Cooperation. Amazing things happen when we work together.

This past week I had the opportunity to do some professional development training with a colleague. I learned a lot, but the most powerful lesson was the reminder about the power of cooperation. By having someone who knows my field, to bounce ideas off of, I was able to come up with new strategies and outlooks that I could never have created alone.

You've probably heard of a principal called "synergy". Synergy has became a major buzzword a over the last decade or so. In fact it's been used so much that it's probably lost it's meaning for many, but it's a powerful concept that anyone who wants to succeed in business, in school and in life, should understand. Synergy is defined as: 'two or more agents working together to produce a result not obtainable by any of the agents independently'. In other words, in math 2 + 2=4 but in synergy, 2+2 might equal 10.

"Pyramid" or Multi-Level Marketing businesses employ this principal very effectively. Say what you will about these types of businesses, they understand the concept of exponential growth and synergy. They understand that four people working together can accomplish more than double what two people can.

So where could you be employing synergy in your life right now? Who should you call to talk about a project? Make this the week you start to think cooperatively!

The Trials of Travel - Part 1

This week my family went of vacation, or at least that's what we thought. We arrived at our destination, but unfortunately, our bags didn't. Not the first day, or the second, or for some of us, the even the third. The airline was no help, offered no good reason for what happened, and was actually even rude.

Next, while we were there, my baby girl got the stomach flu and my wife and I spent an entire night with her vomiting every twenty minutes all night long. But that's not all... in fact, we're just getting started. My mother caught the same bug two days later and was sick for the last day and half of the vacation.

Then there's my brother's girlfriend had to leave early. She got back but after receiving her bag the night before she left, her bag wasn't there when she got back home either!

Finally, when the rest of us traveled my wife who evidently caught the same bug my Mom and daughter both had, spent most of the first leg of the flight home in the washroom and the 5hr layover was so bad that she wasn't even able to fly the rest of the way home. One would think that the airline would want to protect their passengers from a sick passenger and would gladly switch my wife's seat for a later flight... turns out that's not the case and she was told that she would have to buy a new ticket in order to fly later. Oh and by the way, there were no flights the next day.

The saga is not over yet but so far, it hasn't been a very relaxing vacation! I'll keep you posted...
Oh, and keep reading, because the reason I'm sharing this story isn't just to vent. There are lessons to be learned as well and those will come in Part 2.

Looking Back and Looking Ahead

We're ten days from the end of the year and from the end of the decade. It's hard to believe, but in less than two weeks, another ten years will be gone. I don't know about you, but it seems to me like it was a few days ago we were worrying about Y2K (remember that?) and now we're getting ready to welcome 2010. So as the year comes to a close it's time for taking stock.

Ask most people about New Year's and they'll tell you that it's a time when they set new goals and look ahead to the future. While many people never bother to set goals and make plans, almost everyone engages in the exercise of setting resolutions. While I'm all in favour of setting New Year's Resolutions, this week I want to focus on someone that is most often overlooked but potentially even more important, looking back.

Looking back isn't about regrets and dwelling on our mistakes, it's about taking stock of where we've been as a way to guide us toward where we want to be. The end of a year is a great time to take stock of what you've accomplished over the past 365 days, take a deeper look at the challenges you faced, and most importantly, the lessons you've learned. In this case, we get to look back at a whole decade, so there's lots to be gleaned if we'll just take the time to look. Here is some of my lists:

2000's Accomplishments:

• Told I was going to die, faced the challenge head on without ever giving up hope
• Survived a life-saving Heart-Lung Transplant
• Took myself from zero fitness level to a marathon finish line.
• Ran 3 marathons and 4 half marathons
• Wrote and published my book
• Re-planned my life and discovered a new career path
• Started my own business
• Spoke to 50,000 people in over 100 presentations
• Met and married my wife
• Had our first child Emma
• Bought our first, and then our second house

2000's Challenges:

• Told I may die at 23
• Lived in a hospital bed for 6 months
• Broke up with my first serious girl friend
• Dealt with depression on and off throughout
• Developed anxiety disorder
• Realized I couldn't be a teacher like I'd planned

2000's Lessons Learned:

• You never lose unless you give up
• You can beat anything with enough determination, endurance and optimism
• However bad something may be, there are always lessons to be learned from it
• What doesn't kill you really does make you stronger
• Anything can be accomplished with big vision, self-confidence and dogged determination
• As long as you have family and friends nothing else much matters

I hope you enjoyed my lists, but more importantly, I hope that they encourage you to make your own. In the next ten days, set aside a little time to take inventory of where you've been this past decade. See what you learn. It can be a very helpful tool to take you to the next level in your professional and personal life.

Stop the Hype and Live Life

For most of us in N. America right now H1N1 is the topic of the day. To vaccinate or not, when will the vaccine be ready, will there be enough, what are the risks... etc etc. SO I thought it was a good time to talk not about the flu, but about maintaining our composure and peace amid stress.
Effective people, good leaders, and anyone you admire probably, are good at finding a sense of
peace amidst chaos.

I've been really frustrated the last few weeks with the media coverage of the H1N1 pandemic and could be silent no more. So, with my apologies for giving you more to read about this topic, here are my thoughts...

First let's talk about the word "pandemic". It itself, the word carried with it connotations of fear. People hear that word and freak out. I think they link the word with uncontrolled illness and widespread deaths (a la 1918 flu pandemic). I hate that the media uses this word. They will say that it is simply the accurate medical term for the H1N1 flu. I would argue that is also an effective way to create fear, and thus interest, and therefor higher ratings! In the end, the news is still a business and if they can't make us watch, they go out of business.

SO let's clarify that word "pandemic". A pandemic according to Websters is: occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population. Note that what the definition DOES NOT say, is that a pandemic = a high number of deaths. But, I would argue, that's what the news would have you believe.

The H1N1 flu has caused rampant fear in many people across North America. You can't escape hearing about it and reading about it and for many, it's begun to create irrational, frantic
behaviour. Just last week our local emergency room had to call police to control irrational patients in their waiting room demanding the vaccine (that wasn't even available at the hospital at that time).

In times like these it can be very easy to lose focus and get swept up in the storm and the hype. I wanted this issue to help you to maintain focus and perspective. This is NOT the apocalypse and, contrary to what I think many news channels would like for us to believe, life will go on after this
flu. Is it serious, of course. But do we need to panic? Hardly.

Let's look quickly at the facts:

• Total Reported Deaths in Canada from H1N1 as of Oct 29th: 95
• Total New Deaths this past week in Canada: 6
• Percentage of People who contract H1N1 who have died worldwide: 1.4%
  

So listen, I'm the first to be cautious about infections (for those who don't know, I'm a transplant recipient. I have a suppressed immune system. I'm at greater risk than probably anyone reading this right now). BUT, we need remember, odds are, if you take care of yourself and are sensible,
your odds of even contracting the flu are probably around 20%. And even if you're among that 20%, your odds of serious complications or death are less than 5%.

So let's get back to living our lives. Yes don't be stupid or hang out with people who are sick (why would you want to?) but don't stop living your life and waste away your time worrying about thing you have no control over. Enjoy life.

Stay healthy. Stay safe. Live Life!