The next time you are trying to decide a difficult question or make a challenging choice, spend a few minutes considering all that you gain from each choice. Then trust your instincts to guide you into action. Usually we know the answer, but are fearful of the consequences or the implications of action.

Often when individuals refuse to change, the reason is that they derive benefits from not changing. Even if the benefit is small--like the comfort of facing a known situation rather than an unknown one--there is a value. If none existed, we'd change immediately!

Sky diving is an intense experience. Standing on the wing at 10,000 feet, and realizing that there was no way I could climb back in, that was a moment. This experience is one of many from my younger years. Flying trapezes, race car driving, walking on fire, cliff jumping, these are all some of the many things I have done to create an intense "buzz" in my life. This buzz helped me feel alive, and in some ways supported my love of learning.

When I was thirteen, my parents sent me to Israel for one of those “all good Jewish boys visit to the Holy Land” kind of trips, where I learned to see the gift of our birth could be seen as a gold bar representing our connection with God. The bars are often differently wrapped--Christmas, Hanukah, Ramadan, Kwanza--but the gift is always the same.

I remember my first miracle. I was about seven at the time. My uncle, who was a dental student, had made me a small gold initial ring, cast from wax, and measured to my finger. It was his way of practicing working with wax casting and gold. Because I loved my uncle and this was a very special gift, the ring became my most prize possession. One day, while in my backyard, I looked down to discover the ring had somehow slipped from my finger. I was horrified. . .