Tag Archives: Personal Growth

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.

“Buried Treasure”

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treasureI caught the last 1/2 hour of “Buried Treasure” where Leigh and Leslie Keno are what they call “modern day treasure hunters”.  The premise of the show is people around the US have all this treasure and they have no idea is worth something.  The Keno brothers go in an assess what the people have and let them know if they have treasure or if they have junk that’s not worth anything.

What I find really sad is a show like this is a prime example of just how desperate some people are to make a quick buck.  People are willing to sell collectables and part ways with family heirlooms just so they can have a few thousand dollars.  These are items that should continue to be passed down or treasured within a family but because people are so strapped for cash they reach out to shows like this to hawk off their stuff and hope to get out of their financial woes.  Yet they will only realize their quick buck will never fix the real problem, its just a band-aid.  The real problem is still there, lack of mentorship, poor association, poor financial planning, and the list goes on.  It’s no different than lottery winners typically ending up broker than when they started.  If you don’t know how to steward money in the first place, coming into money won’t change that, it just makes it worse and extra money highlights that.

Obviously this is my take on why this show is on however its pretty coincidental this is happening now when the US is facing even worse financial crisis that is going to put Canada back into a recession.  TD even released a news article based on the fact we could be going back into a recession again.  Yet some people think we are doing okay… give your head a shake, its going to take more than a few years to climb out of where we are and where the US is.

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Communication as Parents

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communication-cansNow that my wife and I are parents and we’ve had a few days now to see how we communicate under what sometimes are frustrating circumstances.  Having a new baby really brings change to your marriage and ways of doing things as you no longer need to worry about just yourselves.  It’s quite an amazing experience we are having with our new little one however I can say without a doubt our experience with our new baby would be quite a bit different if it were not for personal growth.

So what do I mean with personal growth?  I mean things like reading books, listening to audio’s like podcasts and getting around an association that has the qualities that we like or were looking for.  Almost two years ago my wife and I had what we considered to be a pretty good marriage.  We communicated, we hardly had any “loud volume conversations”, and we were in love big time.  Now don’t get me wrong we don’t look back at where we were in disgust, we look back at where we were and look at where we are now and have seen huge improvements in our communication and overall relationship.

How I can measure that is how we’ve dealt with some of the frustrations of being new parents with little sleep and everything else that comes with that.  We’ve been able to stop what could have been massive blow ups which only would have caused our baby to become agitated.  Babies feed off parents big time and if your frustrated, yelling and upset, then so will your baby and it’s no wonder people end up pulling their hair out.  That would have been my wife and I pre-two years ago had we not had the personal growth through World Wide Dreambuilders and the association we get to plug into. 

World Wide Dreambuilders in no way forced things on us or did things for us, the organization only enabled us to take advantage of great books, audio and association that we applied to our lives and have seen hands down success with.  Not only with our baby and our relationship but in all aspects of our lives and for that we cannot be more thankful.  I’d hate to see what we would have been like today with our baby had we not personally grown, It would have been a nightmare with a lot harder sleepless nights, fights galore and a stressed marriage relationship wise and financially.  There is no other organization that I know of that puts family and relationships at the top priority and because of that we’ve done the same with aspects of our life and it’s damn good.

If I can impart any of what I’ve learned through WWDB, that’s read books on all areas of life.  The biggest one that has helped us is “Your Personality Tree” and “The 5 Love Languages”.  Just those two books will help you understand your mate in ways you never thought.  Check them out!

Profitable Business

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Profitablel You know I was pretty sceptical when my wife first started this business and thought it was a scam, it wouldn’t work, we’d end up loosing money, all kinds of negative sceptical things.  WOW how I was wrong.

As we continue to build our business I’m continually surprised at the personal growth I’ve gone under and how so many people that know me continue to say wow you’ve changed and are so upbeat, positive and full of energy. Well thank you!  You are right I have changed and it’s a good change.  I have to owe it to the people we associate with, you have no idea what that does to someone when they get around people that are just successful, positive and moving their life forward.

We are doing just that, we are moving our life forward one day at a time and knocking down huge goals.  In December we killed off our MasterCard and cut that up, in January we killed our HUGE VISA debt and here in February we’ve reached what Amway Global recognized as 1000 pins.  That goal won’t mean much to most but it’s a significant goal because it means you are producing a successful franchise and making profits.  That’s not to say we were not making profits before being 1000 pin, it just means we have solidified a milestone and we are continually moving forward.  There is one more goal we are 99% done and that’s a World Wide Dreambuilder’s goal and I’ll have a separate post about that.  But one could say we are flying as high as ____’s :)

We’ve got some great clients with which we invest time into them to make sure they have the right product to fit their needs, and we continually follow up and provide great customer service to them.  Where else can you find that kind of service?  Does Wall Mart call you up asking how your recent purchase was?  Probably not.  So to those clients I say thank you for your business, we appreciate it and look forward to continually serving you.

Lastly we’ve got some amazing amazing people who we are now coaching and mentoring through an amazing business.  We’ve got strangers who are becoming amazing friends, we’ve friends who are becoming even deeper friends, and last but not least we have family that are building this business with us.  This pretty wicked mix of people are a bunch of warriors who just understand there is more to life then living paycheque to paycheque, Friday to Friday.  They understand that the goals, dreams and people they want to influence are not possible with their regular 9-5 job.  They want more, and they all have that “do whatever it takes” mentality.  I’m proud to be working with these people but more importantly I’m proud to be investing time into them as we all develop amazing relationships.

Yes our business is profitable with money, however we find it more profitable because we are investing time into amazing people so that they can achieve the lives they really want, not the lives that are controlled by their jobs.  It really is amazing the type of business we build here, it’s unlike anything out there, it just doesn’t compare.

team