Jack The Giant

Motivational Quote Of The Day: Sean Stephenson

2012-02-17T08:19:00.000-08:00

Sean Stephenson is a world renowned speaker born with a rare bone defect that made is bones easy to break as they are always really soft. He uses a wheelchair, but he makes big money speaking, rubs shoulders with world leaders and celebs. and dates attractive women. He also has six pack abs most dudes would kill for! (I only know that because he showed them off in a demo video of his).

His quote is all about focusing on doing your personal best:

“Anytime you're trying to prove yourself to someone, it’s a form of arrogance. When you’re trying to improve yourself, it’s a form of confidence.” -- Sean Stephenson

Motivational Quote Of The Day: Eban Pagan

2012-02-12T16:16:00.000-08:00

"The most powerful person in the room is the one who stays the calmest."

Eban Pagan is one of the top internet marketers in the world today. He's most known for a book he wrote called "Double Your Dating" when he was jobless and felt short on his options in life. The book and his drive made him millions and changed his life. I'd say that's pretty calm and powerful stuff huh?!

Motivational Quote Of The Day: The Alchemist

2012-01-15T11:39:00.000-08:00

Today's quote talks about believing in yourself when no one else does, from the book The Alchemist, my favorite book EVER!

"When you possess great treasures within you, and try to tell others, seldom are you believed."

Believing in yourself and your ideas can be difficult when you feel like no one else does. Stay true to who you are and stick to your guns. Your own thoughts and ideas are often worth more than you give them credit for.

JTG

Quote Of The Day: Mike "Pinball" Clemons & Many Others

2012-01-12T09:15:00.000-08:00

Alright so today's quote was not necessarily first spoken by Grey Cup champion coach "Pinball" Clemons but I don't really know who 'invented' it, so here it is..

"You hear...you forget, You See..you remember, You Do...you understand."

Sure it's cool to hear something, and it's ok to analyze the mistakes and actions of others, but the best thing you can do is learn from experience, get out there and be somebody!

Quote Of The Day: Jay-z

2012-01-11T07:24:00.000-08:00

Alright so I'm posting two quotes from rappers in a row, what can I say I love the genre:

"I'd rather die enormous then live dormant" - Jay-z

You can live a long life if you always take the safe route and you'll avoid failing or getting hurt if you don't take chances, but wouldn't you rather live large then look back and think about all the things you didn't do?

Quote Of The Day: Notorious BIG

2012-01-03T07:18:00.000-08:00

"Life is short, then you're on life support".

I know you probably wouldn't expect an inspiring quote to come from a gangster rapper but hey it's really true, why wait to achieve something, before you know it you'll be looking back telling the next generation that life is short.

Quote Of The Day: Sprinter Michael Johnson

2011-11-01T18:24:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the new quote of the day section of my blog. This lil' section is meant to be your source of short and sweet inspiration for the day. So without any further delay, today's quote comes from world class sprinter Michael Johnson:

“Life is often compared to a marathon, but I think it is more like being a sprinter; long stretches of hard work punctuated by brief moments in which we are given the opportunity to perform at our best”.

Cheers.

How To Deal With Death

2011-09-29T16:05:00.000-07:00

Alright so here goes nothing… the topic that most people try to avoid or talk the least about … passing on.

Yes I know it’s a depressing topic and I had never really been touched by it until about a month ago, when I attended my first 2 funerals. One for a young lady that was a friend back in elementary school and then 3 weeks later for my very own father, who passed away at the age of 53.

I decided after funeral #1 that I didn’t want to go to another one for a very long time, it’s definitely a difficult experience even if you try to look at it as the celebration of someone’s life. Common emotions when you grieve usually include sadness, regret, anger and happiness (I’ll explain the happiness part in a second).

Sadness that you’ll never see your loved one in the flesh again is the most common, it’s tough not to cry like a baby when God reminds you that your time is limited and that all things come to an end. It’s ok to cry and you definitely should, it shows that you care.

Anger and regret are also very common feelings because we all struggle to understand why people get taken away from this earth, espescially if their passing is sudden. Then of course there is also the regret that comes from not spending enough time together or arguments that hurt one another or never really got settled to the point where you could barry the hatchet and be at peace with things.

The truth is no matter which emotion you feel, they are all acceptable forms of behaviour in grieving. But what I heard ironically just before going through these difficult times is that statistically speaking after three months, the affects of losing someone fade enough to the point where your day to day happiness is no longer affect by someone’s death.

That’s not to say you’d never reflect back on things and feel sadness again, but it does mean that you will carry on with life….eventually.

JTG

Just an update heading towards the new year...

2010-12-27T10:48:00.000-08:00

At The Mall...Again...I Don't Even Like The Mall

2010-11-28T21:53:00.000-08:00

ust more and more talking right now but today was inspiring!

2010-11-24T21:45:00.001-08:00

Jack on the bus going round and round!

2010-11-24T06:09:00.000-08:00

A Weekend of Fun & Games

2010-11-21T19:36:00.000-08:00

Friends Ruin My Sports Watching..and Other Stuff!

2010-11-18T22:13:00.000-08:00

Ok so now I'm asking you to unsubcribe

2010-11-16T20:26:00.000-08:00

A Butter Sandwich & A Taxi Cab Driver..pretty usual day to me!

2010-11-15T22:14:00.001-08:00

A Lazy Post On A Lazy Sunday...On That Note Please Come Back!

2010-11-14T17:58:00.000-08:00

I'm Just Trying To Maintain!

2010-11-14T17:56:00.000-08:00

Old Friends and Old Tripods!!!

2010-11-14T17:53:00.000-08:00

A Day Trip To The Doctor For Jacky!

2010-11-14T17:49:00.000-08:00

Food For Thought: It's All About Prioritizing...Again!

2010-10-13T08:39:00.001-07:00

FFT: Dealing With Fears You Know Are Ridiculous Can Really Hold You Back Sometimes

2010-08-24T22:22:00.000-07:00

Do you remember a time when you were afraid of the dark or monsters in your closet? Or when that scary movie kept you restless at night for days?! I sure as hell do! Personally I always had a weak mind for horror movies of any kind, still don’t watch them, and I don’t really make an effort to face that fear because I don’t find blood and guts entertaining anyway.
But what about when your fears stop you from taking an elevator, driving a car, talking to people or just generally living the life you want to live?
Well the truth is most of us find a way around our fears if we can and then if we realize that’s not practical we seek help or let the fear drive us up the wall until we finally reach our point of maximum frustration and then seek help!
The truth is the reason why you have your fear is not nearly as important as what you need to do to get around it. One great example is a woman I met on the bus today, she started crying and breathing rapidly on the bus because she has a fear of going fast on the freeway. I was timid in talking to her because she was a stranger, but when getting off the bus I noticed she calmed a bit so I told her I can help her out with some visualization techniques and motivational theory.
She gladly gave me her contact information and mentioned she was in an accident and that causes her a great deal of anxiety when in a vehicle. The only reason she’s really afraid is because she focuses on the worst possible outcome of driving, a horrible accident from her past.
I plan to help her with her fear because I could tell just by looking at her how unhappy she was, and that she probably really wants to get past her fear and put memories of her accident to rest.

I myself am self conscious about the spastic movements of my body, particularly jumping at sudden or loud noises, or in really nervous situations. It’s stopped me from dating women and makes me socially reclusive. Those feelings will never change, but the point is you need to realize that what you really fear in any situation is the potential RESULT and not the activity itself. If you focus on a positive RESULT and associate that with the activity you’ll be less likely to be afraid.

