So whatever you do…do it well.

Don’t get pulled in so many directions that you don’t have time to focus on any one area.

Know what matters to you. Give it your proper attention. Know what your goals are. Work towards them. And when you get distracted or something/someone gets in your way and pulls you off course, realize that your goals and dreams are what is important in your life.

As Steve Jobs said:

That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.

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In honour of the holiday season, give your family (and friends) a hug. Enjoy the time you have with them – you never know when you might not have them around again.

Be safe. Be healthy. And be thankful.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and all that

And enjoy one of my favourite Christmas songs – Happy Xmas by John Lennon.

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Last week I flew to Beijing, China to attempt a new Guinness World Record – “most targets hit in one minute with a flying disc (frisbee)“. Guinness set a minimum requirement of 20 targets hit and although I was close on my 2nd attempt with 16 targets, I was not successful in establishing a new Guinness World Record.

That happened on Saturday night and to say I was upset is expressing it lightly. I was crushed. I felt like my friends, my family and my fans were going to disappointed since I hadn’t set the record. I felt that everything I had done up to that point didn’t mean much since I wasn’t able to perform when it counted most.

But, as the seconds turned into minutes turned into hours turned into a few days, I’ve been able to look back and see the good in all of this.

First of all, I got a free trip to China (and was paid for my appearance) and my dad also had his trip paid for. How sweet is that? I also:

Got to spend the most time I’ve had with my dad in years

Got to spend a few hours on the Great Wall of China

Met Anthony Kelly, who holds many Guinness World Records and travels all over the world (such as Most Tennis Balls Caught in 1 Hour, and he has also caught an arrow while blindfolded!)

Met Peter Rosendahl, who also holds many Guinness World Records and has been to more than 55 countries (such as Fastest 100m on a Unicycle – 11 seconds, and Most Skips in 1 minute with a unicycle)

Met 2 guys from Storm Freerun team,  Tim “Livewire” Shieff and Jan ”Jashman” Barcikowski (they freerun with Damien Walters!!)

Met Liz and Rob, the 2 Guinness officials from the UK, who were awesome and super supportive

Met Cathy from CCTV, who set the whole thing up for me and flew my dad and I over

Went to the Hongqiao Pearl Market and bought some “good fakes” (a watch, headphones and a flash drive)

Got to see a new culture and experience history that is many times older than Canada

So, if you look at my trip to Beijing with the sole intention to set a Guinness World Record, then yes, I failed. However, to do so would be shortsighted because the opportunities and knowledge I gained from failing are worth more than had I achieved the record.

The setup of the world record was actually not done properly so I will be filming an attempt in the next few weeks – if successful, I will be submitting to the Guinness officials who will award me a World Record. I also didn’ t know there would be a minimum requirement so that was a surprise. I’m glad Guinness is giving me the opportunity to give it another attempt and I will not disappoint this time!

I am going to be working with Anthony and Peter and hope to do more Guinness shows in countries like Italy, India and possibly China again.

I had a very difficult time Saturday night trying to digest everything that comes with not being successful at achieving something. But I’ve realized that I will have many more attempts at World Records and not every attempt can be successful. All I can do is make sure that I’m as prepared as possible and that everything I can control is done properly (like the setup of the World Record, which I will make sure of next time).

I want to thank all of my friends, family and fans for your support these past few weeks and I look forward to sharing with you my Guinness World Record when I am successful. I will keep you posted on the progress of my attempt and will share videos and pictures with you from that event.

I look forward to going for coffee with my friends and telling you all about my trip. I have many more planned so I know this is just the beginning. It’s opened my eyes to what is truly possible when you do what you are passionate about.

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I’ve been struggling the past few days with the concept of following your passion. In the pursuit, you will gain so much in return but the journey will also be very lonely since you will be doing much of it on your own.

I’ve been discovering just how lonely this pursuit can be. I don’t go out drinking with friends. I practice for hours on my own. I go on long trips by myself. From the outside, people see my accomplishments and are proud of me and are happy for me. But what they don’t see is just how much you have to give up in order to achieve something.

I’ve always loved sports and most of those sports were team sports. You achieved something together – you could celebrate victory together or mourn defeat together. But, when you choose to go out on your own and do what you truly love, who is there to cheer you along and celebrate with you?

I am starting to see why celebrities and athletes at the top of their game will do things that other deem non conventional. When you do so much great, it’s a hard fall on those down times. The highs are very high and the lows are very low.

I’ve had in the back of my mind a few things. One is a quote and the other is a scene from a movie.

The quote is:

It’s ok to think about what you want to do…until it’s time to start doing what you were meant to do.

I’ve always known what I wanted to do. Play sports. That’s never been a question in my mind. But as to what I’m meant to do – I don’t know. I feel like the past 10 1/2 years I’ve been floating around sort of lost. Losing my mom in 2001 was the hardest thing that could ever have happened to me. I feel like the past year I’ve finally been able to start feeling more “normal” again but it’s a very difficult process to go through something so sudden, so unexpectedly and at such a young age (I was only 18).

The scene from a movie is from Men in Black:

Kay walks over to Dee, who sits sullenly. Dee says that it didn’t use to happen. He looks up at the stars and says that they’re beautiful. Accepting his imminent retirement, he tells Kay that he’ll miss the chase. Kay puts on his sunglasses, sets the neuralizer to 1961, and replies, “No Dee, you won’t”, and then flashes the neuralizer.

Have you had a  moment like that before? When you look up at the stars and see beyond them – realize that there is so much more out there that you’re capable of and could be doing? Or do you look up, see them for their beauty and go back to your life, being happy in what you’re doing?

