Thursday, September 29, 2011

When Opportunity Knocks

Have you ever been in the moment where opportunity knocked and you were caught, well, unprepared? What could've been a great shining moment in your life was overshadowed by lack of confidence, which lead to not performing the way you had envisioned, and then ultimately, the unhappiness that followed by not making the most out of the opportunity that was seized.

OR...

You were in the right place at the right time, and you had made all the preparations in case this opportunity came and when life handed it to you, you made the most of it because you were prepared for it. And afterwards, it felt perfect!

In the exact same circumstance, there are two totally different results because two different people make choices as to how it would occur to them. One chose to take the time and invest in themselves fully, and the other tried to get by with what they could, and when the opportunity came, there were two totally different results.

The main message is, unless you are prepared for Opportunity to hit you in the face, it will never really be a "great" opportunity to you. However, if you are prepared for it, it will be a moment that will alter your life forever!

Do you know who Scot Halpin is? Most of us really have no idea who he is, but I heard about his story years ago and thought it was a great example to use in my blog today.

On November 20, 1973 Scot Halpin had opportunity happen for him, and he made the most of it. He was early to get good seats at The Cow Palace in suburb San Francisco for The Who concert that was to take place that night. Following the infamous story of Drumming Legend Keith Moon taking horse tranquilizers and chasing them with a large amount of Brandy and then passing out on stage, The Who were left at the end of the night without a drummer. When lead guitarist Pete Townshend asked the audience if anyone could be their drummer, opportunity knocked.

That's when Scot Halpin was able to get to the stage. After a shot of brandy to calm his nerves, he got to play 3 songs on stage in lieu of Keith Moon with The Who. That is the chance of a lifetime, and Halpin was right in the way of that, and he made it count.

Now, if he had not practiced playing drums and put in the necessary work to perfect his craft, that would've never been an opportunity. Certainly there were other people who heard the same invitation, but they couldn't play the drums, so it never struck them as an option. All they could see was an opportunity to look like an idiot in front of 15,000 fans. But not to a drummer who had practiced for years, and now could make the most of that opportunity.

Here the footage of this event, and it's quite amazing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O-N8MZ9ilk Opportunity knocks at 5:25 of this clip!

Opportunities pop up like this everyday. Some happen just once in a lifetime, and the others just get lost in the lack of preparation and vision and become a wasted opportunity. But unless you are working hard BEFORE that opportunity comes, you will never make it truly count and make it great.

So when opportunity comes knocking for you, how will you see it? -And more importantly, how will you be great in it?

Monday, September 26, 2011

Random Meetings, and Chance Encounters

Did you ever stop to think of how random it was that you met your Significant Other? Do you think it was simply a random meeting, or was it something part of a greater; a cause bigger than we could ever imagine?

I used to think that it was a marvellous co-incidence, yet I no longer think this way.

I have become of the belief system that there are no co-incidences, and that there are no random meetings. There are places and times that are all aligned to contribute to all of us if we are open to it.

If I think of some of the wonderful people in my life that I have met randomly, you would think I was crazy. How I met them, WHERE I met them, who they knew, and the chance encounter of why it happened were all too, well, I don't even know what word to use that would describe this.

How do you describe the sense of love that you get from someone who totally "gets" you, and is committed to being a friend, lover, spouse, or any other title you can think of. And how would your life be altered if you never met this person, or people who were such a large part of your life?

It's easy to say this about people who have been in your life for long periods of time, but how about people who were in your life for a moment or an instance, but had a profound effect on your life, only to disappear and never be seen or heard from again.

It's easy...

They were all there for a reason and a purpose, and it was all about having an impact on you.

How wonderful is it to think this way, as opposed to thinking that there is no purpose, only random meetings, and chance encounters by freak occurrences.

In fact, whenever I see someone come into my life and touch and move me to inspiration, I think that it can only be the universe opening up to me, and allowing me to be creative and create energy that will move and inspire others. Because without this feeling of fulfillment, life is meaningless. You can have all the money, power and resources in the world, but without a life of contribution where you can add your verse of being to life, it is all empty and meaningless.

And I for one, love the fact that there are no longer freak occurrences, and it serves me better. I love that I have come into other people's lives, just as they have come into my life, and it has always been absolutely perfect in every way.

And that in itself, is beautiful...

Thursday, September 22, 2011

The New Changes to Facebook

How do you feel about change?

I love the way this was put to me the other day..

The pessimist says, "change is bad!" The optimist says, "change is good!" The realist says, "change is a fact of life - deal with it!" And the existentialist says, "like everything else, change is utterly meaningless, until you decide what it means to you and what to do about it."

So where do you fall into this?

Yesterday, I was amazed about how many of the people on Facebook lashed out against the new changes. It seems that EVERY TIME Facebook changes something in our lives, we "hate" it. We then get used to it, and truly forget what Facebook was like just 6 months ago. I mean, who can REALLY remember how basic Facebook was when you first joined?


So when you see this above message, is this how you feel? I would say that if you feel this way about a free service such as Facebook, then there are most likely other areas in your life that you are resistant to change with, correct?