Don’t get me wrong, the steps a pro therapist or Hypnosis master would take to help someone with a phobia are much more detailed but the basic intention is to change your focus. So when you find yourself scared, focus on what you DO WANT instead of what you don’t.

FFT: Ever Been Jealous of Someone Else’s Success?

2010-08-18T21:21:00.000-07:00

I think we all have, or at least I definitely have. So much so that I don’t know where to begin. Generally speaking, I’m jealous of athletes who are really good at their particular sport, friends who have a hot yet loyal girlfriend, those who were popular in school and those that continue to be popular in my current peer groups (though that’s not as important anymore), people who went to the same college I did for a similar program and ended up with a better entry level job than I did, people who don’t have a diagnosed disability, people who look better than I do, people who are really good with web design and creative technology, those who are artists, musicians, intellectuals, those with a strong spiritual or religious faith, people who get to talk sports for a living …and the list goes on and on.

When I really take the time to sit and think about it, I’m jealous of most people I interact with for one reason or another, and I spend a lot of time looking at what others have that I do not possess. But deep down inside I know the cold hard truth of it is that if we spend our whole lives pursuing what we do not have, we lose an appreciation for what we do have. It’s so much easier to count your downfalls and regrets than it is to count your successes. In fact, I heard about a story once of a guy who researched the thoughts and feelings of the elderly, people who have already lived most of their lives.

What this researcher found was that if you ask someone in their latter years of life to tell you about their experiences, most people will tell you about the things they regret and the things they did not get to experience. Since I heard this story, I’ve been a lot harder on myself for shying away from opportunities (especially romantic involvement with the opposite sex… I have this crazy idea in my head that if things don’t change for me soon, I will blink and be 40 years old, still living with my mom and still be minus a girlfriend or wife, or any semblance of my own personal love/sex life, and thinking about that kind of future gets me pretty down sometimes.

And yet still there are other times, when I see an interesting documentary relating to the hardships (or meet someone who at least in my mind’s eye looks like they live a difficult life) of a person in a rough situation that seems way more insurmountable than mine (IE people with severe disabilities, or young kids in third world countries etc…), I’m reminded of how lucky I am.

I guess what I need to do is imprint in my brain how lucky I am, by seeing witnessing won’t others DON’T have that I do. Now sure, knowing that I don’t have cancer and there’s a six year old child somewhere who will die from it doesn’t make me feel great because I don’t like to take joy in the pain of others. But all in all no one owes me success, health, love or friendship.

The only real guarantee in life is that it won’t last forever I guess, but that fact alone should encourage you to take a chance on yourself and believe in your dreams.

JTG

FFT: Finding Your Way Means Staying True To Who You Already Are

2010-08-16T20:33:00.000-07:00

It’s funny how sometimes we get what we want and then we don’t want it anymore. When it comes to the working world and my career, I must have some kind of world record in that department. The only thing I want to do in my life is be involved in sports, but if you look at my resume, you’d see experience in so many different fields and roles, you can tell I have no clear vision for things, as much as starting this blog was meant to present myself as if I really do have a well defined purpose set up for myself.

So I’ve finally made up my mind that if all I am going to do in my life is talk and write about sports, that is what I should be doing right now. So I’m going to work my way towards my inevitable departure from the bank by trying to squeeze in a second “full time job” as a sports guru of some sort. If that doesn’t work I may just quit my current job altogether and live of government assistance like I did before I landed my current banking position. The funny thing is I’m expecting to be happier going back to my old life.

Half a year into my job here at the bank and I can’t help but think about the 9 months I spent unemployed as a great opportunity to build my sports career that I instead wasted looking for a regular person job. Oh the trials and triumphs of one Jack Choros... You know for a motivational coach wannabe, I sure do have a way with changing my mind, procrastinating and feeling helpless sometimes, and then telling myself the old me is dead, only to repeat the entire cycle weeks later!

I don’t always know where I want to be, but I know I don’t want to be where I am right now. I guess in psychology they would call me someone who is “away from” motivated (look up away from motivation). At least I’m good at something!

Who cares what other people want me to do, life is a much more powerful experience when you feel like you get to be the architect.

Jack The Giant.

Goal#2: Write A Book; My Priorities May Be Changing...AGAIN!

2010-08-03T09:21:00.000-07:00

FFT: Success Means Proving Yourself 10X Over

2010-06-27T13:46:00.000-07:00

This beautiful Sunday afternoon I’m in Oshawa, Ontario visiting my best buddy and having a good time. Driving here with my friend we realized that the G20 summit being in town meant a long ride home. A lot of the major exits from Mississauga to downtown Toronto were blocked for VIPs attending the summit.

At many points along the ride, my friend and I saw multiple vehicles with police escorts zipping ahead on clear roads, and I caught myself day dreaming of a time when traffic will stop for my future VIP police escort. How nice it is to dream.
As much as I want to be a VIP one day for one reason or another, I sometimes wonder if I can be self- motivated enough.

The fact of the matter is that most people need someone supervising them over there shoulder in order to accomplish their goals. That’s why the majority of people get stuck in jobs they don’t really want, or often find that what they are doing is not in line with their values and beliefs.

But when you think about it, being an entrepreneur is really just a mentality, and the most successful people in the world, whether they work for themselves or someone else, are really good at taking ownership for their career decisions, and the day to day decisions related to their career.

I’ve had this idea in my head lately that I have to be an entrepreneur in order to be regarded as a success, the truth though is that success is about work ethic sprinkled with a bit of luck and that’s all!

You don’t necessarily have to create an organization from scratch to be the CEO one day, but the key is that you have to care for your work as if it is your own business, even if you can’t always see the connection between what your managers, supervisors and shareholders ask you to do and the greater goals of the organization you work for as a whole.

A good rule of thumb if you want to be successful in an organization is to add 10 times the value to the organization than they give to you. So if you make $45,000, ask yourself how can what I do daily make my organization $450,000. Obviously you won’t always quantify value in numbers but trying to prove your worth 10 times over will show your willingness to go the extra mile and make you a success.

Goal #2: Get Good At Speaking; A Day In The Life...

2010-06-23T18:19:00.000-07:00

This is a little "Day In The Life Video I put together for my speech at Mackenzie Smith Bennett Public School today in Acton. Thanks so much to the staff and students for giving me my first real speaking engagement. I appreciate you letting me learn and grow, and share my ideas.

Goal #2: Get Good At Speaking

2010-06-18T20:12:00.000-07:00

A good friend of mine made a good suggestion to me last night. He said I should pick something I want to do and just do it for 5-30 minutes a day (pick a specific number of minutes somewhere between there) a day for 2 weeks, and just focus on consistency as opposed to time!

So I'm going to take his advice and start writing my first book, the question is what should I write about?! Check out the video and get back to me with your pick.

JTG

Food For Thought: The Coolest Way To Get A Job Ever..For $6

2010-06-17T13:15:00.000-07:00

This is by far the most awesome idea ever! I think it's so awesome that one day I am going to copy it for people I want to contact me! Modeling the success of others will take you to the promise land my friends!

Goal #1: Mission Accomplished: What's Next?!?

2010-04-26T09:52:00.000-07:00

Ok so here we are just over a week after climbing the CN Tower, and what a wild ride it has turned out to be! I started thinking about this goal almost a year ago and started training and raising money about a month ago. In a flash the climb is now done, with close to $2,500 dollars being raised for the WWF, some media contacts made, and a new Directorship position with the Cerebral Palsy Support Foundation of Canada upcoming, I've gotten more out of Goal #1 than I thought I would, with some speaking opportunities actually COMING TO ME! The question is, what's next?!

