Knowing that we have friends all over the world on Kamazooie... I could not help myself but to discuss the snow falling outside. After many weeks of bleary brown, grey and a white hazy dust on all the vehicles (salt dust from the roads)... we finally have a beautiful white coating of snow outside. In fact, this morning my two sons and I were digging out Anu's car, and clearing the driveway. It took almost two hours to clear it all. Fortunately, we are all in good shape...…

Please learn from my mistake!

For the past few years, I have not given my insurance policies much thought. They are fine... and covering us without issue. We rarely have made any claims (rear ended one year - though), and our driving records have been clean. All told, I have really not had much reason to scrutinize our insurance…

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Have a happy and peaceful family season :-)

Charles

Almost Christmas! Almost there! Almost have all my gifts picked out… but should there be one more I am considering?

For the past few years I have been the President of the Product Marketing & Management Association for Toronto (TPMA). Having been a business or product marketer for most of my career, I often looked back wishing I had had someone there to…

Last weekend I made my yearly trek to IKEA to pick up the Christmas tree. This year, my orders were to find that fattest, most robust and healthy looking tree I could locate. I am not sure if that was a back-handed way of saying that my previous Christmas tree picking expertise was just not up to snuff (exasperated!).…

I am back in University. In mid life? At my age? I can't believe it...

It was brilliant! I stumbled across someone at a seminar a few month back. We chatted briefly about how they were not satisfied with their career, and decided to take a few college courses to update their skills, and course adjust their career path. It was a brilliant idea, as I reflected on…

Anyone from Toronto will immediately know and recognize what the CNE, is. It is the Canadian National Exhibition. Very near Downtown Toronto - it is a huge amusement park that opens mid August running through to Labour Day (September 1st). 

Like all things, it has evolved over the years. I remember my mom (and on a rare occasion my dad) taking me there…

Never having gone to a premiere film night, this was a new experience for me. Fortunately, Michael blogged about the premiere of his movie "It Was You Charlie" in time to purchase tickets and make it to the premiere evening show. It was a great movie with an uplifting ending, and the opportunity to see and speak with the stars, directors, producers and cast members -…

I have to admit that it felt strange to be taking in a concert on a "school" or "work" night! Anu and I drove downtown to catch a concert with guests from the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, at the University of Toronto. 

We did not quite make it in time to the restaurant where I had made reservations... if you have reservations then "traffic" magically knows about…

Last week, Anu and I took some time to go to a movie theatre downtown, to take in a wonderful dinner and a movie. We caught a brilliant movie called Boyhood, at the TIFF theatre (Toronto International Film Festival). 

On the heels of Brian's commentary on "Living in the Moment" - Boyhood is on that same theme. The brilliance of this movie was that Richard Linklater…

Who cares about being grateful?

Isn’t thankfulness just for losers?

I tend to be a respectful, and thankful person, but some days these questions do come to mind. Whenever I can, I thank people… and have made an effort to provide a personal and sincere note of gratitude to those who were deserving of it, especially on my work-teams.

It does not take much. A…

You know that feeling. You have just been on vacation for a week, and the Sunday night jitters start hitting you. Or maybe, as you are driving back from the cottage or vacation spot, you start thinking about all the things awaiting your return - like 1,500 emails, and half a dozen blow-ups that took place while you were away.

Having just taken a week's vacation with my…

Meditation has had a reputation of being associated with mysticism, or eastern religions. For that reason, many people have avoided it in their own lives, thinking that it either was purely a form of spirituality, or might even conflict with their own religion. In fact, because of that link to spirituality - I have read at least three authors stating that in…

On the heels of Amanda's great discussion about living a Balanced Life, and mapping out what that looks like, I just read "Your Life Plan" by Erica Sosna - which addresses a related topic. We all agree that we want to live a balanced life. Balance comes up repeatedly when you think about work and career. As a careerist, I completely understand how easy it is…

As we discussed in the last few postings... I have been leading and organising my firm's Junior Achievement partnership and campaign. We had teams from 6 major cities in Canada. For Toronto - I also teamed up with a partner and delivered the "Economics for Success" program to the grade 7 & 8 split class of St. John Bosco Elementary school in Woodbridge, Ontario. 

This was an absolute blast! 

Naturally, it is so much fun to teach the children about the…

The other day, a friend realized how much work it is to lead a cause like Junior Achievement (blogged about last week), and asked WHY? Why put so much effort into this? Why take the lead and drive this in my company, across the country? 

Two things come to mind. First if not me, then who? Second, I recall Amanda's blog on Balance. This is a great way of…

What's Junior Achievement? 

It is a global organisation dedicated to teaching children about some basic financials and fundamentals of life, and the reason you want to stay in school. This gives regular business people, retiree's, and other volunteers the opportunity to go into a class of students and teach about work, your paystub, career opportunities, how to…

Wondering if anyone else tried the 3 Positives & Why approach, discussed in my last blog posting?

I tried it - for 12 consecutive days. It was actually nice. I found it to be a refreshing way to take a 5-10 minute break during my day. Taking a breather to reflect on what was going well in the day, and why (trying to internalize what I was doing that was making it positive). The best part of the practice was that by writing it down (I kept a small notebook), it forced me…

As I drive to work, I started listening to Flourish by Martin Seligman. He is the psychologist who started the whole positive psychology movement. One of his first suggestions is a little exercise I am working on ... and it seems to have some good results - of helping me stay more positive. 

This exercise is to get a small journal, and each day - write down three positive things that you did or that happened today. It could be as simple as "it was a sunny and warm…