Archive for December, 2008

The Best Advice I’ve Ever Received – Negative Or Positive, Everything In Life Compounds

December 22, 2008 at 8:47 pm · Filed under December 2008 ·Tagged , ,

 

Two posts ago I ranted-on about New Year’s Obligations, opting for this mindset over the traditional yet less effective New Year’s Resolutions. The feedback was way cool, and as a result sparked something that made me reflect deep.

 

If I want to be on my best game this New Year, what will it take, what experiences, lessons and advice will I utilize and maximize to the fullest to ensure I make this a very remarkable year? Much stuck out, but no piece of previous advice made me a-ha more than these words – negative or positive, everything in life compounds.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                          

Obligations, or even resolutions for that matter, do not reveal desired results overnight. Anything worthwhile takes time, it takes commitment, hard work and persistence. Anything worth less than worthwhile uses the same recipe. In short, negative or positive, everything in life compounds.

 

I’m an extremely impatient person, someone who loses focus of the big picture from time to time, someone who wants the quick fix and instant gratification. I’m confident I’m not alone. Nevertheless this is kryptonite. Everything great or not so great must compound in order to achieve the ultimate desired results or deathly unwanted realities. Either way, compound good or bad and that’s just what you’ll get.

 

So this year my blueprint, my recipe to all that I’ve declared as my obligations in ‘09, will be fueled with the very deep belief that everything in life compounds. My negatives, my positives, my ability to lose focus and fail or my power to push through and prevail. The ball is always in my court. Every thought I think, every move I make, when committed and consistent, creates something real big, good or bad.

 

So when you set out to shed pounds this January or embark on a voyage to rake in more cash, remember that the end result is a consistent collection of all that you fed it. Good or bad, negative or positive.

 

In today’s extremely competitive and ultra demanding world, consistency may just be our most valuable currency in-line with trust. Consistency can go either way – up or down. The road consistency travels is entirely up to us. This New Year should be filled with obligations to compound nothing but the best, resulting in your best year to date.

 

It’s your ball, your call, you can launch it either way. Choose and move wisely.

 

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Books And Blogs You Should Devour

December 19, 2008 at 2:37 pm · Filed under December 2008 ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 

With everything that goes on around the holidays, there will be a time, and you’ve gotta make sure that you make that time, where you’ll be able to slip away, sit back and devour a great book. Its actually one of the things I look forward to most over the holidays – that snowy afternoon by the fireplace, nothing going on but the book in my hands and my mind open to all the words and worlds on those pages. Its just amazing. It takes me away.

 

I’ve been recently asked by several friends what I’ve been reading as of late and which books I’d highly recommend. This provoked and propelled me to make a list of my top 10 favorite books I’ve read over the past year, and include the top blogs I like to visit and read on an almost daily basis.

 

I’d love to hear your top 10 book list and the blogs in which you frequent regularly.

 

With all the hustle and bustle the holiday season brings, its nice to get away for a little while and read the words and ideas another mind has to share. It’ll enlighten you, open you and sharpen your ideas, thoughts and vision moving into the New Year.

 

Enjoy.

 

Here are the books

 

When All You Have Is Hope by Frank O’Dea 

 

Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us by Seth Godin

 

The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz

 

The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss

 

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

 

Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz

 

Born Standing Up by Steve Martin

 

Honeymoon With My Brother: A Memoir by Franz Wisner

 

Rich Dad Poor Dad by by Robert Kiyosaki

 

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder

 

And the blogs

 

Anywired.com Anywired is a blog for freelancers, business owners and entrepreneurs in the creative industry who want to scale their business without scaling their workload.

 

Powrightbetweentheeyes.com Andy Nulman’s blog about surprise. Always insightful and humorous.

 

Sethgodin.com Marketing guru and author, Seth Godin’s content is remarkable.

 

Mitchjoel.com Six Pixels Of Separation. Mitch is President of Twist Image – an award-winning Digital Marketing agency. He is a marketing and communications visionary, interactive expert, community leader, Blogger and Podcaster. This one is my very favorite.

 

Fourhourworkweek.com/blog/ This is Timothy Ferriss’s blog. Tim, nominated as one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People of 2007,” is author of the #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and BusinessWeek bestseller, The 4-Hour Workweek, which has been sold into 33 languages.

 

And my favorite website of the year, hands down the best

 

TED.com Don’t even hesitate, just visit it.

 

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New Year’s Obligations

December 17, 2008 at 12:54 am · Filed under December 2008 ·Tagged , ,

 

Forget resolutions. The word/definition/ultimate meaning of resolution is far too loose. It just doesn’t stick on the wall or in your heart past the 2nd week of January.

