If there is anything that marks my generation of leaders, it’s the desire to be “radical”—to violently overthrow old paradigms. We want to shake up the status quo in the church, in government, in business, in philanthropy. And this is good.

By and large millennial Christians want offer lives in service to God and others by offering new and creative solutions. This is good.

I used to think, If I can achieve success, my problems will go away. The reality is that success creates a whole new set of problems.

I have just been reminded of this with the launch of my new book. I don’t know how it will ultimately shake out, but the first three days have been very successful.

I have been reading Chris Guillebeau’s awesome new book, The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future. It is the most stimulating business book I have read since The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss.

The book is not only practical, it is extremely inspirational. It’s for those who want to escape from corporate life, build something of their own to support their families, or just find a way to make more money.

Yawn! When I read Michael Hyatt’s post on taking naps, I agreed. I knew from personal experience how beneficial a quick midday nap could be. But as I pondered how I might actually put it into practice, I hit a wall.

How could I keep moving forward with this idea in an educational role that requires me to be always alert and on-call throughout the school day? The tension between what I wanted to do and what I could do quickly threatened to become crippling frustration.

When I first became President of Thomas Nelson, I began hosting an event called “Pizza with the Prez.” Once a month I invited a different workgroup to have lunch with me—without their supervisor being present.

This event provided an opportunity for me to get unfiltered feedback. It was one of my favorite activities. It also proved to be one of the most productive.

Listen to most presentations and you will hear a litany of stories half submerged in what might be major points—or maybe just another story.

Regardless, 75 percent of the people leave a presentation with no idea what the point of the message was. Even worse, 50 percent of speakers can’t identify the objective of their own talk.

I just returned from the Catalyst Conference in Dallas where I spoke on the topic of my new book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World. The theme for this year’s conference series is “Be Present.”

This is a particularly powerful reminder for me. I seem to be always living in the future. I’m either planning my next big project or worried about how it will turn out.

As I have grown older, I have become increasingly aware that we live in toxic environment. Our food, water, and air are contaminated with poisons.

Over time these poisons take a toll on our bodies. Years from now, I believe we will discover that many of our worst diseases—especially autoimmune ones—were the direct result of the toxins we were ingesting.

There is a tragedy in our world today. Most people aren’t living their dreams, and the reason is simple: fear. They’re scared to be who they are.

When you endeavor to find your life’s work, there is a lot at risk:

• You could fail.
• You could lose the respect of your friends.
• You could go broke.

You could mess up in a hundred different ways. But—and this is important—you could also succeed. And until you start living into your calling, you’re robbing the world of a gift.

I signed up to run the Country Music Half Marathon in January. The big race was on Saturday, April 28th. But I didn’t run.

With the launch of my new book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, and several other projects in the works, I just didn’t have the time to do the distance training I needed to do in order to participate. (I have kept up with my normal running routine; I just haven’t done the extended distance work.)