Monday, February 27, 2012

Hosting My Own Radio Show

When I was in my early 20's, I won a competition at a bar at an event hosted by AM 640's Jesse and Gene. They were really crazy DJ's in Toronto, and they invited me to their morning radio show studio as their "Dork of the Day"

I had one of the greatest days of my life, and all my friends got to hear me on that morning radio show. Somewhere in my basement, there is a cassette tape of that morning show in a box with other products that no longer exist from the 1990's...

That was literally half my lifetime ago, and I never thought I would be on the radio again. -Until today.

20 years later, I will host my own radio show tonight at 8pm EST on Radio That Doesn't Suck.-http://www.rtds.ca/

Chuck's World of Infinite Mojo goes on radio airwaves tonight with special guest star Olympic Gold Medalist, Mike Eruzione. Mike is best known for scoring the winning goal against the Soviet Union in what has become known as "The Miracle on Ice" game in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid


#21 Mike Eruzione scoring the winning goal


The Miracle on Ice has been called the Biggest Upset in the History of Sports by Sports Illustrated. This goal inspired a new generation of American hockey players that includes Jeremy Roenick, Mike Modano, Chris Chelios, Doug Weight and many others to prominent NHL careers.

This is a story of how David slew Goliath, and how a simple hockey game became the inspiration of an entire nation at a low point in National morale, and showed us all what the human spirit is capable of when you believe in possibilities.



Join me for Chuck's World of Infinite Mojo tonight on http://www.rtds.ca/ at 8pm EST with Mike Eruzione

Friday, February 24, 2012

Is Your Life "Hard"?

How do you see life occurring for you?

Does life always seem difficult? Are you always saying that "life is hard!"?

One thing that I have found is that life isn't hard. It is what it is, and I have found that I have added the "Hard" part. And then from there, it always seemed Hard. Makes sense, right?

Well, what if you took that thought out of the equation? What if you Jedi-mind tricked yourself to think that life was actually easy with an element of ease and flow to it? I think you would see that over time, this would be how life occurs for you, instead of it being hard.

The point is, that language dictates how we see things. If we alter our language, then our perception changes accordingly.

I've noticed that in my life, where ever there has been a difficulty, it's because I've had a cause in it. Sure, I can't control the circumstances in what happens to me, but I can ALWAYS control how I react to them. So in that regard, I always have a say in everything that happens to me.  If I want to remove the element of "Hard", then I can absolutely do so.

In doing so, I can alter how things are manageable for me at any given moment. What I have found is that in the really challenging areas, I view them as an opportunity to really exercises the muscle of discipline and see what I'm made of. So in every opportunity I can grow as a person, and be the person I'm committed to being.

Are there areas of my life that are "Hard"? The answer is no. I've realized that nothing is hard, and yet there are still challenging areas in my life that need work. But it's never hard.

It may be a small area of adjustment, yet making that word disappear from my mind has given me so much more energy and hope that life really is exactly what we think it is. So if you want a hard life, you are welcomed to it. For me, I will always choose that life is always going to be playing out perfectly for where I can't see ahead of me, and trust that it will always work out for the best. Giving up control of what I THINK my life should be, has been one of the greatest releases of stress in my life, and this just makes everything easier. And with the attitude that life is manageable, I operate at a much higher state of competence in it because I am at ease.

Because think of it, do you do better work stressed out, or when you are in a great mood?

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Remembering "The Kid", Gary Carter


Growing up as a kid in Manitoba, I had many hero's I looked up to. There were many people I loved to watch, yet there were only 2 people that I wanted to be like. In the summer of 1980, those 2 people were Terry Fox, and Gary Carter. Terry Fox died in 1981, and it is a sad day for me to know that after a battle with brain cancer, my other idol growing up, Gary Carter is now gone too.

I've written many blogs about Terry Fox, and I've never written one about Gary Carter until today. And after his passing this week, I thought I would write what I remember about loving to watch Gary Carter.

As a kid, you look up to your idols for various reasons. I looked up to Gary Carter for nothing that was spectacularly unique, but maybe that was the reason why I looked up to him. He was the reason why I wanted to be a catcher in baseball. When I started to play catcher, I watched his crouch and how he held his catcher's mitt almost perfect upright, unlike every other catcher I had seen play. I emulated his batting stance, and copied just about everything I could about him.

