Blog
Your Story Matters: leading and living your creative best
Welcome—so glad you’re here. Do you, like me, want to work more creatively, lead lightly, be productive, and design the life you want to live? Are you curious about how storytelling can help you can engage others and shape meaning? If so, I hope you enjoy these posts and I look forward to hearing from you!
Does age matter?
I remember an experiment from a class in business school. The prof asked us to line up by age. Then he asked: "Does age matter?" The few twenty-four to twenty-six-year-olds in our class said, "No." Those of us over twenty-six thought otherwise. We'd already been...
Fail often/fail better
I love the words of Samuel Beckett, inspirational even as they came from a dark piece of his prose: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Today's tech designers have their own version: Fail early and often. To fail is to fall short...
To see the familiar with new eyes
To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower William Blake "Auguries of Innocence" For many of us, major travel was off-limits during the pandemic. Even though we now can travel, some of us are waiting before considering big trips. Because I...
Heat wave
As the heat inched past 100 Our Northwest hubris We don’t need air conditioning, We can sit under trees Melted away. I couldn’t think Couldn’t write Wondered how people in the tropics Do anything at all. The birds slowed their singing The dogs stretched on the...
MMMMMMMMM your way to calm
Given the stresses of daily life combined with growing uncertainty about our global future, I've been collecting remedies and techniques to use when I need to calm or reset my nervous system. Yoga is great, but not very practical if I'm stuck in yet another calamitous...
The past is never past
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past." William Faulkner Faulkner's words were written to describe how the history of the Southern United States continues to haunt. I use his words in another way: When our past is still alive within us, it can be reshaped....
Balance continuity and change
In these times of turbulence and rapid change, when areas like the environment, voting rights, and immigration demand immediate, constructive action, why does continuity matter? Because it is continuity that can give us the balance and strength we need to embrace...
A gem of joy in the news
Sometimes in the murky waters called the news, one finds a gem. I did last week when I read a story announcing that Jane Goodall had won the 2021 Templeton Prize. Templeton honors the achievements of people “harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest...
Anxious in America
Hopefully, the pandemic is receding and so, too, is the spike in national (and global) anxiety it provoked. I suspect, though, that some form of anxiety will stay with us, albeit in a more chronic rather than acute form. It may be the price of admission for the...
How to say no, nicely
For some of us, the pandemic brought a guilty pleasure. We were released from the burden of having to say no to some social obligations. In-person socializing was a loss, but for us introverts, it was a kind of relief. As the possibility of social obligations...
Create the tension for change
When we work in a problem-solving mode, we remain limited. Our energy stays focused on the problem, instead of what we want. I’ve reached a point in my book-writing where feedback from first readers is critical. Constructive, critical feedback shows me what is working...
To gain perspective, turn upside down
The tragedy of George Floyd invited many of us to wake up, to see the world as it is and not what we believed it to be. To see the world of systemic discrimination, inequities, and violence that have been hidden in plain sight for years. As for the outcome of...
Seven keys to deep learning from The Octopus Teacher
I finally watched My Octopus Teacher, the much-celebrated Netflix documentary that chronicles the year film-maker Craig Foster spent swimming with a wild, common octopus in the kelp forests near Capetown, South Africa. Foster credits the octopus as a profound teacher,...
Find rhythm in a pause
I've been loving my spring walks athrough our woodlands. They help me to pause when I'm wound up or feel driven to keep going on a project. Pauses are key to rhythm and rhythm is key to life. I'm not quite ready to write about my forays into rhythm, so...
Playing as an ensemble
April is an exciting month for me as I get ready to watch the great performances that will be taking place over the next couple of months. The cast is in dress rehearsal. The previews are looking good. I've seen a couple of teasers from bit players out before...
Want more of Einstein’s brainpower?
Colossal intelligence that he was, Albert Einstein had a relatively small brain. It measured 1230 grams, on the smaller end of average. However, what he had that was unusual was an enormous corpus callosum, the bundle of nerve fibers that pass information...
Can we celebrate now?
Are you celebrating? It may be long overdue. Life without celebration is like hiking across a snowfield during a whiteout when the sky and the snow merge together and you can barely see your next step. Chilly and dangerous. Everything becomes a blur. Like the past...
Is it time to start returning?
It's time to start talking about APAD: Anticipatory Post-pandemic Apprehension Disorder. Unless it's just my issue. I was so excited to have my second COVID vaccination shot last week, I'm starting to feel like there's light at the end of the tunnel. I can see...
How to use anger to fuel your creativity
With a new year, new, very different, President and Vice President, vaccines rolling out, and spring on its way, I thought we'd be done with anger. Don't you wish? Rather than hope for the unlikely, I'm looking at how to make positive use of my anger, asking, "How can...
Zoom fatigue? It’s real and what to do
Many of us have been experiencing a chronic condition since early into the pandemic: Zoom fatigue. It's growing worse. Last November, Psychiatric Times published an article, "A Neuropsychological Exploration of Zoom Fatigue." Bottom line: it's real. 18 months...
Your blog is an ongoing tonic for the soul, and a reminder of what’s possible.
Stephen SilhaWow! You keep writing the most pertinent, passionate, and clear articles I have the pleasure to read. Bravo!
Doug LipmanAs always, Sally, I am dazzled and inspired by the elegance, eloquence and relevance of your writing…
BIll Veltrop
Meet Sally
She’s an inspiring communicator, an original thinker, she weaves big ideas and practical examples together to help her clients take their next big step forward. She teaches leadership presence by modeling it.
She is visionary and practical, vulnerable and solid, accessible and real. A perpetual learner herself, she’s not afraid to take risks to develop the talents of her clients.
Engaging Presence
