I look at my son and wonder how much he's going to remember.

I feel like I don't remember very much of my childhood. I don't know if this is bad or good. It's just my experience.

Let's do a little exercise.

What do I remember of my childhood?

• The perfume that my junior kinder garden teacher wore.
• The homes that I grew up in (two main ones that were close for me to bike back and forth to).
• The little tooth holder I had for when I lost teeth.
• The first two tapes I received (C&C Music Factor and Tom Cochrane).
• The first bike I purchased with my own money.
• Lots of baseball and basketball games with my dad.
• Collecting baseball cards (which I still have).
• Lots of football and basketball games with my friends at school.
• Lots of trampoline jumping.
• Marbles.
• Pogs.
• The blackberries that grew in the backyard.
• Getting grounded from my bike for a week (worst thing ever when you're a kid!)
• Biking and playing in the forest by my home.
• Camping and canoeing in Algonquin Park.
• Working at mom's business (or just hanging out there).
• Playing football in the basement with my older brother, Chad.
• When the delivery man delivered a super cool red peddle car from my dad who was living in New Brunswick at the time.
• Eating cactus for the first time.
• Collecting rocks.
• When the back tire of my bike exploded from too many skids.
• Watching my brother, Marshall, do wheelies with his enduro motorcycle.
• Lots of family dinners.
• Hitting my first out-of-the-park home run (for which my mom was asleep).

Wow... I guess I do remember a lot. The list goes on. I also know that there's a lot I'm forgetting though.

What's interesting is that the good memories were coming to mind. Was everything sunshine, unicorns and rainbows when I was growing up? No. But those memories do not come naturally to me for some reason. I remember:

• Fighting with my little bother, Riley, who I was not always very nice to.
• Tempers flaring in the home.
• Punching a hole in the wall (or trying I should say).
• Being punched in the face for the first time.
• Getting stitches for the first time.
• Shooting a rock into my own face (testing the catapult effect).
• Having our house robbed.
• Lot's of falls, bumps and scrapes.

As I've grown older I have had many more bad experiences but I don't really classify them as "bad". They are experiences that I do not wish on anybody but I am glad I experienced them because they have made me who I am today. For now though, I'm focusing on my childhood.

So what have I learned in doing this exercise?

Kudos to you, mom and dad. You seem to have cultivated quite the positive mindset and gave me an exceptional childhood. You allowed me the freedom to find myself but also gave me a healthy amount of structure. You pushed my limits but also offered a safe place. Most importantly, you engrained values into me that have guided my life. Honour, Fun and Mastery can be traced back to you.

I hope Natasha and I do the same for Sullivan.

"I want a house with no maintenance (or low maintenance)."

That's something I hear often. Unfortunately a house with no maintenance does not exist and a house with "low" maintenance will be different for everybody.

Everything worth having in life requires maintenance.

Sure, you could avoid the maintenance but that "thing" will quickly loose its value.

Homes, properties, vehicles and toys all require maintenance. It's obvious and they come with maintenance manuals.

But what about the other things in life worth having?

My relationships.

My body.

My mind.

My soul.

There is no step by step manual for these items but there are obvious signs. And if I avoid any one of these categories, the others will suffer.

If I'm honest with myself, I know what I need to work on.

Does the struggle ever end?

I feel as though it won't. When one struggle ends, another begins. At least that has been my experience.

Am I being a pessimist or just a realist?

I guess I could say I don't struggle. Life just is. It's not good or bad. But that's the power of the struggle.

It's the contrast we need in life.

If we never struggled, we would never know the opposite. We would never know when things were great.

More importantly, when I come out of a struggle, I'm always better, stronger, smarter, wiser and more experienced.

Struggles, although not enjoyable at the time, always make my life better. They make me better.

Struggles are opportunities in disguise.

Deadline.

Cut off point.

Time limit.

Target date.

Zero hour.

Due date.

Whatever you want to call it, it forces you (and your team) to focus and get it done. Use this to your advantage.

