Last week, I went for a 40-mile bike ride in the rain. Add to the scenario that I have poison ivy on my arms, legs, and feet from a recent visit to Bernheim Forest, and it may sound crazy that this felt like a good idea. And, that I had a great time.

Here’s how I think about it. My body and mind have the power to do more than I may ever be able to unleash. What I can do is step (or ride) into situations where they are tested and pushed toward their limits. If I aspire to one day do an adventure race, bike mountains in Colorado, or do an ultra-marathon, any of these could include rain, snow, ice, or other physical – and mental - limitations. Practicing now helps me understand that I’m not only capable, but also prepared to adapt quickly and problem solve with glasses covered in rain drops and my feet itching as I push into the peddles.

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This morning as I rode my bike down River Road and over in Southern Indiana, I reflected on incremental gains (also called marginal gains), and how much they play a role in our development as people and progress toward the goals we set for ourselves, and with others. In this Harvard Business Review article, Sir Dave Brailsford breaks down the marginal gains approach he used to support a team of cyclists in winning Olympic Gold, grounded in 3 pillars: strategy, human performance, and continuous improvement.

Those three pillars are applicable across areas in our life. From recreational activity – like biking – to leadership, public speaking, and how we approach life-long learning.

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In a piece for HuffPost, author Susan Pearse quotes Aristotle, “courage is the first of human qualities because it’s the quality that guarantees the others.” She goes on to say that, “courage is acting in the face of fear. Sitting with the discomfort but working through it, not around it. Showing up fiercely and completely, bringing your vulnerabilities, imperfections and inadequacies, but not being driven by them.” Pearse talks about facets of courage – and as I’ve found, there are many.

On May 15, 2020, Aspen Institute’s Executive Leadership Seminars team hosted their weekly Connected Learning in a Time of Confinement discussion session, a text-based dialogue facilitated on Zoom – with participants joining virtually from across the United States, Finland, and beyond. The week’s topic: Courage and Sacrifice. Opening the discussion, Todd Breyfogle, Managing Director of Aspen Institute’s Executive Leadership Seminars asked, “What does courage mean to you?”

For me, courage manifests in many ways throughout life.

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This morning I listened to two episodes of Brené Brown's podcast Unlocking Us (https://brenebrown.com/unlockingus) while doing my at-home balance meets ballet workout – one episode on comparative suffering, and one on grief and finding meaning.

I was reminded of my recent tele-therapy session, when my therapist pointed out that we need to give ourselves some grace – especially in times like this. Grace to grieve. Grace to re-define productive. Grace to adapt and find new ways of working, being. Grace with ourselves, and with others.

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Through our work at IDEAS xLab, I’ve become convinced that curiosity plays an increasingly important role in collaboration, in building trust, and in sustaining meaningful connections. When combined with creativity, expressed and unlocked through arts and culturally-rooted practices, curiosity will help us to foster strong cross-sectors partnerships for driving the systems-level change so needed in our country.   

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Derby day 2018 was my last day of drinking alcohol.

I’m grateful that my last day was one with great memories spent at Churchill Downs with Derby Diversity & Business Summit. No negative ramifications from drinking — just the realization that it was the right time. I had the power to stop, I now had to choose to stop.

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Throughout the day, we heard from P&G team members including Nalina Bates who reminded us that, “Diverse organizations outperform and out innovate other organizations.” And, from Karl Preissner, who described MARC (Men Advocating Real Change), and said, “Discussing systemic cultural advantages (privilege) is important, because understanding it, and the various ways it impacts us drives how we build inclusion in the workplace.”

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On November 7, 2018, the Humana Foundation’s Thought Leadership series, designed to spark innovative and collaborative thinking, brought Dr. Stephanie Cacioppo, Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience to Louisville to discuss over 20 years of work and research done by she and her late husband Dr. John Cacioppo around social connection and loneliness. “Social isolation is a discrepancy between our current and expected relationships,” she said.

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