Saturday, September 08, 2007
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Poppy
I started painting this on the 2nd September, but didn't get it finished because Delilah was born. I did manage to get the last half hour finished on the fifth!
Sunday, September 02, 2007
A New Addition
At 9:11pm on September 2nd, Delilah Ieva came into this world, our second daughter. She weighed in at 8lbs 3/4 oz and measured 21 inches long. She's happy and healthy and we're all getting on well as a slightly larger and slightly louder family.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Failures (Published Article)
A number of years ago there was a Nike commercial on television with Michael Jordan. As he walked through a dimly-lit corridor, Jordan’s voice comes on:
I've missed over nine thousand shots in my career.
I've lost almost three hundred games.
Twenty-six times I've been trusted with the game-winning shot... and missed.
I've failed over and over and over again in my life.
And that is why I succeed.
There are few people in this world who can say they have been more successful at anything than Michael Jordan was at basketball.
Life can be a struggle sometimes, and there are many times where things don't seem to go our way. Those are precisely the times when we need to take a step back and look at what is happening and find the lesson.
Our society mentality has become one of “keeping up with the Joneses”, and hand-in-hand with this is the strive for perfection or at least to appear perfect.
But perfection is an unattainable illusion. Nothing on Earth is perfect, and nobody is perfect, because perfection is a perception, which is subjective. What’s perfect for me, may be a disaster for someone else. In any case, everything is imperfect, and that’s why there’s evolution and change. Everything is always getting better or worse, so by definition it couldn’t have been perfect.
The people who spend the most time trying for perfection are the ones who spend the most time covering the realities in their life. They do this because it’s far easier to cover up than it is to actually face the fault and deal with it.
Imagine a house with rotten wood framing. Quickly covering over it with drywall is a far easier prospect than actually remediating the issue, although on the surface it might look the same.
Nevertheless, we’re told that perfection is the way to go, and as humans we look for the quickest and easiest way to the goal.
Society tells us that perfection is having children who are involved in five after-school activities; living in the perfect neighbourhood with the perfect picket fence and driving the perfect European vehicle into our pristine garage. You get the idea.
But what’s the point?
Being perfect doesn’t allow for mistakes, because perfect people don’t make mistakes. Not giving ourselves the freedom to make mistakes means that we aren’t giving ourselves room to learn.
When we fool ourselves into believing that we are always right, that we have “arrived” and that we know everything, it spells disaster, because it means we will stop learning and growing.
So what does this mean for the average person?
Do you know someone who “knows it all”. Where do these people end up? Usually making the same mistakes over and over and progressing very little if at all in their lives. Financial success does not mean success in every facet of life. You don’t need to look far to see wealthy people with dysfunctional home lives. But you can also just as easily find poor people who are tremendously happy with what they have.
No matter what age you’re at, it’s important to take a chance, take the road less travelled and put yourself on the line. Recognize that a “failure” is nothing more than an undesirable outcome from which you can learn.
Succeeding in life is not about being perfect. Successful people aren’t perfect. Successful people are prepared to fail and keep trying. We’re lucky Michael Jordan didn’t stop playing after losing his first game.
I've missed over nine thousand shots in my career.
I've lost almost three hundred games.
Twenty-six times I've been trusted with the game-winning shot... and missed.
I've failed over and over and over again in my life.
And that is why I succeed.
There are few people in this world who can say they have been more successful at anything than Michael Jordan was at basketball.
Life can be a struggle sometimes, and there are many times where things don't seem to go our way. Those are precisely the times when we need to take a step back and look at what is happening and find the lesson.
Our society mentality has become one of “keeping up with the Joneses”, and hand-in-hand with this is the strive for perfection or at least to appear perfect.
But perfection is an unattainable illusion. Nothing on Earth is perfect, and nobody is perfect, because perfection is a perception, which is subjective. What’s perfect for me, may be a disaster for someone else. In any case, everything is imperfect, and that’s why there’s evolution and change. Everything is always getting better or worse, so by definition it couldn’t have been perfect.
The people who spend the most time trying for perfection are the ones who spend the most time covering the realities in their life. They do this because it’s far easier to cover up than it is to actually face the fault and deal with it.
