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Don’t Aim at Success – Viktor Frankl
“Don’t aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of…
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Be Interested
In her book The Blue Sweater, Jacqueline Novogratz, founder of the Acumen Fund, tells of when she had to choose an internship after finishing her masters program. Given the choice between working in eastern Europe or New York, this globetrotting adventure-seeker was leaning towards the more adventurous overseas option, until a mentor gave her this…
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Searching For Sugar Man
Last night I watched Searching For Sugar Man, the Oscar-winning documentary that tells the inspiring, surprising story of Rodriguez. Rodriguez was a Detroit musician who recorded several albums in the 1970s. Though there were high hopes for this talented songwriter (compared to Bob Dylan), his albums absolutely flopped. Well, in the USA they flopped. While…
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Life Lessons From the Creator of Calvin and Hobbes
In today’s fast-paced, spotlight-seeking, social-media-driven world, finding a public figure who avoids the spotlight is remarkable. But when you find a public figure who is completely embracing living a private life and rejects all fame, money and attention, it forces you to take pause. That’s what I recently found in the creator of ‘Calvin &…
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Be Weird
As a kid I learned how to unicycle. If you’ve ever unicycled, or seen a unicyclist, you know that unicycling is weird. I would ride around my neighbourhood getting stares for people, hearing comments like, “You lost a wheel!” Unicycling isn’t for the fate of heart, and requires that you accept the fact that what…
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Giving
Most of us believe that it really is better to give than to receive. Whenever we volunteer in the community, donate to a cause, enjoy the sleepless nights of parenthood, or take time to listen to someone’s story, we remember that it’s true. Funny how easy it is to forget that, though. It’s easy to…
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Give to Love
I’ve been reflecting on this quote for the past couple weeks. I like it because it’s counter intuitive. Normally when we talk about why we love someone, we refer to the things we get from them or how they make us feel. But that’s not actually how love works. The more we invest, the more…
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To Build a Cathedral
We all want to build a cathedral, something great, lasting and awe-inspiring. The thing that’s too easy to forget – amidst our cleaning up messes, taking care of details and our inbox, going back to the drawing board, checking items off our checklists – is that every cathedral was built by a million small bricks,…
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Loving People
We don’t love people so much for the good they have done us, as for the good we have done them. Leo Tolstoy
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Don’t Look
Chances are you’re at your best when you’re not thinking about yourself. Just about every guy has an embarrassing story about the time (likely in their early teens) when they tried to impress a girl they liked. Noticing her in the audience you tried to win her affection by skating the puck from end to…