Tag Archives: Success principals

Microsoft TechEd 2011– Day 1

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Today was the official start for Microsoft’s North America Tech-Ed 2011 which is in Atlanta this year.  It’s pretty much a HUGE IT conference where close to 15,000 IT Professionals come from all over the world to learn about the latest and greatest from Microsoft.  I say all over the world as there are a ton of people I’m finding from Europe and other places across the pond.

I attended a pre-conference session yesterday on Windows 7 and Server 2008R2 Group Policy.  It’s a refresher for me as I’ve not seen the latest and greatest that Group Policy has to offer for the latest client and server operating systems.  The speaker was Jeremy Moskowitz of www.gpanswers.com.  GREAT site for a large community of Group Policy people.  Check it out if your in IT and reading this.  Jeremy is a great speaker and its always easy to understand and comprehend his teaching.  If you get a chance to hear him, make sure you do.

So first a quick break, why am I blogging about a Microsoft Tech-Ed Conference on this blog?  Well I don’t have any other blogs and I did blog the last time I went to one of these as a way of reflecting on the day.  If you came here wanting something else sorry, it will be about IT the next few days as that’s what I’m up to this week!

What were the highlights today?  Well the Vendor Expo opened up which was great because I wanted to get around some of the Microsoft guru’s around a few things we are looking at implementing at work.  I was actually able to get in there and pick their brain on a few issues that we are having at work and hear what they had to share.  Sounds familiar to other posts I’ve done hmm? Getting around people who know what they are talking about and have done the things you want to do.  Interesting how that works.

Connecting with like minded individuals has also been another highlight.  I was able to connect with Rick Claus (@ricksterCDN) of Canadian IT Professionals TechNet Blog.  I’ve wanted to meet Rick for awhile as I’ve seen him at local events before but just never got around him.  I was able to pick his brain on VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) and that’s also something we are looking at getting involved in at work.  Tomorrow evening is a meet up with a bunch of the Canadian Crew down here from all over Canada.  Will be great to network with them, get around the IT association. 

The last highlight of the day was a Birds of a Feather session called “Fundamentals of Technology Leadership: Making Every Situation a Win-Win with Your Employees and Stakeholders”.  I was immediately drawn to this session because it was on leadership, another parallel there, and was great to get around other IT Managers and Directors to hear their thoughts on the topic at hand. I learn the best from what others experiences are and what they did to overcome the challenges they went through.  The “Birds of a Feather" sessions are exactly for that, getting around people who are like minded.  Success principals right there. 

The end of the night was the welcome reception at the vendor exhibition which had a lot of food and drinks.  I had a small glass of wine and picked around some of the more “healthier” food they had out there.  It was this time I was able to get around the Microsoft guys and ask questions.  I’ve not really got around the vendors a lot as I don’t really need all the “swag” people pick up.  I’ve just not needed to get around them, I get enough cold calls without visiting the vendors and having them scan my badge.  GRRR!  Yeah drives me crazy.

Anyway that is my first day re-cap from Atlanta (where it was pretty cold today).  I’ll see about getting a day 2 recap tomorrow!

Below are a few pictures from the day.

 

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Group Policy Training with Jeremy Moskowitz

 

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My setup with my iPad2 and Bluetooth Keyboard

 

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Swag Bag and Junk Flyers

 

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Candy Galore!

 

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CNN World Headquarters

May Fitness Update

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WeightsWell it’s been awhile since my last update so I figured I’d give a quick post and update everyone on the progress.  Cause I know you’ve all be waiting and asking “Why hasn’t Shaun kept us up to date with his weight loss?”.  Sure that’s what you’ve been asking.  Anyway its all good news!

I checked on my way out of the gym when my first training session was and they said March 9th.  Today is May 11th so it’s been over 2 months now.  I should have some sort of changes right?  I do.  In fact all of them are positive.  In the last 2 months I’ve lost 12.5 lbs.  That’s 6.25 lbs. a month if I average it out which isn’t to shabby however I’ve heard that if you start working out you should be losing about 2 lbs. per week.  So if my math is correct I really should have lost 8 lbs. for a 2 month total of 16 lbs.  What gives?

Well in those two months I’ve actually been strength training with a lot of free weights and with that comes something called muscle mass.  So really I’ve gained weight in muscle which would account for the variance.  However there is more than just that for me that caused a lack of weight loss.  I also have been traveling a bit during that time and as most people know traveling is hard to stick to your diet or regular eating plan.  Good news for me I didn’t GAIN any additional weight, however I didn’t loose any weight while traveling.  I guess that’s positive at least.

