Finding My Thermals
I’m learning to rise—not by striving or flapping my wings harder, but by trusting the thermals of friendship, support, and generosity that are carrying me and this work higher.
A few years ago, during a coaching session with Susan—a CMO I deeply admire—she told me her word of the year was soar. She wanted to rise, to elevate her work and her impact.
Because I’m endlessly curious, after I got off our call, I started researching how the great birds of the world stay aloft for hours, soaring and gliding for miles.
One of the most important things I learned is that soaring isn’t about effort; it’s about reading the air. When the sun warms the earth unevenly, pockets of hot air rise. These columns of invisible warm air are called thermals. Eagles, condors, vultures, cranes, and other great flyers spend their days searching for these updrafts.
Once they find one, they tilt a wing and begin circling inside it, gaining altitude without expending energy. When they’ve climbed high enough, they glide forward, descending slowly until they find the next thermal. Circle and rise. Glide and travel. Repeat.
They are always moving, yet rarely flapping their wings. They let the air do the work. The bird simply searches for the thermals and aligns. Feathers on their wingtips sense the faintest shifts in pressure. A single thermal can lift a bird a thousand feet a minute and carry it miles into the sky. It’s an exquisite dance.
Soon after that call with Susan, I built a short presentation about these birds and how they’re able to soar. It was an extra gesture that she appreciated, and it gave us new language to describe her own desire to rise.
In case you’re curious, the following provides a sampling of some of the world’s greatest flyers and what I learned about them. The Rüppell’s griffon vulture rides thermals to 37,000 feet—higher than Mount Everest. The Andean condor can travel more than a hundred miles without flapping its wings a single time. The common crane migrates in V-formation, each bird catching the rising air from the one ahead. The wandering albatross uses ocean winds to circle the globe. And the golden eagle—my personal and local favorite—rides mountain thermals, circling upward with ease and grace.
Now I’m the one learning to soar, so I’ve been thinking about these great soaring birds again.
With my book, Breathtaking: A Field Guide to Living Your Epic Life, finally out in the world, I’m in a new kind of sky. After years of walking, writing, coaching, guiding, and building quietly, I’m learning to open my wings wider, to let others help carry this work higher.
The gatherings, book clubs, and events being hosted by friends, clients, and readers across the country—they are my thermals. Each one lifts me higher.
This rising higher scares me a little. I don’t want fame or to be in the spotlight. But I do hope the work—the stories, and the lessons I’ve learned from my 57-year life, from the wilderness, and from 15 years of doing deeply personal work with others—can reach more people.
When fear creeps in—when I find myself wanting to stay small and close to the ground, to fly under the radar—I think of the great soaring birds and remember that they all start close to the ground before learning to trust the invisible air that will lift and hold them.
The sky is wide. The thermals are rising. My wings are open. And I’m so very grateful.
If you’d like to add your town or organization to the Breathtaking Book Tour in 2026, I’d love to include you. Whether you’re part of a leadership team, a company, a book club, or a circle of friends who’d like to host a gathering, please email me at coach@yourepiclife.com.