The Undivided Life Blog

I couldn’t figure out why my Wednesday morning alarm sounded just like my ringtone.

Ring, ring.
Ring, ring.

I cleared my eyes to see the clock.

3:50 am.

Then I grabbed the phone. Oh wow, this was ...

Kathy was slow to answer the door and appeared caught off guard by my kids as they shouted, “Merry Christmas!” before handing her a round tin box. The kids had spent the previous day in the kitchen ma...

As a teenager, I tried to defend the underdog but did very little to help my classmates who had special needs. What’s worse, I would go along to get along - If friends were making fun of these kids, a...

“I can’t believe your team is attempting to automate part of my job. Meet me in the parking lot after work, and I’ll show you what I think of your plan.”

I was reading an email invitation to an after...

He didn’t wait to see what part of his body might be aching after crashing to the ground halfway through the 300-meter hurdle event. He knew this fall would cost him, but how much distance could he ma...

I could hardly believe the guest list as I scrolled through the names:

George W. Bush, then President Bill Clinton, Gerald and Betty Ford, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, Nancy Reagan, Rev. Billy Graham, ...

We were several hours into a very productive exercise to establish the company’s core values, and it looked like we were headed for extra innings as we sensed that something was still missing. Our ini...

It’s 98 degrees outside, and once again, I am drenched head to toe in sweat as I reinforce yet another section of our fence. This is the third time I’ve been called to the pasture to retrieve our mini...

“I don’t get it. Why would Undivided Life purchase a construction company?”

That is the second most common response when people hear that Undivided Life acquired McKnight Construction. The other resp...

I never expected to see his name on the calendar when the team was preparing for my two-day marathon test of a new concept we called Open Interviews. Our initial post announcing that anyone could book...

He was pacing back and forth on a phone call during my son’s baseball game, obviously engaged in a serious work conversation. His intensity was clear, but he also seemed to have the patience of a good...

Who buys a one-way ticket to Poland to start filming a feature-length film before securing the actors and locations, not to mention the need for personal lodging arrangements?

The answer - Anthony D’...

I was 20 miles into a long-distance trail race when my heart rate monitor registered a jump from 154 bpm to 197 bpm. I was being chased, and my entire life hung in the balance—or so I thought.

Let me...

“Jeff, in 2015, you gave Mark from Donuts Deluxe a book called Cowboy Ethics. I'll be honest - it doesn't look like Mark opened it. I bought it used, and I am reading through it now.

When I saw the h...

He was just about to purchase Subway sandwiches to share with his new friend Tony, a homeless man in Downtown Fort Worth, when Matt abruptly switched gears and made a bold move that I will never forge...

“Alright, kids, grab your stuff. We need to finish eating our ice cream somewhere else.”  

On hot summer days in Texas like this, air conditioning and ice cream are your two best friends, and here I ...

I exhaled as if to indicate that I had no words to describe my emotional state. My wife and I had just sat down at the restaurant and found ourselves in a quiet moment only hours after receiving the n...

It was 6:30 a.m., and I was listening to my buddy explain how he felt a sense of emptiness at work and beyond. He had bounced around in his early career, always longing for more but disappointed by th...