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The Thirst for Freedom
Life is full of constraints. The boss, the budget, our family responsibilities, geography, education, all create boundaries and limitations. We dream of shaking ourselves free from our chains and living the life of our dreams. Free of responsibility, free of constraints. If we could only get free, then we’d be truly happy and fulfilled. The…
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Comfort and Safety
As a kid I learned how to ride bike with no hands. With my first attempts, I tried to ride slowly, to minimize risk, I thought. I wobbled and struggled, without success. It wasn’t until I was told to ride faster that I finally succeeded in pulling my hands off the handlebars. As with snowboarding,…
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Why Work
When Tim Ferris taught us that only 4 hours of work was required to make ends meet (as opposed to 40 or 60) he forced us to re-evaluate this important question: Why would anyone work anymore? A few possible answers to the question: Ferris just wrote the book so he wouldn’t have to work anymore.…
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Let “Maybe” Open the Door
Some would say that maybe is a weak word for public speakers. It lacks confidence, and shouldn’t be uttered from the stage. I’m here to confess my undying love for the word. I love saying maybe when speaking, as much as I love hearing it in others’ talks. Why? Maybe conveys humility. The word acknowledges…
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The Fastest Man in the World
In the summer of 1996, Donevon Bailey became the fastest man in the world. Posting a record time of 9.84 seconds in the 100m sprint at the Olympics in Atlanta, the Canadian sprinter won gold and worldwide fame. Watching at the age of 12, I remember every second of his race. And I remember the…
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Motivate by Looking Back
Progress is important. Whether it’s in your work, fitness, or leading a team, huge motivation can be found in the feeling of moving forward. When we can see our growth or improvement, we’re energized to keeping going. This is why we love before/after photos and checklists. This is also why we get depressed when it…
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Snippets
After thumbing through my Twitter feed for too long, every new thought becomes a tweet. Every observation, every overheard phrase can be twisted into 140 characters of clever. Which makes me wonder, how much is our output affected by our inputs? When we feed ourselves a steady diet of snippets, sound bites, snapshots and tweets,…
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Complexity
If you’ve found a difficult problem, you can skip it and move on to an easier one, one that you know you’ll get right. One that you can check off the list. That’s what most of us are taught to do. Or, you can dig in and stick with the difficult one. While everyone else…
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Mess is Poetry
I listened to a speech recently, and it was an absolute disaster. A mother gave a carefully-prepared speech, but she kept getting interrupted. The culprit was none other than her six year-old son who was, in fact, the topic of her speech. While she explained the miracle of her son’s life – six short years…
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Nothing to Hide
Last night I watched Rob Ford for the first time. I’m not really up with all the Rob Ford buzz, but was finally curious enough to hear the guy speak. I was actually surprised by my own reaction. I felt kinda envious. Yes, envious of Rob Ford. As they paraded Ford around in his bright…