Well if you look at my list of goals in the About JTG section of this blog, you'll notice that my goals are numbered but really in no particular order (since the environment around me will change as I accomplish goals, there's no way of knowing the particular order of events that will happen in advance).

For example, the fact that two schools in Ontario have invited me to come in and speak to their students about courage and accessibility respectively, and that a day care in Petereborough is sending me pictures of me, as drawn by their students, I've now made goals 2 and 3 to speak, and write a children's book with my sister as the artist!

Goal #4 is to help the Cerebral Palsy Support Foundation raise $1 million to support their XC4 Mobility Challenge in August!

Not to mention mother's day is coming and I need to find a photographer to make my sweet mom a portfolio for modeling. Anyone know someone who can do it for free 99?

Goal #1: CN Tower Climb: The Finale

2010-04-25T07:54:00.000-07:00

Finally! Over a week later I've managed to edit exclusive footage from inside the tower...

not to mention we had an ipod and video camera which weren't exactly supposed to be allowed! I guess that's what makes it exclusive;)

Goal #1: CN Tower Climb: 4 Days Left

2010-04-13T08:38:00.000-07:00

Goal #1: CN Tower Climb Days 12 and 13

2010-04-05T22:14:00.000-07:00

Here we are on my off day at almost 1am as I tell you about the last 48 hours, what a whirlwind it has been. CTV (also known as CFTO) came over to my house Saturday morning to do a story on me and help raise money for my climb. Little did I know that as many as half a million people watch the Saturday evening newscast! The funny part about shooting the whole story is that my mom saw the van before hand and tried to avoid being interviewed by circling the block in her car three or four times…ohhhh mama.

Several awesome things have happened since the story aired on Saturday:

1. Everyone who has seen the interview is telling me how hot my mom is (she says thank you).
2. As of the time this entry is being written, funds raised have gone from about $190 to over $1,000 for the World Wild Life Fund.
3. I was on my way to the Raptors game with my friend Tadd when a group of middle aged Chinese women speaking little to no English, pointed at me exclaiming “CN Tower, CN Tower!...”Good Luck, Good Luck”, A highlight of the night candidate for sure.

And so here we are almost 2 full weeks worth of training days into my CN tower mission and I have officially doubled the quantity of stairs climbed from the original 500 I started with (1,056 steps to be exact). Admittedly I’m reaching the point now where climbing more and more steps is taking me progressively longer, but hey, it was expected. It took me an hour and twenty minutes to complete the session, although I did slack a bit also, just because the name of the game is endurance now as opposed to a speed contest. Day 13 consisted of a much lighter 30 minute bike workout, due to Easter dinner and a night at the basketball game. Definitely felt sore too considering it was a unscheduled 3 days in a row of training. All in all things are good and I still believe I’m well on my way to proving my sponsors right and hitting my fundraising target!

Keep the faith friends, persistence pays;)

JTG

In The News...

2010-04-03T12:54:00.000-07:00

Rogers TV Mississauga: DayTime
March 31st, 2010

CTV News
April 3rd, 2010

Toronto Sun
April 7th, 2010

CTV News: Post- CN Tower Climb
April 17th, 2010

About JTG: The Person

2010-04-03T12:34:00.000-07:00

I am 24 years old and was born with cerebral palsy. My parents moved to Canada from Poland and settled in Southern Ontario over 25 years ago. Growing up I struggled to related to people and tended to keep to myself a lot while going through a handful of physical and social challenges along the way.

Throughout my life I’ve realized that in all the time I’ve spent watching notable figures live out their success on television (be it athletes, entertainers, politicians or the like), and all the stories I’ve heard about finding cures for disabilities, making the world more accessible and making the workforce more diverse, I couldn’t help but wonder , what if their are people out there like me who don’t go to bed at night waiting for a cure, and who don’t want to wait for the ignorance or doubt of others to subside so that they can live the life they want? ...This blog is my way of saying life is too short and I’m not going to wait anymore.

As it stands today, I'd like to develop a career in motivation and life coaching, specifically assisting professional athletes as well as people with disabilities in reaching their fullest potential. My other interests include sports, media, and hip hop music, and I’d like to find a creative way to incorporate those things into my career, or my life in general. I view myself as being the type of person that want bigger and brighter things, but I’ve never wanted to limit myself to just one dream or goal in particular. To say the least this mindset has allowed me to learn a little bit about a lot of things, and also left me spreading myself a bit too thin often times.

Like most people I have my role models, and have always admired and studied those that have reached extraordinary levels of success in their lives. But one thing I always wondered is, do people ever stop in their admiration and think to themselves, how does this success happen? Or, what do I need to do to be hugely successful in pursuing my passions?

The short answer is that it takes repetition, commitment, drive and a willingness to push through failure. We all know that but most of us never get to witness the beginning of someone’s rise to success (the long hours of work, the setbacks, and the self doubt. That’s why this blog is meant to be a time capsule for success, a testament to what you can do with limited mobility, money or opportunity, as long as you’re willing to put your mind to it.

JTG

About JTG: The Goals

2010-04-03T12:32:00.000-07:00

Here we are on the twelfth day of my journey to climb the CN Tower for the World Wild Life Fund, and I've come to realize that outside of my friends most people really don't know what this blog about overall.

The JTG blog is not a knock off of the MTV show The Buried Life, and I am not in pursuit of knocking items off of my "bucket list". I want this blog to be about more than going to Disney World, swimming with the dolphins or going skydiving. This blog is about having a list of goals, setting a plan to reach them, and celebrating their achievement along the way.

Given that, I thought I would share a list of the goals I currently have, so you can see the vision I have for my own personal success. This list is not in a particular order, is by no means complete, and I don't have an exact plan out for each, but this blog is about demonstrating the achievement process along the way;)

1. Climb the CN Tower on April 17th and raise $5,000 in a month for World Wild Life Fund (this climb is a once in a lifetime thing for me, might as well raise some $$$)

2. Write out a reality show and find a production company that will make a pilate, with an eye towards getting the concept on television.

3. Get my driver's license and a car.

4. Create a sports commentary bit on YouTube in order to create a body of work to send to sports media.

5. Learn to cook, meaning learning cooking skills and figuring out a way to cook from a physical standpoint (so I don't hurt myself;)

6. Be a life coach/motivational speaker, while specifically aiming to speak to kids, as well as being a personal performance coach for professional athletes. This also means studying alternative psychology such as neuro lingistic programming and hypnosis.

6B. Line up some speaking opportunities and practice, practice, practice.

7. Record and release a rap mixtape. I love hip hop and have put songs together before, but never really a full, professional CD.

8. Buy a home and be able to help people around me financially.

9. Own my own company that ties together sports, media, and motivation somehow.

10. Improve the video production in my blog, and continue to make the blog better and better.

11. Audition for Rogers TV in the fall and get braces on my teeth so I look prettier for it;)

12. Strive to improve my mobility physically, and change the way people view disabilities socially.

And The List Goes On and On...

Hopefully this list demonstrates the aim of this blog adequately, and shows you the level of success that I believe anyone really can achieve if they put their mind to it, myself and YOU included. My clearly defined goal right now is the CN Tower climb, but I promise there will be more to come. Thanks for taking a look and coming along for the ride, if you have any of your own suggestions for the blog or achieving success, I’m wide open. After all, personal development is the name of the game!

