Tag: inspiration

A Man and His Not So Good Day

Posted in kindnessTagged , , , , , 74 Comments

“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.” – Desmond Tutu

This past weekend my kids and I had a day where we did so many of our favorite things – saw friends, played games, sang, and hung out together. So at bedtime, we were talking about what a good day it was.

Then six-year-old Mr. D piped in, “But not for the man. He didn’t have a good day.”

Oh yes – the man. Mr. D and I had dropped Miss O off at her musical rehearsal and then were driving up the hill near our house at 10am on a Saturday morning. We were going to the grocery store for some snacks to eat on our way to baseball. We passed a man that was on his hands and knees on the little section of grass between the curb and the sidewalk.

That didn’t look right. So I backed down the hill and stopped next to him. As I got out of the car, a woman who was talking on her phone walked up. She had called 9-1-1. Between her conversation with them and some comments she directed to me, I got a sense of what had happened.

This 60-something man had been looking unsteady at the top of the hill. The woman and at least one other person had offered to help and he’d refused. He’d started down the hill, lost his balance and then face-planted somewhere near the bottom.

I gave him some napkins from my car to put on his face where it was bleeding. Mr. D picked up the pieces of his glasses. The woman was continuing her conversation with 9-1-1 but the man refused medical assistance. As she answered their questions, she sounded kinda snarky. Almost like she was put out that he got hurt after refusing her help.

I got out a collapsible chair from the back of our car and set it up. The man, whose name we found out was Mike, was able to get off the ground and sit in the chair. Mr. D found a bottle of water and we poured it over his bloody hands.

It turned out he lived a few blocks from where we discovered him. He dropped his shopping bag when he fell. The only thing in it was a now-smashed pint of gin whose contents had emptied on the sidewalk. Since he’d refused help from the authorities, I offered him a ride home. He didn’t want that either.

He stood up, I folded up the chair, the woman ended her call with 9-1-1 and we all went our separate ways. As we started driving again, Mr. D said, “that was scary.” When I asked what part, he responded, “All the blood.”

So at the end of the day, Mr. D was right – Mike probably didn’t have a good day. But I couldn’t help but think that scene was an allegory of what it means to be in community. I’d argue that it’s likely we all have been in each of the three roles at some point in our lives: the person turning down assistance even when we are feeling unsteady, the judgmental helper who is willing to step in but not without adding commentary, and the person who offers a chair. I know I have been all three.

And maybe the point is just to keep trying to improving the way we play our parts by accepting help, not being judgmental, and offering comfort in the effort to work toward some version of a future where no one falls down any more.

(featured photo is from Pexels)

You can find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wynneleon/ and Instagram @wynneleon

Please check out the The Life of Try podcast Where trying becomes the spark for personal growth, discovery, and re-invention!

Lessons in Persistence: A Child’s Perspective

Posted in ParenthoodTagged , , , , , , , 72 Comments

“Children are great imitators, so give them something great to imitate.” – unknown

On any given sunny day, it’s not a question of if we’ll hit something over the fence, it’s a question of which fence. In fact, six-year-old Mr. D hits baseballs over the fence so often, we call them “neighbors” instead of “homers” because they are our opportunity to visit our neighbors.

So it was no surprise that on one of the many warm and lingering light evenings last week, Mr. D and I were playing in the back yard and lost a stomp rocket over the fence. But it went into our neighbor’s yard that is not next door but lives on the street behind us. Those retrievals mean we have to either walk around the block to knock on the door…or try to retrieve it without leaving our yard by leaning over the fence to grab it if it hasn’t fallen too far.

On this occasion, we looked over the fence and saw the stomp rocket was stuck in a tree and almost in reach. So Mr. D tried to use a rake to get it. It fell lower.

Then we got out the duct tape, created a sticky end of a pole and tried to grab it. It was two inches too short.

By this point our yard was strewn with the ladder, rake and every other tool we’d considered for the project. I decided to attempt one last thing by using the extendible branch trimmer. I touched the rocket, it shifted, but I didn’t get it.

So I said to Mr. D, “We should just walk around and get it from their yard.”

He looked at me and said, “We can’t give up now!”

I had to chuckle. Serves me right for teaching my kids to try and to not give up. Then they parrot it back to me at all the important moments.

