Tag Archives: Dreams

Fanatical

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can_80851The other day we were talking about the World Jr’s.  For those who don’t know the World Jr’s are the International Ice Hockey Federation World Under 20 Championship which is an annual event organized by the IIHF for under 20 year olds for hockey teams around the world.  It’s held on Boxing Day and ends early January with the gold medal game.  People go crazy by either attending the event or by watching it.  Some would say people are fanatical about it and watch it every single year, myself included.  I used to play semi-pro hockey for those that don’t know so I’ve always got a eye for Hockey and enjoy watching it.

For a hockey player, they too are fanatical or have to be in order to make the World Jr. teams.  It requires a lot of dedication and time away from friends and family.  It means a missed Christmas and New Years for those kids who without a doubt would give that up to play on a world stage like the World Jr.s  I remember that like it was yesterday, the practices multiple times a week (early morning and late night), the games, the travel all over the province(s), the many broken sticks, and on and on.  I enjoyed it and sometimes look back and miss it, I miss that competitiveness and that devotion to the sport of hockey.  I gave up a lot during my childhood to play hockey and so did my parents, but it was something I’d never give up as it built my character and leadership qualities that I have today.

 

Hockey

My brother and I playing on the same team back in Midget AA.

A very rare photo. I’m on the left as Captain and my brother is on the right.

 

So what is the definition of fanatical and why am I talking about it?   Fanatical is the adjective of Fanatic and Fanatic is “marked by excessive enthusiasm and often intense uncritical devotion”. A synonym of Fanatic suggest excessive or overweening devotion to a cause or belief. Devotion is exactly what I applied to hockey and for me it was excessive.  I ate, slept, played hockey for my whole childhood.  You have to be in order to play the level of hockey that I did when growing up.

Being fanatical about Hockey or any other sport is great and wildly accepted.  People don’t look at you funny or criticize you for that at all because that is accepted by society.  However if you turn that fanatical behaviour to your life, dreams, goals, personal growth, finances, etc… your looked upon with scepticism and considered to be weird.  Why is that?  Being fanatical about the possibilities of things you can accomplish in life should be celebrated and not looked down on.  If more people actually cared about things that really matter instead of things that don’t matter and don’t move our lives forward we’d be a lot better off.  Now don’t get me wrong, I love watching hockey and some sports however I won’t put those ahead of my family or things of more significance.  They help release some of the stress of life and is a form of entertainment.  Its just a matter of putting things in check and saying to yourself what’s more of a priority.  You need to figure that out for yourself, I cannot and will not tell people what those priorities should be. 

Its time people start being more fanatical about their lives instead of other peoples lives (Survivor, Jersey Shore, Saskatchewan Rough Riders, etc..) Again to each their own, but something to think about.

GoPro–Great Perspective on Life

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I’ve got a real affinity for the GoPro HD camera’s.  I’m hoping to get one for Christmas this year because there is nothing like it out there that compares.  The ability to capture moments like skiing down some fine powder in first person is such an amazing thing.  Regular people are now able to do this with a very inexpensive camera and traditionally in the past was done via movie equipment.  I highly recommend you check them out if your the adventure type.

Why am I talking about this camera and posting this video?  This video came across my inbox as I think I subscribed to something around these cameras so I get weekly videos.  Jeb Corliss and Roberta Mancino are well known in the base jumping and wingsuit flying community and they share some pretty awesome perspective on life.

What really fascinates me on this video is after the scene you see below it starts off with dreams.  I love how Jeb describes his nightmare as “sitting at an office working on a computer, that’s a nightmare, I cannot even imagine something more horrifying”, then Roberta says “or any other job”. (Amen to that!)  Jeb goes on to say that “every individual person has their dream, and every individual person has a right to live their dream”. Lastly he says that his dream is no better or worse than anyone else’s, but it is his.  Well said.  Basically to sum it up, as I’ve mentioned before, it means don’t steal someone else’s dream no matter what it is or what they do to obtain it.

 

GoPro HD: Awesome footage!

 

Jed quotes this perfect quote he heard when he was a kid. “The key to happiness is having dreams, the key to success is fulfilling those dreams.” – Anonymous

Lastly Jed ends off by saying, “There really are no limits, the only limits are the ones you place on yourself.” Well said, well said.  Whatever it is your out there trying to achieve don’t let anyone stand in your way, don’t take it from me, watch the video and be inspired!

Goals, Dreams, and Aspirations oh my!

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I’ve always been a goal setter even before getting involved with World Wide Dreambuilders and Amway.  However I think the biggest thing I’ve learned is putting those things in the forefront.  My post today is actually inspired by @KimLiving who’s blog is http://www.mynaturebaby.ca/blog/.  She posted last night that she was working on building a life board.  Check it out here.  Kim, I hope you don’t mind me sharing, however you did publish it publicly so I figure that’s okay. 

Anyway I love seeing things like this and it’s the same concept of having your goals and dreams done the same way.  Having what you want out of life and making it visual will only make it that much more real and that much more easier to obtain.  Things like “celebrate every moment”, “be your best”, and this one “make a lasting impression” are amazing quotes of affirmations.  Kim, you have actually inspired me to revisit some of the things around our house and update and add to what we have already on our walls and fridge.  So thank you!