JTG

Goal #1: CN Tower Climb Training Day 11

2010-04-03T12:18:00.000-07:00

OK, here’s the deal! I decided to write out my daily training routine for the CN Tower because people have told me the videos of me talking about stair climbing are too repetitive to be entertaining and they’re right! To switch things up a bit I went out the other day and bought some ankle weights and a pedometer to count how many steps I take (as I mentioned I would do about a week ago). Things are looking good so far as I walked just over a mile in under one hour, and according to the pedometer took well over 2,000 steps along the way.

I should also mention SportsCheck gave me 10% off on the ankle weights, and that I want with the 5 pound version for women, which not only adds some resistance to my training regimen, but is also a bit of a fashion statement since the straps on the weights are pink. I even got some looks from drivers as I crossed the road now that I think about it!

This one mile walk also served another purpose as I met up with the designer of this blog to discuss some basic formatting issues, so things should be more in order in terms of keeping content organized from now on... That’s all for now, stay tuned for training day 12, the goal for day 12 is to climb 1,000 stairs in exactly one hour, talk to you then.

JTG

CN Tower Climb Training: The Regimen

2010-04-02T08:27:00.000-07:00

Alright… so the fact is that today while I should be climbing stairs and continue getting physically prepared for my ascent up the CN tower for the World Wild Life Fund, the truth is that I ‘ve come to realize that I never told you my faithful reader and viewer about the training program I plan to stick to in preparing to dominate the slabs of concrete (1,776 to be exact) that make up the CN tower on April 17th, 2010 That being considered I think NOW would be as good a time as any to break it down for you:

1. I gave myself a total of 30 days to train for the climb (including off days)

2. For the first 2 days of training, I rode a stationary bike 30 minutes a day.

3. After a day off, I climbed 500 stairs in 35 minutes, as a way of gauging where I am and deciding how best to reach my peak as the day of the actual climb approaches.

Since that first day of stair climbing I have worked out in a 2 days on, 1 day off fashion, increasing my stair climbing goal my 100 on the first of the two work out days, and then increasing my stationary bike ride by 5 minutes on the second day of training.

As of my most recent stair climbing session, I have now reached 900 stairs (in 55 minutes) and 50 minutes on the stationary bike. My goal from now until April 10th is to see if I can get to at least 1,200 stairs in one session. Although I know the CN Tower has 1,776 steps, I think reaching 1,200 with a week to go will prove to myself that reaching the top of the tower is a certainty.

As a way of changing things up, I’m looking to perhaps throw in some basic walking with ankle weights, that way I can train in a less familiar environment and give my muscles some variety in training.

Goal #1: CN Tower Climb Training Day 10

2010-03-31T21:46:00.000-07:00

Goal #1: CN Tower Climb Training Day 9

2010-03-29T21:00:00.000-07:00

Goal #1: CN Tower Climb Training Day 8

2010-03-28T21:27:00.000-07:00

Goal #1: CN Tower Climb Training Day 7

2010-03-26T23:26:00.000-07:00

Goal #1: CN Tower Climb Training Day 6

2010-03-26T22:33:00.000-07:00

Goal #1: CN Tower Climb Training Day 5

2010-03-25T20:44:00.001-07:00

Goal #1: CN Tower Climb Training Day 4

2010-03-25T20:42:00.000-07:00

Goal #1: CN Tower Climb Training Day 3

2010-03-25T20:41:00.000-07:00

Goal #1- Climb The CN Tower: Training Day 2

2010-03-25T20:38:00.000-07:00

Contact

2010-03-18T00:22:00.001-07:00

Please do get a hold of me at anytime, your inquiries and comments would be greatly appreciated!

Email: jackchoros@hotmail.com

FAQs

2010-03-18T00:21:00.000-07:00

What is Cerebral Palsy?

Cerebral Palsy is a neurological condition caused by damage to the brain, which usually occurs during the birth process (which is true in my case). In my case it affects mostly my lower body and coordination & balance. For more information, check out The Cerebral Palsy Support Foundation of Canada

Why do you call yourself Jack "The Giant"?

The name Jack The Giant comes from motivational speaking guru Tony Robbin's book, "Awaken The Giant Within". I have researched a lot about personal development and Tony's work is very good.

More to come, if you want to know more of course!

CN Tower Climb Donations

2010-03-18T00:20:00.000-07:00

To Sponsor My Climb For The World Wild Life Fund Visit:

www.tinyurl.com/jacksclimb

3 Things You Can’t Change Anything About…Except Your Perspective

2010-01-13T20:31:00.000-08:00

A lot of times we sit back and think about the things we didn’t accomplish in our past, or we make a mistake in the present and say all kinds of negative things to ourselves because we made a mistake or screwed up a simple task or goal. Getting down on yourself is natural when you don’t meet your own expectations. The most successful people can use these feelings as motivation to continue pushing. Their anger or resentment towards an error in their actions or an unwelcomed result causes them to become more focused and even more set an achieving what they want, just to show their setbacks who’s boss. A certain number of people in this group would call themselves perfectionists and be proud of that.

However, it is important not to get into the habit of getting angry or disappointed, as too much of anything can indeed be bad for you. It’s imperative that you take tangible and real action to things you can change and recognize when the outcomes you receive in a given situation have little to do with you. Popular logic in the world of positive thought says that if you want something bad enough it will come to you and that’s true. But there are many situations where you still won’t get the desired result. 3 things you just can’t change include:

1. The global economy

2. Other people (meaning their personalities and characters)

3. Your Past

Over the past two years or so the biggest concern on almost everyone’s mind is the state of the global economy and how it affects you as an individual. I remember when it was first in the news that the economy was in the dumps, and that the automotive and banking industries would need bailouts to hold their financial heads above water. I’m sure everyone knew these downward trends would hit individuals and people would lose their homes and jobs, and people (including myself) have a tendency to blame themselves for it. You have to recognize that you can’t do anything other than to move on to the next opportunity in your life. Change your approach to your goals and career and move on. The longer you stand still, the longer your stuck waiting (I’ve been waiting 6 months to get back to my industry and just recently decided not to wait). It’s tough but you have to move on and not blame yourself!

Another thing you can’t change is other people. 50% of marriages end up in divorce and I’m willing to bet that a good percentage of the divorced half involve spouses who thought they could change their partner into the person they want to spend their life with. The truth is that most of the relationships you have in your life, whether it’s a lover, a friend, a sibling or a co-worker, are what you make of them. If you remind yourself that you’re greatful for the people in your social world, you’ll be more likely to appreciate them for their differences, instead of being obsessed with changing them (an endeavor you will fail at, I can promise you that!)

The third thing you will never be able to change is what’s happened in the past. Mabye you made a mistake that caused someone you care about a lot of pain, or maybe you’ve been stuck in a dead end job for a few years and you blame yourself for not doing something about it. The fact is that the only thing you can do something to change is when you focus on right now or when you focus on the future.

Shape right now by making clear-cut choices about what direction you want to go in and realize that the only thing guaranteed to you when you make a choice and act on it is an outcome. It might not be the result you envisioned for yourself, but your level of success or failure in life is measured by your own standards, so even if you fail you can say you succeeded because you took control and that means it’s only a matter of time before you reach a positive outcome.

If you stop changing, you stop growing.

JTG

3 Ways Committing To Learning Can Change Your Life

2010-01-04T19:45:00.000-08:00

Remember back when you were just a little boy or girl in grade school having your teacher and your parents monitoring your homework, signing off on your agenda and encouraging you to finish your assignments after school so you could enjoy the rest of your after school time? I’m sure we all remember how annoying it was to be stuck studying when our friends were having a good time without us, but if you really want to make definite changes in your life, challenging yourself by continually learning new things is a good start.