I gave it one more try and bingo, we got it.

I’m still laughing. And am taking it as confirmation that I chose the right name for my podcast, The Life of Try. 🙂

(featured photo is Mr. D during the retrieval process)

You can find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wynneleon/ and Instagram @wynneleon

Please check out the The Life of Try podcast Where trying becomes the spark for personal growth, discovery, and re-invention!

A Knock From Heaven

Posted in faithTagged , , , , , , 77 Comments

“Our life experiences will have resonances within our innermost being, so that we will feel the rapture of being alive.” – Joseph Campbell

The knock from heaven came at 9:12am on Friday, November 7th, 2014. Having an exact time for it makes it seemingly clear when it was anything but. But it was odd enough at the time to be noticeable.

I was driving to meditation class on a crisp, fall morning in Seattle. Not in a hurry because I had plenty of time before the 9:30 start, even if I needed to circle the block a few times to find parking. Driving the route between my house and the studio where we practiced meditation was neither complicated nor congested as we congealed into a circular pattern around the neighborhood lake.

I was in a euphoric mood because I’d just signed off on everything I needed to start my cycle to try to have a baby via in-vitro fertilization (IVF) as a single parent.

It felt like everything was about to change and I was riding high on that excitement. But the anticipation came with an edge.

First, the fear about how my 45-year-old body would handle pregnancy. I’d never tried to get pregnant before so there was no history one way or another. All the tests and procedures boded well but I was well into the category of advanced maternal age.

Second, the vulnerability of doing this without a partner. I hadn’t wanted to have kids until after I got divorced. I told my ex-husband that I didn’t want to have kids. After the relationship ended I discovered that the whole truth was that I didn’t want to have kids with him.

While it seemed like the divorce was because of his infidelities, both of us sustained wounds. His announcement that it was time to have kids and my refusal to cooperate were telling markers of our relationship. He expected me to orbit around him and I was more like an asteroid on my own trajectory.

I felt healthier and happier on my own. So much so that taking the risk to start a family on my own felt manageable. Scary and exposed but within my window of tolerance.

The third element in my mix of emotions was the buoyed elation of my close friends. I had three dear women older than me that carried their own stories of desire without success when it came to having kids. All of them had made peace with how life had worked out but stood as a testament to the complexity of ambition, expectations, and relationships. They channeled pure enthusiasm for my pursuit of creating a family in a non-traditional way.

So when the knock from heaven came, it pulled me out of my effort to tease out the threads of all these emotions. That guy on the bike next to me must have rapped on the back of my car. But there was no near collision or obvious reason why. Did I get too close to the bike lane and the biker tapped a warning? I didn’t think so. Maybe they’d had wobbled and reached out a hand to steady themselves? Or maybe I was going too slow?

Those were my explanations in the moment.

A few hours later, I was working on a project in the garage when I missed a call from my mom. When I dialed her back, she haltingly told me through tears that my beloved 79-year-old dad died in a bike riding accident. A bike accident. He’d gone for a ride in a quiet neighborhood in Tucson and just happened to turn a corner and hit the frame of a passing car. What in most cases would be a broken collarbone had instead been instantly fatal because of the angle of the collision.

After I hung up, I sat there in a daze. Then I thought of the knock. Had it happened at the same moment my dad died? No, he’d died at noon. Even accounting for the time change between Tucson, where he was, and Seattle, it wasn’t even close. The knock had come two hours before he died.

My understanding of the knock has traveled its own path through the stages of grief. Denial – it didn’t mean anything. Anger – I knew life was about to change but not like that! Sadness – there was never enough time with my enthusiastic and supportive dad. Bargaining – it must mean that my dad left this world knowing my IVF plan even though I wasn’t going to tell my parents until it worked.

And finally, acceptance. Sometimes heaven knocks when you really need to pay attention. A little tap to make sure you are tuned in. So that when the invitation comes to sign up for a job, or unseal the envelope that might contain bad news, or pick up a phone call from someone you haven’t heard from in ages, you are primed to lean in.

