Being grateful for what we have and where we are in life is where happiness begins. Here’s a great clip I would like to share with you.
Click here to view the Brightside video
What are you grateful for today?
It’s Never Too Late!
What is your biggest regret?
Maybe it’s not getting the degree you always wanted, or perhaps it’s not spending time with your family to experience those precious moments that are being swept away by too many late nights at the office, or not having pushed past your comfort zone to experience all that you are capable of.
This video that I recently came across is a reminder that it’s never too late to pursue the things that are important to you. Click on the link below to view it:
Where do you want to go in your life? What dreams do you want to realize?
Working with an experienced leadership and personal development coach can help you to determine what’s really important to you. They will help you develop a concrete and realistic plan and then help you create the momentum you need to take the important steps necessary to realize your dream. What’s even more important, with your permission, they will hold you accountable to deliver on what you’ve agreed to do.
Taking the first steps towards achieving your dreams can be daunting. Working with a supportive and well trained coach may be just what you need.
If you think coaching is something you might be interested in trying, contact me today to set up a no obligation complimentary coaching session. It just might be what you need to make those positive and meaningful changes to your life!
Is it time to reconsider what’s on your bucket list? Watch this video and find out for sure!
So what is on your bucket list? If you are Canadian you likely know who Chris Hadfield is. And if not, you are about to be introduced to one of Canada’s retired astronauts and motivation gurus. He has a very interesting approach towards having a “bucket list” and one that you might want to consider. Click on the link below to view his two minute video.
After some reflection, if you find that your bucket isn’t being filled up in the way you would like it to be, then it might be time to get serious and focus on what’s important to you. This might involve your career, work life balance or maybe that special dream you’ve been putting off.
If you are serious about wanting to make a meaningful change, take advantage of a free complimentary coaching session to see if having a coach is right for you. Contact us today and start filling up your bucket with what matters most to you!
Do you have the question all wrong?
As a personal development and leadership coach I’ve leaned that all it takes is one powerful question to transform a conversation…and powerful conversations transform lives.
This is one of those powerful questions. Click on the link and check out this video.
What’s the best that can happen?
If after watching the video you are interested in learning more about how to transform any aspect of your career, your life or your world, you can take advantage of a complimentary coaching session to see if coaching is right for you. What’s the best that could happen? Contact us today and find out!
Are you looking for ways to dramatically improve your success as a leader?
Being an effective leader means making a personal commitment to continual learning in an effort to keep your skills honed. One of the ways I do this is by following blogs, tweets and checking out websites of some of the great leaders whom I admire and respect. When an article catches my eye, often times it’s because of an experience I’ve had during my career, whether as a team leader, manager, or as an executive and generally there was a lesson I learned along with it.
Success is often driven by first steps. When you take on a new leadership role, getting off to a good start is critical. I came across an article on the Entrepreneur site that outlines an effective approach on how to do this. Clicking on the link below will open a new browser page.
Your First 5 Days as a New Manager
From a leadership perspective, I think what you do next is equally important.
Leaders create and build trust by applying a consistent approach. An experience that comes to mind which demonstrates this perfectly goes back a few years when I was first starting out as a manager. I adopted an approach from Ken Blanchard’s book The One Minute Manager. Each morning I would make my rounds to touch base with each of my employees and perform an adaptation of the 12 Minute Meeting with them. This provided my employees with some daily one-on-one time with me to discuss their current projects, any challenges they might be encountering or simply an opportunity to say good morning.
The practice from a management perspective really paid off for me. It was an excellent way to stay abreast of what was going on at the working level within my team. What I hadn’t realized was how much my staff valued the approach. At least not until the day when I missed making my rounds. An urgency kept me in my office that morning. What followed was very interesting. Over the course of the morning each of my employees made their way to my office door to check in with me. They wanted to know if everything was alright.
The experience demonstrated three things. First, my employees valued our time together and looked forward to the opportunity to meet with me as their manager. Secondly, although this example is small scale, time was spent by each of my staff wondering about what had gone wrong that morning. On a larger scale this could result in significant downtime and lost productivity within an organization. Lastly, it was evident that consistency is important. Unpredictability creates uncertainty and given the ever changing world that we work in, employees value having a sense of what to expect from their manager.
