My heart raced as I approached the intersection where the accident happened. I could still hear the screeching of the tires. The sound of the truck smashing into the back of my car rattled around my brain. My eyes constantly flicking up toward the rear view mirror – on high alert to see if there was anyone behind me driving a little too close for comfort.

And even though the accident happened a week earlier I couldn’t believe how fresh it still was within my mind. I needed to do something to get rid of this feeling. I needed a way to get back my love of driving. I needed to let go so I wouldn’t keep being dragged along.

Tons of problems in our lives can be solved by just letting go. It could be the past, our fears, people, expectations, pain and hurt. All these things drag us along to where we don’t want to be. They take up too much energy, too much brain space, and distract us from what really matters in our life. They distract us from what we want. They distract us from the miracle that’s happening right now in the present moment.

We get dragged along by so many things. We get dragged along by people. We get dragged into their drama, into their hopes, into their fears. We get suckered into playing a bit part in their dramatic ups and downs. We get wrapped up into it. Sometimes you just have to let that go. You’ve got to step away from it. It’s not your business, it’s not your priority, it’s not what you want. At the end of the day most people complain. You can’t complain about what you permit. Don’t get dragged into the drama.

Another thing that we get dragged along by is our fears. We get dragged along into “what-if” situations, what could be. What are people going to think? How is this going to look? Our fears dictate so much of what we do and they just drag us along, dis-empowering us.

Another thing that drags us along is our expectations, expectations of how things should be. Expectations are not necessarily bad. It’s good to craft a vision of something, have your goals, and have a target to strive for. But, so many of the problems and stress that we have in our everyday lives are caused by thinking of the way that it SHOULD be, as opposed to the way that it is.

So much stress can just be let go of, by accepting what is, watching the rise and fall of the moment, and being impartial to it; in the sense that “I’m going to be of it but I’m not going to be in it“. I’m going to witness it, I’m going to see what’s happening, and I’m not going to get dragged along by how it should be playing out, how it should be happening. We can let go of that frustration.

Get Your Brain Space Back

We get dragged along, as well, by past pains. Things that happened in the past, have passed. Let them go; move on. If it’s still lingering within you, still taking so much of your brain space up then what can you learn from those past pains? What can you learn from those mistakes? There’s no such things as mistakes. There’s only feedback. Feedback on past actions that we have taken. Feedback on the thought process that we had in the past.

What can you learn from it? How can you grow from it?

A good question to ask yourself when you’re running into these painful memories or painful situations is, what’s the opportunity here?

What can I learn from this situation?

How can I grow from it?

How can I empower myself from this moment in my life?

How can I make better choices?

How can I think about this differently?

You’ve got to let it go. You’ve got to move on. Stop being dragged along by all these things.

There’s so much more beautiful things in the world to take up your mind’s attention.

There’s your vision.

There’s your goals.

There’s the miracle of the moment.

There’s the beauty that’s happening right now.

The Mind-Flip

Through evolution, the brain looks for fearful or painful situations and gives a heightened awareness and attention to those situations and experiences. Something that we can do is flip a switch and start to train our brain to look for the positive in life. Keep an eye out and hunt down the good that’s actually happening in our lives, because it’s happening all the time.

There’s tons of good things you can be thankful for. Tons of fantastic experiences that are happening right now. But our past pains, our expectations, our fears, the drama of other people are dragging us along and taking up too much of our mind space. Keeping us from the beauty of our lives.

One of the simplest solutions, is to just let go.

You’ve got to let go, or you’re going to be dragged along.

Be awesome today!

Ian

What is the most astounding fact about the universe?

It’s a crazy question. One that stirs something deep inside of us. Unlocking within us one of the most human of all emotions – wonder.

That question was posed to Astrophysicist Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson by a reader of TIME magazine, “What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?”

Below you’ll find his answer.

The Most Astounding Fact About the Universe (Video)

Transcripted Text of “The Most Astounding Fact About the Universe”

Question: What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?

The most astounding fact is the knowledge that the atoms that comprise life on Earth, the atoms that make up the human body are traceable to the crucibles that cooked light elements into heavy elements in their core under extreme temperatures and pressures.

These stars, the high mass ones among them went unstable in their later years. They collapsed and then exploded scattering their enriched guts across the galaxy. Guts made of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and all the fundamental ingredients of life itself.

These ingredients become part of gas clouds that condense, collapse, form the next generation of solar systems, stars with orbiting planets, and those planets now have the ingredients for life itself.

So that when I look up at the night sky and I know that yes, we are part of this universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the Universe is in us.

