Tag Archives: friends

Posted on

The Areas A Leader Must Balance

The Work-Life Balance Series

When you think of balancing your life, what do you think of? You probably think of balancing work and family.

These two areas are the first things people think of when they think of balancing life. And for good reason. Family and work are the two most important areas in most leaders lives.

What are the areas you must balance in life?

Image by Nathan Dumlao

But balancing your life goes beyond balancing your work and your family. There are many areas leaders forget to balance.

The Areas A Leader Must Balance

1. Work:

This one is a given. Work often takes up 40 hours or more of our lives. This means a quarter of our life is spent working in the office or building our brands.

Your life needs more balance than work and family

Click To Tweet  Read more...

Posted on

Leadership Lessons From A Marathon Run

What a marathon taught me about leadership

Never in my life did I want to run a marathon. I thought it wasn’t for me. And the distance, 26.2 miles, seemed too far for my legs to carry me. Yet, this past Sunday, I ran my first (and I’m saying my only) marathon.

What running a marathon can teach you about leadership

Image by Matt Biller

I ran the marathon for a reason. In areas without access to clean water 1 out of every 2 children die before the age of 5 because of water-related issues. Because of this, I chose to run with Team World Vision and bring clean water to these children. Currently, the West Michigan Team World Vision team raised over $400,000 in donations for clean water. That’s a lot of people’s lives changed! You can still make a difference by going HERE and donating.

So, that’s why I ran a marathon this year. Through this marathon experience, I was reminded of key leadership truths. We’re going to take a look at those leadership truths in the rest of this article.  Read more...

Posted on

Experience Isn’t Everything

Longtime readers of my website know I have a love of ice climbing. Attempting to climb frozen waterfalls on a chilly day, what could be better? Nothing, in my opinion but yours may differ.

Climbing a waterfall in Houghton, Michigan

Image by Rick Elrod

I’ve been climbing every year for the last 6 years. Every year, I feel challenged and invigorated. This year was a little different.

Meet The Experienced Climbers

That’d be me. And a guy named Jason. We’ve been on multiple ice climbing trips over the years. Every year we see improvement in our climbing.

We’ll try to tackle climbs that are 60, 100, or 150 feet high. Vertical, inverted, traversing… We’ll try them and typically conquer them.

The challenge of climbing these ice formations are a blast. They also take a toll. Especially as we get older.  Read more...

Posted on

How To Build Courage

Do you remember the classic movie Wizard Of Oz with Judy Garland as Dorothy? There was another character in the movie. He was played by Bert Lahr. This character was the Cowardly Lion.

The Cowardly Lion was scared of everything. Something goes BUMP! and he would jump. He was a true ‘fraidy cat. He’d failed to build courage in his life.

Learn how to build your courage

Image by Evan Rummel

You don’t want to be like the Cowardly Lion, do you? Instead, I bet you want to have courage. Lots of courage.

Courage to stand up for what is right. Courage to choose to be fair and just. And courage to live out your faith.

Courage doesn’t come easily. Courage requires hard work. But you can do it. You can build courage.  Read more...

Posted on

Leaders Are Better Together

There’s been a lie going around the leadership circles. The lie is that leaders are loners. They don’t need anyone else. They can do things all by themselves. The truth is, leaders need others. Leaders are better together.

While I was out for a nighttime winter run with my dog Lok, I began to think about how I was a better runner because he was with me. Our time running in the snow enlightened me to the following leadership facts.

Leaders Are Better Together

Having someone with you challenges you to be better:

The run Lok and I went on was only 3.3 miles. Yet I was huffing and puffing minutes into the run. I wanted to turn tail and head home, head hung in defeat. But when I took a look at Lok, he was still going strong.  Read more...