Living with greater confidence, intention, and self-direction after setbacks.

The farmer who wants to produce a high quality harvest must execute a strategy to produce a quality bean. There are routine steps that all farmers must take, but if she can tend to the trees under just the right conditions, the cherries will ripen right on time.

A bull entered the china shop, and things began to break. Delicate porcelain plates perched high against the walls. Dainty teacups rested in blue, velvet boxes. Everything had been carefully selected and arranged. But customers had stopped buying, and the shop had lost its way. So, the owners made a call that changed everything.

Contemplation can feel heavy, ranging from inspiring to depleting, but it's actually light on action. It's easy to get stuck there, where no actual progress lives.

Continuous contemplation is waiting for the perfect moment when there is no perfect moment. Instead, we must weigh our options, decide upon a risk we're willing to take, a sacrifice we’re willing to make, and begin with what we have, where we are.

You may find yourself sprinting to the door. Or wishing for more time. But people suffer more than necessary when they expect everything to work out. They expect the extra effort to be rewarded. The loyalty to be reciprocated. The sacrifice to make sense. And when it doesn't, they wonder if it was all for nothing.

The beat is an expectation of the pace and intensity at which you’ll move. The day transitions into a series of regularly scheduled tasks from morning school bells to “lights out.” Each of these moments in life represents a beat, interconnected through a string of time, flowing at a pace and intensity that you probably didn’t choose. A rhythm has been thrust upon you.

Promotions, titles, salaries, milestones, they often shine brightest while we're pursuing them. Once we've arrived, it's only a matter of time before we're looking toward the next horizon. So what sustains us when the applause is over? When life still feels incomplete?