How many times has this happened to you? You’re in the left-hand lane, cruising smoothly down the highway at 70 miles an hour, and then all of a sudden, traffic slows down to 30 miles an hour. Then it speeds up again before grinding to a halt again—and this pattern continues over and over, much like the action of an accordion. Eventually, you see why. There’s an accident on your right-hand side and cars are stuck everywhere.

Stephen Hawking, who passed away this year, once said, “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” I like this quote a lot because it’s something I realized about 30 years ago when I was trying to learn a lot of different things and there was just way too much for me to understand.

I had a client of mine recently pass away at the age of 94. He was an amazing gentleman who truly epitomized the Four C’s, which is something I learned from The Strategic Coach® Program.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom,” and you know the rest. This quote from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens leads me to think of another book, The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.

In the 1989 movie, Dead Poets Society, Robin Williams plays John Keating, a literature teacher at a boys’ academy. Keating starts off his class with the words “Carpe Diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.” This great quote hits home for me as this is something I try to do every day in my own life.

I love to read, but it wasn’t until about five years ago that I realized if I wasn’t getting much out of a book after reading 20 pages, I should just stop reading it. I would just force myself to slog through a book I wasn’t interested in, and as a result, reading could sometimes be a chore and ultimately, a waste of my time.

Did you know that several European countries have announced they will outlaw the sale of gas and diesel vehicles by 2040? It might sound crazy, and you may be wondering how they plan on getting around. There’s been a lot of change in the energy arena that I am going to cover that could make this goal attainable.

Do you remember way back, maybe around the 4th grade, when you learned about interrogative words: who, what, when, where, and why? I want to focus on three of those words, the what, the how, and the who.

There’s a great saying that says, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” It really highlights how you communicate, but specifically about how you listen. Most people don’t listen with the intent to understand. They are typically listening and building their reply in their head, so they are not fully engaged. It’s just a natural way we operate, thinking of ourselves first and others second.

I was doing my laundry the other day (yes, I really do my own laundry!), and I was looking at the wash cycle buttons on my washing machine. It reminded me of the cycle that we go through naturally in life, that helps us get things accomplished. It’s called the learning cycle.