There is one thing I noticed about the people who used this new change of Facebook to lash out. These people who became so pissy that Facebook changed its look are the same people generally speaking, those who always have life occur for them as being "hard", a struggle, a battle, or some other sort of drama in their lives.

If you view life as hard, then inevitable changes are always going to bother you. And that pretty much means life in general, because life is always going to be changing. So, you can learn to expect change is always coming, or you can bitch about it when it comes. -Either way, change is the one constant thing in the equation that is always going to be there. How it occurs for us is the power that we give it.

Now those who look at Facebook's changes and adapt to it with an open mind, are more likely to be the people who have less battles in their lives, and things are not always overwhelming, chaotic, or struggling. They embrace the change, and it actually empowers them, and doesn't take energy from them.

See, it's all about creating energy in life. The things you do in life either create energy, or they zap it from you. You have a choice in every matter which creates or zaps your energy. It may be a little bit, or it may be a lot, but in each instance it happens.

If you were to look at the energy that you create as money, would you have a different respect for it? If I told you that every time you complained about something, it would take 5 dollars from you, and we would tally it up at the end of the day. -would you be emotionally bankrupt?

Now, if I GAVE you 5 dollars for every time you created energy, would you be wealthy at the end of the day? Now, money aside, there would be a MASSIVE difference in the way you occur to people in your life if you were creating energy, as opposed to zapping it.

If you were creating energy, people would be attracted to you, business would come your way, and life would just be better because everyone wants to surround themselves with positivity. But how would it occur to most people if you weren't this way, and you complained about how everything is hard? Generally speaking, people and business would avoid you like the plague.

Get my point? Either way, it's not going to change one little bit about how the world is in action. Complaining about Facebook isn't going to CHANGE it. But it certainly changes, and has an impact on you, and in other areas of your life that occur similarly.

So really, the choice is always yours. The question is, how are you going to add more positivity to your life, or add more challenges. Either way, you create your energy capacity with that choice.

So what do YOU choose?

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Hard Living People

Do you know what I mean when I say, "hard living" people?

They are the people you see on the street with dark circles under their eyes. Their faces are worn and weathered. Stress, cigarette smoking, drugs, booze, and abuse; they are all daily routines to these people who live in a world of numbing themselves so that they can get through the day intact.

As harsh as they are to look at, I imagine if you looked deeper into their souls, you would see a worse scenario. I imagine that you would see shattered confidence, trust, beliefs, and a broken will to succeed in life. All the dreams and aspirations they once had as young kids with a world of possibility has been replaced by what they perceive as their lot in life and their reality.

I look at these people and wonder where the point was in their lives where they gave up hope and what meaning that they took from something with such impact on their lives that they chose this way of being.

Because it really IS a choice. It's important to note that in every circumstance, we have a choice in the matter. That choice is always up to our perception, and how it impacts us is the meaning that we give it. If you change the meaning of it, you change the impact of it.

But still, there will be there people who will always wander around life in a haze of stories and perceptions of how rotten their life is, and who is to blame for it. However, whenever I see someone like this, I want to surround them with big embracing arms and offer them feelings of love and hope. Because maybe that way, they will have some love and hope where there is none to be found.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Sharing my Sunday morning with you...


It's a wonderful Sunday morning, and I wish to share this with you. There is a slight wind blowing that cools down my face when I close my eyes and point my nose towards the sun which is shining so brilliantly. I then close my eyes, and I listen to what my eyes could see without sight to guide my way.


My senses feel heightened, and I feel like I could fly into the wind and open my eyes to see me gliding around, looking at the world from above. I can see this in my head, and I dare not open my eyes for fear of breaking the moment that I am creating in my mind, which is convinced that this is very real.

I can see a field of gold standing on top of an elevated position over looking a valley of lush green, and a windy blue river which twists and turns and takes on the form of a non-venomness snake in shape, but not in colour. I feel like I am the creator of all of these things, and I am satisfied with its creation. The world occurs to me as if I have chosen to create this, and it perfect.

I open my eyes, to see that I am in my backyard and that everything is as it should be. I am where I should be at this exact moment and it's perfect.

Just as you are where you should be right now, and it is indeed perfect.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Completing Your Life -A User's Manual

In everything great, there is something that had to be taken away in order to make room for it's greatness.

If you look at life's greatest triumphs, and the greatness in your life, you will notice that everything was already in place yet you needed to take away something from the final product before it was great. They say when asked "How did you carve The David?", Michelangelo replied simply, "I just took away everything that wasn't David"

It makes sense...

In having coffee with a friend the other day, I just found that realization in the terms of my novel.

I took the entire summer off of letting my novel be edited. I hit brick wall after brick wall of trying to take away the portions of the story that didn't make the novel great. I had originally wrote over 1000 pages, and I had gotten the first draft down to about 450 pages. This was still too fat, and it really clouded the message of the novel.

In telling my friend what the premise of my novel was about, my friend summed it up in one sentence which has taken me no less than 5 minutes to tell before this. And the sentence that he gave me was this:

Completing your life -A user's manual.