Now that I’ve accepted this, I hear knocks from heaven differently. Eleven years after that first one, they show up as the most ordinary things. Like the sound of footfalls on the stairs first thing in the morning from my six-year-old son. The beat of my heart catches something a little extra and I come awake to the miracle of the moment. It’s a stutter that accounts for the ups and downs and twists and turns that all came together to make this life possible.

Or the pulse in my wrist when I hold hands with my 86-year-old mom as we say grace before a meal. It feels like a tap to remember that even though she seems so healthy, the comfort of her physical hand in mine will not last forever.

Or the tap of my chin against my 10-year-old daughter’s head when she gives me a hug. The angle between our heights seems to change on a daily basis and our banter reflects the accelerating maturity. I squeeze a little tighter when I feel that knock so that she can feel in both her heart and her head that I’m near.

Sometimes heaven knocks to remind me that this life is more mystical than it seems. It doesn’t need to make perfectly logical sense in order to lean in to receive the courage and heart that comes with accepting that there is more here than meets the eye.  

(featured photo from Pexels)

You can find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wynneleon/ and Instagram @wynneleon

Please check out the The Life of Try podcast Where trying becomes the spark for personal growth, discovery, and re-invention!

How to Get Unstuck: Michael Yang on Saying Yes, Resilience and Coming Alive

Posted in thelifeoftryTagged , , , , , , , , , 41 Comments

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Howard Thurman

When my daughter was two-and-a-half, I installed a seat on the back of my bike. I strapped her in and we pedaled around our neighborhood. She yelled, “this is fantastic!”

A pure jolt of energy and vitality shot threw me. For me, it was such a good example of the fullness of life that surges when we embrace the freedom that comes with getting out on two wheels. As a bonus, it reminded me of how easy it is to get stuck in the humdrum of life. And the cure is just an adventure (big or small) away.

So in this episode of The Life of Try podcast, I talk with tech entrepreneur and author Michael Yang about his memoir Coming Alive on the Ride and the way motorcycle travel became both a literal journey and a powerful metaphor for personal growth. Michael shares how stepping outside your familiar environment can help you hear “life’s invitation” to dream, venture, and rediscover what makes you feel fully awake.

Together we explore resilience through the Korean concept of han—the accumulated weight of difficult circumstances—and how setbacks can become fuel for perseverance. Michael reflects on immigrating from Korea at 14, building a life through gratitude and hard work, and learning (again and again) that rejection doesn’t have to be the end of the story.

From riding thousands of miles with a lifelong friend to a memorable run-in with Steve Jobs at Macy’s in 1982, Michael’s stories remind us that courage grows through companionship and curiosity. We also discuss the Korean guiding philosophy of Hongik—living in a way that benefits all humankind—and how our bravest tries can ripple outward in ways we may not expect.

In this episode, we cover:

  • Why “accepting the invitation” is simple—but the road rarely runs straight
  • Han, perseverance, and turning setbacks into strength
  • The immigrant mindset: gratitude, effort, and going for opportunity
  • Friendship as a confidence builder—on the road and in life
  • Curiosity, rejection, and holding onto a vision (plus the Steve Jobs story)
  • Hongik: living for the wider benefit and making a positive dent in the world

Here’s a small taste of Michael’s brave and bold reminder that saying “yes” to adventure often brings out our best selves:

Whether you’re craving a literal road trip or a fresh start at home, this conversation will nudge you toward your next brave yes.

Here are some ways you can listen and watch this motivating episode:

Reinvention, Resilience and The Courage to Try| Lindsey Goldstein on Gap Year – The Life of Try: Personal growth, one try at a time.

