Acknowledgments

For over 40 years I’ve had remarkable teachers in the world of human behavior, human connection, performance optimization, neuroscience, emotional intelligence, and more. Formal teachers and informal teachers, but teachers all.

This book is a gratitude offering to these teachers for the countless gifts I have received, some of which I have shared with you in this book. All taught me that life is one big collaboration. Humans with humans, humans with nature, humans with themselves. We all matter, we all play a role, we all have equal value.

This book is also a love letter to our humanity—to our hopes, our fears, our present, our past, our future. Humans are remarkable beings—our courage, our loyalty, our capacity to love, and ultimately our resilience. My greatest wish is that this book will help enhance your resilience—and that of your tribe. More emotional resilience leads to more understanding, more compassion, and more momentum toward our Desired State.

You wouldn’t be benefiting from this book without the help of many generous and committed people. My amazing husband, Geoff Heron, who supports me with all my wild ideas and projects, my tribe of remarkable friends—including Michele Ikemire, Theresa Teuma, Bonnie Digrius, Laura Fenamore, Jnana Gowan, Tracie Troxler, Bonnie Knezo, Peg Videtta, and Paul Vela—who keep me on track. My mom, Nancy Comaford, taught me a lot about resilience. My late great stepson Spike, who in his brief life of 21 years was the ultimate example of natural emotional resilience . . . I am so grateful for him.

Our amazing tribe at STI, my editors, our preview readers, and clients all played essential roles. The awesome duo of Alexis Chapman and Tami Spence ensured the credits, graphics, and details were accurate and gave invaluable feedback throughout the lengthy process. I can always count on them for insights and creativity and to question me when I am veering off track. To them, I am deeply grateful. Heather Loizos and Wesley Hudnall helped behind the scenes with key components and support. Janet Schieferdecker helped me focus on the hottest topics. Amanda Rooker is an author’s dream—I won’t write a book without her! She made profound contributions to the structure of the book, all five drafts of it, and edited every word to ensure that everything flowed and made sense. I can’t gush enough about the heart Amanda pours into her work. Jon Low helped me clarify the first major draft and added more life and dimensionality to the case studies and metaphors we used.

Our generous preview readers Amber Caska, Bonnie Knezo, Christine Crandell, Christine Royal Schindewolf, Geoff Heron, and Teresa Rodriguez showed me where I was being vague and where I needed to pick up the pace. I know you are busy, and I deeply appreciate your investing the time.

My mentors who call me on my “stuff” include Jerry Jampolsky, Diane Cirincione, don Oscar Miro-Quesada, Carl Buchheit, Ray Nobriga, Erica Alessio, Mona Wind and the 37 hospice patients I have had the honor to support in their final days—teachers all. Thanks for sharing your wisdom and helping me to remember what matters. To have Marshall Goldsmith, a fellow executive coach I greatly admire, write the foreword to this book was a huge boon. Thanks to Marshall and his terrific second in command, Sarah McArthur.

Thanks to my agent, Jim Levine, of Levine Greenberg, who stretched me to communicate what the purpose of this book truly is. Casey Ebro, my champion at McGraw-Hill, understood the power of this book and ensured it came to be. Mauna Eichner, my final edit and packaging pro, walked me through the at-times painful process. Donya Dickerson and Chelsea Van der Gaag contributed too. Thanks to you all and the extended team behind the scenes.

To the brilliant neuroscientists and cognitive science researchers at UCLA, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, NYU, Stanford, Harvard, and the NeuroLeadership Institute, thanks for providing the research to support our real-world results.

And last, to the thousands of people I’ve met in my travels and at my speeches and had the great good fortune to work with, especially our courageous and committed clients: you have made all this work worthwhile. Every day you remind me that our time on this gorgeous and mysterious planet is fleeting, and there’s no time like now. So let’s power our tribe.

Life = the people we meet + what we create together

Thanks to everyone for being in my life. I am so very lucky to know you!