The secret of your success
Is determined by your daily agenda!

                                             –  John Maxwell

So what’s on your agenda for the week?  It will be shortened due to Labor Day, but if you are like so many others I know, a shortened week simply means that five days of work will be accomplished in four.  Miriam Webster gives us two definitions for the word, “Agenda”, (1) a list or outline of things to be done; (2) an underlying often ideological plan or program.

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“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” Friday evening, like countless others across our nation, I attended our high school’s  opening football game. Fans wore their maroon and gold, we rang the stadium bell, the band played the alma mater and National Anthem, and the game was underway.  It was a beautiful late summer evening following a day of rain and gray skies.  Almost by divine providence the last rays of the sun lit the field as the opening kick-off initiated a new season.

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“Leadership is turning toward the discomfort 

that everyone else avoids.”

Two days ago I received an email from my coach encouraging me to enter, “The Discomfort Zone”.  It almost makes you laugh to think that someone would invite you to experience discomfort, but the reality is, it’s a necessary step that must be taken for improvement.  It’s also something most of us won’t do unless prompted.  In my case I needed to come to grips with the reasons I was avoiding certain workouts and some issues with my dietary habits. …

“We learned about dignity and decency – that how hard you work matters more than how much you make…that helping others means more than just getting ahead yourself”
-Michelle Obama

In the 1960’s, soon after the successful Russian  launch of a satellite that was able to orbit the earth (Sputnik – 1957), American grade schools implemented a new approach to teaching mathematics that became known as “New Math”.  The initiative was a reaction to the Russians beating us into space and was designed to bolster American children’s skills in mathematics and science.…

“People do not decide
to become extraordinary.
They decide to accomplish
extraordinary things!”

                                                            – Sir Edmund Hillary

“Carpe Diem”, is a phrase popularized through the 1989 film, “Dead Poets Society”, in which the late Robin Williams portrays John Keating, a fictional English teacher at an all-male, elite, conservative, prep school in Vermont.  Keating, an alumnus of the same school brought an unorthodox teaching style to this conservative institution; a style that eventually led to his dismissal.  Before leaving however, he has a profound effect on the young men in his class by encouraging them to “make your lives extraordinary”, a sentiment he summarizes with the Latin expression “Carpe Diem”, meaning “Seize the Day.” …