Many smart, talented and creative people never reach their full potential because they are afraid they might not get the results they want. And the truth is that there will be times when you won’t. But it is still important that you take on opportunities in your life even if you think you’re not well equipped, simply for the lesson you could learn from the journey. Here’s a few things a continual commitment to learning can do for your life:

1. Learning Builds Confidence

Educating yourself in a particular area of interest helps build your confidence because one of the greatest fears humans have is a fear of the unknown (AKA xenophobia). Picking up a book that diagrams how to change brake pads on a car will take the fear out of causing damage to your vehicle trying to repair it because you’ll know more about the topic. That’s not to say you should read one book and open up your own garage! But if you read books, watch video clips online, read auto magazines, and talk cars with enthusiasts, you can learn enough to be confident. The key is to immerse yourself and commit, just like any other goal you want to pursue.

2. Learning Teaches You To Be Fluid In Your Approach To A Goal

Whenever you try something new for the first time you might not know exactly what you’re doing. At first you might mimic a role model and follow their lead or you might simply find the easiest way you know how to get something done and keep things simple. While keeping things simple is definitely the way to go when you are having trouble taking action and carving out the life you want, you’ll eventually find areas of your life where you stop and think, “I bet there is a better way to do that.” Continual learning teaches you the better way to do whatever “that” is.

You do know that you can feed a man to fish, or you can teach him how to fish and he’ll never grow hungry right? Well if he learned how to throw a net into the sea and catch a hundred fish at a time, is that not better than using a lure to catch them one by one? Keep learning and your mind will open to all sorts of new approaches in your life that you didn’t think were possible, allowing you to reach goals with greater efficiency and determination.

3. Learning Gives You A Competitive Edge

I really do believe that anybody can reach their goals, hopes and dreams if they want to. But just because you really want something deep down in your heart, it doesn’t mean anyone owes it to you, that you’re guaranteed anything, or that you won’t have to compete with others to reach your goal. If you’ve always wanted to be a television host, a firefighter, or a chief executive in the finance industry, realize that you’re going to be competing with other people for those career positions and that the way you need to sell yourself in order to get those coveted positions, is by demonstrating to others the things you know. I once heard somewhere that it takes approximately 10,000 hours of practice to really be good at a particular skill. That means if you work 24 hours a day without rest on one particular area of interest, you wouldn’t be able to eat or sleep for a year and 2 months before you knew enough about stocks to be an expert trader! So whatever you want to do with your life, be ready to put in those 10,000 hours of learning!

Even when you fail, you learn, and learning always let’s the door to success stay open.

JTG

6 Strategies That Build Self- Confidence….Quickly

2009-12-29T19:38:00.000-08:00

When you are on top of your game, the people in your everyday world recognize you as being confident and making others feel good, and generally speaking you yourself feel unbeatable and as if you have the whole world at your fingertips. I know that there are also times when you feel like the whole world is against you and you can’t get anything done, and perhaps maybe that you don’t even have a reason to smile. But there are specific strategies that you can follow that will you give you the boost you need when you’re not feeling so good about yourself. Here are 6 of them:

1. Visualize and verbalize a positive self image

I know for a fact that everyone reading this has, at one point or another, talked to themselves negatively after they have made a mistake, including yours truly. Perhaps you called yourself a dummy last week when you were driving to work and realized you left your wallet at home, or been hard on yourself for cheating on a diet, or not taking an opportunity to network with someone who could have helped your career. But do you also pat yourself on the back for finishing an intense workout or treat yourself to a cocktail when you land that new job you wanted? You should! If you want to be sexy, look in the mirror and tell yourself you are, if you want to rebound from a mistake you made, think of the fact that you’ll learn from it as a positive. The greatest athletes, entertainers and world leaders visualize their best games, performances and speeches before the stage is set, you should do the same.

2. Practice

Practice makes perfect isn’t just a saying. If you practice a physical movement or even a mental task, it’s no secret that you’ll be less nervous when the spotlight is on and it’s time to deliver the goods in a particular situation. If you want to start a conversation with an attractive female, practice a few opening statements that start a conversation (not just cheesy pick up lines), or if you want to ace your job interview, research sample interview questions online and rehearse answering them. Kobe Bryant is one of the best basketball players in the world and a four time NBA champion. It’s without a doubt that shooting thousands of jump shots everyday during the off season has a lot to do with his success, so practice, practice, practice.

3. Use Body Language

The fact is that over 70% of communication between human beings comes from body language. That means you can score a B average in the confidence department before you even speak a word! Stand up tall with your chest out, make eye contact, and maintain an open stance when you talk to someone. This will give you the appearance of someone who is outgoing, confident and energized even on days when your not at your best in those departments.

4. Make Others Feel Confident

A big part of living a driven life is the thought of sharing it with others. So if you want to feel confident, pass it on. Tell others they look great or if something they say makes you laugh, compliment their wit. The most confident leaders I ever knew instilled confidence in me and encouraged me to push through learning curves, or genuinely complimented my personality and character, do the same and others will reciprocate because your thoughtfulness projects a positive image of you too.

5. Take A Chance and Give Yourself A Jolt

You might be thinking that your inability to take a risk is exactly why you have trouble with your confidence in the first place. But as long as your consciously aware of your poor self-esteem, give yourself a break and take a chance regardless of the outcome and do something few would thing you have the guts to do. The task doesn’t have to be skydiving or bungee jumping, It could be anything that your passionate about; a live concert, flirting with the opposite sex or playing a sport you love for a few hours.

6. Look Your Best

If you spot someone wearing ripped jeans, a greasy T-shirt and a beat-up baseball cap, you might think that person is having a rough time just because they look rough. But being “dressed for success” is not just a saying and neither is “If you look good you feel good”. You don’t have to wear an Armani suit or Versace dress to build your confidence this way, anything that makes you feel good works!

That’s the beauty of confidence, others can judge it or make you wary of your own flaws, but at the end of the day your level of confidence is totally up to you!

JTG

4 Factors That Make Motivation Permanent

2009-12-28T18:45:00.000-08:00

Have you ever noticed that you seem to be motivated in spurts and then tend to quit on goals before you’ve fully achieved them? One of the keys to avoiding this kind of pattern in your life is to break down goals and give yourself short-term milestones or deadlines to meet so that you don’t get discouraged. But there has to be another set of factors in the back of your mind, so that you still keep the end goal in focus and get there. These factors are outlined in Jim Rohn’s book, Cultivating An Unshakable Character and include:

1. Recognition from Peers

2. Recognition from Experts, Mentors or Authorities

3. Family

4. Sharing your wealth and knowledge with the world

Receiving recognition from our peers is important whenever we do something for others. We all like hearing that our efforts are appreciated and respected and this extends to personal goals. That’s why if you’re struggling to define your goals, or not sure if you can stick to something long enough to see it through to the finish line, think about what your peers would say if you didn’t accomplish that goal, versus how much respect, admiration and affirmation you’d receive if they saw you as a go getter who set their mind to something and succeeded at their mission.

Aside from being respected by those you view as being in your social circle, or generally at the same level you in any particular way, comes the motivation to gain recognition from mentors, and people you look up to and admire. I know for myself it would be an absolute thrill for world famous athletes, business people, motivators and entertainers to tell me that I did something great that inspired them to do better in their own lives. That’s of course only one side of the coin. A mentor could be a teacher that pushed you to achieve success, it could be a boss you once worked for that genuinely cared about seeing you do well, or anyone you view as being the best at things you would eventually like to be the best at too. By the way, if you have a chance to meet someone in this category, don’t be intimidated, most successful people want to share their successes, and you never know what you’ll learn from them that’ll help get you to the top.

