The Comeback Is Not a Straight Line
Setbacks inside the recovery are part of the recovery.
Category: Moments
Short real-time updates and posts from Chris — the “Magic Moments” live feed.
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The Teacher Who Changed Your Course: Writing the Thank-You You Never Sent
Teacher Appreciation Week arrives in early May, and it is a good excuse to thank the teacher who shaped you years ago. Here’s how to find them and what to say. Read more
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Why Poetry Helps in Hard Seasons
April is National Poetry Month, a good time to pick up an art form most people left behind in school. Poems reach what advice cannot, and they ask for only a minute a day. Read more
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Forgiving Yourself for Lost Time
The sense of wasted years is one of the heaviest things people carry out of a hard season, and one of the main things that keeps them stuck. Why the time was not empty, and how to stop relitigating it. Read more
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Perfectionism Is Not the Same as High Standards
Both involve caring about quality, but they run on different engines. High standards are about the work and pull you forward. Perfectionism is about the self and holds you in place. Read more
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Being Passed Over for a Promotion: What to Do Next
Few workplace setbacks sting like watching someone else get the role you wanted. What you do in the following weeks, from asking for real reasons to choosing a path, matters more than the decision. Read more
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Ten Habits That Take Ten Minutes or Less
Busy seasons and hard seasons leave no time for elaborate routines. The habits with the biggest effect on steadiness are mostly small. Ten that fit into a day when almost nothing else does. Read more
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A Realist’s Guide to Optimism
Naive optimism sets people up for a second fall. There is a sturdier kind, built on accurate assessment and a focus on what you can influence, and it may be the most useful mindset a comeback can have. Read more
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Why Helping Someone Else Helps You Get Back Up
It sounds backward when you are the one struggling, yet people often name the moment they became useful to someone else as a turning point. Why it works, and why you do not need to be fixed first. Read more
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The Comeback Vocabulary: Words That Help and Words That Hurt
The words you use to describe your situation direct your attention, and attention directs action. The small words that quietly corrode a comeback, and the ones that leave the future open. Read more
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Why Boredom Is Part of Building Something Good
Nobody warns you about the dull middle, where the same unremarkable things are done over and over long after the novelty fades. The boredom is not a flaw in the process. It is a sign it is working. Read more