My Thoughts and Articles
What is More Important: Behavior or Identity?
One of my favorite parables of Jesus is the story of the Good Samaritan. Jesus is approached by an expert in the law, who asks him what he must do to get eternal life. Jesus asks what is written in the law, and the expert answers that we need to ...
Put Your Anxiety on a Shelf
For some reason, I tend to struggle with anxiety more at night, when I’m trying to go to sleep. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s something about lying in bed that allows my mind to wander toward all the unresolved things in my life. Whatever the reason, it’s frustrating. I ...
Want to Change Something? Start by Measuring It
Psychologist Everett Worthington, who was my advisor in graduate school, once did a research study comparing two types of therapies for improving people’s marriages. He brought couples into the lab, measured them on a bunch of different things, gave couples a summary of how they were doing, and then randomly ...
Take Your Own Medicine
We often have a lot judgments about other people in our lives. It seems as if we are the experts on what other people should and shouldn’t be doing. It’s easy to watch how someone lives their life from the outside and think about all the things they need to ...
Don’t Get Stuck in Your Perspective
One day I was on the train, trying to get some work done. A woman got on the train and sat a few rows ahead of me. I noticed her because she was playing music out loud on her phone. A lot of people listen to music on the train, ...
Boundaries for Leaders
I’m reading an interesting book called “Boundaries for Leaders” by Henry Cloud. Boundaries are incredibly important for effective leadership, whether you are leading a small team or a massive organization. But the concept of boundaries can be a little fuzzy. What are boundaries exactly, and how can they help us ...
