Tag Archives: grit

Last Week I Cried…then I Used those Tears to Fuel My Passion

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Every once in awhile I cry. It doesn’t happen often but last week was different; last week I found myself crying almost every night while I lay in bed.  I was thinking a lot about two close family members that passed away very suddenly a couple of years ago.  I am not sure exactly what made me think of them…maybe it was the cyclist whizzing by in his racing suit on the street…maybe it was one of the photos around my house that happened to capture my gaze…or maybe it was someone’s familiar smile on the streetcar.  Whatever it was, both my brother-in-law, Kevin and my Uncle Ed were on my mind.

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Find Your Superhero Power and Start Leaping Tall Buildings in a Single Bound

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I love meeting new people.  I’m always excited to hear about their lives – about what they have done in the past, what they are doing now, and what they have planned for their future.  Each person has an interesting story and features that are make them so unique.  I also love trying to figure out what their special gift is…

The thing that I have realized of late though is that I see people totally differently than they see themselves.  When I meet a person for the first time, I see them as their superhero version.  Usually as I get to know a person, I find that they don’t often share this vision of themselves of having so much inherent value and so much to contribute to make the world a better place.

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Take Action by Embracing the Slight Edge Philosophy

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Have you ever found a book that really resonates with you?  Through a series of serendipitous events, I happened upon a great book that seemed to be written just for me: The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson.  In the book, Jeff Olson talks about the way in which successful people become successful.  He asserts that one person is no different from another and that anyone can become successful.  In his view, the difference between those who become successful and those who don’t, however, is that successful people practice simple disciplines persistently and consistently over time that lead them along the path to success.

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Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life

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If there is one thing I have learned in my life (and mainly through sports) it’s that what you think is what you create and who you become.  High performance athletes are trained to control their thoughts and practice positive affirmations daily.

I often speak to my kids about the importance of using positive words and self-talk to help them succeed at challenges they’re facing.  The other day we were in the playground and my 4-year-old daughter told me that she couldn’t climb up the rope ladder.  I told her that she just needed to say to herself: “I can do it! I can do it! I can do it!” As we chanted this mantra together, she managed to climb the rope ladder all by herself (and you should have seen the look of pride on her face!)

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Surviving to Thriving: Reignite a Passion that You’ve Neglected (Part 5 of 5)

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I’ve never really thought of myself as an artist.  In part, this is because I was completely overshadowed by my sister Rachel who was a very gifted artist in a number of mediums (clay, drawing, painting, you name it!).  I vividly remember being in art class with Mr. Levang at Maillard Junior Secondary School and looking up at one of the only pictures that he had hanging on his wall above his desk (a distinct honour)… it was one of my sister’s sketches.  I must admit that was rather intimidating.  Despite being in my sister’s shadow, I was pretty good at doing portraits of people.  With just a pencil, a piece of paper, and some time to focus, I could draw a pretty impressive and recognizable portrait.

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How to Move from Surviving to Thriving: The Power of Gratitude (Part 1 of 5)

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At a conference focusing on Indigenous legal traditions at McGill Law School this past weekend, I reconnected with a lovely, accomplished law professor that I hadn’t seen for awhile and asked her how her law teaching was going. She told me that although she is now very comfortable in her job, as a full-time working mother of two young kids, she is feeling overwhelmed, isolated, and feels like she is just trying to get through each day as it comes.

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Defy the Statistics and Naysayers with Grit

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I met with a friend of mine for coffee last week. I hadn’t seen her since university and it was so great to catch up. She’s an amazing person – the kind of person that walks in the room and everybody notices. She is tall, stylish, and looks like a model. Even more importantly, she’s intelligent, funny, humble, and super cool – the kind of person that makes you think: “How is she so cool? I wish I could be that cool.”

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