Dr. Ai Career and Life Coach

I’m sorry, University of Michigan, but I respectfully disagree.

🤔 Is this really how we address the crisis among young adults?

❓ By removing traditional letter grades from the scorecard?

Starting in fall 2027, some University of Michigan freshmen will receive Pass/No Credit marks on their transcripts during their first semester instead of traditional letter grades.

The intention is to reduce academic pressure and help students transition to college.

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I totally get it.

But here’s the reality:

👉 If young people are constantly protected from pressure, disappointment, setbacks, and failure…

👉 How can we expect them to build the resilience required to handle those experiences later in life?

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Challenges are not the enemy.

Young people need opportunities to experience difficulty, receive feedback, struggle, recover, adapt, and try again.

That is how we build the resilience muscle.

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Removing letter grades may reduce some of the academic pressure freshmen experience.

But only temporarily.

Because pressure doesn’t disappear.

Sophomore year can simply become the new freshman year.

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And adulthood will still bring performance reviews, rejection, competition, difficult conversations, financial pressure, career setbacks, and failure.

We cannot remove every difficult situation our young people will encounter.

What we can do is prepare them for those situations and empower them with the tools to grow through them.

That’s why I love what I do so much.

I love helping young people develop the skills to become more resilient, adaptable, and anti-fragile

So that challenges don’t simply knock them down, but can actually help them grow stronger.

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I believe our goal, as parents, educators, and coaches, is not to create a world in which young people never struggle or feel any pressure.

Our goal should be to raise young people who know what to do when pressure inevitably comes.

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💡 We don’t build by removing every challenge.

💡 We build resilience by teaching young people how to navigate challenges successfully.

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❓What do you think about the University of Michigan’s decision?

Do we protect young people from pressure or prepare them to handle it?

What a great honor it was to interview Dr. Andrew Simon today.

Dr. Simon is a professor at Dartmouth College, where he has taught for nearly a decade. He earned his undergraduate degree from Duke University, where he competed as a Division I fencer, before earning his Ph.D. from Cornell University.

During our interview today, we discussed education, fencing, mindset, character-building, and self-discovery.

I was deeply inspired by Dr. Simon’s passion for his work and his relentless pursuit of excellence.

Natural talent can take us only so far. It is our character that helps us win the long game.

Stay tuned for the full interview and clips from our conversation!

Last night at dinner, my kids and I had a deep discussion regarding “popularity”

Specifically, we discussed:

👉 What does it actually mean to be popular
👉 How do you earn that popularity

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The conversation came up for two reasons.

First, I have two teenagers in the house, and I work with teens and young adults

Second, I’ve been reading Tim Grover’s Winning.

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In the book, Grover lays out 13 ways he defines “winning.”

I borrowed one of them to carry our dinner conversation:

👉 “WINNING makes you different, and different scares people.”

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For the young people I work with, that line lands hard.

Because when you’re young, the pull to fit in is powerful.

✔️ You want to be liked.
✔️ You want to belong.
✔️ You want to be popular.

And that desire makes complete sense.

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But there’s more than one path to being wanted in a room.

❌ One path COSTS you:
- Changing yourself to fit in.
- Following the crowd.
- Chasing attention at any price.
- Making choices you already know don’t match who you’re becoming.

✅ The other path BUILDS you:
* Getting so good at something that respect follows.
* Standing for something that matters.
* Building something real.
* Speaking up when everyone is afraid.
* Earning a reputation from your character, your contribution, your impact.

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❓What do you want to be known for?

That’s the question that I ask my own kids and students.

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What I am reading right now to get ready for my next talk and training session!

Love what I am reading so far!

Thank you, Todd Herman, for writing such a great book!

Can’t wait to share insights and lessons with my students and help them elevate their game to a new level

The Disruptor’s Planner ➡️ my secret weapon for living a busy, productive, and meaningful life.

When I designed this planner in 2021, I originally created it for my students, who are teens and young adults.

My goal was simple:

👉 I wanted to help them become better at managing their time, planning ahead, staying organized, and reflecting on their growth.

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Little did I know…

I was also designing the planner for myself. 😂

I’m not the most organized person.

I love spontaneity, ideas, and going where the energy takes me.

But as my life has gotten busier, I’ve realized how much I need structure.

I have also learned that structure ives us freedom.

And this planner has given me exactly that.

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Last night, I sat down with my kids and we used the planner to reflect on our day and plan for the next one.

Each of us:

✅ Reviewed our daily checklist
🎉 Shared something we wanted to celebrate
🤔 Reflected on what could have made the day even better
🙏 Ended with gratitude

It was such a simple routine

And we have been practicing it since December 2021.

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I’m proud that I’m helping my kids build the habit of planning, reflecting, and appreciating their lives while they’re still young.

My hope is that long after they leave home, these habits will stay with them.

And last night, my 14-year-old told me:

“This is my favorite planner.”

That made me smile. ❤️

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We have a little over four months left in 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣6️⃣, and somehow my life keeps getting busier.

Between coaching, speaking, running my business, homeschooling, and raising three kids, I appreciate having a system that keeps me:

➡️ Grounded
➡️ Productive
➡️ Intentional
➡️ Grateful

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Sometimes the tools we create to help others end up transforming our own lives too.

What’s one system or habit that helps keep you grounded when life gets busy?

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Working hard on my next talk.

This one is all about building and performing under pressure for elite athletes and fencers.

I’ve delivered this resilience talk many times before, for parents, educators, students, and athletes.

But I never give the same presentation twice.

Every time I revisit my talk, I refine the slides, add new research, incorporate new stories, and integrate what I’ve learned from coaching my students.

As I grow, I want what I offer others to grow with me.

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Looking back on my own educational journey, I realize I paid a high price for not having the resilience and emotional regulation skills I needed.

I didn’t know how to manage pressure, recover from setbacks, or bounce back after disappointment.

Oftentimes, it took me days and months to recover.

Paul Ekman had a name for that recovery window: the emotional refractory period

It describes how long it takes to return to baseline after something throws you.

For an elite competitor, shortening that window is everything.

I am excited to continue helping young athletes strengthen their mindset and build their resilience,

So that they can thrive under pressure and pursue their goals with confidence