Well the games are half over already (hard to believe) and I've loved almost every minute of it so far. From the suspense of who would light the torch at the opening ceremonies (wasn't it was so diplomatically Canadian to not choose one but several torch lighters?) to the thrill of Bilodeau's first gold medal won by a Canadian on home soil, it's been a great first week.
Certainly there have also been setbacks and even tragedies. The loss of the Georgian slider and the Canadian figure skater whose mother passed away two days before she has to skate could be viewed as real dampening factors, but to me, while we would never wish for these things to happen, somehow they make the light of the Olympic flame and the Olympic spirit shine all the brighter. Why? Because when these things happen amidst the games of the Olympics it reminds us of what the games are really all about, a spirit of comraderie, competition and mutual love.
Where else can you see images of athletes congratulating each other on great performances even though they might be from countries whose governments are at war. Where else can you see an entire nation get excited and support someone they don't even know?
Much has been made over the last few days of what the media is beginning to call the failure of Canada's "Own the Podium" program. As the title implies, the goal of the program was to win more medals than any other country. With the US (at the time of this post) with a a total of 24 and Canada with only 9 and in 4th place overall, that certainly looks like that won't happen. But was the program a failure? That remains to be seen. Canada's record for most medals won is 24 in Turin in 2006. And that was with only 7 gold. We already have 4 gold in Vancouver and there are MANY more possibilities to come (Just think 2 in curling, 1 or 2 in hockey and that's already 4 more). In fact, some experts are saying Canada could still win many more medals including many golds. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir have a chance tonight in Ice Dancing, two of our women Ski Cross skiers are in the top 4 in the world and hold good chances for medals, and Saturday before the games end is a 5 medal day possibility.
So will Canada win more medals than any other country? Probably not. But can we still win more medals than we ever have before? Possibly. So let's not count ourselves out yet and let's measure success with a dose of perspective. Of course it would be nice to lead the medal count, but I hardly think a country best for medals won can be considered a failure.
Go Canada Go!
Showing posts with label attitude. Show all posts
Showing posts with label attitude. Show all posts
Monday, February 22, 2010
Saturday, January 09, 2010
The Trials of Travel - Part 2
Well it's been a few days and now since the last entry. I promised at the end of that entry that 1) I would let you know how things turned out and 2) What positive lessons could be learned. So here goes...
1) My wife, daughter and mother were not able to book a flight back home as nothing was available for several days. They were able to get a flight on Jet Blue that got them to Portland, ME which is more than 1/2 way so they took that. My dad, after getting home at 1AM the night before, got up at 7:00 AM turned around and drove the 7 hrs back south to pick them up. Luckily we have relatives near Portland and my family and parents were able to stay there after Dad arrived so they could rest a bit before the trek back home. They all arrived safe and sound Thursday evening. Thank God.
Now, what can we take from this experience... that depends, as I talk about in my presentations all the time, on what we choose to focus on. There are a plethora of negative things that we could focus on from this trip: the lost bags, cold and cloudy weather, three people getting sick, the lack of help from the airline during any part of the ordeal, my wife being so ill on the way home that she couldn't fly etc etc etc but focusing on those things does us no good, and not only that, it ruins the vacation by overshadowing the good stuff that happened. So I'm choosing to focus on the good things like: riding with my wife on the Tower of Terror and watching her scream all the way; seeing the amazing and inspiring presentation at Sea World as the world's largest creatures jumped farther into the air than I ever thought possible; and one memory that will stay with me for a LONG time, the look on daughter's face when she met the Disney princesses.
All in all, we still had a great vacation. Was it a smooth one? No. Did it go as planned? No. Are we still going to make sure American Airlines knows how unhappy we are with them? Yep. But still, it was a good time, and the "adventures" we had actually have one big plus: they'll make sure that we'll never forget that week!
So what's the big lesson? We can only control so much in our lives. In fact, we can control much less than we'd like to think. So when circumstances go against you, don't stress, don't freak out, just do your best to "go with the flow". Things will turn around. They always do. Take comfort in the knowledge that while much is out of your control, there's one thing you can always do something about; how you handle adversity and what you choose to focus on. I'm choosing to focus on that image of my daughter's face.
1) My wife, daughter and mother were not able to book a flight back home as nothing was available for several days. They were able to get a flight on Jet Blue that got them to Portland, ME which is more than 1/2 way so they took that. My dad, after getting home at 1AM the night before, got up at 7:00 AM turned around and drove the 7 hrs back south to pick them up. Luckily we have relatives near Portland and my family and parents were able to stay there after Dad arrived so they could rest a bit before the trek back home. They all arrived safe and sound Thursday evening. Thank God.
Now, what can we take from this experience... that depends, as I talk about in my presentations all the time, on what we choose to focus on. There are a plethora of negative things that we could focus on from this trip: the lost bags, cold and cloudy weather, three people getting sick, the lack of help from the airline during any part of the ordeal, my wife being so ill on the way home that she couldn't fly etc etc etc but focusing on those things does us no good, and not only that, it ruins the vacation by overshadowing the good stuff that happened. So I'm choosing to focus on the good things like: riding with my wife on the Tower of Terror and watching her scream all the way; seeing the amazing and inspiring presentation at Sea World as the world's largest creatures jumped farther into the air than I ever thought possible; and one memory that will stay with me for a LONG time, the look on daughter's face when she met the Disney princesses.
