Jun 12

Jun 12 You Cannot Live an Extraordinary Life by Making Ordinary Choices

All of us want to be good people, but our desire and our intentions are not enough. In 2012, Bronnie Ware published “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying,” in which she recorded the most common regrets that her dying patients shared with her as their nurse. The most common of all? “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”

In other words, the most powerful regret most people have is that they did not cross the threshold, choosing to live a life of comfort and ease, rather than a life of purpose and peace.

Mar 15

Mar 15 Finding Your Mentor Can Help You Fight Your Fears

Chad Ellsworth

Hero's Journey, Building Heroes

Out of the depths of our own doubts, fears, and uncertainties, we desperately need a nudge. We need someone who can propel us forward in our journeys, who can provoke our ability to see possibilities we had not seen before, and who can ignite within us the fire to forge ahead.

For many of us, our mentors may be family members, friends, neighbors, principals, teachers, coworkers, supervisors, coaches, or teammates. Mentors also may be aspirational, fictional, or historical figures we never actually meet. Nonetheless, whoever they may be, mentors provide a critical ingredient for the hero’s journey.

Nov 16

Nov 16 The Heroic Arts of Leadership at Work: Why Your Leadership Journey is Our Human Journey

Chad Ellsworth

Hero's Journey, Heroic Arts, Building Heroes, Workplace

Whether we are learning to ride a bike or starting a new job, the hero’s journey offers us a guide for the process we will go through: We commit to doing something new or different, we encounter people who help us along the way, we experience setbacks and successes, and in the end, we achieve our goal.

The hero’s journey is simply the human journey.

In the hero’s journey, we step outside of our comfort zone to challenge the status quo; we confront our foes, our fears, and our failures; and in the end, we create positive change and influence the world around us, as big or as small as it may be. Leadership is an iterative process. Artists are always creating and inspiring; leaders are always influencing and making the people around them better.

Jun 22

Jun 22 What Do You Mean, "There is a Hero in All of Us?"

Chad Ellsworth

Hero's Journey, Building Heroes

At the outset of the hero’s journey, the hero-to-be receives a call to adventure or an invitation to depart from the status quo.

The comfortable environment we live in may result from the subtle, and not-so-subtle, expectations of the people around us. It may be the decision that the problem we observed is “none of our business,” or it may be tuning in to the messages that support our viewpoint, while tuning out those that do not.

We live the repetitive rhythm of an average, everyday, mundane, normal, ordinary, and altogether routine world. In fact, our bodies and our minds crave the emotional and mental ease of living life on autopilot, and we often will go to great lengths to preserve this state.

Apr 6

Apr 6 Why Leadership is an Art, Not a Science

Chad Ellsworth

Building Heroes, Heroic Arts, Workplace

If culture is the most important work of leadership, it also must be true that culture is a direct result of what the leader does. Leadership is the craftsmanship of leaders. Leadership is authentic, deliberate, and personal work that evokes an intentional response from its recipients. In this way, leadership is not performed on a group of people, but rather for and with a group of people.