Imagine a house with rotten wood framing. Quickly covering over it with drywall is a far easier prospect than actually remediating the issue, although on the surface it might look the same.
Nevertheless, we’re told that perfection is the way to go, and as humans we look for the quickest and easiest way to the goal.
Society tells us that perfection is having children who are involved in five after-school activities; living in the perfect neighbourhood with the perfect picket fence and driving the perfect European vehicle into our pristine garage. You get the idea.
But what’s the point?
Being perfect doesn’t allow for mistakes, because perfect people don’t make mistakes. Not giving ourselves the freedom to make mistakes means that we aren’t giving ourselves room to learn.
When we fool ourselves into believing that we are always right, that we have “arrived” and that we know everything, it spells disaster, because it means we will stop learning and growing.
So what does this mean for the average person?
Do you know someone who “knows it all”. Where do these people end up? Usually making the same mistakes over and over and progressing very little if at all in their lives. Financial success does not mean success in every facet of life. You don’t need to look far to see wealthy people with dysfunctional home lives. But you can also just as easily find poor people who are tremendously happy with what they have.
No matter what age you’re at, it’s important to take a chance, take the road less travelled and put yourself on the line. Recognize that a “failure” is nothing more than an undesirable outcome from which you can learn.
Succeeding in life is not about being perfect. Successful people aren’t perfect. Successful people are prepared to fail and keep trying. We’re lucky Michael Jordan didn’t stop playing after losing his first game.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Tiger Woods
This weekend Tiger Woods completed his fourth victory at the PGA Championship, his 13th Major, and his 59th victory on the PGA Tour. The big thing is that it's his 13th Major title in his chase of Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 Major titles.
An article in the local newspaper here commented that he is only five majors short of Nicklaus' record. What's interesting about that "only", is that only 13 golfers have won more than five majors in their entire career. Some notables who won five or less include: Seve Ballesteros (5), James Braid (5), Byron Nelson (5) Peter Thomson (5) Raymond Floyd (4), Ernie Els (3) Hale Irwin (3), Phil Mickelson (3), Nick Price (3), Vijay Singh (3), Payne Stewart (3) and Greg Norman (2).
Each one of these players was or is an amazingly talented golfer in his time. All reached the pinnacle of golfing excellence more than once. Even racking up five majors as Seve Ballesteros or the legendary Byron Nelson did in an entire career is mentioned as an "only" in the Tiger Woods realm of golf.
Tiger Woods is only in his early thirties and already has a career that would be impressive for a dozen golfers to share equally - five PGA wins, including a major each!
Look at his current world golf ranking below:
1. Woods 22.10
2. Furyk 8.69
3. Mickelson 8.44
4. Els 7.67
5. Scott 6.48
6. Harrington 6.23
7. Singh 5.88
8. Garcia 5.53
9. Ogilvy 5.49
10. Stenson 5.30
Tiger Woods is so far ahead of the #2 ranked player it's almost embarrassing. In fact the players ranked fourth, fifth and sixth have a combined total number of ranking points less than Tiger alone. Tiger almost outpoints the seventh to tenth ranked quartet.
It's truly amazing.
But what we can all learn from this is that hard work pays off. You only need to look at Tiger's physique compared to the other golfers to see that he spends more time strengthening his muscles than the rest. There's no overhang on his belt, no double chin or loose flesh on his body. For all the people who joke that golf is a a sport just as much as chess and darts should be considered a sport, Tiger gives it credibility.
No one works harder on every aspect of golf than Tiger Woods, and his professionalism is second to none. Tiger has a vision and he expects only the best of himself. And as his record shows, he invariably gets the results.
An article in the local newspaper here commented that he is only five majors short of Nicklaus' record. What's interesting about that "only", is that only 13 golfers have won more than five majors in their entire career. Some notables who won five or less include: Seve Ballesteros (5), James Braid (5), Byron Nelson (5) Peter Thomson (5) Raymond Floyd (4), Ernie Els (3) Hale Irwin (3), Phil Mickelson (3), Nick Price (3), Vijay Singh (3), Payne Stewart (3) and Greg Norman (2).