What do you do when life falls apart? In this episode, Wynne Leon sits down with Lindsey Goldstein, author of Gap Year, for a conversation about personal growth, self-improvement, and finding the courage to try—even when the path ahead feels uncertain. From writing and running to parenting, failure, and fresh starts, they explore how confidence is built one brave step at a time. If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s too late to try something new, this uplifting episode is a reminder that growth often begins the moment we say yes to the challenge.In this episode, you’ll learn: → When life falls apart, it can also become an opening → Courage often starts before confidence → Trying, failing, and learning are all part of growth. → Small steps lead to bigger transformations. → It is never too late to begin again → You do not always end up where you expected—but you still growLindsey Goldstein shares how writing in short windows of time highlight that progress often comes from regular effort, not waiting for the ideal moment. Check out Lindsey's book Gap Year and experience Jane's courage vicariously – but beware, it's contagious!If your kids are leaving for college, you want to try a new hobby, or a travel spot is calling you, this episode is for you. 📘 Order Gap Year on Amazon🌐 Visit Lindsey Goldstein's website🌐 Show notes and more inspiration: https://wynneleon.com🔔 Subscribe for more:Subscribe to The Life of Try for more conversations on:personal growth, creativity, reinvention, resilience, writing, and mindset.📌 Subscribe & Stay UpdatedABOUT MEHi, I’m Wynne Leon — host of The Life of Try, a personal growth and self-improvement podcast exploring resilience, reinvention, uncertainty, and the courage to keep trying.Through thoughtful interviews, reflective conversations, and real-life stories, I share insights to help you navigate change, get unstuck, and move forward with more intention.🌍 Website: https://wynneleon.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎥 Watch Next➡️ Letting Go Of Outcomes: The Mindset That Keeps You Moving➡️ 48: How to Get Unstuck: Michael Yang on Saying Yes, Resilience and Coming Alive➡️ How to Finally Write That Book You've Been Dreaming About | Writing Motivation 🔗 CONNECT WITH ME:• Website:→ https://wynneleon.com/• Instagram:→ https://www.instagram.com/wynneleon/• Facebook:→ https://www.facebook.com/wynne.leon/
  1. Reinvention, Resilience and The Courage to Try| Lindsey Goldstein on Gap Year
  2. 51: Letting Go of Outcomes: The Mindset That Keeps You Moving
  3. 50: How to Write the Book You've Been Meaning to Write | Dr. Victoria Atkinson (Slivers)
  4. 49: Personal Growth Pivot Points: Pause, Quit or Keep Going?
  5. 48-How to Get Unstuck: Michael Yang on Saying Yes, Resilience, and Coming Alive

Links for this episode:

48-How to Get Unstuck: Michael Yang on Saying Yes, Resilience, and Coming Alive transcript

Michael Yang’s website

Coming Alive on the Ride at Barnes & Noble and Amazon

The Life of Try is a personal growth and self‑help podcast about getting unstuck, navigating uncertainty, and choosing to try—even when it’s uncomfortable, inconvenient, or not your idea.

Hosted by Wynne Leon, the show explores how real growth, reinvention, and discovery often begin not with confidence or clarity—but with a single attempt. Through thoughtful interviews, reflective conversations, and real‑world case studies, each episode examines what it looks like to keep going when doubt shows up, plans fall apart, or life forces a change you didn’t ask for.

This podcast is for anyone who:

  • Feels stuck or uncertain about what’s next
  • Is navigating change, burnout, or reinvention
  • Wants to live more intentionally without pretending growth is easy
  • Believes progress starts by trying—again and again

The Life of Try isn’t about hustle or perfection. It’s about learning as you go, surfacing what matters, and sharing what you discover along the way.

If you’re ready to surf the uncertainty, outlast the doubts, and step into your own try‑cycle, you’re in the right place.

(featured photo from Michael Yang — more incredible photos in his book and on his website!)

The Game of Life

Posted in inspirationTagged , , , , , , 53 Comments

“Strong people don’t put others down. They lift them up.” – Michael P. Watson

The other night at Mr D’s baseball practice, the 7 year old boy playing third base made a mistake. They were practicing forced outs versus tagged outs. The third baseman got the ball and instead of tagging third, he threw it to second base.

When he started putting his glove over his face, pacing, and chewing himself out, the coach told him not to worry about it. He said, “Don’t worry about it. Baseball is hard. If it was easy, we wouldn’t play it!”

While the players were getting their stuff together in the dugout after practice, I told the coach later how much I liked his baseball is hard speech. He laughed. In his warm and engaging tone, he told me more about his coaching philosophy:

“Getting practice reps is key to developing the fine motor and gross motor physical skills. Then there is the mental aspect. Learning the rules so you can play without thinking too much.

“Then of course the hardest part, learning how to deal with your emotions when things don’t go well. It’s a lot but also why baseball is such a great sport for kids who like the game. We can not only learn the game but learn how to be a great teammate and learn how to manage ourselves. “

Getting the practice reps in, learning the rules so you don’t have to think too much, managing our emotions, and learning to be great teammates. Sounds like the game of life to me.