 

I can’t remember any other time of the year I ever use or hear the word resolution other than right around now. It seems to be so tightly tied-in with New Year’s that it just doesn’t fit in around Easter or any other date for that matter.

 

So this year I’ve spun a different approach to new ideas, thoughts, goals and visions for ’09 as we approach Jan 1st. I’ve morphed resolution into something more concrete, alive and with flow, something I’ll label, my New Year’s obligations.

 

See the word/definition/ultimate meaning of obligation is far more dedicated and responsible and instead of being approached and looked upon as something you have to do, an obligation is something you simply just do. It’s your duty and a lifestyle to something bigger and better, something higher than just a wish. It’s a desire to be and live beyond anything tangible. Its an attitude and consistent flow of acts that will enable you to evolve into the reality you want to create.

 

Resolutions just don’t have the heart, guts and backbone to keep your body, mind and soul interested. Obligations do.

 

 

This year I’ll commit myself to obligations that I not only want to commit to, but obligations I deeply know will benefit all involved. Obligations like writing two books, giving back to the community by empowering our youth and maximizing all possibilities when it comes to steps taken in reducing the ecological footprint I create. These are only a few examples, but see how they’re less of a goal and more so a duty, a lifestyle, an obligation I have to making this world a better place for all. Its rewarding for me and for those who it affects in the process. I’m less likely to give up on it when it means something sacred to me and to others.

 

Perhaps that’s where we’ve gone wrong all these years around this time. Making small resolutions, resolutions that don’t exactly push us outside our comfort zone, they don’t spark anything special inside. They’ve got a ceiling on them from the day they were conceived. Joining the gym on January 2nd doesn’t mean you’re going to keep going come February 2nd. But an obligation to a child that needs your guidance and support may be more difficult to neglect.

 

Everything starts somewhere. One great thing always leads to another. Same goes for the shitty stuff.

 

But don’t be fooled, obligations are never easy then again neither are resolutions. They all require work. Some a great deal of it.

 

If you want 2009 to be your best year ever, why not ditch the same old same old: join a gym, lose weight, make more money, spend more time with family and friends. Why not tear apart the envelope and create a new way of pushing it. Dig deep inside. What do you really, truly want? What are you willing to sacrifice? What are you ready to choose as your obligation in life?

 

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The Difference Between Passion And Obsession

December 15, 2008 at 3:08 pm · Filed under December 2008 ·Tagged , ,

 

The word passion is so loosely thrown around these days. They say do what you love in life, what you’re passionate about, and the money, fame, success and happiness will follow.

 

I wish it were that easy.

 

I’m passionate about a great deal of things. Its not just like, these are things in which I really, really love. I’ll call them passions, but would I call them obsessions?

 

In my eyes, my mind, passion is something you jolt out of bed every morning to. Enthusiasm, excitement, a great love for. Obsession to me, is something you’d walk across white hot fire to. You’d die for it without a second thought. Passion is loving what you do, but perhaps being flexible when the going gets a little tough. Obsession is giving all of you, not caring how much of yourself you lose along the way. Obsession is key to anything that matters most to you, in every single facet of your life.

 

Steve Jobs preaches the words never settle. Therefore until you’re obsessed with something, don’t settle. Don’t settle in love, don’t settle in your job, your relationships, don’t settle with your health – don’t settle unless you know it’s bringing out the best for all involved.

 

I’m not talking about unhealthy obsession, I’m talking about passion so healthy and so deep that it moves your life and the lives of all those around you to something greater.

 

If you’re passionate about what you do, you’re one of the very privileged few. If you’re obsessed with what you do, you’re in the 0.01% and the rarest of rare.

 

We need more of the privileged few and the rarest of rare. We need more people obsessed with their calling in life, their purpose, whether it be to be the best father, mother, employer, employee, volunteer, whatever.

 

Your brother, sister, your very best friend. You mother, your father, your kids and wife. These are healthy obsessions. These are what maters most to you in this world, more than even you.

 

However you should be equally obsessed with yourself, in of course a healthy way. Perhaps you’d take better care of your body, your career, your mind, your wealth. Obsessed with you enables you to care strong for all things around you. Your ideal life starts with you. A better world is reality when we care so deeply. Only obsession can provoke and propel that.

 

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Where Do I Start?

December 12, 2008 at 12:57 pm · Filed under December 2008 ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

 

Where do I start?

 

I’ve heard that question a great deal lately. Its been sparked from many channels of searching. People looking for answers in a global economic hurricane, out of work, wondering if now’s the time to start their own thing, their own business.

 

Its been sparked by talks of giving back to the community. Its been asked repeatedly when discussing the environment. I hear it all the time when people complain about their weight and/or the lack of exercise in their life. Wherever thought meets some sort of desire, where do I start gets asked.

