Why We’ve Stopped Making Eye Contact (And What It’s Costing Us)
I was signing books at Barnes & Noble in Tampa last week, and something struck me. People would walk right past my table, eyes down, moving fast, like making eye contact might cost them something. A few even did that thing where they angle their whole body away, just in case I might say hello. […]
You Don’t Have to Feel Ready to Take the Risk
I’m writing this from Scotland, where I’ve spent the past two days helping my daughter Emma move into her new flat. Today, she starts a new job at Falkland Palace, where she’ll spend the next year working in art conservation. Her path here wasn’t a straight line. And that’s exactly the point. From Pre-Med to […]
Flight Delayed? Here’s How to Stay Calm
So we were flying from Miami to London. Originally booked as a direct flight. Then the airline decided to make it a connection through New York instead. When we asked to fix it, they told us that it would cost extra. A change we didn’t even ask for, and we’d have to pay to undo […]
The Gap Between Potential and Performance Is Costing You More Than You Think
More than ten years ago I stood at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. This experience showed me the connection between Potential and Performance in unexpected ways. I was a stay-at-home mom of six. I’d never hiked anything harder than a neighborhood trail. Nobody who knew me would have picked me to summit a 19,000 foot […]
The Launching Pad: What Moving My Last Kid Into College Taught Me About Confidence
This Past Weekend This past weekend, I moved my youngest daughter, Mili, into American University. I’ve done this five times before, so I’ve got the system down. Blue packing bags, not suitcases, because they smush down to nothing once you’ve unpacked them and you’re not stuck hauling five giant bags back out to the car. […]
How Do They Do It? What High Achievers Actually Have in Common (It’s Not Talent)
Have you ever said that to yourself? Or thought it about someone else? You watch someone climb all seven summits; you hear about a woman who went back to law school in her fifties or sixties; ou meet the first person in their field to do something nobody thought was possible. And the question comes […]
The Last Sunday of Summer
There’s a specific kind of Sunday that shows up every August. The pool towels are still damp on the railing. The kids’ schedules are about to flip from “whenever” to “6:45am, no excuses.” And somewhere in the back of your mind, a quiet voice starts asking what you actually did with these last few months. […]
The Skill We Stopped Teaching, and Why It’s Showing Up in Your Workforce
My kids grew up with screens in their hands. So did yours, most likely. And somewhere along the way, a lot of kids started believing that playing a game online with a headset on counts as hanging out with friends. It doesn’t. Watch a teenager’s face when you ask them to call someone instead of […]
Why We Judge People So Quickly (And How to Stop)
I watched the reaction to the World Cup final halftime show roll in as it happened. Madonna, Shakira, BTS, Justin Bieber, Burna Boy, even Kermit and Miss Piggy showed up for the first-ever halftime show at a FIFA World Cup final. Within minutes people online were tearing it apart. One prominent football writer called the […]
What a Viral World Cup Photo Teaches Us About Confidence
A photo of a young Lionel Messi bathing a six month old Lamine Yamal in 2007 resurfaced this year once it was clear the two players would meet in the World Cup final. The story behind it holds a simple lesson: real confidence means showing up fully in a moment before you know whether it […]