When I reflect on that fact, I look up – many people feel small because they’re small and the Universe is big – but I feel big, because my atoms came from those stars.

There’s a level of connectivity. That’s really what you want in life, you want to feel connected, you want to feel relevant you want to feel like a participant in the goings on of activities and events around you That’s precisely what we are, just by being alive…

Please share with your family and friends.

Keep being awesome!

Ian

Sometimes success is staring us right in the face. Take the story of two young furniture designers who are lighting up the home decor industry.

Vincent and Paul Georgeson founders of the award winning design company Misewell have a simple mission, “Create beautiful furniture that will last for decades.”

In a recent interview on Dwell Paul said that, “We want our pieces to look great in 30 years rather than turning into hideous eyesores. We want our customers to pass this stuff on to their grandkids.”

And so far that idea is working. They’ve won awards and become the darlings of the home design world.

Misewell began as a conversation between two brothers.That conversation slowly evolved into a furniture collection, which grew into an award winning design company. 

They Do Well by Doing Good

Many moons ago Benjamin Franklin said, “Do well by doing good.” And the two brothers have really taken this to heart.

Misewell is built on doing things responsibly. They carefully select the best materials, work with the most talented craftsmen, and design meaningful objects that truly stand the test of time. They create our furniture exclusively in the United States, and respect our planet.

Success – It’s Simpler Than You Think…

Vincent and Paul take a simple approach to expanding their furniture line – They look for what’s missing.

Obvious right? There it is staring you right in the face all along.

No reinventing the wheel. No billion dollar research lab. No team of witchdoctors and clairvoyants trying to see into the future. Success is much more obvious and simpler than that.

So many times we think that we have to split the atom, turn water into wine, or unlock the mysteries of the universe in order to be successful.

But those are really just our fears lying to us. Trying to convince us that to be successful and get what we really want out of life we have to be some kind of miracle worker.

This is rarely the case.

More often than not success comes down to the tiny, simple and most obvious things.

Things like…

Loving what you do.

Doing what you love.

Creating products and services that actually help.

Showing up every day.

Doing your best.

The big challenge for us is to not give into our fears. To not be swayed by the illusion that greatness is only for a chosen few. To not be fooled into thinking that success is a hidden and complicated process.

Don’t overcomplicate things The answer is obvious.

Like the Georgeson brothers have discovered – sometimes all you have to do is look around and see what’s missing.

Keep being awesome!

Ian

Three and a half hours. That’s how long the kids and I spent in the car the other day. We got caught in one of the biggest snow storms that had hit Toronto and the GTA in ages.
But luckily the kids and I didn’t have to go totally crazy. My second oldest daughter Grace, had actually come prepared to maximize on her downtime.

Little did I know that she was a time management ninja. And that Ratburger would save the day.

Grace hates to read – that was until we found her a book called “Ratburger”. It has the perfect combination of drama and weirdness to keep my daughter riveted to the pages.

She had brought “Ratburger.” with her for our journey and about an hour into our snow blizzard fiasco, she asked if we wanted to hear her read from the book. For me and the two little ones sitting in the back this was an awesome distraction from crawling along through the traffic as the snow pounded the city.

This is what’s inspired me to talk to you today. I wanted to talk to you about time management, a ninja time management tactic and making use of your in between time. 

Maximizing Those In-Between Moments

There are so many times in a day where we’re just caught in between two moments. Like waiting in line at the bank, waiting for your coffee in the morning, waiting for your friends and even in between commercial breaks. There are so many times throughout the day where you can maximize that in between time, that time where you’d just be staring at the walls, watching the paint peel.

Why not make those moments productive and times where you can actually read a book, send an email, touch base with a friend, or do some research online?

There are lots and lots of different things that you can be doing with these brief little moments that happen all throughout the day. If you add them up – 2 minutes here, 5 minutes there, a minute here – next thing you know, at the end of the day you’re going to be able to chunk out a good maybe 30 minutes of productive time which would have normally gone to waste.

With simple awareness of these in between times and realizing that your time is a valuable and precious asset you can become a time-management ninja.

Why not make use of every moment, every waking moment that you have throughout the day?

I hope this Ninja Time Tactic has been helpful for you.

Keep being awesome.

Ian

A young man nervously approached the Buddha…

He had been coming to hear the Master speak for weeks now. Seeking solace and an answer to what had been plaguing him.

After waiting patiently he finally had his chance to ask the Buddha a question, “Wise one, my mind is in a knot, my sleep is restless and my emotions are a sea of chaos. What should I do?”

