A crucial feature of practicing courage, then, is making sure the practice requires courage!

You cannot bring two teams together by simply talking about unity. They must experience unity. That’s what makes it a defining moment.

Is there a way to channel this same spirit inside organizations—to counteract the “command and control” culture of goals and plans? A wise leader can look for milestones en route to a larger goal. Let’s say your group has been tasked with boosting customer satisfaction by 20% by the end of the third quarter. You might have no control over that goal

accomplished together? One couple we know kept an anniversary journal for the first decade of their marriage. Every year they would record the things they accomplished: Redecorating the back bedroom, hosting extended family for Thanksgiving dinner, and so on. They’d also record the trips they took, and the friends they saw most frequently, and,

We have a natural hunger for these landmarks in time. Take the prevalence of New Year’s resolutions.4 The Wharton professor Katherine Milkman said she found it striking that “at the start of a new year, we feel like we have a clean slate. It’s the ‘fresh start effect’ … all of my past failures are from last year and I can think, ‘Those are not me.

coauthors James Gilmore and Joseph Pine (who wrote the seminal

many people believe they need to find their calling, as though it were a “magical entity that exists in the world waiting to be discovered.”6 She believes purpose isn’t discovered, it’s cultivated.

Self-understanding comes slowly. One of the few ways to accelerate it—to experience more crystallizing moments—is to stretch for insight.

challenge and if you fail, I’ll help you recover. That’s mentorship in two sentences. It sounds simple, yet it’s powerful enough to transform careers.