Each one of these players was or is an amazingly talented golfer in his time. All reached the pinnacle of golfing excellence more than once. Even racking up five majors as Seve Ballesteros or the legendary Byron Nelson did in an entire career is mentioned as an "only" in the Tiger Woods realm of golf.
Tiger Woods is only in his early thirties and already has a career that would be impressive for a dozen golfers to share equally - five PGA wins, including a major each!
Look at his current world golf ranking below:
1. Woods 22.10
2. Furyk 8.69
3. Mickelson 8.44
4. Els 7.67
5. Scott 6.48
6. Harrington 6.23
7. Singh 5.88
8. Garcia 5.53
9. Ogilvy 5.49
10. Stenson 5.30
Tiger Woods is so far ahead of the #2 ranked player it's almost embarrassing. In fact the players ranked fourth, fifth and sixth have a combined total number of ranking points less than Tiger alone. Tiger almost outpoints the seventh to tenth ranked quartet.
It's truly amazing.
But what we can all learn from this is that hard work pays off. You only need to look at Tiger's physique compared to the other golfers to see that he spends more time strengthening his muscles than the rest. There's no overhang on his belt, no double chin or loose flesh on his body. For all the people who joke that golf is a a sport just as much as chess and darts should be considered a sport, Tiger gives it credibility.
No one works harder on every aspect of golf than Tiger Woods, and his professionalism is second to none. Tiger has a vision and he expects only the best of himself. And as his record shows, he invariably gets the results.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
The Ostrich (Published Article)
The Ostrich, officially named "Struthio camelus" is the largest of the 8,600 bird species, which exist today. Reaching a height of up to 2.6m these birds can weigh up to 135kg, cannot fly, but are very fast runners.The long-held myth is that ostriches bury their head in the sand when they are frightened. The Canadian Museum of Nature's website states that- "If threatened while sitting on the nest, which is simply a cavity scooped in the earth, the hen presses her long neck flat along the ground, blending with the background. Ostriches, contrary to popular belief, do not bury their heads in the sand."
The term "sticking your head in the sand" has come to mean that you choose to ignore a bad situation, and hope that it will go away on its own. The unfortunate reality is that most of us take that action (really, a lack of action) when faced with a challenge. Sticking your head in the proverbial sand also prevents you from finding out more information that might help resolve the issue.
Every day I open the local newspaper to read about how people are affected by situations, how their life has become a living horror because of something that happened to them. Unfortunately most of these situations were preventable, but a lack of action allowed it to occur.
As children we are brought up with "A stitch in time saves nine" and "prevention is the best medicine", and these hold true for all of life's situations. The hard part is doing something about a potential future disaster rather than waiting for it to happen and then becoming involved in a stressful situation.
When you see something on your horizon take action now. Face your fears, get information, and move yourself to do something.
All too often we look at successful people and wonder how they get all the luck. I recently came across this a few weeks ago with a gentleman I worked with. He is in his fifties and recently moved away from Calgary into semi-retirement on Vancouver Island. He had just bought a boat and a large property overlooking the water.
Someone commented to me "Well it's alright for him. He has money!"
"Ahh yes!" I said, "but when he started dreaming about this ten years ago, he didn't. You're looking at his life nine and a half years into a ten year plan. No wonder it looks easy now, he's basically at the finish line."
No one became an "overnight success" without years of hard work before hand.
What was also interesting was how clear he could see his dreams even before they had materialised. Before he bought his boat he could visualise it, and he could even see where his dog would sleep. Having such a clear vision for what he wanted allowed him to know how to get there. He was able to take the right action because he knew where he wanted to end up. For many of us, it's having that clear vision of where we want to go that's the stumbling block.
When I asked the person who made the comment that this gentleman has "all the luck", I asked her what she wanted for her future. "To be happy," was the answer. But she couldn't tell me what "happy" looked like.
To make your future dreams become a reality it's important to imagine them, and see them clearly. You can't shoot for a goal that you can't see.
