character development | A Life of Character

character development

Accessing Implicit Bias

How Shame Limits Self Knowledge By Kate Lingren Most of us don’t talk about bias or racism or sexism or homophobia much in our daily lives. There is often a lot of shame associated with discussing these topics, so we just don’t mention them. But avoidance doesn’t help us and doesn’t help our society, so

Finding Trust in the Middle of a Pandemic

Man leading woman on a hike

By Sandy Baker The message was brief.  “I’m sorry, you can no longer schedule an appointment with your heart failure doctor. He’s working towards retirement. We have several recommendations for you.” My husband, at the age of 43, has been waiting for a heart transplant for three years. We knew Dr. Young was getting older

Losing Relationships and Finding Yourself

Losing Relationships and Finding Yourself

By Kelechi Udoagwu  “When nobody wakes you up in the morning, and when nobody waits for you at night, and when you can do whatever you want. What do you call it, freedom or loneliness?” — Bukowski I am up at 2am, sipping tea and writing this article. Why? Because I dozed off at 9pm

Rest: An Act of Kindness to Yourself

By Kelehi Udoagwu “Slowing down does not indicate that you are giving up. It simply means that your soul is seeking some well-earned recharge.” ― Christine Szymanski The world has gone through many difficulties this year. By simply being a citizen of any country, you’re likely to have felt grief hit close to home. As

Can Our Values Ever Change?

By Laura Crandall Yes. Especially if we want to grow. There is a certain rigor that we seem to lean toward when discussing our values. It’s a sense they should be absolute, perfected, and unyielding. While values like integrity and kindness often reverberate throughout our lives, other values such as ambition or temperance may shift

How to Be More Flexible with Your Experience and Intuition to Make Better Decisions

By Victoria Brodsky Past experiences can leave us rigid and inflexible when it comes to decision making. Though experience is helpful, intuition should not be left out of the decision-making process. Learn how to combine past experiences and personal intuition to make the best decisions for personal and professional development. Intuition vs. Gut Feeling  Intuition

Discovering Faith in Yourself

By Laura Crandall How intuition and self-esteem brought me back from burnout. I was supposed to be over-the-moon happy. I’d just completed the biggest thing on my List of Things That Would Be Wonderful To Do:  I’d graduated from Harvard.  The idea first emerged when I was 16 and beginning to think about college. But

Better than “Normal”

By Laura Crandall Leading with our best work yet Have you ever gotten lost in the woods or really turned-around in an unfamiliar city? Did you, while trying to figure out where you were and how to get to where you wanted to go, decide that being disoriented was probably how life would feel from

Language and Love

By Elly Mullins Keeping Our Minds Flexible I first met Gray when he was eight years old.  He sat on the floor of his mother’s living room coloring a picture of a robot; he nervously looked away as I entered the room to join him, his mother, and the case manager who was facilitating our

Grief and Loss in a Time of Global Distress

By Laura Crandall The importance of creating rituals of kindness In times of old – you know, back in 2019 – if a family member or other person you loved died, there were predictable paths and social norms to acknowledge grief and loss. These might have been dictated by one’s religion or individual beliefs, but