Equanimity means being present in the moment, simply noticing what’s happening and then releasing it as the next moment unfolds. I like this simple definition of equanimity:

The art of letting things go.

We know when we’re in a state of equanimity because we feel it – calm, peace, ease, joy. It shows up on our face.

The look of equanimity

This...

A colleague recently asked me to write a post for her blog Love the Life You Lead. The only guideline she stipulated was to start with a question. I realized that getting to where I am now required changing the questions I was asking. Here’s my story of discovering the right questions.

My Story, Part 1: Breaking Free

I lived the first 25 years of...

So often we think of ourselves as simply actors in a predetermined script where we have no options other than to play out the role as it has been defined to please others.

Imagine that instead of simply being an actor in a play or movie where someone else writes the script, you get to be the scriptwriter as well as the actor. You get to decide wha...

When I was in a corporate marketing role, I was involved in a lot of strategic planning. I learned that it’s rare for people to successfully manage the process and make decisions about the content.

When in discussions about strategic priorities and direction, it’s easy to get caught up in the current crisis or day-to-day activities and then run ou...

In formal mentoring programs, preparation and training for the participants is critical to the success of the mentoring partnership.

Mentoring is an intimate learning relationship that requires intentionality to make it work. Too often I hear about programs that weren’t successful and have resulted in formal mentoring programs getting a bad rap. T...

I was inspired last week after facilitating a workshop on “Diversity and Inclusion on Teams” for a class of engineering students at the University of Toronto. As part of the university’s Leaders of Tomorrow program, students can obtain a certificate in Team Skills. Engineering. Leadership. Team Skills. Diversity and Inclusion. How remarkable! All t...

We tend to have a variety of networks that serve various purposes. From growing our businesses to growing ourselves. From gaining a new skill to gaining visibility in the marketplace.

A developmental network is a special type of network defined as “a set of relationships an individual has with people who take an active interest in and action to ...

Chaos. Not knowing. Confusion. Uncertainty. These are not words that we typically include in describing the environment we want to create to solve problems. More likely these are often the descriptors we are actively seeking to eliminate. And yet, it’s at the edge of chaos and order that innovation lives. It is also the exact place where the practi...

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how to make lasting systemic social change. There are lots of methodologies and best practices and training programs around that serve a good purpose and yet the problems they are intended to resolve are still prevalent, in some cases getting worse.

Last week I attended a Change Lab workshop in Toronto, facili...

What is so fearful about saying “I don’t know”? Who made up the rule that we have to know all the time? That there is something wrong if we don’t know?

No such rule exists. In fact, the more we can slow down and be ok with ‘not knowing’, the better ideas we’ll have and the greater progress we will make more quickly.

Consider these three approache...