Carter always seemed to have that smile on his face which made his charisma infectious to everyone who followed him. He was born in California, yet to me, he was from Montreal. I was shocked to find out that he wasn't a Canadian, which devastated me when I heard it. Gary Carter was about the perfect role model and athlete I could've found. I was always #8 for The Montreal Expos. When he was traded from The Expos in the mid 8's I stopped following The Montreal Expos altogether out of a sort of protest.



My most favourite Gary Carter moment had to be in the All Star Game in the summer of 1981. My aunt and uncle had come to Manitoba to visit our family from Toronto, and they brought their first born daughter, my cousin Julie with them. They went out to the movies that night, and our babysitter was watching us and the summer classic together. My cousin Julie was not quite a year old at the time, and she cried all night long as I tried to not be distracted from watching Gary Carter hit 2 home runs in the game and be named the All-Star game MVP.

When Carter retired and then got inducted into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, I was overjoyed that he ended up wearing an Expos hat, even though he won his World Series Championship with the New York Mets.

Gary Carter, if I had to say one thing to you, it would be this: Thank you for being a kid at heart and being my inspiration. You made it fun to be a kid, and I wanted to be like you because of it. I know that many people thought this way about you, yet I really wanted to thank you for inspiring this boy in particular. You were really amazing to watch in every thing that you did.



Rest in Peace my friend...

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Whitney Houston's Passing

I've waited a few days to say anything about Whitney Houston's death. Death is always such a harsh reality to deal with, and in the moment, people say things that they sometimes don't mean. I wanted to avoid that here.

Obviously, I didn't know Whitney Houston. To say that I knew of her is to mean that I had heard her songs, saw a movie or two with her in it, and saw her life dragged in the newspapers and media, about her drug use and her tormented relationship with Bobby Brown.

And just like we do when someone famous dies like this, we wonder how it could happen to someone so famous, so rich, and with every advantage to think of in life.

Money doesn't buy you happiness, yet it can buy you choices. However, if those choices are poor ones, then money can't really help you. There is a saying that I think all wealthy people should take a course in before amassing their wealth and that is...

"To much given, much is expected"

Celebrities who think that they are "just" an athlete, or "just" a singer or actor, or that what they do for a living isn't being in the public eye, think again. If much is given to you, then much will always be expected in return. -Regardless of what you THINK should happen.

In this case, Whitney Houston made poor choices. She surrounded herself with people that she chose. And choose them, she did. For whatever reasons, she made these choices, and this is the cost of those. Artists like Michael Jackson and Amy Winehouse who have recently passed away due to horrific choices in their lives, and now we add yet another example of that in Whitney Houston.

I would hope that people can understand that money does not mean that everything is better. In fact, in many ways when it is abused, money makes things worse. All the money and fame in the world can still be useless when it comes to being human in it's simplest forms.

And I would think that Whitney Houston was no different in that area.

Just because we are talented in one area that brings us fame, fortune and power doesn't mean that we maintain balance for being a human being. When that balance is gone, our lives become unworkable and often we feel that it is unmanageable. Tiger Woods is a great example of this, and there are countless more like him.

Perception is the common denominator that leads us to what we think is truly real in our own world. Yet, if we were to alter that perception with another one, you would see a completely new reality. 5 people who see the exact same car accident have 5 different views of what they saw, creating 5 different realities, right?

Wrong.

There is no "reality" as we think there is. There is only what is so, and then there is the story that we attach to it.

I think Whitney's reality became completely unmanagable to her, which caused her to make really poor decisions, and ultimately, it took her life at a really young age. We all look at this as being a tragedy when someone talented and famous dies, yet all that is certain is that is it what it is. It's up to us to see this in our own lives, or simply look away and think it was a tragedy that shouldn't have happened...

At any rate, whatever you choose, that will become your reality.

Friday, February 10, 2012

The Imperfection That Makes You Beautiful


Last night I was driving home and I looked to the sky, and it wasn't quite a full moon. It was missing a sliver to be complete, yet I was amazed at how perfect it looked despite it's imperfection.

Then I thought, maybe that's the perfect metaphor for us as people...

We may never get complete in this life, yet we still look beautiful despite it...