 

However, there is no one right answer. You can ask around all you want (and I still highly suggest that you do), you can swoop up some advice and suggestions, but sure enough, only you’ll be able to answer that ultimate question in the end. No one travels the same journey, therefore no one ever launches the same way either.

 

Everyday I ask myself where I should begin, how I should lift off, what’s the best road to travel down. Whether it be a workout routine, a business meeting or an urge to do some good and give back to my community. I question myself all the time, I ask the question everyone’s seeking the answer to.

 

Thought + Desire = Where do I start?

 

 

Sometimes thinking too long and hard on where to start paralyzes people into inactivity. And inactivity never ever gets you anywhere. Sometimes you just gotta move, you gotta take the risk and green light the leap. Nothing in life happens until a move is made.

 

With the holiday season all around us, a new year knocking at the door, thoughts and desires of giving back or changing up our lifestyle will only see the light of day if we act. Where to start? Who knows? Many will offer you their two cents, but in the end, only you will be able to make sense of it all.

 

Start somewhere, anywhere, but please, start now.

 

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I Hate It, But I’ll Do It Anyways

December 11, 2008 at 11:55 am · Filed under December 2008

 

Man I hate waking up so damn early on a cold winter Montreal morning to hit the gym, but I do it anyways. And when I’m there and moving and pushing hard and feeling so f’n good as I go, I forget all about what I was hating-on to begin with. I’m no different than you, I hate stuff too. I’ve just learned to work with hate, morphing hate into lets say, a step I need to take in order to achieve the results I want.

 

There isn’t a soul on this planet who loves everything, we all dislike or despise something. But the ones who get shit done and make shit happen are the ones who work with hate, not be defeated by it.

 

Eventually that hate may turn into like or even love, or something you realized after all, didn’t deserve the hate you gave it.

 

What is hate anyways? Most of the time we hate things we’ve never fully given a solid effort to experience or know – people, work, stuff that pushes us outside our comfort zone. Hate is only hate because its what we create.

 

I’ve come to learn how to hate hate. Hate slows me down.

 

I give full props to those who keep-on despite facing hate face to face. Hats off to soldiers who keep marching-on no matter how much they hate what they see, what they have to become in order to do what they need to do. I admire the business and political leaders who hate certain aspects of the game, but keep playing in search of something better.

 

Along the road to right, hate will stare you down. Along the road to something bigger and better, hate will hit you hard. Everyone encounters hate, it’s the winners who dance with it and change it into something that hardly resembles hate when that second song begins to play.

 

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Never Do Anything Anyone Thinks Is A Good Idea, Do The Shit They Think Sucks

December 9, 2008 at 2:52 pm · Filed under December 2008

 

Very few people like change.

 

Because of that fact, very few people like big ideas and big thinkers that may provoke and propel change.

 

Dreamers are looked upon as drifters, rebels, misfits unhappy with the status quo, souls with a different agenda trying to change the world as we know it.

 

Great ideas are usually scorned. Nobody likes a great idea, everybody hates the guy or gal with the big bright shiny ideas.

 

Which is why its so direly important to dream big, think big and act big. Cause the reality is, most people live and play small.

 

The rebellious risk takers are the ones who make magic via deep belief, real passion and hard work. They’re the ones who were originally laughed at, ridiculed and considered mentally insane. They’re also the ones who make this world a better place, an exciting place, a place with much hope.

 

The majority of the people you walk amongst will think your small ideas are good. They are the thoughts and ideas you produce that are normal, safe and that fit the status quo. They make others feel comfortable, they are comfortable, yet they are also boring and do very little of importance out there in our world.

 

 

 

However the thoughts and ideas that are spit on, shit on and thrown to the dirt to die are the ones you should keep feeding. These are the ones you should act upon. These are the gems that others around you think suck, they are the ones that beat the crap out of Mr. Status Quo and his legions of unhappy men. They are the thought provoking, remarkably propelling dreams and ideas and visions that bring to this world the very best.

 

They are the ones you should never give up on, the ones you should keep building on, growing and morphing into a monster.

 

They say go big or go home, I say think and move big and you’ll never be alone. Sooner or later, everyone loves a winner and wants to be around one. Winners think big.

 

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Forget Recession, Now’s A Great Time!

December 8, 2008 at 1:09 pm · Filed under December 2008 ·Tagged ,

 

Get over it already.

 

Sure we’re either in or entering a recession right now, sure times are a little tighter and tougher than they were before and sure change is abundantly all around us. So what!

 

What are you going to do? Play victim, lay down and crawl up into a corner or play Nintendo Wii all day hoping things will automatically get better? Or are you going to act, be proactive, move and shake making great things occur and happen in your wake?