The Buddha reached for a glass of water that rested on a table beside him. He bent forward from his chair and gathered into his hand a palmful of dust and dropped it into the glass.

He motioned the man forward and said, “Look into this cup and tell me what you see.”

The man answered him, “The water has become cloudy.”

“Your mind is the same young man. But watch and see what happens when I place this glass on this table for a moment.”

After a short while he asked the man to look inside the glass, “Tell me what you see now young man?”

“The water has become clear and the dust has settled to the bottom of the glass.”

And the Buddha looked deeply into the mans eyes and said, “So to is it the way with the mind. If we become quiet for but a moment everything becomes clear.”

Letting the dust settle…

Each year, more than 100 million people make New Year’s Resolutions in the U.S…

…and each year, more than 88 million people FAIL at accomplishing what they set out to achieve at the start of the year.

That’s why I don’t make resolutions anymore.

What do I do instead? I wait for the dust to settle.

December is just too busy. There’s too much going on.

Parties, presents, people, pudding. Late nights and early mornings.

By the time January rolls around I’m usually happy but exhausted (running around with 5 kids really tuckers you out).

So what I do now is I wait. I wait for the dust to settle. I wait for my mind to become clear. I watch and see what bubbles up into my awareness in the first few weeks of the year.

I prod my mind a little bit. I plant seeds – asking questions of myself like,

“What do I want to accomplish this year?”

“What do I want to experience?”

“Where do I want to visit?”

and most importantly, “Who do I want to become?”

And then I wait.

After a couple weeks I can feel something stirring. Calling me forth. Telling me the time is right. That now is the moment to strike.

And I seize the moment. Setting goals. Drafting up plans. Crafting a magnificent obsession for the year ahead.

Every time I approach the new year this way I knock it out of the park.

I don’t stress about resolutions. Instead I honor the moment – cherish it. When the clock strikes midnight on new years eve I’m in a deep place of gratitude. And that feeling is the fertile ground where I plant the seeds of my dreams.

I wait for the dust to settle and when it does everything becomes clear.

Ian

P.S What do you do at this time of year? Please share below so we all can learn from you.

So you want a new car, a new career, a new house, new clothes, etc. There’s nothing wrong with any of those things. Having goals helps focus your energies, direct your attention and give you the motivation to take spirited action.

But have you really looked at the true price you’ll have to pay in order to get any of those things or anything you really want.

The true price you’ll have to pay for anything is the amount of time (life) you’ll have to give up for it. So before you blast ahead with your action plans take a moment to really look at the price you’ll pay for what you want.

Ask yourself…

How much time is this going to take away from my family?

How much time will I actually have to trade off in order to get this?

How much time will this steal from what actually is truly important to me?

I remember at one point in my career I was working for a extremely wise man. He was successful in every area of his life. I had been working for him for awhile and we were renegotiating my contract. I was asking for a lot (I knew my worth and the value I brought to the organization so I wasn’t shy about asking for exactly what I wanted).

And one of the key items for me was to have more time off to spend with my family. And in the end I got everything that I wanted – except for the time off.

That’s when I realized that time is the most valuable of all currencies. Money didn’t matter to him as I got a huge bump in salary. But what did matter was time.

Time is the most precious of all currencies so guard it and spend it wisely. It’s the true price you’ll pay for anything.

Keep Being Awesome!

Ian

Picture this…

It’s 11pm on a Wednesday night in Downtown Toronto. It’s damp and cool. A light breeze makes you zip your jacket up all the way under your chin. The streets are empty – just you and the street-sweepers are out to enjoy the freshness of the night.

Well that’s what you thought until you round the corner near one of the most popular bookstores in Toronto.

And right there, before your eyes a lineup has formed. It snakes along the length of the store and then-some. People gathered outside – bonded together by a single purpose – to patiently wait through the night and be one of the first people in the city to get a much coveted wristband. One that’ll give you a chance to meet the one and only Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Are these star-struck fans just a wee bit nuts? Crazy for staying up all night for a chance to meet the govenator?

Or is there something more…?

You can’t ignore their commitment.

Their dedication to a goal and the action and planning they put in place to reach that goal.

It got me to thinking about commitment and desire. Two of the fundamental keys to success. And how so many of us just go through life being thrown this way and that. Tossed about because we don’t know where we’re going or what we want.

What are you committed to achieving? What goal(s) have got you so fired up that you’re willing to stay up all night to see them become reality? What ideas or dreams spark a fire in you that consumes your every thought?But it doesn’t have to be that way.

That’s the lesson these fanboys can teach us.