I fully believe everyone who is serious about the goals, dreams, and aspirations they have in life should make them visual.  Pick up a success book of any kind and when you talk about these things they all say to write them down or make them visual.  They all have different percent’s of how much more likely you’ll achieve them but any percent above 0 is good in my books.  It’s kind of a no brainer however some people will just make fun of you for doing it.  That’s fine, your not building your life for them, your doing it for you so just ignore the naysayers and as I like to call them “dream stealers”.

We actually have a budget for magazines so that we can do something like what Kim has and since it’s now September we are going to head down to Whyte Ave, probably to http://www.hubnews.ca/ and check out some new magazines to expand our dreams and things we want.  Thanks Kim for the added inspiration.

Follow other bloggers for this year’s Summer Blogging Challenge here:

Zita of Ignite Strategic Solutions, Cliff of Peer Pressure Works, Tammy of Tam I Am, Peter of Crazy Wookie Cookies, Chad of The Daily Grind, Vlad of Analog Coast, Robb of Blogging Life, Kim of Nature Baby Bloggings, Liam of ln The Now, Natasha of Natural Urban Mamas, Earl of My Name is Earl (J. Woods), Brad of Kick Me Out Soon

Also follow this on twitter with the “Official” hash tags #SBC #SummerBlogChallenge

Possibility Thinking

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We got back earlier today from Saskatoon where our new Emeralds Dean and Marcie Whalen did their very first regional in the test market of Saskatoon.  Saskatoon is booming right now and because of that World Wide Group has decided to test it out with a regional.  I’ve never heard Dean teach or do a boardplan so that was one of my biggest reasons for going, I wanted to get around one of the fastest moving leaders in World Wide Dreambuilders.  The way Dean teaches and talks with such boldness yet everything is from the heart is pretty cool, definitely took some nuggets away from Saturday that I’ll be applying to our business.  Dean and Marcie are perfect examples of possibility thinking which leads me into the topic of my discussion and just happens to be backed up by one of John Maxwell’s great books “Thinking for a Change – 11 ways Highly Successful People Approach Life and Work”.

I just happen to be reading this John Maxwell book right now and I’m getting a ton out of it, the biggest chapter that really hit me this week was called ‘Feel the Energy of Possibility Thinking’.  There is a section in this chapter that discusses how to have possibility thinking working for you and they are:

  1. Stop Focusing on the Impossibilities
  2. Stay Away from the “Experts”
  3. Look for Possibilities in Every Situation
  4. Dream One Size Bigger
  5. Question the Status Quo
  6. Find Inspiration from Great Achievers

All six of these are pretty self explanatory on their own and really make sense if you put them into practice.  If you want more details on those you need to go buy the book but I’ll summarize a few in my own words and also some of what I took out of last night as well.

We tend to always focus on the impossibilities, those “wish”, “maybe”, “hope”, or “can’t”.  We pretty much need to remove these words from our vocabulary.  I hear all the time that people wish for this or that, how about put a plan of action together and go out and get it.  Stop leaving things to chance and grab control of your life and just DO IT!  Nothing is impossible if you think with success, pick up this book or any other success books and you’ll see I’m not making this up. 

Negativity, oh this is a fun one.  We’ve had a few postings and some great “discussion” on this before as well as on other sites out there on the interwebs.  Removing the negativity from your life isn’t something that comes from “Amway” or from “World Wide Dreambuilders”, it’s a bloody success principal.  Half the books I’ve read all talk about negativity and removing it from your speech, your thoughts, and removing it from your association.  I get a kick out of people who say “we” teach people to stop all negative thoughts and so on and so forth.  We didn’t make it up, pick up a book and read it yourself, as I said it’s a success principal.  Negativity is something you can control, you control what you read, listen to and associate with, if it’s negative get away from it and or dismiss it and move on.  If you happen to be in a negative situation why not try and find the positive in it, there always is.  See successful people don’t dwell on or associate with negative things or people and that goes for all walks of life be it building this business, building a traditional business, working for a business or just hanging out with people.

Dreaming bigger, I love this one yet its the hardest one to do.  You actually need to constantly work at your dream muscle because for the most part people don’t dream big enough, we dream small.  Get out to events like the Edmonton Boat & Sportsmen’s Show, or the upcoming Edmonton Motorshow and check out the high end cars and boats.  Work the dream muscle and start opening up your brain to possibilities.

"Make your plans as fantastic as you like, because 25 years from now they will seem mediocre. You will wonder why you did not make them 50 times as great"
— Henry Curtis

Set huge dreams and goals, even if you don’t think they are possible (remember this is about possibility thinking so anything is possible), if you do it will cause you to grow in ways to achieve what it is you want.  This kinda takes me back to a post I wrote during the 2010 Summer Blogging Challenge about dream stealers.  Who cares what others think about your dreams, fight for your own dreams.

Keep the “Possibility Thinking” at the forefront and you’ll be a heck of a lot more successful than if you are always saying it “can’t be done” or any other negative connotation words.  Again these are success principals that we apply to our life and just one of the many things we love teaching to our team.  It’s not something we made up, but it’s something we apply because we are inspired buy great achievers in our lives both in this business and outside this business.

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