When the boy who got upset moved on to practicing catching fly balls, he made up a chant to encourage others. If someone missed, he’d yell, “Great try, [player name]!”

I think he’s going to do fine in baseball…and life.

(featured photo is mine)

You can find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wynneleon/ and Instagram @wynneleon

Please check out the The Life of Try podcast Where trying becomes the spark for personal growth, discovery, and re-invention!

A Recipe for Life

Posted in life lessonsTagged , , , , 75 Comments

“Dreams are the souls pantry, keep it well stocked and your soul will never hunger.” – Shirley Feeney

I tried not to wince when I walked into the kitchen the other day and my 10-year-old daughter, Miss O, pointed to an appliance on the counter and asked “Is that an air fryer?”

Cooking has been a new interest for Miss O. She’s been finding recipes that she wants to try, mostly fruit bowls, oatmeal concoctions, and the occasional air frying two pieces of bread together. Then she gets into the kitchen, opens all the cupboards, makes a holy mess, and gets frustrated when she doesn’t like the outcome.

Cooper the dog, however, is a big fan of Miss O’s cooking projects. There’s usually at least one thing that falls on the floor or ends up in his bowl.

The other day when I asked her to clean up after her experiment in the kitchen, she wailed, “But you make it look so easy!” She was so exhausted from the effort that one more step felt overwhelming.

As I’ve been trying to help her, I’ve realized there are so many things I’ve done so long that I’ve forgotten how essential they are.

  1. Start with the ingredients you have. Last weekend when we were at an AirBnB, Miss O asked if we had something like almond flour. She needed that along with chia seeds for a recipe.

    A recipe that doesn’t take into consideration what we have on hand is like facing one “no” after another. It’s demoralizing and frustrating. When we start with the ingredients that we have on hand, it’s so much easier to find flow.
  2. Make sure you have the time and energy to both cook and clean. I think cooking is a little like mountain climbing — it’s a round trip sport. Understanding the time considerations to both cook and clean didn’t come naturally to Miss O. Allowing time to prepare and then make something, especially if it needs to set or bake helps to make room for the creative juices to flow. Also to clean up when the juices flow all over the kitchen. 🙂
  3. Don’t try new recipes if your goal is to impress. One motivation she’s had to try something in the kitchen is to impress her friends. So she’s trying to handle cooking and entertaining at the same time. Then when she tries something new that no one likes, it feels crushing. If she’s experimented ahead of time so it’s something she likes and is familiar with, it’s far easier for her to riff on it or even make it look easy.

It’s funny as I write these things out – these basics seem like a recipe for life, not just cooking.

(featured photo from Pexels)

You can find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wynneleon/ and Instagram @wynneleon

Please check out the The Life of Try podcast Where trying becomes the spark for personal growth, discovery, and re-invention!

The Life of Try

Posted in thelifeoftryTagged , , , , , , 72 Comments

“Sometimes magic is just someone spending more time on something than anyone else might reasonably expect.” – Teller

In 44 episodes of producing the How to Share podcast, I realized that while I’m passionate about how to share, what I’m really interested is trying. Trying is a little upstream from sharing. We try experiments in our life, we learn, and then we share.

Trying feels right to me because matches my background as an engineer and consultant. Also, I see it in my kids as they develop new skills. And I’m fascinated by how we conduct experiments as foundational part of building confidence.

So I’ve spent some time reswizzling the podcast as The Life of Try – a podcast focusing on where innovation, reinvention, personal growth, and discovery begin with one simple choice: to try. Even when it’s uncomfortable. Even when you’d rather not. Even when life makes the decision for you.

The Life of Try will feature conversations with authors, scientists, athletes, researchers, coaches, and more to help inspire your personal try-cycle. And I’m debuting a brand-new segment—one that “reverse engineers” what world-class trying really looks like.

In this episode our case study is professional climber Alex Honnold, whose headline-making feats—from free soloing El Capitan in Yosemite to scaling the Taipei 101 Tower this January—offer a masterclass in what it takes to attempt the extraordinary.

