Author Archives: Rusty Rueff

About Rusty Rueff

Rusty Rueff, author of purposed worKING. Rusty Rueff is the former Chairman Emeritus of The GRAMMY Foundation in Los Angeles. He most recently completed the successful 16 month leadership role as Coordinating National Co-Chair for Technology for Obama (T4O) for the reelection of President Obama and ten-years of Board service and President of the Board of Trustees of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Corporately, most recently Rueff was the Chief Executive Officer at SNOCAP, Inc. until the acquisition of the company by imeem, Inc. in April 2008. Before joining SNOCAP in 2005, he was Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Electronic Arts (EA) from 1998 until 2005. He was also with the PepsiCo companies for more than ten years, with the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies for two years, and in commercial radio as an on-air personality for six years. Rusty holds an M.S. in counseling and a B.A. in radio and television from Purdue University. In 2003 he was named a distinguished Purdue alumnus, and he and his wife, Patti, are the named benefactors of Purdue’s Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts. He is a corporate director of Glassdoor.com and runcoach. He is the co-founder and Executive Committee Member of T4A.org, serves on the Founding Circle of The Centrist Project and a founding Board Member of The GRAMMY Music Education Coalition. He is also the co-author of the book Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business. Rusty and his wife, Patti, reside in Hillsborough, CA and Charlestown, R.I.

day 594: Stress Relief

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No matter how we try, stress has a way of hanging around and staying present. We bury it for awhile or we tuck it away after a few days on vacation and then something triggers its return and it starts influencing us again. Not all stress is bad. Actors and athletes would never get to the top of their game if they didn’t have some stress to drive them. Nor would we when we have to give the big presentation or close the important deal. We need some of that stress to sharpen and focus us. But, what we don’t need is the hang-around and keep us up night after night stress that drags us down and wreaks havoc on our body and mind. It’s important that we monitor and know ourselves well enough to know the difference between good and bad stress. It’s counter-intuitive but one way to beat stress is to stress our our minds and bodies into other things that take us away from what is bringing on the bad stress. Physical exercise is good, we know that but at some point we can only spend so many hours working out so exercise of the body is not the full answer. Exercise of the mind is also important. But, this exercise must also be really good for us. David tells us the best way to work our minds to relieve the stress, “As pressure and stress bear down on me, I find joy in your commands”. If we begin to exercise and discipline ourselves in the commands of the Lord we will find that the stresses of this world will fall away. Let’s today, try and see if we can’t find what David found in the joy and stress-relief of the Lord.

Reference: Psalm 119:143 (New Living Testament)