That Goals kick-start action. They spur us on and push us forward. Bringing into our lives unimaginable experiences. Goals unleash the awesome potential that’s sleeping inside of you right now. Because there’s a dream inside of you right now that’s looking to be unleashed.

Sure some people may think we’re crazy for doing what we do. But in the end we’ll have some pretty amazing stories to share with our loved ones. And the person we become by going for our goals is totally worth the risk.

Keep Being Awesome!

Ian

P.S. Need some help with your goals? Check out the personal goal setting worksheet.

Moving forward, making the leap, taking a chance. We hope, we pray and we hesitate. Worried. Watching. Waiting. Wondering…

“What will they think?”

“What if I fail?”

“What if I’m wrong?”

And the answer to all of these is…who cares.

Who cares what they think. Who cares if you fail. Who’s to say that you were wrong?

All that matters is what matters to you. All that matters is the movement toward your goal. Toward your dream. Toward unleashing the greater aspects of yourself.

And you will stumble. You will fall short of your goals. You will make mistakes. That’s just the way it is. And that’s the beauty of being human. Of being you. Of moving forward in spite of the fears, doubts and darkness.

And with each step you take you grow. In power. In wisdom. In joy. In experience.

Move forward because you want to. Because you have to. Because you are compelled to. Like there’s no other option. Because if you don’t, something inside of you will die. Something special. Something sacred. Something indescribable.

It’s better not to think. Just move. Take action. Go forward. Take that step. Because that next step may lead you on the journey of a lifetime.

And remember, “Even if you stumble you’re still moving forward.” ~ Unknown

Keep Being Awesome!

Ian

A student must perfect their skills before they can be called a Master. So we’ll begin to train and transform our minds to become, as the Buddhists like to say, “A wish fulfilling gem.”

Remembering Shambhala is simple and can be done at any time during the day. I would recommend to practice this exercise either in the morning shortly after you wake or in the evening a little bit before you go to bed.

Shambhala is a Sanskrit term meaning “place of peace, tranquility, and happiness”. Shambhala is believed to be a mythical society where all the inhabitants are enlightened.

It’s time now to transform your own world into Shambhala.

My Personal Shambhala Exercise

1) Take out a piece of paper and a pen.
2) On the top of the paper write “My Personal Shambhala”
3) Put the date on the page but make it one year in advance.
4) Write out the sentence, “What an awesome year it’s been!”
5) Before you move on, think about all the things that you’d like to
change in your life. What would you change to bring your more
happiness, peace, tranquillity, prosperity.
6) Now write out all the different aspects of your life that you’d like changed as if they’ve already been accomplished. It could be anything. Like a “perfect relationship” or “perfect home” or “the trip around the world” or “more amazing friends” etc. Make this as rich, vivid and juicy as you like.
7) Read it nightly.
8) See it.
9) Feel it.
10) Every day for the next 90 days take some sort of action to make this vision your reality.

I hope this helps…

Be awesome!

Ian

It was hot. Not that we were complaining. Back home in toronto canada it was the deepend of winter. Average temps of -20 degrees Celsius with enough snow to throw out your back from shoveling the white fluffy stuff.

So as the cuban music played my fiance and I sat back soaking it all in. The sun, the breeze and the moment.

Life is all about the experiences we have. Those million little moments that make up life. Sharing them with people we love makes it all that much better.

Buddhists have an interesting take on life. And in the Tibetan tradition they remind themselves daily that they are lucky to have this day – that tomorrow may never come. With that type of awareness they pour themselves into the experience of the present. They infuse the moment with joy, helpfulness and the reminder to soak it all in. To not worry about the past and fret about the future.

It’s a mindset that we tap into a little easier when we’re on vacation. Everything’s new, fresh and exciting. But the minute we touch down in our hometowns we quickly slip back into our routines. Into the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

But we can bring the magic back into everything that we’re doing by touching the present fully with our awareness.

Like right now – I’m writing this post on my blackberry – sitting on the back porch while I sip my coffee. The sun is shining, there’s a cool easterly breeze blowing, the neighbors kids are chatting away next door, the birds are singing their spring songs, my fiancé is taking a long hot shower (one of her favorite things to do) before we head out to buy some balloons for our daughters tenth birthday party on Monday, and a big muscle car has just rolled down the street. Life is beautiful.

I’m thinking about how lucky I am. I’m thinking of you – that I hope these words touch you in some way. That they remind you to come back to the moment. To breathe it in fully. And to give thanks for everything that you have.

Because there’s magic happening right now in your life. It may not be over-the-top earth shattering awesomeness but it’s there. Hiding in plain sight. All you got to do is notice it.

Ian