Morning Briefings

Most of us have been too busy writing the story of our life in the first half to be able to read it. Attention to our own stories is partly forced on us by circumstances in the second half of life. Our children mature and move out, our colleagues retire and move on, our parents and friends grow old and pass away–all of these events focus our minds on who we are, how we’ve gotten here and where we’re going.

– Richard J. Leider & David A. Shapiro
Claiming Your Place at the Fire: Living the Second Half of Your Life on Purpose

Words–and the way our actions do or don’t stand behind their meaning–have an incredible capacity to wound us or heal us. Words create reality, for we all invest in one another’s words with our hopes, fears and expectations.

– Daphne Rose Kingma
True Love

I don’t want to do things to sell myself on myself. I don’t want to do nice things for people so that I will be ‘nice.’ I don’t want to work to make money, I want to work to work. Today I don’t want to live for, I want to live.

– Hugh Prather
Notes to Myself: My Struggle to Become a Person

At the heart of working men and women is the longing–though oft forgotten and sadly despaired of–to participate in something greater than themselves, to belong to a cause that is meaningful and to share in a legacy that endures.

– Richard D. Phillips
The Heart of an Executive: Lessons on Leadership from the Life of King David

Every godly leader understands she is just a servant using her natural gifts while waiting to be ushered into God’s purpose and presence.

– Victoria Lowe
10 Spiritual Principles of Successful Women

The truth is that no one really knows if he (she) is an entrepreneur until he becomes one–and sometimes not even then. There really is only one question you should ask yourself before starting any new venture: Do I want to make meaning?

– Guy Kawasaki
The Art of the Start

So tell me why, the first to ask, is the last to give, every time. What you say and do not mean follow too close behind.

– Ben Harper
Diamonds on the Inside

Principle One: Devote Your Work to the Real Boss. All of the work that we do in life, indeed every endeavor we pursue, is ultimately to be performed for the glory of God.

– Michael A. Zigarelli
Management by Proverbs

Life is much more than coping and adjusting. Mysterious as it may be, there is something wonderful at the heart of our existence, and it is about nothing other than love: love for God, love for one another, love for creation, love for life itself.

– Gerald G. May, MD
The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness and Spiritual Growth

I call it the big question. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the only question. It is the ultimate question: God, what do you think I should do?

– Matthew Kelly
in a September 30, 2009 speech at the Orange County Catholic Prayer Breakfast