HAPPINESS COMES BEFORE SUCCESS

Most of us have moved forward in our lives assuming that if we work hard and create successful lives, we will attain some level of happiness. Here's a very unique and intriguing twist on that supposition from Shawn Achor, who has spent his time proving scientifically that happiness is what leads to success. He's a terrific speaker with a great message and it's worth your while to give it a listen.
Also, I am going to accept the 21 day challenge at the end of the video - how about you?

SANTA CLAUS

So, as some you know, I like to tackle the big questions here. The questions about life and its meaning. Where the planet and its inhabitants are going, that sort of thing. In our marriage, this division of labor has worked very well; Leanne takes care of the mundane day-to-day things like what bills to pay, where to vacation, furniture to buy, cars, decorating, etc. I, on the other hand, take on the big ones, as mentioned earlier.
Here's today's question that is weighing me down with indecision and curiosity:
Does Santa take his sleigh all the way to the Southern hemisphere and begin distributing toys and work his way back home or does he start in the north and run his route to completion in the south and then dead head back to the North Pole empty?
You see what I mean. There are questions that beg for answers but who is going to look for them, if not me? I am open to other considered opinions, or even if the jolly old guy himself has the time to give us the answer, I'll publish it.

LIVING LIFE

A couple of things caught my eye recently. The first is a post from Seth Godin in which he talked about the experience of visiting a medical facility and then compares that "pre-digital" excursion (one which most of have taken) to other areas of life like shopping, working and so on - it's worth the 45 seconds to read it and the hour to contemplate how we are involved - go here.
The second thing arrived in my inbox this morning and reminded me about social networking and some of the basics that deserve to be recalled from time to time. Take a look here.

LOVE

At a recent family wedding, I was asked to add a few words prior to the dinner and offered these:

LOVE

Love is a friendship that has caught fire.

It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving.

It is loyalty through good and bad.

It settles for less than perfection

and makes allowances for human weakness.

Love is content with the present.

It hopes for the future and it doesn't brood over the past.

It's the day-in, day-out chronicle of irritations, problems,

compromises, small disappointments, big victories

and working toward common goals.

If you have love in your life,

it can make up for a great many things you lack.

If you don't have it, no matter what else there is,

it is not enough, so search for it, ask God for it and share it!

MAYONNAISE JAR & TWO BEERS...

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 Beers.
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was..
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous 'yes.'
The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed..
'Now,' said the professor as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things---your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions---and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car..
The sand is everything else---the small stuff. 'If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.
Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18.. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand. One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented. The professor smiled and said, 'I'm glad you asked.'
The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of Beers with a friend.
Please share this with someone you care about. I JUST DID!

100th BLOG and 60th BIRTHDAY

"too soon we get old and too late we get
smart"

I started this blog as a bit of a lark and it seems to have succeeded in allowing me to blow off a little steam, share some personal thoughts and insights and generally fulfill the idea of an online journal. September 13 is my 60th birthday and sometimes, as we reach age-related milestones, we begin to assume that we have a bit of wisdom to share and every once in a while someone asks for some of it. Not that that is necessarily the case at the moment, but in the event that anyone should ask, I think I'll list a few random things I've learned over the years.

So, in no particular order:

1.) the older I get, the more I know I don't know

2.) chaos is much better organized than I thought

3.) real power is never having to tell anyone you have power

3a.) the same for independence

4.) the difference between success and failure is not education, luck, birth, God, race, geography, politics, astrology, work ethic, environmental, intellectual, creativity or anything other than "thought." Simply put, we are who and what we think we are!

5.) the answer to any problem is always within ourselves - looking to some outside source for an answer is a cop out

6.) buy on rumour - sell on news

7.) other people will always rise, or fall to our level of expectation

8.) including ourselves

9.) common sense when reviewing marketing, political, pharmaceutical and religious claims is more important than celebrity endorsements

10.) avoid people who claim to never take vacations - there is something wrong with them

11.) don't hang out with people who proudly proclaim that they never read a book

12.) ignore "breaking news" items on TV after you have already seen it twice

13.) do something every year that will scare the crap out of yourself

14.) scientific fact is simply a theory based on current (and surprisingly out of date) information combined with opinion which has been spiced with all sorts of social bias

15.) if the opportunity to do something you have never experienced before presents itself, never say "I don't have time, I'll do it later."

16.) double the above if it is suggested by one of your children

17.) get a colonoscopy

18.) find some way to lower stress - focus on the cause as opposed to the result and it shouldn't be a drug

19.) never accept the responsibility for a project if you don't also have the authority to manage it

20.) out of great emotional upheaval comes the possibility of self discovery

21.) there are 8 senses - touch, smell, sight, taste, hearing, humour, intuition and the most important - COMMON

22.) the best teachers are our own mistakes

23.) trying to use only the last 100 years of recorded history to explain and understand planetary forces like evolution, plate tectonics and climate is not only myopic but stupid

24.) the " F " word may be the most flexible in the English language as it is used variably as a noun, a verb, an adjective and an adverb (sometimes in the same sentence) but there is an inverse relationship between its frequency of use and the knowledge level of its user

25.) contrary to what most of us have been led to believe, there is no such thing as a perfect relationship - it's always a work in progress

26.) what goes up also comes down including oil prices, house prices, stock prices, interest rates, egos, media hype, temperatures, water levels, airplanes, reproductive appendages, inflation, hot air and stress if you insist

27.) there are four highly secret additions to the Recommended Canada Food Guide - popcorn, wine, ice cream and chocolate - you know it's true

28.) laughter really is the best medicine

29.) gratitude = completion and leads directly to wholeness

30.) happiness is a natural state of being, not a goal

31.) being smart and being knowledgeable are not the same thing

32.) we need to tune all 8 senses into seeking out the inspiration that surrounds us

33.) getting older gives us permission to do more of what we want and less of what others want

OK, presumably I have learned more than this over the past 60 years but I have probably bored you to tears by now and I need to leave for my next adventure in a few moments. It has been an incredible 60 years and the last few weeks have been absolutely fabulous - 10 days in Myrtle Beach, SC with my family - playing golf with my son on some of North America's finest courses along with great nightly dinners, shopping and beaches for the four of us, we returned home to a backyard full of white tents, caterers and friends and family offering bottles of incredible wines and port and now, in a minute or two, we leave for the Invermere Valley in B.C. and a glider ride over the Rockies and valleys and lakes that I have been looking forward to since I was six years old. We return Sunday night and begin plotting the next adventure. Thank you to everyone who has crossed my path over the years - "may you live in interesting times."

LESSONS FROM THE TRAIL

A few years ago I hiked the West Coast Trail located on the Pacific coast of Vancouver Island and then wrote a book about the experience. Information about the book can be found on my website from the link on the right hand side of this page. The entire experience of training, preparing and hiking along with writing about it, produced some life lessons that have stayed with me and now I have decided to share some of them in this space from time to time.

"one step at a time"

Wow, nothing could be closer to the truth. Survival, in the most basic of senses, depended on adjusting our focus to the step we were currently taking. Mud, roots and ladders were the challenges that faced us and offered impediments to progress and the only way to exist was to look no further ahead than to the step we were currently taking. Awareness of what we were doing in that precise moment, rather than thinking about the future or worrying about the past, was the only way to survive. I think this is probably a real life example of what is meant by "living in the moment."