Category: Back To The Future

We don’t teach potential

pink post it note with 3 handwritten notes
From a year and a half ago, a spontaneous idea got written down so i wouldn’t forget. Riffing on this idea today, Dec 14, 2025.

We don’t teach potential.

Why?

My theory, from living 6+ decades: most of us have a challenge living up to our own potential.

Stereotypically, most of us (myself included) never live up to our grandiose dreams, hopes, and goals.

Life is hard.

It’s fair to say that most of us unintentionally settle for decently average. We feel good if we can at least run with the pack.

Also stereotypically, average personal results make for average teachers.

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This website is about our MIND. To read today’s post about our BODY, click here.

Different in 2026

mountains
Unlikely i’ll ever return to this vantage point.

Growth-mindset isn’t reduced as we scale back Glacier visits.

Growth-mindset is increased as we scale back Glacier visits.

Less time in Glacier means more time for new adventures.

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This website is about our MIND. To read today’s post about our BODY, click here.

All improvement is incremental

All improvement is incremental…

Improvement stems from the magic of compound interest.

Countless small iterations.

In hindsight, it turns out that each iteration required all the preceding iteration attempts— all the failures and the successes.

The more you try, the more you fail.

The more you fail, the closer you get to improvement. Until one day, a small, never-been-tried tweak or a sudden, random idea creates a eureka moment.

What feels like a breakthrough in reality is a culmination of small, almost invisible positive steps toward the eureka moment.

This is great news.

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This website is about our MIND. To read today’s post about our BODY, click here.

Take everything we own

woman on a loading dock with boxes
August, 1984. Clothes. Personal effects. Kitchen stuff. No furniture. No appliances. We were leaving a Washington State University Residence Hall. Residence Hall Director, Cheryl, pictured here. It was a fully furnished and stocked apartment.

Take everything we own, to Orlando, Florida.

That’s what we paid for. Because that’s what we needed.

We didn’t have much, yet our growth-mindset whispered, “You have it all.”

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This website is about our MIND. To read today’s post about our BODY, click here.

Happy 2026

Happy New Year, 2026.

You will never regret becoming and staying mentally vibrant.

You know…

Optimistic, intentional, over-focused.

Growth-mindset centered.

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This website is about our MIND. To read today’s post about our BODY, click here.