There's an old story about two lumberjacks competing to see who could chop down the most trees.

The younger man never stopped swinging. The older man disappeared every hour.

Certain he was winning, the younger lumberjack was stunned when the older man finished with nearly twice as many trees.

"What were you doing every time you disappeared?"

"Sharpening my axe."

Life rewards effort, but it also rewards stepping back long enough to sharpen the tools that make effort worthwhile. This week is about a few of those tools.

If it isn't obvious by now, I believe deeply in the power of words. Not just books. Individual words.

Certain words become a compass for entire seasons of our lives.

“Discipline” shaped the years I spent chasing fitness goals and transforming my body.

“Gratitude” has pulled me back whenever I found myself constantly reaching for the next thing instead of appreciating what I already had.

It's remarkable that a handful of letters can completely change the way we see the world.

Right now, my word is Perspective.

I just recently finished The Midnight Train by Matt Haig. Without giving too much away, it's a story that forces its main character (Wilbur) to look back on his life with the clarity that usually comes too late. He sees the subtle decisions that quietly pulled him away from what mattered most - work replacing presence, unresolved grief shaping future choices, and relationships slowly neglected not through one catastrophic moment, but through thousands of small ones.

It made me think about how rarely we get the gift of perspective before life forces it upon us.

Parents will understand this immediately, but even if you don't have kids, you've felt it. One day becomes a week. A week becomes a year. Before long, the moments we assumed would always be there are gone.

We've all heard someone say, "These are the good old days." It’s an overused adage, but they are right.

With endless opportunities, ambitions, and distractions pulling us toward tomorrow, I'm trying to make perspective my compass instead.

We don't have to wait until we're old to realize with perspective that these are the days we'll one day wish we could revisit.

We don't have to experience tragedy before having the perspective to choose to invest more deeply in the people we love.

We don't have to spend years chasing the next promotion, purchase, or achievement only to have perspective that we traded what mattered for things that eventually stopped mattering.

So here's the question I've been asking myself this week:

“What would my future self be begging me to do with today? With this conversation? With this relationship?”

Perspective usually arrives with time. But we can borrow it from the stories of people who've already lived it, and from intentionally imagining the version of ourselves looking back years from now.

Sometimes that's all we need to remember what matters today.

It feels like every July, I have the same conversation with myself. "Why am I so much slower than I was eight weeks ago?"

If you've been running at all and asking the same question, here's the reminder I wish someone had given me years ago when I started:

You’re not getting slower, the temperature is directly impacting your body and heart rate’s ability to keep the same pace with the same effort.

Heat changes everything.

When temperatures climb above about 60°F, your body starts diverting more blood to your skin to help cool itself. That means less blood is available for your working muscles, so your heart has to beat faster to deliver the same amount of oxygen. The result? A pace that felt comfortable in April suddenly feels like a race effort in July.

Humidity makes it even worse (hello to you, fellow Missourians). Sweat can't evaporate as efficiently, so your body works even harder just to stay cool.

The opposite happens in cooler weather. Most runners perform best somewhere around 40-55°F, where your cardiovascular system can focus on moving you forward instead of preventing you from overheating. That's one reason so many personal bests happen in the fall.

The mistake I made for years was trying to force spring paces through summer conditions. Every run felt like failure because I judged it by my watch instead of the weather.

Here's a better framework I have worked on over time:

Below 60°F: Train normally, don’t be afraid to test some faster paces

60-70°F: Don't be surprised if you're 10-20 seconds per mile slower.

70-80°F: Expect 20-40 seconds per mile slower and let heart rate guide the effort.

Above 85°F: Forget pace almost entirely. Run by effort. If that means you're 45-90 seconds per mile slower than usual, that's not a sign you've lost fitness. It's your body doing exactly what it's supposed to do.

For newer runners especially, July and August aren't the months to prove how fast you are. They're the months to prove how consistent you can be.

Anyone can stay motivated when every run feels easy. The runners who are still lacing up in October are the ones who learn to separate effort from pace. Keep showing up through the heat. When the first cool morning of fall arrives, you'll understand why.

If there were one skill I'd bet on paying dividends for the rest of your life, it wouldn't be sales, leadership, or networking. It would be communication.

Nearly every meaningful part of life runs through it. Your career. Your marriage. Your friendships. Your ability to lead. Even your ability to understand yourself. We spend years learning our professions, yet very few of us intentionally study how to better connect with other people.

If you're looking to change that, these are the five books I'd start with.

How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Nearly 90 years old, and somehow more relevant than ever. Carnegie reminds us that people want to feel seen, heard, and valued. Master these timeless principles, and almost every relationship in your life improves.

Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg
One of my favorite books from the last few years. Duhigg argues that great communicators aren't simply better speakers, they're better at recognizing what kind of conversation they're actually having and meeting people where they are.

Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan & Al Switzler
Most difficult conversations go poorly long before the first words are spoken. This book gives you a practical framework for navigating high-stakes conversations without sacrificing honesty or the relationship.

Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
Gladwell explores why we're surprisingly bad at reading other people and the assumptions that quietly shape our interactions. It's a humbling reminder that understanding someone else is often harder than we think.

Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
Written by a former FBI hostage negotiator, this is the best book I've read on influence through curiosity and empathy. The techniques are immediately useful, but the bigger lesson is that people are far more likely to move toward your position when they feel genuinely understood.

Communication is one of those rare skills where every hour invested compounds for decades. Read these five books, practice what they teach, and you'll become the kind of person people trust, remember, and genuinely enjoy talking to.