Let me ask you; have you ever lost someone, and not been complete with them? What if you would've lost that person, and have found out that they had taken the time to write you a letter of completion or closure for you. They took the time while they were still alive to tell you how much you meant to them, how much they loved you and maybe clearing up something that would free you of guilt. So that in the event that something sudden were to happen, this letter would allow you to have closure with them for the rest of their life.

Sounds like a life insurance policy of the emotional type, doesn't it?

How much of a difference would it have made to you in your life if you would've had your loved one write you a letter telling you how much they loved and admired you before they died. You could keep that letter on every important day of your life, and share it with your deceased loved one. Wedding, birthday, anniversary, birth of a baby; you name it.

It sounds like something that everyone in life SHOULD do, right? -Yet we don't. Why is that? We work our asses off during our entire life to build and maintain relationships, create empires, legacies, only to lose them at the end of our lives because we didn't solidify them to those who mattered most to us. This leaves us incomplete with our loved ones for the rest of their lives.

Imagine if you will, if you did this. What do you think the chances were that because you did it, that they would do it after receiving it from you? They would repeat the entire process to their family and friends simply because it meant to much to them and they would want the same feeling for their family, and it would go on for generations.

What a marvellous gift!

So, now that you know what the premise of my book is about, who can't wait to read it?

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Playing The Philadelphia Flyers Alumni


When I was growing up as a kid in Northern Virginia during the mid 70's there was only one hockey team that mattered. It was the Philadelphia Flyers. Sure there were other great teams like the Boston Bruins with Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito, or the Montreal Canadiens with Ken Dryden, Guy LaFleur, and all the rest of their greats, but somehow they just never measured up to the Broad Street Bullies in their prime.



Guys like Bobby Clarke, who was a multiple league MVP and was the dirtiest, hard working leader a team ever knew. A goalie named Bernie Parent who was French Canadian and sounded like it, standing on his head in those old fiberglass face masks that inspired the entire city of Philadelphia to say things like "Only Jesus saves more than Bernie." Reggie Leach who was the snipers of snipers, along side of Big Menacing enforcers like Dave "The Hammer" Schultz, and Bob "Hound Dog" Kelly who would literally pound the hell out of the opposition into submission. Yeah, those were the days...



Well, those days come around full circle for me tomorrow night.

The Broad Street Bullies will be coming up from Philly and I get to have my boyhood dream of playing against them tomorrow night at 7pm.

The likes of Reggie Leach, Bob "Hound Dog" Kelly, Brian Propp, and many others are playing at The Nottawasaga Inn in Alliston, Ont. at 7pm vs. Team Scotiabank and I am the starting goalie!!

On my team, I boast Former Toronto Maple Leafs like Bill Derlago, Jack Valiquette, Wes Jarvis, Big bad Bob McGill, Former Washington Capital defenceman Bryan Muir, and former first round pick Darrin Shannon. It should be a blast!

Tickets are 30 bucks for adults and 15 bucks for students. I would love the support for this game. If you can make it up there, you will notice me with the biggest head imaginable (even minus the curly hair)

This is going to be one of the greatest nights of my life...

Stay tuned for the post game analysis...

Me and Flyers legend Brian Propp

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Losing a Friend in Chris Durham

There are certain phone calls that you remember.

The phone rings, and the voice on the other side isn't the way the voice on the other side should be, and you know something is wrong. You brace yourself because you know bad news is coming, and you almost want to put it off so that you don't have to know in the moment.

Then the bomb drops.

Your world will never ever be the same ever again. Losing a friend is something that devastates you, and it really puts the entire world on hold, and makes you examine what really matters in life. Suddenly, all the things that once were huge obstacles no longer seem to matter compared to something like this. For the next few days your life comes to a crawling halt, and you are caught in a surreal world that usually happens to other people, and not you.

The pain feels like you are getting kicked in the stomach just about every 5 minutes. As soon as your memory gives you grace to forget this pain, it is replaced with another thought and the process is never ending. The thoughts come to you in a whirlwind of memories; it is like a movie of your own creation. All the while, you keep asking yourself, "Is this really happening?"

Yes, and it's very real.

It was 4 years ago that we lost our friend and team mate Chris Durham. I remember getting that phone call, where I was when I got it, who was with me and how I reacted, like it was yesterday. It was a tragic loss. It had a profound effect on everyone who knew him. He was a High School Teacher, and he was one of the cool ones. He always had great stories of inspiration from his students that he would share in the dressing room. I really got from these stories that Chris really cared. He was the cool teacher that really gave a shit. I mean, you could see that by the way he played with his daughters, and the way he was. Chris was a way of being, and I never really saw that from where I sat on the other side of the dressing room. I was a single guy without children, and a world away from Chris's life.

4 years later, I get it.

So here's to you #16. We all miss you, and think of you often. We loved you, and we love your memory. Thank you for your friendship, and the love that you passed on to all of us. But I wanted to share this with you from your place of being to mine, and know that you were, and are, loved....