I’ve been thinking about the meaning of a simple word, margin, in our lives. Last week, I wrote the first in what will be a series of posts on this topic. It was titled Do You Have Margin in the Important Areas of Your Life? And so we continue a discussion of the concept of margin in life, this time, focusing on early lessons from my father.

We live life now, at the margin between the past and the future. What we do at this margin impacts our futures. What we have done or have not done in the past influences, or creates, the options we have now in our lives, or at the margins. In other words, the margins that we create in various areas of our lives impact or influence what we can, will, or won’t do each day.

Finishing the series on a growing professional, we continue our discussion using the acrostic of “RISK.”

We introduced the concept of what I call the growing professional last week. But what does a growing professional look like compared to other professionals? And what is the mindset of a growing professional, which informs the active steps he takes?