I break down the real ingredients behind big outcomes: preparation, learning from others, and staying steady through setbacks—and how those same principles apply to the goals we’re chasing every day. Whether you’re gearing up to speak in public, throw a pitch, or learn a new song, you can borrow these lessons and put them to work in your own try-cycle.

This is The Life of Try.

Here’s a teaser clip that shows a bit of what I think is so compelling about Alex Honnold:

Here are some ways you can listen and watch this inspiring episode:

Please listen, watch, provide feedback and subscribe.

Reinvention, Resilience and The Courage to Try| Lindsey Goldstein on Gap Year – The Life of Try: Personal growth, one try at a time.

What do you do when life falls apart? In this episode, Wynne Leon sits down with Lindsey Goldstein, author of Gap Year, for a conversation about personal growth, self-improvement, and finding the courage to try—even when the path ahead feels uncertain. From writing and running to parenting, failure, and fresh starts, they explore how confidence is built one brave step at a time. If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s too late to try something new, this uplifting episode is a reminder that growth often begins the moment we say yes to the challenge.In this episode, you’ll learn: → When life falls apart, it can also become an opening → Courage often starts before confidence → Trying, failing, and learning are all part of growth. → Small steps lead to bigger transformations. → It is never too late to begin again → You do not always end up where you expected—but you still growLindsey Goldstein shares how writing in short windows of time highlight that progress often comes from regular effort, not waiting for the ideal moment. Check out Lindsey's book Gap Year and experience Jane's courage vicariously – but beware, it's contagious!If your kids are leaving for college, you want to try a new hobby, or a travel spot is calling you, this episode is for you. 📘 Order Gap Year on Amazon🌐 Visit Lindsey Goldstein's website🌐 Show notes and more inspiration: https://wynneleon.com🔔 Subscribe for more:Subscribe to The Life of Try for more conversations on:personal growth, creativity, reinvention, resilience, writing, and mindset.📌 Subscribe & Stay UpdatedABOUT MEHi, I’m Wynne Leon — host of The Life of Try, a personal growth and self-improvement podcast exploring resilience, reinvention, uncertainty, and the courage to keep trying.Through thoughtful interviews, reflective conversations, and real-life stories, I share insights to help you navigate change, get unstuck, and move forward with more intention.🌍 Website: https://wynneleon.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎥 Watch Next➡️ Letting Go Of Outcomes: The Mindset That Keeps You Moving➡️ 48: How to Get Unstuck: Michael Yang on Saying Yes, Resilience and Coming Alive➡️ How to Finally Write That Book You've Been Dreaming About | Writing Motivation 🔗 CONNECT WITH ME:• Website:→ https://wynneleon.com/• Instagram:→ https://www.instagram.com/wynneleon/• Facebook:→ https://www.facebook.com/wynne.leon/
  1. Reinvention, Resilience and The Courage to Try| Lindsey Goldstein on Gap Year
  2. 51: Letting Go of Outcomes: The Mindset That Keeps You Moving
  3. 50: How to Write the Book You've Been Meaning to Write | Dr. Victoria Atkinson (Slivers)
  4. 49: Personal Growth Pivot Points: Pause, Quit or Keep Going?
  5. 48-How to Get Unstuck: Michael Yang on Saying Yes, Resilience, and Coming Alive

Links for this episode:

The Life of Try: Alex Honnold Case Study transcript

⁠Free Solo: A National Geographic documentary⁠

⁠Alex Honnold Free Solo Climbs Tapei 101 Skyscraper⁠

(featured photo is of El Capitan and sourced from Pexels)

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep

Posted in faithTagged , , , , , , , 71 Comments

“Faith and prayer both are invisible but they make impossible things possible.” – unknown

About a dozen years ago, a good friend told me a story about her son who was about seven or eight-years-old at the time. Their neighbor’s dog had gone missing and her son was worried. So they looked everywhere they could think of. When they didn’t find the dog, they went home and said a prayer for its safe return. By the next morning, the dog had returned home.

Shortly after, her son was worried about getting a new class seating assignment. He didn’t want to have to sit next to a particular kid. So he prayed about it before he went to bed.

When he came home from school the next day, his mom asked him about the seating arrangement. Did he have to sit next to the kid he didn’t want?

