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15 Years On, Forgiveness is Still a Bugger (though it’s less hard)

This is a story about me (but it’s not just about me). It is for anyone who has ever struggled with forgiveness… My father was the kind of guy who used a shopping cart at the liquor store. I say ‘was’ because he is dead. 12 December, 2000, was the day my father died at […]

23 Lies We Self-Administer

Liar, liar, pants on fire.  It’s a school yard ditty you wouldn’t necessarily associate with yourself.  And yet you tell yourself lies all the time – we all do.  We make up stories that are so darn convincing, they feel real.  I’m curious – which lies resonate with you? (I’m wrestling with 19 & 20…)    If I am perfect, I […]

Is Your Self-Belief Like a Mushroom (in the dark, with poop up to its chin)? Quick, read this…

Self-belief is like any other skill – it needs to be practiced, like piano or Italian. It gets built in the gym of daily life, in everything from changing a flat to changing your career. Your ability to see yourself succeeding is the greatest predictor in actually creating that success. In his book Unbeatable Mind, former […]

How Apathy is Anaesthetising Your Dream (and what Yoda has to say about it)

Apathy is a slow rot. The thing with apathy is that you don’t really notice it setting in (until you do). In the meantime, it’s like unknowingly self-administering a regular low dose anaesthetic and sleepwalking through life. Apathy is often the result of busy-ness, lesser goals masquerading as something in your urgent quadrant. It might […]

About To Lose It? Quick, Read This…

Jean Paul Sartre said, ‘Hell is other people.’  This feels especially true if that person is grating on your last nerve, nudging you ever closer to a Chernobyl-scale meltdown. It is so easy to absorb the energetic resonances of others, and then blame the heinous jerk for ruining your day. There’s nothing more contagious than anger.  It’s the chicken […]

Can Mamie Change How YOU Connect?

Why is it that some of us are master connectors, while others just communicate? In July of 1979, our family friend Mamie came to visit.  She turned her green Renault into our crackly gravel driveway and beeped the horn as she drove down the hill.  My brother Markus and I jumped off the swings and […]

Three Stories That Keep You Stuck in Fear (and increase the suckage factor in your life)

Your ability to create a life you love is driven by the stories you generate and self-administer.  That is the good news.  The bad news is the same. Dr. Donald Hebb, fellow Canadian, was famous for his work on neuroplasticity.  He is known for Hebb’s Law, the idea that neurons that fire together wire together. […]

Nervo-cited? Thoughts on Building Courage…

My son started going to a jazz improvisation class a few months ago. ‘It’ll be fun,’ I assured him. Turns out he was pretty rattled after the first session. ‘There was no sheet music. There was nothing to follow. I had to improvise,’ he said. I thought that was kind of obvious in the class […]

I’m a Little Tea Pot – Thoughts on Personal Impact

People often ask me, ‘How can I have more impact?’ They think it’s about being more impressive. Doing more. Achieving more. Being flashier. Wearing better shoes. It can be those ego-flavoured things. But it really depends on what impact someone is seeking. Me? I’m less interested in being on the cover of People magazine than […]

Death By A Thousand Paper Cuts

Spoiler alert: bad things happen when we mute our inner wisdom… I’m doing well in my job, but it feels like something is missing. Ever felt like that? I have.  I had a passion for academia, a passion so zealous that nothing could stop me – until it did.  I spent more than a decade in university […]