A Few Thoughts from Durango

On 1% better, gold stars for exhaustion, and why the journey might be the whole point

Jun 21, 2026

My boys and I are on a week-long disconnect in Durango, Colorado, but I still wanted to leave you with a few thoughts for the week ahead.

1% Better Is Enough

Whether that means showing up for yourself in a small, incremental way — or giving yourself permission to stop chasing 100% — the message is the same.

One percent better, sustained over a lifetime, will move the needle more than you think.

There Are No Gold Stars for Exhaustion

If you’re showing up in your life a certain way to prove something, I’d invite you to sit with that for a moment this week. The voice telling you that you have something to prove? You’re allowed to talk back to it.

The Journey Is the Point

“It’s not about the destination; it’s about the journey” has always landed as a cliché for me— because every journey I’ve been on has pointed toward an external destination.

But I’ve started to realize that the only true destination is the one all humans inevitably share.

Which, maybe, makes the journey the whole point….

Before I sign off — I want to invite you to read something I wrote for Kate Oram and her publication Lessons from the Touchline.

Kate spent decades inside professional sports and now brings those insights into the world of leadership development.

Her readers are executives, managers, and leaders who want to lead the way the best coaches do — with presence, clarity, and genuine investment in the people around them.

The piece is called What Sport Taught Me That Leadership Training Never Did — six lessons I carried from the gym and the competition floor directly into how I lead at work.