Have you seen the “How Hard Did Aging Hit You” Challenge? This is the latest internet craze where willing participants place their first profile picture alongside their current profile picture to see how they’ve changed in recent years. But rather than compare profile pictures, my wife and I want to propose an interesting idea. What if, in addition to how we’ve changed on the outside, we share how we’ve changed on the inside? External appearance is the quick eye test […]
A couple of years ago, I was sitting on an airplane striking up a conversation with the guy beside me. Come to find out, one of his college buddies was a childhood friend of mine. As we continued to chat, he asked where I was headed and I shared that I was going to give a talk to a business group. When he asked what I was speaking about, I mentioned my book. My overview included words like, perspective and […]
Life is hard. There’s no denying that. As a result, we try to control our circumstances to avoid the “hard”— like if we eat right or get on a budget, then it will all be rainbows and unicorns. By sheer willpower and effectiveness we try to push through our struggles with a fix-it-myself attitude. But curiously, that mentality isolates us. Before we know it, we’re alone, buried by our circumstances. Rather than relying on efficient practices and willpower, is there another way? As a […]
This April, my wife and I will have been married for twelve years. And I’ve spent the majority of those twelve years bouncing back and forth on the pendulum of pleasing her and simply shutting off. It’s an exhaustive charade that has robbed me of peace and caused me to fall into the trap of loving her circumstantially. I treasure the fact that she challenges me and pushes me beyond my comfort zone, but it grates on every last nerve. For more than thirty years, I’ve been […]
For selfish reasons, being born the week after Christmas has its pitfalls. But the days between Christmas and New Year prove to be a great time for honest reflection. But this year, that reflection hasn’t been so easy. I turned thirty-five years old this week. I have to pause and let it sink in because life has a cruel way of speeding up without warning. Before we can blink, years have passed, our kids are grown up, and we find […]
Facebook is the greatest marketing tool in the history of humankind. It feeds us exactly what we want by analyzing our habits and demographics with absolute precision. For example, I wanted to purchase a watch earlier this year. After a few online searches, ads for watches littered my Facebook newsfeed. The Facebook algorithm is built entirely around the concept that you reap what you sow. Whatever you like, whatever you comment on, whatever you read, it returns more of the […]
I remember a movie when I was growing up called, Nobody’s Fool. Although I haven’t seen it, I think it stars the guy whose picture is on the salad dressing bottle in the grocery store. That’s Paul Newman, right? I always confuse him with Robert Redford for some reason. Anyway, I thought about that title this week as my thumb was busy perusing my Twitter feed. I don’t have many followers on Twitter. Perhaps it’s because I don’t play the game […]
We get busy in life. Matt reminds us of why we dedicate ourselves to something other than ourselves.
- Robert Wagnon, CEO, Republic State Mortgage
