Grab a date or ride solo for a goal setting workshop on Thursday, February 16th, from 7-9PM at MadeWest Brewing Company in Ventura, CA.

Open to anyone in the Ventura, Malibu, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles area who likes beer and wants to set goals. Or just wants to set goals. Or just likes beer.

Over the past three days, I've participated in a FranklinCovey 7 Habits of Highly Effective People training course in partnership with the US Army. As the Army values building individual resilience, growth, and development, they have partnered up with FranklinCovey to offer training to chaplains throughout the military. Stephen Covey's landmark book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People was released in 1989 and has gone on to sell over 40 million copies around the world. It is regarded as one of the most successful books in history; it is a NYT Bestseller, and it has been called the most influential business book of the 21st century. High praise for a book filled with “simple” concepts.

Wed, September 28, 2022, 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM PDT on Zoome

Resilience is often defined as the ability to bounce back from a difficulty and is a critical tool in the workplace and in life. But new research in post-traumatic growth suggests that individuals and employees have the capacity to do more than simply endure difficult times. In this session, Dusty will argue that adversity is not merely something to survive but can be a critical catalyst for growth. Attendees will leave with practical tools to help them face adversity in their own life as well as lead others through turbulent times.

A few months ago, Rich asked me to give him some feedback on a new book he was writing: The Wise Investor. At a surface level, the book is about personal finance, but the lessons contained within expand beyond where to invest money and instead serve as a pathway for seeking mentorship, clarifying values, and exploring what it means to live life on your own terms. That book has now been released as an eBook, where it has been a daily bestseller, and the hardcover edition is available on pre-order through Amazon.  

When I was a kid and an adult asked me what I wanted to do or be when I grow up, I never said I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I would say I wanted to be a veterinarian, or an airline pilot like my dad, or the first female president of the United States (that always got a smile). But fast forward 20 years and an entrepreneur is what I am. I started freelancing at 24 and here I am still working for myself ten years later. Somehow I made it work. Even though I didn’t know what an entrepreneur was (probably couldn’t even spell the word) in grade school, that’s what I am today. And I have come to believe that everyone—yes, even you—is an entrepreneur. I know this because at the end of the day, we are all working for ourselves.

Skull & Bones Society co-founder and facilitator Dusty Breeding is heading over to sunny Tampa, Florida, to present on resilience and post-traumatic growth—appropriate content given the events of the last two years. The workshop is entitled, The Practice of Adversity.

One of the areas where we focus our coaching and development is in helping couples relate to one another better. Because when relationships improve, families improve, communities improve, and the world improves. Are you part of a couple? Know someone who is? You won’t want to miss our next couples workshop, called The Garage, on Sunday, April 10, 2022, from 5:30-7:00pm.

Kick start your Daily Check-In practice today with the Seven Day Check-In Challenge.

From my vantage point (running the slides), I heard attendees share about moments from their past—both positive and painful—that contributed to who they are today. I was reminded of the way values emerge sometimes in mysterious ways and carry tremendous impact on our identity and the way we relate to others. We learned about the two kinds of values: Terminal (where you’re going) and Instrumental (how you’ll get there).

Do you ever feel like you're wasting your time doing things that don't ultimately matter to you? Have you ever felt like satisfaction and contentment are always just one more promotion, a car that is just a bit nicer, or a marriage that is just a bit happier? You're not alone, and you're not broken.

This 90-minute virtual course is designed to help you identify your values and develop the skills for living every moment with intention. Over the course of the session, Dusty will lead participants through a series of exercises geared toward self-discovery, dialogue, inspiration, and action.

Since the rise of the religiously unaffiliated “nones,” increasing numbers of young adults are facing a dilemma: they don’t want to join a faith community, but sometimes the complexities of life call for someone with spiritual chops. Who do they call when their mom gets a cancer diagnosis or when they want to plan a wedding ceremony? Society has cobbled together secular responses to many of the roles traditionally ascribed to professional clergy, but more and more chaplains are showing up in an unexpected place—at work.

Like your relationship? Want to make it better? Join in for Foundations, a weekend retreat into the wilderness of Malibu, CA, where we’ll dive into the Foundations for Couples curriculum while camping, hiking, and exploring the great outdoors.

February 11-13, 2022

Malibu Creek State Park, Malibu, CA

We’re big readers, and every year we look back over the titles we’ve read and identify one book that had the most profound impact on our outlook and day-to-day lives. The 2021 award goes to David Brooks’ The Second Mountain. Tagline: the quest for a moral life.

C.S. Lewis on living in light of our inevitable annihilation: ‘How are we to live in an atomic age?’ I am tempted to reply: ‘Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat at night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents. In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation.

I know it sounds complicated, but it’s really not. 1) Imagine, 2) Measure, 3) Plan, 4) Execute…. repeat!

Richard Boyatzis, a professor at Case Western Reserve University, introduced the model of Intentional Change Theory in a 2006 article. It’s a model that describes how meaningful and sustainable change happens. And it’s scalable from the individual, to couples, to families and teams, to organizations, communities, countries, and the whole globe. Here’s how it works.

Some people are surprised by this, but Dusty and I have been in therapy for as long as we’ve been a couple. We always say, “We like our relationship, we want it to be better, so we talk to a therapist!” We try to normalize going to therapy as a discipline of maintenance rather than recovery or rehabilitation. We maintain our marriage for the same reason we maintain our vehicles: we don’t want to wind up broken down on the side of the road.