Inspiration Into Action

For anyone who had presented in front a small group at work or to larger crowds at  conference you know the surreal feeling it can sometimes be. Once when presenting to a room of 1000 people I believed I was about to crumble, my blood was pumping..... when the lights came up, I performed... it was pure pressure but also pure excitement...

Now imagine if you will, you were Barack Obama yesterday... stepping up in front of almost 2 million people who are there for one single purpose. To be inspired by the moment, to bask in the historical moment and look for a reason to push forward through these difficult times.

That is a load of pressure on one individual! 

As a man with four children and a wife, there is a great deal of personal pressure to protect and provide for my family...multiply that by one trillion and we are probably close to Obama's level. 

The weight of an entire nation rests on his shoulders. They have waited for years for a leader to emerge... someone who can fix what ails the country.

I believe he IS that person to inspire people to reach higher, to dream bigger..... Nothing is for certain but I will be watching to see how the USA responds to his leadership and if he can put words into actions.

Yesterday was a great day for the dreamers of the world...let us hope the future is as well.

An Engaging Issue

The snow is falling this morning, big fluffy flakes, sure to make the morning commute hell for those who are rushing in to work. I on the other hand have the luxury of a flexible schedule, which removes some of the daily stress those of us with families feel every morning. Some days I feel like an FBI negotiator, trying to get my youngest daughter dressed for school or to brush her teeth...comb her unruly mop. The baby of the family at 18 months is most agreeable...I give it six months and then plan on booking a trip to the doctor for some sort of meds to get through the day.

I was writing the date out for a school trip permission form today and suddenly became painfully aware that it was both my sister and father-in-laws birthday. 

Am I a terrible person for not remembering yesterday? 

...What if I did not look at the date today...would I have remembered? 

.....How does this happen? 

.......How do we coast through our life and not pay more attention to the people who matter?

I believe we focus so much on our personal tasks that we let all the other details fall away. We have become such a busy society, scheduling our days so tightly with events, work and household chores, our focus is really just making through the day in one piece. 

It is the same issue with meeting new people... there are interesting people all over the place who we would love to spend time with and get to know better. However, we cannot simply fit them into our current timetable. We require time for work, kids, spouse, family activities, longtime friends... what is left over?

Instead we collect friends on social networking sites like Facebook and spend our time viewing their lives like a television documentary. "Oh, look...what a lovely time Stephen and his wife seemed to have on their trip to Florida"...it is fast food friendship! As a substitute to being engaged with our friends we simply catch up on their lives via an online portal. How do I know this? I am guilty of the same thing! 

It seems I become more reflective at the start of every year since January 3 would have been my Mothers 66 birthday. She passed away at the ripe old age of 38....which at the time I thought was pretty old. I am currently 45 and every year that passes I think how terrible it must have been for her knowing that she was a young woman and how somehow it wasn't fair to be leaving her life so soon.

My mother was always the person who kept the family together, she was simply put, the "glue".

She would schedule the time for us to get together with cousins, Aunts and Uncles....she kept us together as a unit. As a kid I wasn't always up for a 5 hour drive to Ottawa in the back of my parents 1969 Ford Mustang. In retrospect, It is a quality I most admire about my Mother, so I wonder why I am not more like her... or did I simply become dis-engaged when she left my life? Don't get me wrong I care deeply for all the people in my life, spouse, kids, friends and business associates...I just find it difficult to orchestrate the time to be as engaged fully with everyone all the time. Maybe I am expecting too much of myself.... time will tell.

In any event, I doubt people will be lying on their death bed in the next few years saying "God, I wish I had just checked their Facebook status more"

First Post Pressure

So I finally succumb to the pressure and begin to live my life..or at least my thoughts in front of the blogsphere.

It seems pressure packed....do I need to be witty, do I need people to become fans of my musings or just I just NEED a cathartic output to avoid paying $200 an hour for therapy. Possibly all of the above! We all have egos, we all like to be stroked. To that point, I read a short article today on a celebrity who had the honesty to say " I actually like getting recognized, I spent my entire life trying to be the center of attention. Who wouldn't want to go around all day getting compliments. It makes you feel great!"

I hope I get compliments *GRIN* But really, it will just feel good to get sh*t off my chest from time to time.

So take a deep breath...here we go....3..2...1..Launch