Her son answered, “Of course not. I prayed about it.”

Ah, the wisdom of kids.

I love the time talking with my kids right before bedtime. They snuggle in to bed, we talk about the highs and lows of the day, and if there is a nagging worry or hurt, it usually comes tumbling out.

Then we pray, I kiss them goodnight and turn off the light. Rarely does a worry persist to the morning. They turn it over to a Higher Power and then let it go.

Of course they have smaller worries – but they also have a good practice. One that I need to remember for myself.

We need to empty our cups before we fill them.

(featured photo from Pexels)

How to Share a Mission

Posted in howtoshare, UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , , , , 48 Comments

”There are only two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots, the other is wings.” – Hodding Carter

In the days when I watched tv (somewhere about a decade ago before I had kids and started going to bed early so I could wake up early enough to write in that hour before they wake up), I really enjoyed watching Dancing with the Stars. There is something fascinating about watching someone translate their skills from one arena to another. Like when a football player does a ballroom dance and it reveals something essential about what they bring no matter the format.

It reminds me of the guest I spoke with on the How to Share podcast this week. Anthony Dyer was special missions aviator for the US Air Force for 20 years. Now he’s written a gripping memoir, Moon Child: Roots and Wings of a USAF Combat Special Missions Aviator. In it you see his courage. First on the battlefield and then in his vulnerability in writing about it.

Anthony knows how to bring it. Here’s a short excerpt that gives a taste of his inspirational courage:

“In gambling, playing with house money means you’re ahead, taking risks with what you’ve already won. That’s exactly how I wanted to exist earthside: bold, fearless, and unburdened by the fear of losing. Life itself was the ultimate win, and I was determined to make the most of it. Living a ‘house money life’ means living with the mindset that you’re already ahead and willing to take the risks with what you’ve already achieved without fearing losing. It’s about embracing life’s uncertainties and challenges and making the most of every opportunity.” – Anthony Dyer, Moon Child: Roots and Wings of a USAF Combat Special Missions Aviator.

Anthony tells us how he went from a childhood in Appalachia to becoming a special missions aviator for the US Air Force. We talk about how his desire to make a difference in the world led to a 20-year-career in the military.

He reveals how he healed from the visible and invisible wounds of war, healing by picking up a pen instead of a bottle. He tells us how he met his wife and what their mission is now.

Anthony has so many incredible insights about how to live fully, heal, and integrate traumatic experiences. He tells us what motto is inspiring him today. This is a great episode with an insightful author who takes life by the horns. I know you’ll love it.

Takeaways

  • Anthony chose writing over alcohol to heal from trauma.
  • The importance of aviate, navigate, communicate in life.
  • Healing can come from vulnerability and sharing stories.
  • Family plays a crucial role in personal healing.
  • God can help you rebuild after trauma.
  • Scars are badges of honor, representing resilience.
  • Conversations with God can lead to personal growth.
  • Fatherhood is Anthony’s most important mission now.
  • Roots and wings symbolize balance in life.

Here’s a great clip of Anthony talking about how writing has helped heal the wounds of war:

Here are some ways you can watch or listen to all of this fascinating and inspiring episode:

Please listen, watch, provide feedback and subscribe.

Reinvention, Resilience and The Courage to Try| Lindsey Goldstein on Gap Year – The Life of Try: Personal growth, one try at a time.