All in all, we still had a great vacation. Was it a smooth one? No. Did it go as planned? No. Are we still going to make sure American Airlines knows how unhappy we are with them? Yep. But still, it was a good time, and the "adventures" we had actually have one big plus: they'll make sure that we'll never forget that week!
So what's the big lesson? We can only control so much in our lives. In fact, we can control much less than we'd like to think. So when circumstances go against you, don't stress, don't freak out, just do your best to "go with the flow". Things will turn around. They always do. Take comfort in the knowledge that while much is out of your control, there's one thing you can always do something about; how you handle adversity and what you choose to focus on. I'm choosing to focus on that image of my daughter's face.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Faith - You Gotta' Believe
If there is a universal key to success it is faith. The belief that one will succeed is essential to achieving whatever goals one might have. So I thought at this time of year, when children provide a great example of faith in the form of their belief in a big man with a red suit, it would be a good time to discuss this success principal.
To achieve anything in life, you must first believe it is possible. In fact, I dare say that you have never realized a goal that you didn't first believe you could accomplish (even if that belief was shadowed with some doubts). At it's most basic level, we all accept this principal. We know that we'll never be a good parent, wife, husband etc. we must have at least a basic faith that we are capable of being that person. We know we'll fall down, we know we'll fall short, but we must also know we are capable. However, for some reason, despite being able to have faith in ourselves when it comes to fundamental abilities, we so often fail to have faith in ourselves to do extraordinary things, when it is exactly at the time that we attempt those things when faith is most critical.
To achieve anything in life, you must first believe it is possible. In fact, I dare say that you have never realized a goal that you didn't first believe you could accomplish (even if that belief was shadowed with some doubts). At it's most basic level, we all accept this principal. We know that we'll never be a good parent, wife, husband etc. we must have at least a basic faith that we are capable of being that person. We know we'll fall down, we know we'll fall short, but we must also know we are capable. However, for some reason, despite being able to have faith in ourselves when it comes to fundamental abilities, we so often fail to have faith in ourselves to do extraordinary things, when it is exactly at the time that we attempt those things when faith is most critical.
Start working on your faith. You Can Do Anything. Period. The sooner you can make this a core belief, the sooner you will meet with success.
Friday, October 23, 2009
The first day of the rest of my life...
It's time for me to get excited about my life again. It used to be that I was so excited to get up in the morning, work on my business, spend time with my family, and just ENJOY life. But over the last year or so, I've let myself fall into a bit of a rut. There were still lots of good times and fun, but it just hasn't been clicking quite like it used to. Well I've had enough! I officially declare today "the first day of the rest of my life".
This is not the first of these firsts. I've had a few. I was probably 13 when the first one came. I had been told by doctors that I couldn't play sports anymore (a central part of my life to that point). I was crushed and my world fell apart. I wallowed in self-pity, railed against the decision and the doctors and felt cheated. But eventually I discovered other avenues to be passionate about and eventually declared one day that "this would be the first day of the rest of my life".
Another day came after my transplant. When I woke up and realized I was being given a second chance, I knew that I was having a first day of the rest of my life. That from that point forward, life would be different. And it has been. But I've allowed life, some problems with anxiety, and financial struggles, to dull that new feeling. I've allowed myself to be become numb to the miracle that is LIFE. So today I declare the first day of the rest of my life. The life where I am completely joyous, loving and passionate about life.
It's a powerful feeling making this declaration. And the best thing about it is, you can choose to do it at ANY time. You make a commitment to yourself that from this point forward things will be different, and then, you do it. It's almost that simple. Yes you have to choose that decision over and over again. But it can be done. Your attitude, after all, is all in your mind. YOUR mind. So YOU have control.
So if you've been in a funk lately, or not feeling like life is what you want it to be, make a change. Declare today the first day of the rest of your life and then most importantly, act accordingly. Act differently and your life will be different.
God Bless and have a great weekend!
This is not the first of these firsts. I've had a few. I was probably 13 when the first one came. I had been told by doctors that I couldn't play sports anymore (a central part of my life to that point). I was crushed and my world fell apart. I wallowed in self-pity, railed against the decision and the doctors and felt cheated. But eventually I discovered other avenues to be passionate about and eventually declared one day that "this would be the first day of the rest of my life".
Another day came after my transplant. When I woke up and realized I was being given a second chance, I knew that I was having a first day of the rest of my life. That from that point forward, life would be different. And it has been. But I've allowed life, some problems with anxiety, and financial struggles, to dull that new feeling. I've allowed myself to be become numb to the miracle that is LIFE. So today I declare the first day of the rest of my life. The life where I am completely joyous, loving and passionate about life.
It's a powerful feeling making this declaration. And the best thing about it is, you can choose to do it at ANY time. You make a commitment to yourself that from this point forward things will be different, and then, you do it. It's almost that simple. Yes you have to choose that decision over and over again. But it can be done. Your attitude, after all, is all in your mind. YOUR mind. So YOU have control.
So if you've been in a funk lately, or not feeling like life is what you want it to be, make a change. Declare today the first day of the rest of your life and then most importantly, act accordingly. Act differently and your life will be different.
God Bless and have a great weekend!
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