Posts Tagged ‘greatness’

When Did You Last Plan Your Future?

Posted: December 16, 2013 in Friends, Fun, Success
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Last Saturday night I had blast with my friends by organizing a dream session. This is where a bunch of people get together and brainstorm and share what they want there future to look like. As I discuss on my top 100 goals and dreams page, this is super important if you want to achieve greatness. As many leaders have said, if you don’t set goals, you’ll hit them with amazing accuracy!

What was great about this group of friends is how on a Saturday night, when most people are out at bars, watching the hockey game, or some other activity that will give them pleasure for the moment, this group was working on their future and what will give them pleasure for a lifetime. This is one of those things that makes you stand out from the crowd and be above average.

It was actually even more fun than when I used to go to bars and watch hockey games. Don’t get me wrong, I still love my Bruins; but when they won the cup 2 years ago, even though it was fun being in Montreal as a Boston fan, it didn’t do anything for my future. It goes without saying that this future includes being able to go to every Stanley Cup final game, and Olympic Hockey medal round game.

What we did instead was plan our future. Most people spend more time planning their 2 week vacation than they do planning their life time. (more…)

A War on Mediocrity

Posted: November 27, 2012 in Economics, Leadership, Success
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In North America today, we are getting too comfortable with just getting by. We have been settling for ‘good’ instead trying to be ‘great’, and this in turn has led us to redefine what it means to be good, and we often no longer understand what ‘great’ is.

So many individuals have settled for good that these people are often considered to be leading great lives. I find this to be especially true in today’s economy with so many people struggling just to get by.

What is causing all this? Why are so few people not trying to succeed anymore?

I think the primary culprits are the media, our schooling system, and our government (which runs our schooling system and influences the media).

There is a war going on. A media war which we will call a war on mediocrity; a term I first heard from leadership expert Orrin Woodward.

How our schooling system helps promote mediocrity

I read an article on a story about a teacher who lost his job because he wouldn’t grade students according the school policy. The teacher gave a failing grade for students who failed to do their assignments, while the school had a policy of giving only an ‘incomplete’ for work not done. I’m happy to say the teacher had the character to stand up for what’s right, and told the review board that if he was given his job back he would continue to give zeros to students who didn’t do any work. He has since  been hired at a private school, showing that having character can pay off in the end.

We are so afraid of telling our kids where they are at, so afraid of hurting their feelings, that many of them become wimps. They don’t have the pressure of losing and don’t learn that to succeed in life it will take work. If they learn early on that they can’t fail when they don’t put in the work, then they will take this with them throughout their life.

We are also teaching our kids to not keep score, that we should not be trying to win. As I explain here, By not teaching our children to strive for greatness, to be the best they can be, we promote mediocrity as the ideal. (more…)