It's time to take our collective heads out of the sand, get informed, dream about our future and face our fears.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Breaking Habits
My wife and I have realized how difficult it can be to break a habit... not ours, but our daughter's. Vienna is 21 months old and up until a week ago was drinking all her milk from the bottle.
A bottle on rising in the morning, a bottle before lunch, one after her nap in the middle of the afternoon, and one just before bed time.
Our family doctor told us that, for the benefit of her teeth, we shouldn't feed her the bottle anymore. So we stopped.
But to get her to drink milk out of anything else has been impossible... and we've tried. We tried about five different cups, heating the milk, not heating the milk, adding chocolate, pretending to drink it ourselves, or feeding it to her teddy bears. It doesn't matter what we try, she sees right through our tactics. Nothing is as good as milk out of the bottle!
For about a year Vienna has been drinking all sorts of fluids from sippy-cups, normal cups, through a straw, juice boxes, but milk has always been consumed from a bottle. We tried a few months ago to get her to drink milk from a sippy-cup, but to no avail.
As parents, we suddenly realised the error of our ways, and good that we recognized that before our second is born (due in six weeks). Try not to establish habits that you know in the future you will have to break. Rather, try to establish the habit of flexibility and variation. If only we had our daughter drinking milk from more than one container from an early age, phasing out the bottle wouldn't be an issue.
Instead we've abandoned the bottle completely and with it, her milk consumption has dropped by 80%. So now we scramble to add milk or cheese to her diet where possible.
I know this will be a short-term situation, but it's frustrating because we didn't foresee this problem, but looking back we can see how we helped create it.
A bottle on rising in the morning, a bottle before lunch, one after her nap in the middle of the afternoon, and one just before bed time.
Our family doctor told us that, for the benefit of her teeth, we shouldn't feed her the bottle anymore. So we stopped.
But to get her to drink milk out of anything else has been impossible... and we've tried. We tried about five different cups, heating the milk, not heating the milk, adding chocolate, pretending to drink it ourselves, or feeding it to her teddy bears. It doesn't matter what we try, she sees right through our tactics. Nothing is as good as milk out of the bottle!
For about a year Vienna has been drinking all sorts of fluids from sippy-cups, normal cups, through a straw, juice boxes, but milk has always been consumed from a bottle. We tried a few months ago to get her to drink milk from a sippy-cup, but to no avail.
As parents, we suddenly realised the error of our ways, and good that we recognized that before our second is born (due in six weeks). Try not to establish habits that you know in the future you will have to break. Rather, try to establish the habit of flexibility and variation. If only we had our daughter drinking milk from more than one container from an early age, phasing out the bottle wouldn't be an issue.
Instead we've abandoned the bottle completely and with it, her milk consumption has dropped by 80%. So now we scramble to add milk or cheese to her diet where possible.
I know this will be a short-term situation, but it's frustrating because we didn't foresee this problem, but looking back we can see how we helped create it.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Change of Direction
This morning I handed in my resignation without any firm plans of where I'll be off to next... except to take a solid six weeks off to spend it with my wife and daughter, my parents who are coming up from Australia in mid-August, and the second child we're due with on September 6th.
One of the suppliers I regularly deal with said it was admirable that I would take off so much time, when people today are so focused on money, money, money. But I told her that in the last 12 years I have taken almost three years off work to travel and experience life.
Balance in life is a bit like communism... it's good on paper, but somehow it doesn't work in the real world. I've tried throughout my whole life to attain a kind of balance, and the best I've managed is three years off in twelve. But what's more important is to attain happiness. If you're happy at work and happy at home then the need for balance takes care of itself. The need for balance arises when we're unhappy and are constantly seeking relief somewhere else.
I always find it sad when people spend months and months looking forward to a week-long holiday. It's one thing to be excited for a holiday, but it's another to wish away the majority of your life for a couple of weeks a year. What about the rest of the time?
When I think of life I think of a dripping tap. It drips and drips a little bit at a time. Each drop could represent a day. Individually a drop is not significant, but collect many drops over time and you have a puddle. It's the same with life. To not enjoy one day in your life is not a big deal, but to not enjoy many of them - that's significant. And at some point the tap will dry up, and we don't know when that will be. What would you do with your last day? Would you spend it the way you're spending today? Today may be your last...