Family is big motivator whether you’re close to your family or not. If you’re close to them, you want to make them proud of you and share your success with them. If you aren’t close to your family, you’d want to show them your independence and perhaps prove them wrong for not sticking by you. Either way there’s know better feeling than exhibiting the strength of your character and ambition, than to those who made you who you are.

Finally, what good is all the success, wealth and wisdom in the world if you have no one to share it with? Sure if you don’t have a lot of money, or you aren’t exactly clear on what you are meant to do with your future, sharing anything may be the last thing on your mind. But if you really think about it, each of the four factors behind motivation are really about being recognized by other people. A great example of this factor in action is the wealthiest investor the world has ever known, Warren Buffet. Mr. Buffet made billions of dollars trading shares of companies like Gieco (an insurance giant). Today, Buffet is the second richest man in the world. But he is also known for making the largest single donation to charity in history (approximately $37 Billion US). He’s also continues to share his knowledge of investing through books and other media as well.

So the next time you think about quitting on your path towards an achievement, think of all the important people in your life you’d be letting down, and the legacy you want to leave for people who could mutually benefit from your success.

Do anything you need to do to keep your motivation fresh and real.

JTG

Procrastination vs. Perseverance, A Fight You Must Win To Reach Your Goals

2009-12-23T19:29:00.000-08:00

I once heard a neat little factoid that the top 1% of the population control 90% of the money on earth. Of course we all know that this has to do largely with the fact that people in the poorest parts of the world don’t really get a fair opportunity to control money, and that the average person in the Western world doesn’t have political pull with oil giants and businesses of the like. In the grand scheme of things none of us can individually take on world leaders politically or end extreme poverty around the world. But what I want to focus on in this section is how people manage to gain wealth or any other form of success in their lives starting merely with the skills, abilities and personal power they already possess.

Let’s get down to the main reason that people procrastinate. Most people actually delay doing the things they want because they’re afraid to fail, not because they’re incapable of reaching the goal. Yet in a sense they make themselves incapable because they build up their goals to be so grand and high in the sky, that they forget the importance of today. If you want to turn procrastination into perseverance you should start with two simple steps suggested by the great self- help guru Jim Rohn. Jim past away recently and he’ll forever be known as a great motivator (particularly in my eyes because he trained one of the top dogs we all know today, Tony Robbins. I’ve only just begun to start studying Jim’s work though, so I’m sure I’ll see the real reason for his legacy soon.)

First breakdown what you want into smaller goals to make the big ones realistic and possible. I know I’ve touched on this before but you really should listen to Jim Rhon’s Cultivating an Unshakable Character (specifically part two). The best way I can explain it is that when a baby is born they learn how to walk and talk by being consistent in their effort to stand and take a step, or form a word and then a sentence. Parents will read to their children every night, and push them to take steps forward everyday until they walk. There is just no better way to learn to walk than to take your first steps, fall and get up again. We all had to learn it and persisted through our parents’ coaching until we achieved the desired result (of course I was meant to walk in my own less efficient way but that’s besides the point). The real point is that people strike fear into themselves as they become adults and grow more aware of risks, whether physical, social financial etc… and youngsters don’t worry about that as much. The only thing guaranteed to you by any action you take is a RESULT (whether that means failure or success). You determine the result you want by the actions you take. If you procrastinate, you refuse to act which means you will guarantee that your RESULT is failure. So break things down and get cracking on step two.

The next step you should take towards persevering is to write down what you want to accomplish. I myself write down goals, especially when I’m having trouble prioritizing but I still don’t do it everyday, which is horrible of course. What I can tell you is that when I write something down and put a check mark beside the task when I’ve achieved it, it feels good and I waste less time. You’ll continually feel good if you’ve taken the first step of breaking things down and then written it out as you’ll be in a constant achiever’s state of mind. You’ll go to bed thinking that you actually accomplished something and didn’t waste precious time it’s also about holding yourself accountable and putting things out in the open for yourself. If you force yourself to read what you want, you actually have to focus on it at least for a moment and will be more likely to set out an action plan to reach your goals.

Don’t be afraid to take a chance, because as Hellen Keller once said, “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing” I should know, my 12^th grade English teacher made me stop procrastinating and pick up her biography!

JTG

Instead Of Trying To Be A Jack Of All Trades, Master A Select Few & Seek Out Mentors For The Rest

2009-12-22T19:06:00.000-08:00

Along with constantly being reminded about the importance of achieving independence in life, there is another life lesson that seems to be a re-occurring theme in my life, particularly as it relates to building and maintaining a successful career. That theme my friends is the ability to be versatile and obtain new skills that make you a well- rounded worker (whether you’re an employee or an entrepreneur). Of course you should strive to be flexible and generally knowledgeable in different subject areas that interest you. Not only does that give you the ability to talk to a diversified array of people, but it also makes you feel better about yourself and better equips you to deal with challenges that you may face during your life, because you’ll have your own personal tool belt of skills to dig into when you need to get yourself out of a rut. Having said that, being well rounded is just like anything else that’s supposed to be good for you, too much of a good thing can harm you.

After 5 years of post- secondary education and a lifetime of being told to keep my options open in any given situation, it has become completely obvious to me that there eventually comes a time in life where you have to close certain doors and narrow down your options so that you can really excel and point your life in a definitive direction. Since graduating from school I’ve applied to jobs in radio and television broadcasting, telemarketing firms, the government, the bank, administrative roles, and non for profit organizations. I’ve also invested a small amount of money in a retail business, briefly tried network marketing (AKA multi-level marketing), thought about going back to school for web design, real estate or financial management and I’m in the middle of trying to sell web server space online for some extra money while pursuing a career in motivational speaking and life coaching (which is why I’m writing this blog).

As you can see I have been one confused young man over the past 6 months and wanted to take my life into many different directions. This is all because I myself am afraid to close doors to focus on the few opportunities that I feel I can excel at best. There have been numerous times where I’ve literally screamed in frustration, pulled at my hair and spoken to myself in a very negative tone, all the while convincing myself I’m doing the right thing because all of these doors are open, even though that thinking as taken me completely away from where I want to go in life.

Needless to say that soul searching has been an up and down struggle for me since leaving the bubble that being in school provides. The truth though is that you eventually have to close doors as you get older to avoid the mass confusion that leads to being paralyzed by fear of failure and accomplishing nothing. Just because you close doors, it doesn’t mean that you can’t go back and unlock them later, just don’t waste time trying to do everything on your own!

Put it this way, if you could choose one person to teach you how to play basketball, you would choose the best in the world Michael Jordan right? If you could pick up the phone and have Betty Crocker teach you how to bake a cake it would save you time wouldn’t it? And of course you’d be learning from the best!

So the moral of the story is that I have decided I’m going to help people get the most out of their lives, and I have started that journey by joining a public speaking club in the summer, and have continued my commitment to helping others by forging a new friendship with a man who coach’s people on effective life strategies for a living. I’ll eventually find someone who can turn this blog into a work of art with their design skills, and eventually find an investment banker who can manage my money or help me buy a nice home, so there is no point in trying to be a Jack Of All Trades. Focus on the few things you’re passionate about and find mentors who will join your team and tell you the “Coles Notes” version of what you really want to know about your secondary interests.

Be careful not to bite off more than you can chew in life because eventually, the only one consumed will be you.

JTG

Independence Is Overrated!