Your leadership approach is one of the things within your control. Putting one small positive change into place today and staying with it can result in significant returns in the longer term. It will increase your credibility and the level of trust with your employees, create stability within your organization and provide an environment that supports increased productivity.
Make that positive change today and put your leadership to work for you!
If you want to increase your leadership muscle by working with a coach give me a call. I’m here to help!
Do you have a dream that you have given up on? Then this is for you!
As a leadership and personal development coach I am always inspired by stories such as the one in the following video. As I watched it I was reminded of the importance of keeping our dreams alive regardless of how remote achieving them may seem. Click on the link below to view the video:
Do you have a dream you’ve put on the shelf? Maybe it’s to further your education, change your line of work to one that sets your heart on fire, or perhaps it’s publishing the book that you’ve always dreamt of writing, then perhaps it’s time to dust off that dream and breathe life back into it?
When you think about your dream is there a little voice inside of you saying “I can’t possibly do this” or “that’s for other people, that’s not for me” then professional coaching might be for you!
As an accredited experienced leadership and personal development coach I work closely with individuals like yourself to determine what’s really important to you. I’ll help you develop a concrete and realistic plan and then I’ll help you create the momentum you need to take the important steps necessary to realize your dream. What’s even more important, with your permission, I’ll hold you accountable to deliver on what you’ve agreed to do.
If taking the first steps towards achieving your dreams seems daunting, working with a supportive and well trained coach may be just what you need.
Please give me a call if you are ready to make some positive and meaningful changes to your life!
How do you kick start your day?
What would the day look like if we all started it like this?
A word of caution: You may or may not be able to stand on the counter…watch your step 🙂
The Big Ride – Homeward Bound (New York State)
Endings can sometimes be difficult but what I’ve learned is that experiences like The Big Ride live on. A transformation of sorts, moving from on state to another. The Big Ride feels like that for me. The mileage is behind me but it lives on within me and within many of you who rode vicariously through me. That’s one of the gifts from living the dream – it’s never really over!
The final day arrived earlier this week, Monday August 10, 2015, when I rode from Rochester, New York to Ottawa, Ontario where home is for me.
Here’s a short video of me expressing how I was feeling that morning, followed by another of the ride through the scenic green farmlands of northern New York State. I couldn’t have chosen a more beautiful day for the ride home. The sky was blue and a gentle breeze danced across the fields and played with the clouds high in the sky.
And of course a few photos for your viewing pleasure.
Pulling out on my last day of The Big Ride – homeward bound
In Closing, here are a few final words that I would like to share with you.
Thank you for riding along and most of all for supporting me on The Big Ride. It wouldn’t have been the same without you. I hope you enjoyed the journey. If you have a “big dream” that you haven’t been able to get off the ground, contact me – I can help you make it happen! After all, that’s why we’re on this journey called life – to live it to its fullest!
The Big Ride – When you know the end is near (The Great Plains)
After riding the incredible roads in Utah it was difficult psychologically to head out onto the Great Plains knowing that it was the ride home. I don’t know about you, but sometime endings are challenging. It’s easy to “checkout” before actually getting to the end. I tried hard not to do this and took in as much of the Great Plains as I possible could. The time passed quickly and I was able to ride through Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio in only a few days.
I learned along the way that Kansas is the Sunflower State and not only are the fields adorned with beautiful yellow sunflowers, Black Eyed Susan’s grow wild long the roadsides. As well, Illinois is the home state of Abe Lincoln – I stayed in his home town of Springfield, Illinois as I crossed the Plains. The other thing I liked about the Great Plains is that it’s “cow country” and being somewhat of a carnivore…well you know what that means.
Here is a video of my ride, along with a few photos
From here it means a short ride through New York State to the border and back into Canada where The Big Ride will conclude…but I’ll save that for the next post. Until then keep smiling and enjoy the scenery – this moment will not pass by again!