It's crunch time!

This one is for the men (which means me too). I had so much fun writing How To Feel Terrible All The Time that I figured I would do another variation.

As cliche as it is, "Happy wife, Happy Life" is very true for men. Although we can not make our wife happy, we can do our part to support her happiness.

So, men, if you want to keep your wife unhappy (as well as yourself), be sure to follow these simple steps.

• Do not support her in any way.
• Have her take out the garbage.
• Have her drive you everywhere.
• Do not provide the space for her to take care of herself.
• Rely on her to make all the money in the household.
• Never listen to her (a.k.a. do not be present with her).
• Solve all her problems (instead of listening).
• Make sure you do most of the talking.
• Complain.
• Believe her when she says "everything is fine".
• Work at a job that is completely unfulfilling to you.
• Live in an unsafe location.
• Never let her know where you are.
• Do not send random "I love you" messages.
• Do not compliment her (especially how she looks).
• Do not open the door for her.
• Have her make all the important decisions.
• Avoid date nights.
• Make sure she only buys used clothing.
• Only watch action movies and sports with her.
• Avoid helping around the house.
• Never take responsibility for anything.
• Do not show any confidence in yourself.
• Try to be somebody you're not.
• Do not make her laugh.
• Ignore her when other people are around.
• Work late all the time.
• Call her your "old lady".

And lastly, no matter what, DO NOT buy her flowers. She can get her own...

As a business, we share a lot. Between the Youtube channel, our podcasts, meetings and emails I send out, I (and we) give away plenty of information. Heck, on this blog alone I share a lot!

All that stuff I'm happy to do for free. I'm clear about that.

When people reach out though, at what point do I start charging for the knowledge and experience that I have? What do I do with people who just want personalized information and don't want to pay?

The key is to get to the root of why they're reaching out.

"Why do you feel I (or we) can help you?"

"Why did you specifically reach out to us?"

These two questions alone will tell a lot. Read between the lines. Don't just listen to the words, listen to how they say the words. If possible, watch their body language.

You don't need to sell. Ask the right questions and people will sell themselves.

P.S. You will need to ask for the sale as well :)

Some signs are obvious like a stop sign, a yield sign or a one-way sign.

Or are they obvious?

They are only obvious because I have learned their meaning. When I come across these signs I know exactly what I'm suppose to do.

Just like the road, life is full of signs. Unfortunately they are less obvious and harder to learn (and they're always changing).

When something bad happens, is it a sign from the universe to head in another direction?

Likewise when something good happens, is it a sign that you're heading in the right direction?

More importantly, who's to say what's good and what's bad?

Street signs are just that, signs. They are neither good nor bad. They just tell me what I should do or watch out for. It's up to me to choose whether or not I want to follow them.

What signs in my life am I ignoring?

Overnight success does not come overnight. It’s years (and sometimes decades) of consistent determination. It’s never ending improvement. It’s lesson after lesson. Failure after failure. Victory after victory.

And then somebody notices you and you’re an overnight success.

It's easy to give advice. It’s hard to take advice.

It's easy to serve others what they need. It’s hard to serve ourselves what we need.

Perhaps that’s why it’s hard to take action on our own advice.


Because our own advice is serving ourselves.

Expectations can make or break a lot of things.

If expectations are exceeded, it's a great experience!

If they are met, it's a good experience.

If they fall short, it's a bad experience.

If none are met, it's a terrible experience.

Where this can get particular sticky is in relationships.

We often have expectations of other people. That person could be our spouse, our business partner, a team member, an employee, a sub-contractor, a client,  a friend (you get the point).

​The thing about expectations is that they are often unspoken.

We expect other people to do certain things or act a certain way. These expectations could have been set because of things promised by the other person or something that has happened in the past or even something said by somebody else out of context.

Have you had expectations of people before where they did not deliver? Did they know what your expectations were? Did you clearly lay out your expectations?

Perhaps the first expectation should be to lay out the expectations.