My goal next week as I travel to Atlanta for a Microsoft Conference is to make sure I make smarter choices.  I know a few years ago this conference made changes from all junk food at the breaks to healthier options such as fruit instead of all junk food.  IT guys LOVE the junk food.  I’ve checked out the hotel and they have a great gym facility so I’ll make sure to stick to my Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule and work out while at the conference in hopes of staying at or below 210.  My goal is to be 210 before I leave on Saturday morning.  I’m down to 211 as of tonight so 210 should be no problem!

This is the first time I’ve ever been this successful with going to the gym and working out.  If I look at what’s changed this time around from the previous efforts I would have to say applying success principals to my work outs.  What success principals?

  • A consistent work habit
  • Finding a coach or mentor who is knowledgeable in what your trying to do
  • Overcoming mental blocks (i should go to the gym, nah stay home, no i should go to the gym, no your tired just stay home, etc.)
  • Association, talking and getting around people who work out

Those are just a few principals of what I believe has helped me become a lot more successful this time around with my working out.  I have to attribute that mentality shift to World Wide Dreambuilders I really do.  Could I have done this without World Wide Dreambuilders? Sure anyone could, but it was my mind set that was off and several attempts of going to the gym without he proper mindset only resulted in failure.  Getting around the association, teaching and success principals that WWDB talks about has helped me not only in my working out but I believe it’s also why I’ve moved up the “corporate ladder” so much in the last year.  Those are my observations anyway everyone else may have a different story and that’s cool.

So I’m going to open up the comments because I have a question that I need answered.  When you travel for work or pleasure, how do you stick to your diet or regular meal routine?  Do you say to hell with it and go wild? Or do you make a conscious effort to “be good” and make smarter choices?  Comments are open and welcome.

Update: One thing I forgot to mention which I think is important is the benefits other than weight loss and inches.  The biggest thing is ENERGY.  I feel fricken awesome the last month. I can function on a lot less sleep and when I wake up I don’t feel that morning grog…for to long.  Don’t get me wrong I still feel it but you do feel a heck of a lot better.  I also think I’m more productive during the day and not as lethargic as I previously was.  So work out for that reason cause you’ll feel like a million bucks!

Consistent Daily Work Habit

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WorkHabitA daily consistent work habit is just one of those simple success principals that you can apply to just about anything in life.  Take for example my recent working outs at the gym, that’s a consistent work habit, may not be every single day but it’s consistent which is exactly why I am seeing results as of lately.  I’ve lost 10lbs since I’ve been taking the gym seriously and since I got myself a trainer.  However 10lbs isn’t the biggest deal, it’s the energy and how I feel that’s really been the biggest change.  I no longer drag about any longer and have to almost force myself to go to bed sometimes because I have so much energy.  The success came from my consistency in my work habit, without it I’d be wasting my money at the gym.

The same could be said for what we call CORE in our business.  A running joke or maybe the truth is CORE stands for Change Or Remain Employed. CORE is the foundation of our business and is that consistent daily work habit, and without the consistency of CORE we feel the effects on our business.  We’ve seen first hand when we are CORE our business grows and we move forward, however when we are not core our business stagnates and doesn’t move.  Some people may or may not believe that and that’s fine, but the people who do understand it are growing and moving forward. 

This example of a consistent daily work habit can literally apply to anything in life and the people who are successful in their own way know this because they’ve applied this simple principal over and over.  So if you are unsuccessful at getting in shape, or unsuccessful whatever you are doing check your consistency and your work habit, bet it needs some work

Overcoming

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OvercomeThis week has been a tough week overall with the tipping point of me having to fire someone the other day.  It’s never a fun thing and it being my first really made it difficult.  While I love the ability to impact people in a positive way through our business, I also have the ability to impact people in a negative way during my day job and that’s definitely not a part of my job I like. However I need to make sure I do what’s best for my team and for the company overall. 

So since it’s been a pretty crappy week I really didn’t feel like working out yesterday and even after my wife picked me up from work early so I could go and work out, I had a mental battle with my mind which was trying to take the easy way out and stay home.  You know the battle where your mind says you need to work out so you see results, then it says nah, just go home and sit down and rest, you had a tough week. 

Well I believe I won the battle because I overcame the easy way out which would have been to just go home.  To achieve results in anything you need to constantly overcome and make those tough decisions to do what is not easy.  Its those people that overcome that set themselves apart from the masses and set them apart from the average.  So are you an overcomer or someone who just gives up?

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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