2009-12-21T19:25:00.000-08:00

For most of my life, my parents, sisters, teachers, bosses, therapists, doctors and other mentors have stressed to me the importance of learning new skills, doing physiotherapy, taking initiative, and doing things on my own in general as a means of being fully independent in the future someday. This is a lesson that was consistently instilled in me especially as a child so that when I grew up and became an adult I would be able to fend for myself and carve out my own path in life without counting on someone to be there to help me. As much as I’ve grown as a person and become a young man living in the “real world”, I’ve come to realize that I will never be fully independent, and that the most successful people in the world are far from it themselves.

As author Stephen Covey says in his book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, individuals generally prescribe to 3 different types of dependency. They are either: dependent, independent, or interdependent. Being dependent means that you rely on others to get things done, while independence of course means that you do not need anyone else to accomplish a goal or task. The final form of dependency that Covey discusses is interdependency. People who live life with this approach acknowledge that the outcomes they experience in any given situation are based not only on their own work ethic and attitudes, but also those of others. If you really think about it this is exactly the philosophy we should all strive to adopt in our lives, regardless of whether we apply it to our personal relationships or our careers.

I myself can attest to the importance of being INTER-dependent. While it seemed every one of the mentors that surrounded me throughout my upbringing reminded me to do things on my own, the truth is that I would not have a positive attitude towards doing things independently if it wasn’t for other people instilling those values in me. I needed people with more life experience and a willingness to guide me in order for me to come to the realization that I can indeed fly solo. So even when I act independently of others to get something done, the reality is I didn’t really do it all on my own, and never will.

In fact there have even been times in my life when doing things on my own, hampered my ability to fully experience life. The first instance I can recall where trying to fly solo failed miserably was when I was just in my kindergarten years. Specifically I remember being physically different from all of my peers because I had to learn to use a walker to be as mobile as my friends, wear braces on my feet that caused me pain, and go through the major (at least major in my eyes) leg straightening surgery I described earlier in this blog. At first I know that I resisted being dependent on a walker because nobody else had to use one so why should I? Of course any kindergartener would naturally want to be like his peers resist anything that made him stand out in a negative way. But as I soon realized, if I didn’t use the walker, I’d never be able to keep up physically or socially with my classmates, because I would either run with wheels, or not at all.

Years after this experience, I remember being called to the office to talk to our Vice-Principal (Ms. Morden Kelly, who although she left our school soon after, I’ll always remember how genuinely nice she was). Ms. Kelly called me to her office to tell me that her son also has Cerebral Palsy and that her son was also resisting using a walker. Of course she asked me what she should do, and in some form or another I explained that her son would eventually realize that to get the most out of life, he’d need to use the walker.

The above story clearly shows that you can combine your need to be dependent on others in some situations, with the inherent need to be independent to reach an interdependent balance in your life, where you accomplish the dreams you want to achieve. If you still don’t believe me, just think of interdependence at its most basic level, ecology and the environment. Plants need water to grow, animals need plants to eat, and humans need all of the above to survive, so why shouldn’t the same apply to our relationships or career goals? Bill Gates didn’t drop out of Harvard University and become the richest technology mogul in the world by going door to door and selling every copy of Windows himself, he depends on software engineers, marketers, publicists, customer service people and consumers to make his products better, and of course make money. I’m sure he could have made enough money to get by on his own (as most of us could) but it’s his willingness to be interdependent that truly allowed him to reach new heights.

Overall it is good to strive for your independence throughout life, and anyone who is ambitious and wants to life a better life must be self-motivated to change. But there is a point where focusing too much on doing things yourself can turn into ignorance and a narrow scope of the world around you.

If you think that the quickest way to achieve the life you want is by being independent, just imagine how much more prosperous life can be if you have a helping hand.

JTG

Be The Change You Wish To See…Just Make Sure You See It First!

2009-12-16T17:41:00.000-08:00

Being the change you wish to see implies that you have a clear definition of how you’d like to leave your mark on person or situation. But in most situations being the change you wish to see involves taking action and making a firm decision, which in turn means that you’ll be risking or consuming something (time, money, energy etc…) to see a return in another aspect of your life (reaching a goal, decreasing your stress level, living happier in general etc…) But what happens if you’re not ready to take action and quote, “Be The Change…”?? Well, as I’ve been told many times before, if you don’t ask for something that you want, the answer is always NO. As I’ve mentioned recently, it’s important to close your eyes and practice visualizing your successes as if you’ve literally already accomplished them. This exercise puts your brain to work and leaves you in a positive mind frame especially when you feel your struggling and need a jump-start.

Now in the short term when you are just beginning to visualize or sitting around and just SARTING to think about taking action, you may not have all the juice or enthusiasm you need strike your goals with an iron fist. In this situation what I’ve found to be best is to seek out a mentor for yourself who you believe represents an example of the kind of lifestyle you want to live. A person who has more life experience than you and may have already achieved most of your immediate and long-term goals. The fact is that throughout life, people tend to form their habits, behaviors and beliefs based on the people around them. Time and time again studies have shown that children who grow up with parents who smoke cigarettes for example will be more likely to pick up the habit themselves in the future. The reason for this is because people are easily influenced by their role models.

That being said it’s important to note that if you’re career dream is to be a performer on Broadway, you need to find a mentor who can show you the ropes of theatre production. Not only to give you direct advice on show business or to teach you how to act, but in a broader sense so that you have someone in your life that already has the tools and skills you wish to build, and is willing to impart on you the knowledge you need to send you on your way to the bright lights!

While absorbing your new found knowledge and building a relationship with a mentor, don’t forget to see others living your dream in the short term as a way of keeping yourself on track. If you dream of being a teacher, volunteer at a school and go through a day in the life of someone who has already reached that dream so that you can see the positives and negatives of their daily life. A big positive for many teachers is that they get to influence youth and in some way shape the future of the world by providing education and life skills to their students. A major negative on the other hand could be the constant marking of assignments and the day-to-day grind of planning lessons.

If you place yourself in the environment that you hope to be in one day, you can figure out firstly if it really is where you want to be and secondly if it is where you want to be, you can experience the true joys of reaching your goal before you get there, which turns your goals into affirmative beliefs of the possibilities that are out there for you.

Keep in mind that birds of a feather flock together.

JTG

I Define Me...And You Should Do The Same

2009-12-15T20:53:00.000-08:00

It seems all to often in life I get caught up in what other people think about me. Partially because my ego and pride allows me to feel joy or by contrast take offence to the way people view me or define my character. Throughout my life I’ve experienced people who look at my physical differences and assume that they can clearly define certain elements of my character or the challenges that I face on a daily basis. There is a certain group of people that see me doing everyday things that I take for granted and they call me inspirational. One particular woman mentioned that to me while I was vacationing in Cuba recently.

While I thought I was just enjoying the sand and ocean water the way anybody else would, a woman stood and watched me as a friend of my dragged my walker into the warm ocean water so that I could stand up, twist the walker around and make my way out of the waves back to the comfort of a beach chair. Picking up my water shoes on the way to my seat, the woman stopped me and called me a great inspiration. Usually I tell people thanks, then they’ll ask about my disability and then I’ll tell them the basic scientific answer I always go with and that’s it. In this particular instance I decided to tell the lady I didn’t feel comfortable being called inspiring generally speaking and that when I hear that, I only hope that people mean it genuinely and that they are not just saying it because of my obvious physical challenge. So finally she responded by saying that I generally inspired her to get up every day and take full advantage of her abilities and talents, which satisfied me because it’s more than most people say to complete their answer.

