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Blog Post Podcasts Video

How do we find the joy in where we are?

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Podcasts Quotes Video

Who do we allow to influence us?

Join me for a quick tip on influence and persuasion. Video is approx 7 minutes

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Blog Post Video

7 Quick Tips from Sinek: Playing The Infinite Game

Watch all 7 of our quick tips on Simon Sinek’s Infinite Game.

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Quotes Video

Check out the new series on our YouTube channel

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Blog Post Quotes Video

How to know if you are helping or enabling?

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Blog Post Quotes

A Positively Magical(?) Way to Foster Accountability

We can all become “energy vampires” at times – if left unchecked. Our role as leaders is to check that tendency at every turn- both in the culture and, perhaps more importantly, in ourselves.

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Blog Post Quotes

We rise by lifting others

Here is a letter I wrote to a community I belong to when that tribe was at a low point. When we had suffered losses. When the future was uncertain. Fell free to use this, all or part of it, and share it, when you find yourself in a similar situation. Friends, Today is not […]

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Blog Post Quotes

Funny thing is, you’re a genius!

Find your humor and genius and soar! I am excited to bring you an installment of Four4Soaring, with the intent of sparking new ways to look at and approach life, tackle the changes we are faced with, and exercise our collective growth mindset as we grow. Originally published on Medium : John Johnson·8 min read […]

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Blog Post Quotes

The Time Traveler’s Guide to Leading through Change

Food 4 Thought from four4soaring We don’t have to change, we GET TO change. The brevity of that mantra and the substitution of the words “get to” for “have to” or “must” evokes anticipation, engagement, and action. At least it feels like that is what the “influencers” and leaders who started introducing this “get to” […]

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Podcasts

Business Made Simple Review: Honored to join the SOI Podcast for the 2nd Time

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Blog Post

A Tale of Two Cyborgs: Don’t let a glitch make you twitch

Much like our technological enhancements of today, sometimes the technology helped these fabled bionic TV heroes soar more independently than any other human before and sometimes it got downright “glitchy.” We can do better..together.

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Finding your way on the hero’s journey

Originally posted on Medium · 5 min read I think anyone who reads my content with any regularity probably has a sense that I am one who reads a great many leadership books and soaks in more than my share of non-fiction. Long time readers are likely to know that I have an affinity for […]

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Embrace Change with Curiosity (and DON’T follow that hat!)

In these troubling times many of us have experienced change or loss. While the sting of those losses, some professional, too many personal and all deeply impactful, remains with us, we find ourselves facing the winds of change, off balance and chasing who we used to be. In the aftermath, many of us find ourselves […]

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Blog Post Jokes Video

George Carlin on The Little Things We Share

At a time when we feel our differences are unprecedented and we feel the divides and “space between us” are insurmountable, there is solace in recognizing that we have always had differences. We have always had deep rifts in our national “tribal subcultures.” Nearly 30 years ago, in 1992, George Carlin exposed a great many […]

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Blog Post Quotes

Your Feed is a Barometer

As you scroll through your social media feed today, the day after the president-elect was projected by the media. The day that some celebrate in anticipation of that projection being ratified, even while others struggle to reconcile whether that truly is the final result of a contested American referendum… As you swipe through stories, as […]

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Blog Post Jokes Quotes

Throw Down your Shield and Embrace the Awkward

Sometimes someone relates to our willingness to be awkward and vulnerable and it brings value to their lives.

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A call for Oneness in a moment of division

What is our posture supposed to be like as we are pushed into further and further division? Amazing words of clarity from my favorite teachers.

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Blog Post

Questions Impact Culture

Does (y)our approach around asking questions have an impact on culture? A couple of years ago, I facilitated a discussion on another forum centered around the questions spurned from a previous post : No Capes. It was interesting to enter into dialog with folks both within and outside my profession around the topic of people […]

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Steering Your Ship Through the Storms of Change

When we take on massive change and we seek to overhaul huge swaths of any organization, system, process and/or culture, we, in essence, create a man-made storm. If we try to predict everything that will happen, we are, just like the so-called “layman experts” described above, deceiving ourselves. Never have I guessed perfectly what would happen, never was I fully prepared, often I have been underwhelmed, but too frequently I have been surprised or overwhelmed.

