“Déjà vu is when you think you’re doing something you’ve done before; it happens because God thought it was so funny, He had to rewind it for his friends.”

                                                                                                         - Anonymous

Déjà vu, almost all of us has experienced it.  We are in the middle of doing something, and we get this overwhelming feeling that we have been at this same place doing this same thing before.  In French, this phrase is literally translated as “already seen”.  While some interpret this phenomenon as a paranormal premonition, mainstream science attributes déjà vu to a wide range of causes including simple fantasy and wish fulfillment, a mismatching in the brain that confuses the present for the past, or a medical condition known as temporal-lobe epilepsy.

While the cause of déjà vu is clearly up for debate, what is true is that most of us (up to 70% of the population, according to scientists) will undergo this experi...

“Speak your truth with compassion and care.  Own your mistakes and weaknesses.  We all have them.  And it is far more honest to accept and face them then ignore or hide them.”

                                                                                                      - Anil Kumar Sinha

Several years ago, during the early stages of my speaking career, I was on the phone with my mom. 

Despite being well into my middle age, my mom is still someone I turn to in times of disappointment, struggle and frustration.  During this particular discussion, I was sharing my frustration with how my new speaking career was not taking off at the trajectory I had intended. 

After listening to me vent for several minutes, and waiting for an opportunity for me to pause to take in some air, she calmly asked me,

“So, you want to be one of those motivational speakers, huh?”

“Yes!” I responded emphatically.

She then asked, “Well, do you think anyone will ever want to listen ...

“Service helps not only the receiver, but the server.  Whoever offers service must improve himself in order to do what has to be done, must think about others rather than only himself.  He learns.  He finds value in what he does.  Thus, his self-esteem grows, and he is able to find meaning in his life.”

                                                                                                - Piero Ferrucci – The Power of Kindness

I am truly blessed.  As a professional speaker, I get to travel around the country and share my Mind of a Champion message with numerous groups each year and connect with scores of people I would never encounter if I was not doing this work.

What is so amazing is that despite the group I am working with, be they business owners, corporate executives, medical professionals, administrators or even high school students, there is a thread of humanity that connects us all.  Despite what stage of life, we may find ourselves in, the challenge of the hum...

“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention."

                                                                                                - Herbert Simon

Focused attention.  It is no secret that we live in an age where massive amounts of information are literally at our fingertips.  What used to take hours or even days or weeks to obtain, can now be found simply by tapping into the browser of our smartphones or laptop computers.  However, with this comes another challenge.  With so much information available to us, and importantly, coming at us, it can be extremely difficult for us to focus our attention.  This not only impacts our well-being and productivity; it can also have a dramatic impact on our relationships.

During almost any keynote speech I deliver, I bring someone on stage with me, and after adorning them in a martial arts uniform top and white belt, I begin to take them through some basic punching and defensive movements.  As we begin, I can see in the...

“Behavior wags the tail of feelings…..We do, then we feel.”

                                                                                - David Reynolds

How many times in your life have you said you will finally get to something that you have decided is important to complete when you “feel like it”?  I know I have. 

My weekly project list can be littered with things I have noted as important enough to have put my attention towards; but have remained incomplete.  While some of our mundane tasks do not bring with them a penalty for their incompletion, the problem I see is we often apply this way of thinking to the things we have identified as being the most important in our lives to complete. 

The phone call we need to make, the conversation we need to have, the project we need to complete, the book we want to write, the nutrition or exercise regimen we know we need to begin, all get put off until we “feel like” starting them.

However, as one of my teachers once asked m...

“We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are.”

                                                                                       - Anaïs Nin

Our problems and challenges can seem very real.

However, as leaders, we’ve all heard the term “perception is reality”.  The preconceptions and the beliefs we bring to situations can dramatically alter the way we perceive the world. This is particularly true in dealing with problems and challenges.  It is not a new concept in leadership that brining positivity, inquisitiveness and proactiveness to a challenge, will most likely net positive results.  In contrast, we are also aware that bringing negativity, pessimism and fear to the same situation, will most likely create less than optimum outcomes.

When we come right down to it, it is not what is happening to us that is the problem, but how we look at it and the perspective we bring to it.  I know this may seem “pollyana-ish”, particularly when we are in the thick of things.  B...

“The meaning of life is to find your gift.  The purpose of life is to give it away.”

                                                                                               - Anonymous

Being a martial arts instructor has been one of my life’s greatest gift.  Not only has it shaped nearly every aspect of who I am, but it has also allowed me to connect with, teach and learn from an incredible array of human beings.   These countless people would serve not only as my teachers, students, training partners and fellow competitors; but most importantly they would become my friends and extended family.  These relationships have not only supported me throughout my life, but they have done something just as important; they have given me purpose.

While many of the students I have taught, I have may not been in touch with for several years, when I do have the blessing of reconnecting with them; the result is almost always the same.  Despite the years and distance that may have separat...

“True happiness……is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.”

                                                                                                                   - Helen Keller

I love movies.  This is particularly love films that provide a glimpse of the magnificence within us as human beings to follow our dreams, despite the challenges face.  I would guess it is that way for most of us, as the motion pictures we find most enjoyable are those that depict the story’s heroes committed to a clear purpose and vision and how they overcome challenges, despite what appear to be insurmountable odds, to realize their dreams.

I believe we are all inspired by these types of films because we truly understand that true happiness does not come from ease and grace in situations to experience our “dream lives” (although that is what most of us are striving for), but rather that fulfillment that comes from us being on purpose and moving thr...

“When perfectionism is driving us, shame is riding shotgun and fear is that annoying backseat driver.”

                                                                                                             - Brene’ Brown

I admit, most of the blogs that I write are not done to impart my amazing wisdom upon my readers, but rather to process a challenge or issue that I have or am currently experiencing in my own life or in my role as a leader.  This is certainly the case in this writing, as I share about my challenges with perfectionism.  While at times I can say it may have served me, my quest to be “perfect” mostly has diverted or delayed me from realizing what was truly possible to experience in my life.

I learned the value of perfectionism early in my life.  Growing up with an alcoholic father and the chaos it brought within my family, I learned that if I could be the “perfect son”, the “perfect student” and the “perfect athlete”, positive attention could be focused on me tha...

“If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.

                                                                                                         - Frank A. Clark

OBSTACLES are an inevitable part of the human experience and they are a certainty to be experienced in our role as leaders.  Obstacles come in many forms.  They manifest as health issues, financial struggles, relationship difficulties and overall roadblocks on our path to achieving our goals and desires.

Much of our progess in today’s world is derived from our quest to deal with obstacles and overcome them in the easiest and most efficient ways possible.  Look only as far as our modern-day technologies from the automobile and airplanes in travel to laptop computers and today’s smartphones in the worlds of business and communication and you can directly follow a path to their development originating as a means to deal with a problem or obstacles in our daily lives.

The irony for me is that ...