The Big Ride – Natural wonders that make you wonder (Arches National Park and Colorado River, Utah)
One of the most spectacular sights I have experienced during my visit to Utah was Arches National Park located outside of the town of Moab. The park contains over 2,000 natural sandstone arches and various rock formations and covers about 76,000 acres. A hikers paradise for sure!
The national park is on top of an underground “evaporate” layer which is what causes the formation of the arches, spires, balanced rocks, sandstone fins and monoliths which are the large upright blocks of stone. The salt bed is thousands of feet thick in places and was deposited there over 300 million years ago when a sea flowed into the region and eventually evaporated. A number of layers of sandy sediments were deposited on top of the salt and then eroded away over millions of years. This has resulted in the arches being formed.
Here are some photos of the incredible formations and arches that I experienced in the park. The park is truly spectacular and a “must see” when you are visiting Utah. Add it to your list – I promise you will not regret the visit.
And for a smile of two:
In closing, my visit to the park was extraordinary and one that I would definitely like to do again. It has so much to offer those who love to hike and explore the geological wonders that have been created over hundreds of millions of years. That through alone is staggering.
I would like to leave you with a video of one of my favorite rides while in Utah which was along the Colorado river. The canyons in the morning light as the sun was rising were breathtakingly beautiful. I hope you enjoy the ride as much as I did.
The last leg of my journey will be a spirited ride across the Great Plains of Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana as I make my way home. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been on the road for almost three months! It’s been an incredible experience and a trip of a lifetime!! I’ve enjoyed every minute of it and I’m so grateful to be living my dream out loud. Most of all, I’m grateful to have shared it with you!
The Big Ride – Natural wonders (More from Utah)
My visit to Utah was filled with a number of great sights to see and some pretty amazing roads to ride. If you checked out my last post you may have already viewed Part 1 of the video from Capitol Reef National Park. I’ve broken up the ride into three parts. Here’s Part 2 and Part 3 from what was a pretty awesome ride!
My time in Utah included a visit to Natural Bridges National Monument Park which has three natural arches all located within a couple miles of each other. The only other place in the world where such a marvel can be found is China.
The three bridges in the park are named Kachina, Owachomo, and Sipapu (the largest), which are all Hopi names. A natural bridge is formed by erosion from water flowing in the stream bed of the canyon. During periods of flash floods the streams wash against the rock walls and in time erodes the stone until the new stream bed then flows underneath the newly formed bridge. Eventually, as erosion and gravity enlarge the bridge’s opening, the bridge collapses under its own weight. There is evidence of at least two collapsed natural bridges within the park.
Here are a few photos from my time in the park which happened to be the third “rain day” that I’ve had since leaving home on May 13, 2015 which is a marvel unto itself!
And here are a few more photos of my ride from Hanksville to Moab, Utah by way of the Scenic Byway (Highway 95) and Highway 191.
There was so much to see and do in Utah that I’ll have one more post from the area before moving on. Stay tuned for the final episode which will include some awesome photos from my visit to Arches National Park and a video from my ride along the Colorado River. Until then, go with the flow…it’s easier to paddle in that direction.
The Big Ride – When you know you know (Part 2 – Bryce Canyon, Utah)
As I mentioned in my previous blog, when I was planning The Big Ride, Utah was very high on my list. So much so that I purchased a book on motorcycle touring of the State.
Any motorcyclist would agree that when you can combine a great technical ride that offers a few hills and challenging curves along with breathless vistas it’s a ride made in heaven!
That’s what riding in Utah was for me – a ride made in heaven. Here’s a sampling of what I lived while in Bryce Canyon National Park along with a video of the ride through Capitol Reef National Park.
Here is a video compilation of a few of the lookouts in Bryce Canyon National Park, a haven for anyone who happens to enjoy hiking, cycling and rattlesnake watching. Yes I did see a Diamond Back Rattlesnake while in the park!
After leaving Bryce Canyon National Park on my way to Hanksville Utah where I stayed the night, I had the pleasure of riding through Capitol Reef National Park. This was a ride that I will never forget! The Canyon was amazing to ride. Here’s a video of only a small part of what can only be described as a ride Divine!
If you liked what you saw here keep an eye out for my next blog as I have more to share with you from my time in Utah. Until then play safe and enjoy the journey of life.