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Video

Angry or Afraid? Video

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Blog Post

We Get To : Reprise (with Lumen5)

The revised blog post: I’ve been reflecting on the words of one of my HR leaders a great deal in recent weeks: “We get to change.” I’d credit her by name, but I do my best not to call out the details of my “day job” in this blog. That job and my other paid […]

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Blog Post

Memoirs and Crystal Balls are Fictions to Beware of…

We must overcome our flawed lenses on the past and future to be less fearful in the present.

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Quotes

Engage with one another

I admire the daylights out of this man and appreciate his impactful TED Talk – learning from others we view as different than us is more critical now than ever…

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Podcasts

See and Be The Bridge: Audio Podcast

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Podcasts

Four4Soaring Launches a Podcast

Hi Soarers! I just wanted to give everyone a heads up that I have been dabbling with recording podcast versions of the blog. The podcast can be found on multiple platforms where podcasts are available like Spotify. I am using an app called Anchor and my iPhone to create the podcasts and right now they […]

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Instead of Cicero’s Six Mistakes…

It strikes me as worth noting that man has struggled with the same challenges throughout time. Witness what the Roman statesman, Cicero, who lived from 106 BC to 43 BC, wrote all those centuries ago. We observe these obstacles in our every day lives in the 21st century and as you can read in his […]

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Let me build a bridge, for I cannot fill the chasm…

The poet of my youth was one Gordon Sumner, aka Sting. The first concert I ever went to was Dream of the Blue Turtles, his debut solo album. A bit odd for a kid my age as all my other friends went to the Journey, AC/DC and KISS concerts, and I loved all that music […]

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A mom for all seasons

If many of you were to write a blog about your mom and titled it ” A mom for all seasons” I suspect your story might be about one special woman who showered you with unconditional love, who was your rock, your inspiration and a guiding light in your life. Still others of you might […]

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Surviving change without going ape

How many times have we left for work, fully intending to play the part of the ever-composed, quietly observant, always benevolent Jane Goodhall, only to find ourselves at the end of the day, flinging feces at our teammates in a primitive display of dominance and one-upmanship? “You cannot get through a single day without having an […]

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Blog Post

What are you choosing to take with you?

Do you need all that junk you are carrying around? How much of what you encounter every day is because of what you choose to take with you everywhere you go? Luke Skywalker: What’s in there? (Motioning toward a cave) Yoda: Only what you take with you. (Luke grabs his belt with lightsaber and blaster). […]

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Blog Post Quotes

Pushing people into the chasm of tension as an act of service.

Once, I thought all tension was “bad” or “negative.” I was under the assumption that making others uncomfortable (or my making a mistake) was always a “mark against me on the scoreboard of life.” This could be because I am innately, at least according to many of the personality inventories I’ve taken the last 40 […]

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The “Colonel” Of Truth and our bias in the war against him.

Why do I write this blog? What is this whole #four4soaring thing about anyway? As I ponder this question I am assaulted by what Steven Furtick calls the Chatterbox in my own head: You are writing this blog out of ego. You want to be liked. You crave attention. You don’t really care about anyone […]

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Blog Post

Is blind faith what it’s all about?

Faith is not blind. It sees. Where we falter, it renews. I have always been fascinated by dogma. Fundamentalism is something of a preoccupation of mine. So much so that I used to equate those two things with Faith and in particular following Jesus. I used to think that there was a requirement to believe […]

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Why do we run from things rather than toward something greater than ourselves?

What is it about our human nature that is so stoked in fear that we are constantly looking for any excuse to find the exit? What saturates our brains in flight or fight neuropathy so much that it feels like we are always either defending our flank or leaping like an antelope for the safety […]

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Slapped in the face with the mirror of “for” vs “from.”