What do you do when life falls apart? In this episode, Wynne Leon sits down with Lindsey Goldstein, author of Gap Year, for a conversation about personal growth, self-improvement, and finding the courage to try—even when the path ahead feels uncertain. From writing and running to parenting, failure, and fresh starts, they explore how confidence is built one brave step at a time. If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s too late to try something new, this uplifting episode is a reminder that growth often begins the moment we say yes to the challenge.In this episode, you’ll learn: → When life falls apart, it can also become an opening → Courage often starts before confidence → Trying, failing, and learning are all part of growth. → Small steps lead to bigger transformations. → It is never too late to begin again → You do not always end up where you expected—but you still growLindsey Goldstein shares how writing in short windows of time highlight that progress often comes from regular effort, not waiting for the ideal moment. Check out Lindsey's book Gap Year and experience Jane's courage vicariously – but beware, it's contagious!If your kids are leaving for college, you want to try a new hobby, or a travel spot is calling you, this episode is for you. 📘 Order Gap Year on Amazon🌐 Visit Lindsey Goldstein's website🌐 Show notes and more inspiration: https://wynneleon.com🔔 Subscribe for more:Subscribe to The Life of Try for more conversations on:personal growth, creativity, reinvention, resilience, writing, and mindset.📌 Subscribe & Stay UpdatedABOUT MEHi, I’m Wynne Leon — host of The Life of Try, a personal growth and self-improvement podcast exploring resilience, reinvention, uncertainty, and the courage to keep trying.Through thoughtful interviews, reflective conversations, and real-life stories, I share insights to help you navigate change, get unstuck, and move forward with more intention.🌍 Website: https://wynneleon.com━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎥 Watch Next➡️ Letting Go Of Outcomes: The Mindset That Keeps You Moving➡️ 48: How to Get Unstuck: Michael Yang on Saying Yes, Resilience and Coming Alive➡️ How to Finally Write That Book You've Been Dreaming About | Writing Motivation 🔗 CONNECT WITH ME:• Website:→ https://wynneleon.com/• Instagram:→ https://www.instagram.com/wynneleon/• Facebook:→ https://www.facebook.com/wynne.leon/
  1. Reinvention, Resilience and The Courage to Try| Lindsey Goldstein on Gap Year
  2. 51: Letting Go of Outcomes: The Mindset That Keeps You Moving
  3. 50: How to Write the Book You've Been Meaning to Write | Dr. Victoria Atkinson (Slivers)
  4. 49: Personal Growth Pivot Points: Pause, Quit or Keep Going?
  5. 48-How to Get Unstuck: Michael Yang on Saying Yes, Resilience, and Coming Alive

Links for this episode:

How to Share a Mission Transcript

Moon Child: Roots and Wings of a USAF Combat Special Missions Aviator on Barnes and Noble and Amazon

From the host:

My book about my beloved father: Finding My Father’s Faith

(featured photo from Pexels)

Local Relationships: The Key to Thriving in an AI World

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“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.” – Mahatma Gandhi

I was out walking Cooper last week when a neighbor stopped me and asked me what I thought about AI. She and her partner are retired therapists. They have a brilliant young son who works in high-tech so I think she was looking for reassurance more than she wanted information.

In my middle class neighborhood in Seattle, there’s a lot to worry about these days. The layoffs at Microsoft and Amazon have hit hard. They are posts in the grocery stores about eco-anxiety groups. The school district is worried about measles outbreaks. Folks are wondering if Seattle is on the short list for an ICE surge.

But amidst all this uncertainty, I witness concrete examples of people offering to help, creating systems to protect the vulnerable, coming together to make life easier, and celebrating the things when things go right.

As an engineer, I can think of many ways AI will change things but I am not a prognosticator. This moment with AI feels a lot like when the Internet was new to businesses. Everyone raced to get a public facing website up and use all the new HTML codes as they were released. Kinda like all the AI offerings and proliferation of bots we see now.

But as the 2001 Internet bubble burst attested, no one really knew how the Internet would be used. It has come to showcase some of the best and worst of humanity. I suspect AI will do the same.

As we carried our portable chairs away from the Seahawks parade last week, Miss O said to me, “I love our community.” I asked if she meant Seattle. “No, Seattle is good but I meant all the people we met at the parade.” In the three hours we spent waiting and waving, we formed bonds with others by sharing our space, snacks, and footballs.

So I told my neighbor that I think that AI doesn’t change the fact that our biggest impact is rooted locally and in the here and now like it was for us at the parade. We can find our inner peace, cultivate our faith in God and others, and keep showing up. I believe that it’s important to work to advocate for the environment, businesses and government we want. But what makes an immediate difference in our lives and in the lives of others is creating relationships, showing kindness, and doing the next right thing. And AI doesn’t change that.

P.S. One thing that keeps me hopeful is the amazing podcast conversations I’m lucky enough to have with people whose stories reflect their struggle – to survive, to understand, to thrive – all while sharing what they’ve learned. In tough times like these, episodes like these keep me believing that love will win.

(featured photo is a red heart that provides a beacon of hope in our neighborhood)