Perfectionism will grind you down, make you afraid of risk and crush your creativity. And the world needs leaders who are energized, willing to go in bold, new directions and who are able to see a variety of possibilities.

It's often hard to detect when feeling associated with burnout are just a passing reaction or when it's a message from the deeper interior that change in needed.

Our experience of difficulty depends entirely on the meaning we bring to it. Some perspectives empower us and some render us incapacitated. How we hold the circumstances of our lives can either grow us or take us down.

When you’ve been knocked down, there is one question above all else to ask yourself…

When we know our life purpose, we know the gifts we are here to give. Defining what we are here to contribute helps clarify what and who to focus on and eliminates aimlessness.

If we can learn to listen to and decipher our body’s interior messages, we can find a way out of the confused and stuck quality burnout shackles us with.

Developing emotional strength requires then that we be willing to let go of what we think should or shouldn’t happen, what’s right or wrong, what’s good or bad. Instead, we bring a quality of openness, receptivity, even a welcoming to whatever it is that we experience, even if it is initially unpleasant.

There is a powerful antidote to the Inner Critic, but you will need to learn how to cultivate it: self-compassion. The more warmth you can give yourself, the less the Inner Critic needs to take over.

I’ve come across so many books, so many teachers and teachings over the years, but only a few fit into the category of friend and teacher. Here I share 12 of the most significant books to me. I dare say that I love these authors. It is my sincere hope that you do, too.

The point of all practice is to bring us to the heart of our innate wisdom.  It is not to end up more disciplined.  Paul Meuller-Ortega aptly said, "Eventually as Seekers, we must become Finders."