind I saw as negatives. When I was a trainer, I would take one or two negative comments and obsess over the feedback totally ignoring the value of the many positives.  When I became a manager, I took the DiSC assessment and scored very low in the direct...