On November 17, 1981, Professor Wallace Kennedy of Florida State University (our alma mater) spoke to students of Maclay School in Tallahassee. One of their senior classmates, Margaret, had committed suicide the day before, and they were in distress.

When we posted Professor Kennedy's compelling talk last year, Carol Robinson, Margaret's sister, reached out to express her surprise and thanks.  Carol had been looking for this speech for years and was glad that others might benefit from her family's tragic loss. You never know!

One of the biggest enemies of success and peace is worry.  Worry creates fear, drains your energy, prevents you from achieving your potential, while obstructing you from your goals.  Not much happens – good or otherwise - when you are paralyzed with worry. 

Research studies reveal that we typically worry five times more about things that will never happen than things that actually occur. That’s a lot of wasted worry!

Your mindset reflects your past, describes your present, and predicts your future.

Excellence, like leadership, is built from the inside out. Your organization’s excellence will rarely exceed your team’s excellence, and your team’s excellence will rarely exceed your personal excellence.

Therefore, the most important question a leader should ask is: “What am I currently doing to improve my personal excellence?”

Inspiring coaches work  on themselves before they work on their teams. It starts inside with an understanding of yourself.