Make sure you enjoy every day, and get excellent value from your time. You never know how much more of it you have.
One of the suppliers I regularly deal with said it was admirable that I would take off so much time, when people today are so focused on money, money, money. But I told her that in the last 12 years I have taken almost three years off work to travel and experience life.
Balance in life is a bit like communism... it's good on paper, but somehow it doesn't work in the real world. I've tried throughout my whole life to attain a kind of balance, and the best I've managed is three years off in twelve. But what's more important is to attain happiness. If you're happy at work and happy at home then the need for balance takes care of itself. The need for balance arises when we're unhappy and are constantly seeking relief somewhere else.
I always find it sad when people spend months and months looking forward to a week-long holiday. It's one thing to be excited for a holiday, but it's another to wish away the majority of your life for a couple of weeks a year. What about the rest of the time?
When I think of life I think of a dripping tap. It drips and drips a little bit at a time. Each drop could represent a day. Individually a drop is not significant, but collect many drops over time and you have a puddle. It's the same with life. To not enjoy one day in your life is not a big deal, but to not enjoy many of them - that's significant. And at some point the tap will dry up, and we don't know when that will be. What would you do with your last day? Would you spend it the way you're spending today? Today may be your last...
Make sure you enjoy every day, and get excellent value from your time. You never know how much more of it you have.
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Who'll Be Next?!
After a gruelling day I came home at around 10:15pm after my Dale Carnegie course, chatted with my wife until about 11pm and then went to bed.
At 1am my wife wakes to see me standing at the corner of the bed in my pyjamas, hands outstretched saying, "Who'll be next?!"
For the first time in my life I'm sleepwalking. As I dreamt I thought I was giving the Dale Carnegie class to a bright room full of eager participants.
"Wake up!" she tells me.
"Huh?" I open my eyes and suddenly my mind starts racing. Why is it dark? Where's the class? Why am I in my bedroom? Why am I in my pyjamas? What time is it?
I was quite confused at this time, but staggered back into bed and went to sleep.
They say "you don't take the Dale Carnegie program, you live it."
I certainly am.
At 1am my wife wakes to see me standing at the corner of the bed in my pyjamas, hands outstretched saying, "Who'll be next?!"
For the first time in my life I'm sleepwalking. As I dreamt I thought I was giving the Dale Carnegie class to a bright room full of eager participants.
"Wake up!" she tells me.
"Huh?" I open my eyes and suddenly my mind starts racing. Why is it dark? Where's the class? Why am I in my bedroom? Why am I in my pyjamas? What time is it?
I was quite confused at this time, but staggered back into bed and went to sleep.
They say "you don't take the Dale Carnegie program, you live it."
I certainly am.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Got it done!
I have never been so nervous in my life. I started getting ulcers in my mouth on Sunday, and a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I have done a lot of public speaking in my lifetime and now have few nerves from that, but today I trained my first session of the Dale Carnegie program.
My throat was dry, and no matter how much water I drank the desert in my mouth remained. My tongue was like an old leather belt and my stomach churned.
As 6 o'clock drew near the terror increased, and then I was up... opening the session and getting right into it. Everything went well, considering and I made it through to the end.
As a "Tandem-Trainer" I deliver half of the session and the experienced trainer delivers the other half, while keeping a watchful eye over what I'm doing. It's a very good way of easing into it, given the high expectations.
Now at the other side of it I've grown in confidence and I know next week won't be so bad.
Woohoo!
My throat was dry, and no matter how much water I drank the desert in my mouth remained. My tongue was like an old leather belt and my stomach churned.
As 6 o'clock drew near the terror increased, and then I was up... opening the session and getting right into it. Everything went well, considering and I made it through to the end.
As a "Tandem-Trainer" I deliver half of the session and the experienced trainer delivers the other half, while keeping a watchful eye over what I'm doing. It's a very good way of easing into it, given the high expectations.
Now at the other side of it I've grown in confidence and I know next week won't be so bad.
Woohoo!
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