I tend to overthink but at the same time, it’s gotten me where I am so I don’t regret it.

However, I’m curious how you approach moments like this in your life?

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Too many times people worry about the future. If I do *something*, how will that affect the future. Well, we cannot predict the future. We can only do what makes us happy in the present and believe that it will all work out.

I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following. – Mohandas Gandhi

I may not believe in God but I do believe in smart people and good quotes.

If we do today what we love doing then tomorrow will be filled with more of the same.

If we worry about what we can do tomorrow to be happy, then we will always feel that we’re missing something in today.

Be happy today.

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What a simple thought.

It doesn’t have to be complicated.

It doesn’t have to be difficult.

If you want to be happy, be.

It really can be that easy.

Do what you love.

Love what you do.

And just be.

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I’ve been on the internet for about 15 years. 11 years as a website designer. 8 years doing social media marketing. A lot has changed and a lot has stayed the same.

Imagine this.

You’re in a room with one other person. You can focus your attention on them and have a great, deep, meaningful conversation with them.

Add a second person to that room. You can still have a good conversation with the other 2 but if they start talking about something you’re not interested in, you start to lose interest.

Add another person to that room.

And another.

Add 800 million.

You now have Facebook.

And Twitter.

And Linkedin.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been using them for so long. But I feel like I’m not alone in this thinking. There are so many blog posts, news articles, quotes, pictures, etc shared everyday that after a while, it all becomes bullshit. What is it really doing for us? What is it doing to us?

I realize I’m contributing to this BS by writing this post. But it’s my hopes by writing this post that I can connect with you and help you realize just how much of the other stuff really is BS. And that you can work to eliminate some of that in your life.

You will feel more free. Breathe a little easier. Enjoy your conversations with your friends more.

Try it out. I’ve done quite a bit in the past while.

I unfollowed 1,000 people on Twitter.

I’m combining our company’s facebook pages so we only will be using one instead of 20+.

I’m sharing less content than I have in the past and the content I do share, I make sure that it’s useful.

Here’s a great quote about BS. It really says it all to me – there is far too much ego on Twitter and Facebook. Too many people think that they’re relevant, creative, cutting edge. Instead of saying you are, JUST DO IT. Seriously. It’s BS when you just talk, talk, talk and don’t do anything. There are many people like that. If you’re one of them, PLEASE STOP IT. Phew.

I find that we all get more legendary as time goes by. “Legend” means, basically, “bullshit.”

How do you eliminate BS in your life?

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I wanted to share with you 3 great quotes on fear. We’ve all been there. I’m there right now with certain elements of my life. I was there last night and ended up having a nightmare based on that fear. But I’ve learned that it’s trying to tell me something. What are you going to let your fear teach you?

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.
Dale Carnegie

Try a thing you haven’t done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time to figure out whether you like it or not.
Virgil Thomson

When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The theme of a lot of my posts have been about choosing a path based on what you love doing. If you love sports, then surround yourself with sports people, play sports, watch sports, etc. The time you put in if you are following your heart will come back many times over. I’ve seen it happen and I’m living proof of that.

I can’t tell you how many books or videos I’ve consumed that all speak to this notion but the one that stands out in my mind, the video that puts it so simply and the video that embodies what I believe is the Steve Jobs commencement speect at Stanford in 2005.

You can’t always know if what you’re doing is right – you just have to have faith. Looking back it will make sense. Job’s calls it “connecting the dots”. And with that, enjoy the video:

Full transcript of the speech: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/10/why-you-should-stay-hungry-foolish-by-steve-jobs/

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I need to rant for a second.

I’m so tired of all the charities/foundations that are being created. There seems to be a run/fundraiser every weekend and with the report from the CBC that the Canadian Cancer Society spent more money on fundraising than on research (view it here), when is this going to stop? Seriously. I just heard about Septembeard which dilutes all the hard work Movember has done to build their brand.

Why can’t we have 1 charity per cause instead of there being so many and spreading the resources so thin?

I was lucky enough to attend TEDxCalgary in 2010 and heard a presentation called The Pendulum of Marketing given by Michael Drew (http://marketingforhippies.com/the-civic-cycle/). The video might be blocked in your country but the basic idea is that every 40 years or so, there is a cycle of human behaviour and as is clearly obvious, we’re in a very civic cycle where everyone wants to help out and give back to their community. As you can well imagine, people will eventually grow tired of this cycle and we will then move back into a phase where we will be more focused on ourselves and more frugal with our time and our energy. It’s going to come to a head – look at how inundated we are with technology – everyone is always on their cell phones so much that we have to come out with a law that prevents people from being on their phone while driving. Most of us are guilty of this and the people I’ve met who never have also apply that strict moral judgement in other areas of their lives and are better off for it.

When we’re out with a friend eating dinner, what does it say to them if we’re on our phone txting someone else? Is it not the same thing if we were talking to someone at another table instead of talking to our friend? And if we consider them different, perhaps that’s the problem. Do we think there are different levels of awareness and it’s better to give our friend 10% of our attention instead of 0%. Well I’ll tell you what, it’s not.

We need to start taking back our time. Perhaps I’m falling into this cycle myself as I’m already moving into the next cycle but I’ve had enough. I’ve done Movember, I’ve done the Relay for Life. They are all well meaning charities run by passionate, amazing people. But there are just too many and they’re not effective in what they’re aiming to do.

Let’s take back our lives and realize that we need to start putting ourselves first because if we don’t, then we’re going to lose ourselves.

Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got. – Janis Joplin

It’s ok to say no. It’s ok to be selfish. Realize what’s important. Realize what you love. And surround yourself with that.

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