Tag Archives: education

A Beginner’s Mind

Remember when you first came to know and experience something, some place, or someone new?

It was all about learning their borders, nuances, and idiosyncrasies.

Learning was enough.

And while your questions here may have led you to some answers, you were always led to another series of questions to open you up into the unique and vast beauty of this person, place, or thing.

Together you became something. Something that had never been before prior to this relationship of experience, awareness, and connection.

The end was never “in mind”.

The thrill was at hand and in the now.

Oh how we need our cup to overflow with never-ending beginnings.

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Episode 22: Fr. Ed Leahy of St. Benedict’s Prep School

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A few weeks ago I watched a story on 60 Minutes that I found to be profoundly inspiring. It involved a prep school in Newark, New Jersey, a Benedictine monk, and a body of young men being nurtured and educated in a way that I had never seen before.

It’s an honor to introduce you to Fr. Ed Leahy, the young men of St. Bendedict’s Prep School, and the good and necessary work they’re collectively participating in.

You can stream or download the episode in iTunes by clicking here.

As you approach this week, may you push against the resistance and bring your best self as a gift to the world.

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Get The Picture?

The role of business school used to be to teach about scarcity, shelf space or lack thereof, FIFO, LIFO, and bottlenecks. If you understood these things, you understood business.

But there’s frustration in the biz department walls now. The markets are gaining taste, an eye, and appreciation for the arts. Now professors are having to leave the spelling bee traditions of memorization, test taking, and regurgitation and wrestle with beauty, design, art, meaning, and fulfillment.

Couple this with two or more decades of college graduates that learned what they supposedly needed to learn all to find that the knowledge got the job but didn’t unlock meaning they wanted out of life. The system, unfortunately, has made more noise than it has music. But that happens when structure becomes more important than improvisation doesn’t it?

Many are asking what’s next now that we’re on the other side of the industrial and education revolutions.

For one, I would say next isn’t coming – next is here.

And secondly, those that point us towards and experience, meaning, and fulfillment will be the leaders we look back on today with gratitude and the forefathers of whatever we end up calling “next”. Continue reading

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Now I Know My ZYX’s

My wife has created the coolest play area for our girls at our home. It screams think big, think differently, think in color, and let your music play.

On one of the walls in this room is a vintage alphabet with each letter individually framed on the wall. While spending time with one of my daughters in this room this weekend, I decided to learn the alphabet backwards.

I’ve attempted this before, but have not had any luck. Nevertheless, this time was different. I had the full picture of the alphabet in front of me.

After 10 minutes of stuttered chants and eyes locked on the wall I could do finally it without a pause or flaw.

We need the full picture don’t we?

Only then can we go from start to finish or from finish to start and never feel like a fish out of water.

 

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