The Big Ride – When you know that you know (Part 1- Red Canyon, Utah)
Throughout The Big Ride I’ve felt blessed to be living my dream and for being able to share it with you.
If you have been following my blog you know that I’ve been on the road now for two and a half months. I left Ottawa, where I live, on May 13, 2015 and I’ve ridden 20,000 kilometers so far – for my friends on the US side of the border that’s about 12,500 miles. I still have another month of travels ahead of me and will likely put on another 6 to 8,000 kilometers. This excludes when I left my bike enroute and drove 3000 kilometers in the rental car to visit my dad’s resting place in Northern BC – A wise decision given the forest fires at the time!
During The Big Ride I have seen and experienced some pretty spectacular and incredibly amazing things.
I’ve ridden roads with sweeping curves that were so sweet I felt completely at one with them and I’ve ridden others that were so steep and so high that I thought I was in the heavens; I’ve seen vistas with such beauty and grandeur that it literally took my breath away – nope it wasn’t the altitude 🙂 ; I’ve spoken with individuals along the way that had lost all sense of hope of being able to live their dreams and before I left them I saw a sparkle of optimism in their eyes; I’ve been inspired by others that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting along the way who are also living their dreams; and I’ve been moved by the wonderment of Life, its magnificence and amazed at how everything works out when you let it; I’ve returned to where I was raised, reflected on where I’ve been in my life and the long winding roads have provided me the time to envision what I’d like the next chapter to look like; I’ve shared precious moments with family and rekindled friendships that will remain with me forever; and you likely won’t want to hear this but on three occasions on this trip I have felt the wings of the Angels brush by me.
When I started planning this trip over a year ago I purchased a motorcycle touring book on Utah. When I started reading the book it was so exciting I couldn’t put it down. It actually kept me up at night! Over the past few weeks it was looking doubtful that I would be able to include Utah on this ride. The weather in southern California was extremely hot and riding south in 40+ degrees celsius didn’t seem plausible. Instead I stayed north and when I got to Salt Lake City it was a critical “go no-go” decision point for me.
As it turned out the weather in Utah shifted and was more moderate so I decided to head south to make my way to Bryce Canyon National Park over a couple of days. I must say I was filled with excitement and anticipation of what lay ahead.
When I turned onto the highway that would take me the last few miles to Bryce Canyon, I found that I had to drive through Red Canyon – to be honest I hadn’t heard of it and the sign I passed looked like any other that I had seen along the way. When I turned the corner and the Red Canyon came into site I was literally swept away by its magnificence. A strange feeling swept over me and I knew in that moment that this was why I had taken The Big Ride. This was why I needed to ride the 26,000+ kilometers that will eventually complete this trip. I knew in that moment that despite still having a months travel ahead of me, this was what I had come to experience. This is what would make this incredibly amazing journey complete!
A feeling wonderment flooded over me. As I stood in awe on the side of the road looking up at the sheer beauty of the massive red peaks of stone that Nature had so wondrously sculpted over time, I could no longer contain the joyfulness within me as tears ran down my cheeks. I knew in that moment that it was okay for me to start heading home. Being in Utah allowed me to complete this part of the journey.
The following video is only a glimpse of what I’ve seen in southern Utah. I’ll be sharing more photos and video with you in the come days but here’s what I saw that morning as I rode through the Red Canyon. Enjoy!
Stay tuned for more awesome photos and videos from my ride in Utah. Next up will be Bryce Canyon. I’m betting that you will love it as much as I did!
The Big Ride – Raw and magnificence (Part 2/Videos – West coast of Washington, Oregon and Northern California)
As promised, here are a couple videos from my ride along the west coast of Washington, Oregon and Northern California. I hope you enjoy the flicks.
This video is of some of the coastal ride I experienced on the Oregon Coast – I fell in love with the scenic coastal route – perhaps after seeing the video you may add Oregon to your bucket list if it isn’t there already.
And this video includes a little “off-roading” while in Olympia Park – Joe I know this pales in comparison to your riding but I am on a cruiser 🙂
Life is here to live – enjoy the journey!
Live it or lose it