 

Its time to get nimble, move quicker, be smarter, take risks. It’s the best time to do what you’ve always wanted to do in regards to your work-life; perhaps starting your own business or changing your job, the industry you’re in or the career you’re married to. Now’s a great time to light that fire under your ass, get the fuck out of complacency and into something that means something special to you!

 

Now’s an ideal time to put shit into perspective, removing self-created limits you’ve for far too long put on yourself, smashing apart old beliefs that make you believe that flat screens and more designer jeans make you a more worthy person. It’s the greatest time ever to save your money, invest wisely, invest in your education/yourself and plan and play stronger for the future. There is no better time than now to repaint your life. Only you have the brush to do so.

 

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From Nothing To Something

December 4, 2008 at 7:47 pm · Filed under December 2008

 

Life loves action, life is action, action is life, without action nothing happens. Zero-activity does not exist in our world, everything moves, nothing is static, we are not static.

 

Yet at times we’re tired, we’re down we’re out, we’re fed the fuck up, we’ve given up. Its easier for us to simply stand still and just do nothing. The easy road is always easier to travel down than the hard one right? Wrong.

 

Now more than ever static is an obsolete word in our world. Static is nothing, and we have no interest in being nothing. The more time we spend on doing nothing, the less time we’ll have down the road to enjoy having something and being something.

 

Everybody wants to be somebody, we all want to be something special. But getting to something means we must be doing something. We must act, we must move, we must find our groove and never stop dancing.

 

You’ve got dreams and beliefs sure, what you may lack though is the power to act. Action means something is getting done, something is being performed.

 

We all feel that nothing at some point in our lives. For me, nothing is that I haven’t yet fulfilled what I know deep down inside I was put here on this earth to live. To get from nothing to something, the only highway to take is action. So I’m acting, day by day, removing nothing bit by bit from my life, doing something about it in the process.

 

I’ve recently felt like I’ve taken a huge plunge backwards into nothing, a direct repercussion of getting laid off, but that’s bullshit. I’m still moving, I’m still doing something. I’m doing whatever I can to get out of nothing and back into something. From nothing to something is action in progress, it’s a journey in which along your travels, you becoming something.

 

What are you doing? 

 

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Your Life Sucks?

December 2, 2008 at 1:32 pm · Filed under December 2008 ·Tagged ,

 

I’m going to ask you a few questions.

 

I don’t want to know your answers, instead please do me a favor and dig deep, reflect and answer only to you. Be brutally honest. Fool yourself and you’re only fooling you.

 

With 2008 soon coming to a close, I’ve spent a great deal of time the past week reflecting, asking myself real deep and important questions. Sometimes things like getting laid off and experiencing some significant change in one’s life can provoke that. But hey its all good. If anything its extremely beneficial. Its helped open my eyes, my mind, enabling me to refocus with absolute purpose for the present and the future.

 

Here goes:

 

Are you happy with your job?

Are you excited to go to work each and everyday? Do you jump out of bed every morning with enthusiasm and utter excitement? Why don’t you? If you call it a job, it may just be that you really don’t love what you do. Your major source of income could and should also be labeled your purpose in life. Is what you’re doing with the majority of your waking hours fill you with explosive passion?

 

Are you satisfied with your income?

Are you just making ends meet or doing something you love that puts an end to your financial worries? The only cap we put on our salary are the limits we put on ourselves. Don’t be afraid of money, if they run out, they’ll just print up more for ya.

 

Are you head over heals for your partner?

Or is it an arranged hookup by Cupid? Get real. Life’s too short. The person you’re with should be someone you love entirely, if not, stop wasting the court’s time down the line and dragging others along for the dreadful ride.

 

Are your relationships real and solid?

Tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are. I hated it when my mother always said that to me, but man was she right. Drop the losers in your life and watch your world change, for the better. Remember, as much as you want to help those around you, life’s too short to play Unicef for those who can take care of themselves but choose not to.

 

Do you like the body you’re currently living in?

If not, don’t buy a new mirror or black clothes, hire a personal trainer, start eating smarter. Not everyone was blessed with the most outrageous physique, however that still doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take care of your temple. Nothing in this world is more important. Without a healthy body, forget about making your millions. Its all starts with the only thing you’ve got that’s truly yours – your body and you mind. Work it.

 

Do you love life?

Do you love your life? If not, start finding out fast how you can change that. Its crucial. Life is short, why not love it?

 

Does your life suck? If you answered yes, why is that? The only thing in life that should suck are natural disasters. Everything else is under our control.

 

If your life sucks you’ve only got yourself to blame. Ask yourself these questions and answer only to you.

 

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