I write two blogs. This one and one for work. This one is called Four4Soaring, as you know, and the one at work is called Friday Food For Thought. I suppose, something about “F” sounds and the word “for” just speak to me. I think it is because I do my best to be ” […]

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The Payoff and Price of Flourishing

My brother in law and I were joking about my relationship with my kids over the holiday break. He is the cool uncle, the fun one, the world traveler that takes them out and shows them how to have fun in the world and how to live in the moment. I am very thankful for […]

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Grow in unpredictable ways

As I walk my dogs each day I am struck by the beautiful oaks my neighborhood offers as majestic diversions along the roadway. One such oak must have had an interesting history because it has somehow found its balance much like a waiter with an outstretched arm holding a platter? I sought to capture a […]

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#Abundance

I follow this guy on Instagram who posts quotes the way I often do. He issued a challenge the other day to sum up my 2018 in one word. The first word that came to mind was blessed. I thought about sharing that word because it fits so perfectly and then I challenged myself to […]

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Flocking around the Christmas Tree

So we bought this thing called a “flocked tree” and I was thinking…someday I would love to Meet the Flockers. Who are these people that put flock – some sort of glue like substance that mimics snow- on the trees? I decided to build a set of questions to ask about these mysterious creatures and […]

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Brand and The Why

What is the four in Four4Soaring?

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Blog Post

An open hand

Read the full Story on Medium “John, when your hand is open you can give things away and at the same time make room for more.”

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Brand and The Why

We have a New Banner Logo!

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Thankful ain’t what YOU think

I used to dream of the ability to shower people with gifts that I thought would thank them properly and adequately. I used to pine tirelessly to imagine a way of thanking my bride for all she did to lift me up with “a big house” to quote Elton’s poet, Taupin: “where we both could […]

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Blog Post

Pepop: A Decorated Veteran of the Game of Life

Some months ago I wrote a story about my grandfather and how he taught me how to be full of CHIT: Curious | Humble | Intentional | Teachable. Today, I want to talk about this World War II veteran and how he has lived a life as a gritty hero, not just of World War […]

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Hello in There?! The call to seek connection and be known.

Who do you let in? Who do you seek out? How often do you stop, cup your hands to your mouth and cry: Hello in There? We all yearn to be known. We have this inborn appetite to be seen. We are also prompted to connect with others. The opposite, isolation, is both physically and […]

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A Tribute to Tim the Writer

On October 21, 2018, I was one of four people asked to share some of my thoughts with some of the gathered family and friends of Tim Sader at only the first of two services.  The following is the first draft of what I shared.  As usual, on the day this was shared the words […]

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May Your Torch Burn Long and Prosper

According to his parents May 19, 2011, was a Tuesday, it was the day they lost their first son and it was a day that his brother had the hardest time writing his blog, Tuesday’s Torch, but he wrote it anyway. He wrote it dutifully, beautifully and eloquently for 9 years.  He wrote it to […]

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Once Upon a Time, There Were Three Little Girls…and I was their Bosley

Our childhood wasn’t all Charlie’s Angels and Bosley to be sure! We rallied around each other when times were tough.  I call them my war buddies because we’ve seen and been through some scary stuff together….I can see when someone has the potential to grow from obscurity to the highest heights…  My sisters are such people…read more: click on pic or link in bio

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We DON’T Get To…

Today, I feel compelled to write about what we DON’T GET TO do. We don’t get to be more than we were created to be. ..Read more at four4soaring.com

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Change your lens to see more light.

Change your lens on life and change your life (and maybe others?) for the better. Read more at http://four4soaring.com .

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The Struggle is Real…Sometimes…

I am a restless person.  You might even call me “Restless by Nature.” That is not quite as cool as “Naughty By Nature” but I am anything but cool.  This restlessness is all too big a part of being human.  We struggle from the moment we emerge from the womb.  If you believe Maslow’s hierarchy (or […]