Leadership

It was more than 170 years before the phrase “midlife crisis” had been coined, but one of the fathers of our country was having an existential crisis in his late 40s.

In the summer of 2019, I was invited to Procter & Gamble’s Cincinnati headquarters to give a speech on creating more intergenerational wisdom sharing in the workplace. It was part of their annual Signal conference. I wrote about my visit in this past blog post, and the P&G team wrote about my speech here.

Wisdom understands the perfect alchemy of growth and stability. Yet, development psychologist Erik Erikson suggested one of the big challenges of mid to later adulthood is juxtaposing generativity with stagnation. So, I believe this giant mind of psychology surmised that personal growth is always good.

One of my co-founders Jeff Hamaoui is a profound teacher, and I’ve been a fortunate student of his (Like Eddie who was profiled yesterday, Jeff was in our first MEA beta cohort the first week of January 2019). He’s a deep listener and a world-class facilitator.

This question affects a growing number of mid-lifers who feel like a brown banana in the produce stand—well past its sell-by date. And, yet a publication in the New England Journal of Medicine (2018) found that the most productive age in a human’s life is not in our 20s or 30s, but between the ages of 60 and 70.

I recently told our MEA team that they didn’t have to work as hard as me. It was an odd statement. What I meant to say is they don’t have to work as much as me, partly because I feel like I’m living my calling and love what I’m doing.

Is Procrastination your middle name? Do you tend to focus on only the things you like doing or come easy to you? Have you tried various methods to get better organized but nothing seems to work? Since it was first published years ago, David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” has become one of the most influential business books, and the ultimate book on personal organization.

Much like today, eighteen years ago, San Francisco was in a world of hurt. The combination of the dot-com bust, 9/11, and a recession meant “The City” was having a crisis of confidence. Nowhere was that more evident than in the hotel industry which was preparing for a battle royale with the local hotel union as it was time to negotiate a new contract while we were at the bottom of a ditch.

Would be interested in your perspective on this New York Times article focusing on Joe Biden’s wisdom. I don’t bring it up to be political, as Wisdom Well does its best not to venture into political waters very often.

Our mindset is the self-perception we hold about ourselves and the world. The mindset we adopt for ourselves can profoundly affect the way we live our lives. As many of you know, Carol Dweck popularized the idea of fixed and growth mindsets.