Tomorrow (February 15) is Family Day in Ontario, Canada. A statutory holiday, it was originally created to give families important time with each other.
Ontario isn’t the only province in Canada to celebrate Family Day – Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia also celebrate it.
For me, it’s another reason I’ve come to love my adopted home since moving here from the UK back in December 2006.
[Read more…] about Put the Damn Phone Down and Experience the Moment
As part of my daily routine traveling to work, I take the subway.
As I sit in my little part of the train, I can?t help but overhear the conversations around me. Dialogues, actually ? the majority aren?t very conversational.
For the last two days, I?ve been sitting at my computer itching to write something epic.
Looking at the blank screen, thinking of words I can write to convey the feeling I have inside that I need to share something epic and life-changing.
And I come up blank.
I have an inkling of what I?m about to say, and then I ask myself how it will end.
How the words that precede the final sentence will be strong enough to hook the reader to guide them to the last sentence that will, undoubtedly, change their lives.
And I come up blank.
I imagine the story I?ll tell to convey a lesson, personal or business. I imagine the memories I?ll revisit to open up demons, to help others fight their own and make it to the other side.
I imagine the emotion I?ll invoke to make readers think this is one of the most amazing blog posts they?ve ever read, and ever will.
And I come up blank.
And that?s okay ? because we?re only fooling ourselves that everything needs to be epic.
[clickToTweet tweet=”When we produce #content, we tell ourselves it needs to be epic every time. But does it?” quote=”When we produce content, we tell ourselves it needs to be epic every time. But does it?”]
Everything we put out for others to consume is already epic, because we?re opening ourselves up to critique, belittlement, and crushing disappointment if others don?t like it.
And we continue to do so, even when harsh voices tell us not to ? because all we really need is our own validation that we did the best we could, every time we hit Publish.
So embrace the blank screen. Embrace the empty mind. Embrace the still keyboard.
Because sooner or later, the next epic chapter of that which is uniquely you will be live for everyone to see.
And that, my friends, is truly epic.
When I was 28, my childhood friend and former roommate died from a drugs overdose. He was just 27.
It didn’t surprise me that he was gone. Perhaps, subconsciously, I was surprised he’d lasted so long.
Doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt like hell. It did. It broke me.
[Read more…] about Hope Comes From the InsideExcuses are what you offer when you do wrong but don?t really care.
Excuses are the shoulders of the junior on your team.
Excuses are the lame attempts to cover your tracks.
Excuses are the charlatan?s way to pull the wool over our faces.
