[ONE] I’m Left Handed There aren’t that many of us, 10–12% of the global population. It’s one of those things that people typically don’t notice and then when they do they are surprised. What surprises me most of all is how often though that people I connect with are left handed. Maybe we gravitate to one another! [TWO] I Used to Shy Away From Leadership Leadership is a huge part of my life. I have been leading teams in my professional life for the last 12+ years. Considering the passion I have for it, this makes me laugh. I distinctly remember talking to an old boss one day where he was struggling with my attitude and sharing why it needed to change — because I was a leader. I couldn’t deny it fast enough. [THREE] I Love Learning This sounds strange. I think a lot of people feel that they like to learn new things. Ask yourself however when was the last time you learned something just for the sake of knowing. This is a big change for me. I was never a straight A student and my parents ...

 The Lost Art That Changed The World   People hear the word philosopher and this is what jumps to mind. Icons of the past that changed the world thousands of years ago. Brilliant thinkers that changed how everything was understood. Ideas that changed the course of history. This isn’t you. So you aren’t a philosopher. That statement is wrong. Completely wrong. Philosophy isn’t about a few brilliant thinkers. Philosophy is something that we can all do. Most of us DO do it when we aren’t drowning in the busyness we have built our lives around.     Philosophy is our ability to wonder. About life and everything in it The goal isn’t to come up with answers. The real intent is this: It’s about the process of trying to find answers versus accepting without questioning. The most important ideas in your life will come from your own individual reasoning. They will not come from what has been forced upon you by society.     The beginning of thought is in disa...

 Building Habits In One Area of Your Life to Improve Others     Everyone knows that exercise is good for you. We are meant to move. The lifestyles that many of us lead today keep us glued to our chairs, in front of screens. I’m not sharing benefits for your body. This quick hit will share 6 qualities that will improve ALL areas of your life. The experiences we have, the habits we build, are not locked into the activity you developed them in. How you train yourself to behave or react in one situation will carry over to others. Running alone will allow you to build personally and triumph professionally.  [1] DISCIPLINE In order to achieve any goal, you have to take action. The biggest challenge people face is keeping themselves accountable. All too often we quit at the wrong time.  The world is full of distractions. Our mind is loaded with resistance.  Build your inner strength by sticking to a routine not giving up when things are hard. [2] CONSISTENCY...

 How My Focus on Writing is Influencing Everything For every year that has gone by, I have written more. You meet more people, attend more meetings, work on more projects and balance more commitments. To juggle all of those different activities, we communicate with each other more than we did in the past.  A lot more. It does people a huge disservice. And they don’t even know it. Practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. Jump-starting 2022 It’s cliche, but I decided that I was going to get back into writing. I had first picked it up when I left my job in 2019 and dove headfirst into the professional world of networking. My weapons of choice? LinkedIn and a personal blog. To step outside of my comfort zone and showcase my business prowess, I took to writing. I developed a strong habit of posting 1–3x a day on various industry news. My network was growing. Eventually, I let it drop off. I got busy with a new job and didn’t prioritize it. One day turned into ...

 How The Cold Calculated Choice Is A Dangerous Habit To Develop The bell just rang, the doors fly open and an avalanche of smiling faces come pouring out into the yard. It’s recess. There’s that period everyone goes through. Usually from grades 4 to 7 where you’re old enough to understand the world around you but young enough to still love to play. These are important formative years. I was an interesting mix growing up. I wasn’t an unpopular kid, but I wasn’t one of the super popular kids either. I was something else, somewhere in the the middle. I always had friends, did sports, wasn’t shy, and was smart enough to do well in school while also being able to play the slacker card. For the most part, things were good. The problem I had though, was that I was always bigger. Growing up a fat kid the 90s was less forgiving than what life is like today. Bullying was quite chic back then, borderline expected as part of growing up. But I was too popular to be bullied openly but not popula...

 How Managing Towards Perfection Makes You Excellent I’m walking up the steps to a set of glass doors situated at the corner of a small production plant. The stairs are much bigger than they should be. Wider. They create a sense of grandeur that doesn’t match the rest of the building. I open the doors and walk into the lobby. It wasn’t a lobby. It was a man trap — an unmanned man trap. There’s a phone with a contact list. I look through my phone and confirm the spelling of the last name of the person I am coming to meet. I call in and let them know I’ve arrived. Two people come out to greet me at the door. One is a coworker and the other is my new boss. I have taken a job as a distribution supervisor for a company in the food industry. Managing day-to-day delivery operations. You can imagine the type of fit this was for someone who graduated with a law and anthropology degree. This was a whole new world and I had no idea how any of it worked. The One Thing That My Career Success Is...

 Why Diversity Is As Important As Intelligence It was 2005. I had graduated university and was six months into one of the most entertaining jobs that I have ever had. I worked retail, like a lot of people in my situation. Working part time (or full time) while going through school was not uncommon. From 2000–2004 I worked at Staples. The store was fine. Pretty much what you see today when you walk into a Staples. A little bit less flashy, a lot more grey. Their bread and butter was business clients after all. I worked in the computer department. I'm sure that it had a special name, but I've long since forgotten that internal acronym. This was the start of the computer craze. The internet was drawing everyone's attention, every month there was a newer and faster computer released. Keep in mind, it was only in 1995 that Java was first announced; and by 1999 AMD was releasing the a 750mghz processor.  Impressive. With so much activity in the market, you can imagine customers s...

 Using Small “P” projects To Get Smarter Do you feel like there is too much to learn? I do. All the time. I cannot believe what people are doing, what they have created or how simple things have been re-invented. New products are being created to replace products that they had already replaced. What inspired my thinking this morning is note taking. Exciting stuff, I know. Note taking isn’t the point though. It highlights how much things are changing, and more importantly, how people’s understanding and perceptions are changing. This is what’s important, because it’s happening — everywhere. The more that you can learn, the more exposure you get to shifting paradigms, to better you will be equipped to manage your own needs and keep pace. What is a Small “P” Project? I’m introducing you to this idea to tear down how you might think about projects. People hear the word project, and they think boardrooms, budgets and big deliverables. Small “p” projects comes back to an idea that David ...