Beyond Hard Work All of the sermons, praise, and platitudes Can be overwhelming, overbearing, and never-ending. Yet, in the pursuit of growth and improvement, It is hard to imagine elevating performance Without Working Hard. Throughout most of my 55 years, I have swung from the “hard work” pendulum between Preaching And Compliance. To work hard Seemed so obvious That I rarely questioned The stability of the fixture That holds the Hard Work pendulum in place. However, Surfing waves on the...
25 days ago • 1 min read
The Next Right Move What is the next right move? Next year? Next month? Next week? Today? As nobody wants to get this wrong, The question has the power to: Raise doubt Increase resistance and Push back Because When we consider this question While rushing through life and Striving on autopilot, A gap is created between Where we are And Where we think we should be. And to our detriment, Overreaching for "Should" Does not reveal A great next right move. Adding more weight and drag to Our efforts...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
The Value Of UpWind Most every Thinking In Waves essay Is based on the idea of Surfing Waves That follow the direction of the wind… Which is called a DownWind. DownWinds are what we want most - At sea And in Life. They generate the greatest amount of Fun Engagement and Free Energy. Yet, Over the course of my life, I have spent - And continue to spend - Countless hours Paddling a canoe against the flow of the river current Running and skiing up mountains And Paddling a surfski against the...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
The Space Between Want & Could Every time I begin a downwind paddle on the surfski I have an idea of What I Want to happen… Steady Winds Organized sets of Waves Clean Links and The accumulation of LOTS of Free Energy. I also have an idea of What Could happen… The unpredictability and inconsistency of Winds, gusts, breaks, malfunction, and misdirection Which minimize Or eliminate, Any sense of flow-finding. Could = Preparing for the unexpected surprises... A LOT Happens between Want and Could...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
The Problem With 100% I recently watched a video of Coach Boyan With a client on a doubles surkski In which they positioned themselves and their boat To catch a wave. As they begin to accelerate their paddle strokes to increase speed, Boyan encouragingly says, “Nice and easy. No force. Only catch waves that don’t require a lot of force.” Insightful and wise words here That align with the essence of Thinking In Waves And worthy of deeper reflection Such as: Do your Life Waves seem to require a...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
The Performance Pyramid The volume by which we are surrounded With endless moments and clips Of high performance Might lead one to believe We are in - Or should be in - High performance and winning mode All the time. But living, working, creating, and leading in this way Comes with a short burn rate And can easily destroy the essence of living a fully engaged life. So last summer, while coaching a young leader, I paired together two performance concepts into a single model that visually...
2 months ago • 1 min read
How To Reclaim Our Energy In the past week, Three different times I have heard From three different acclaimed leaders Representing high level contributions to physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual states of human performance and well-being Emphasize and repeat The exact same phrase: Energy Follows Attention These super high level words are easy to Accept as obvious Push to the side Dismiss as non-critical Because Our plate is full: Work to do Problems to solve Meetings to attend...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Dropping Back In the process of surfing a wave, It can be so easy to Lock In, Dig deep, And convince ourselves That we either SURF THIS WAVE Or Everything will be lost. So we Grind Fight Persevere At any cost Because We are sure that This is THE WAVE. I love capturing the energy Of a great opportunity. But, doing so with a tight grip Rarely serves me well. The basis of Thinking In Waves Is built upon the Wave Surfing Progression That I learned and continue to develop under the guidance of...
4 months ago • 1 min read
How Effortless Can It Be? After focusing on elements of "preparation" for the past several weeks, Let's return to the surfing technique that yields our ultimate benefit - Free Energy - Which lives in Step Four of the Wave Surfing Progression: Surf the Wave. Here, I turn to my amazing coach, Boyan, for a visual reflection of Free Energy's accessibility - Four Minutes of surfing waves Without a single push of forward propulsion from his paddle - Not only is this an incredible accomplishment...
4 months ago • 1 min read