Author: Tracy Brower
Choose a Life, Not a Job: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Milk on Sunday
Danielle’s best advice to her son and daughter? Choose a life, not a job. This is precisely what Danielle* and her husband have done. They recently moved from Boston, MA to Basel, Switzerland. They’ve chosen a life for themselves and their children. Danielle isn’t an expat, she is a local employee at her Swiss company. […]
Purpose from the Inside Out
“I had it all wrong. I was planning for my life and my career externally, not internally.” Mary Brown is a business designer and her ability to help others design their work-life is based on her own success*. She says when she first started out, she had spreadsheets and plans for what would happen with […]
Aligning Vision and Values – 3 strategies for growth and 1 test for success
Mika (a pseudonym) is loving her new place. She has just moved in and on the scale of change, this year has been a biggee. In addition to her move with her nearly-five-year-old daughter, she has also left her job as a senior executive at her firm. It’s scary but she’s owning it, driving through […]
Have We Lost the Ability to Give?
I’m wondering if we’ve lost the ability to give – because we spend so much time receiving. For many families today, children get whatever they want, whenever they want it. Adults do too, it seems. If they need something, they purchase it. If they see something they like, they take it home. If they have […]
Detergent for Dignity
Recently, we donated holiday gift baskets. These were laundry baskets filled with mundane suppliers like detergent, dryer sheets, and dish liquid. It turns out they were also rife with dignity. Here’s the thank you note I received from the agency (Good Samaritan Center) where we donated them: “Thank you again for the laundry baskets! They […]
The Alchemy of Abundance – 7 Lessons for Growth
Margot (not her real name) is someone whose journey is both inspiring and instructive. Margot is a senior associate for her firm. In addition, she is a part-time instructor with a university. She is based in Canada and despite the record cold and snow on the day we met over lunch, she was warm and […]
My Mom Loves WWF and Other Surprising Truths
My 70-something mom loves WWF and I can’t blame her. It’s exciting, it’s engaging, and she can participate whenever she wants. I have to admit, every time she mentions WWF, I think of the World Wrestling Federation, but of course my mom could only be referring to her app, Words With Friends. It’s technology at […]
The Importance of Lasts
I’m struck by how we generally don’t know when something is happening for the last time: the last time I carried my toddler daughter up the stairs, or the last time I held my young son in my lap on a Saturday morning. We frequently pay attention to ‘firsts’. We diligently record them in baby […]
Reciprocity as Social Lubricant ~or~ How Receiving Can Be Just As Important as Giving
As Americans, we celebrate independence, rugged individualism, and the ability to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. I’m as independent and strong-willed to a fault so I’m all-in for that philosophy but lately I’ve been reflecting on the downside of our American penchant for independence. Unfortunately, the pendulum can swing too far and with the […]
Chipping Away: The Loss of Critical Skills ~or~ The Loving Act of Buying a Stamp
Every day, it seems I hear about critically important skills that we are losing because of changes around us. We are losing the ability to navigate for ourselves since GPS does it for us. A friend recently shared a story that her daughter who just arrived at her freshman year of college needed instruction on […]