By the same token there is a completely separate group of people who dare to bring out the dark, angry side of my personality, which I know for sure we all have. The quickest way for anyone to put me down and put my pride and character into question is to demean my worth directly and solely because of my disability. These situations happened to me more as a child, in short because kids tease and don’t censor themselves as much as adults do. Unfortunately there are many times as an adult I can recount being so angry that I physically wanted to hurt somebody (even though I have never engaged in a fight and hope to never do it, I can’t say that there weren’t some close calls).

In one particular instance I walked into a New Year ’s Eve house party with friends and as soon as a complete stranger at the party noticed me he looked down at my walker loudly questioned, “Who is this retard with aids?” All at one time my heart sank, my blood boiled and all I could say in a quiet response is “What’s your problem?”. Again he stated with his eyes cold and not the slightest humour in his voice or body, “What are you doing here you retard with aids? You don’t belong here get out!” My friend was nearby and heard everything, and he was so mad that he cocked back is hand and was as angry as I’ve ever seen him, clearly ready for a brawl. I told my friend not to because we didn’t know too many people in the room and didn’t want the situation to escalate. Needless to say we left the party and I sat on the curb outside and shed a tear, because the last time I heard anything that malicious was in my childhood.

The above story is just one example of how ruthless people can be, and how they will automatically define who you are just by the way you look. I could go on and on about guys like the one in this story, and girls that said they couldn’t date me because of my disability, or people who call me crippled or disabled before they ever ask my given name or get to know me (a guy referred to me as crippled on the bus today, not in an offensive way, but generally speaking I find it offensive to call me disabled or crippled if you’re not going to talk to me and learn my name or something about me.)

Today’s occurrence on the bus made me feel like interrupting the high school student to tell him to censor himself when talking about somebody in a negative fashion right in front of them, after all I have trouble walking, but I’m not hearing impaired! Instead I said nothing and got off the bus to head home. I reminded myself that only I define me and not anyone else. That’s the thought that keeps me going and you should follow the same philosophy. Not because I do, but because it rings true.

The great philosopher Rene Descartes once said the infamous phrase “I think therefore I am”. He made this statement as his way of verifying human existence in his own mind. But the truth is that statement extends to every aspect of life, you are what you think you are, and you define who you are. If you look in the mirror everyday and tell yourself that your intelligent, funny, sexy and driven, and you say it with a big smile and genuine energy, everything you tell yourself will eventually come to be true. The problem is that the threshold we maintain for telling ourselves something positive is much higher than the standard we hold for calling ourselves “stupid” or “incompetent” or whatever the preferred negative phrase.

Every single day when you wake up in the morning, put yourself in a positive state of mind and be grateful that you’re alive. When you look yourself in the mirror tell yourself nothing but sweet talk relating to your genuinely good qualities. If you can’t think of any on a particular day, think about positive things other people have said about you and re-read or restate their comments about you. The key here is to make this a regular everyday practice for yourself, so stick to it!

By the same token, monitor your inner thoughts on paper or however you need to do it and make sure that you catch the negative thoughts you tell yourself when you make a mistake or get frustrated. Instead of defining yourself as incompetent in a given moment, take quick action to correct your mistake or frustrating choice, tell yourself it’s okay to screw up sometimes and remind yourself that you will continue to strive for greatness.

Eleanor Roosevelt once said “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”, so make a conscious effort to shape your fears, nightmares and weaknesses into positive experiences, because you really do define who and what you are!

JTG

Short Term Pain = Long Term Gain

2009-12-14T17:45:00.000-08:00

A natural reaction for most people is to avoid the pain that comes with having our goals set too far into the distant future. And one of the keys to preventing this pain as I mentioned before is to set smaller goals for yourself that eventually lead to your overall vision while rewarding yourself constantly along the way. Incorporating this of consistent gratification, gratification that comes each time you take a step forward, is meant to replace the need for instant gratification that we all seem to have in this increasingly connected world we live in. We’re getting so used to having loads of information and opportunity at our fingertips. So used to it in fact that sometimes we forget what it means to struggle, push through a challenge and persevere in the end.

What you really need to do if you want to experience the type of plentiful long term gains that you thirst for in your life, is accept the fact that sometimes path to success involves struggle and failure along the way. Once you’ve gotten started towards a goal, you’ll inevitably go through set backs, confusion and at times even a strong urge to downright quit. But anybody who has been able to reach some of their biggest dreams in life will tell you that you need to push through the pain to reach the end result.

I myself learned this lesson at a very young age having been through 2 major surgeries by the time I started my eighth year of life on this earth. The first big surgery came when I was four years old. Because my disability mostly affects the coordination and flexibility in my lower body, doctors put casts on both my legs with a horizontal bar between my feet forcing my legs to stay straight and stay locked apart. The surgery was designed to increase flexibility in my heels and stretch my hamstrings and ligaments. Now that I’m 24 I realize the benefits of having that surgery, but at the time I remember going through a lot of pain. Mentally I felt pain because I didn’t have a full understanding of what was happening to me or why I had to do so much to try and make physical changes. Emotionally I thought that as long as I was in a cast I wouldn’t be able to participate with other children at school, or run around in my little walker at recess. Physically my legs were constantly sore, my mother would have to get up and turn my body every few hours so I could sleep, and then of course I had lots of rehabilitation to look forward to, which if you know anything about 4 year olds, you’d know it’s hard enough to focus through 5 minutes of reading, let alone months of rehab.

The second major surgery I had at the age of 8 is called a rhizotomy. In basic terms, this surgery involves cutting nerves in the back with the aim of reducing signals that cause muscles to spasm during movement. To say the least it was one of the biggest challenges I would ever face in my young life. Although I had no concept of what a major life changing event this would be, I distinctly remember tears running down my mom’s face when nurses whisked me away to the operating room. I also remember being remarkably calm, looking back at my mother and saying, “Don’t worry mom, they’re doctors and they know what they’re doing!” There is no way I would be that calm going through the same thing today. Little did I know back then that all of my tears and pain would come after the surgery when I would spend a month away from my friends and family in a rehabilitation centre an hour away from my house (it seemed like oceans away).

While in the rehab centre, I remember going through all kinds of painful moments: every time my family visited me and it came time for them to leave I would beg them to stay, I still had to attend third grade classroom sessions within the rehab centre and learn while being strapped inside a contraption forcing my legs straight causing me constant discomfort, or the fact that I spent a few weeks in a wheelchair recovering and when it finally came to take my first steps after surgery I immediately fell on my face the first time around. At one point I cried to go home so much that nurses began running blood tests on me to make sure there wasn’t a serious problem with me. Little did they know I just wanted to go home.

Eventually I got my wish, returned home and reconnected with friends back at school. But as video tapes, my family and my own body reminded me, the long term benefits of going through all of this short term pain would give me increased mobility and increased physical strength, while also strengthening me mentally, giving me an understanding of what it means to focus on something intensely and know that eventually, I can push through anything.

Not too many people can say they understood the concept of no pain no gain at the age of 8, but that is something I’m very proud of. Make sure that you make the same commitment to push through pain in your life, and understand that if your dreams are really important to you, there is no pain that isn’t worth going through to get to the end result.

Remember that “joy wouldn’t feel so good if it wasn’t for pain.”

Getting Started!

2009-12-13T18:23:00.000-08:00

First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to check out my very first posting as I embark on my journey towards motivating others for a living. Throughout my life I’ve been through many challenges, whether they were physical, mental or social. And I’ve had many moments in my life when I thought I would never make it through those challenges. In fact, as I sit here writing you what’s suppose to be my first inspirational ‘go get’em tiger’ note, I can’t help but think of the fact that I’ve thought of speaking to others for a living for a few years, and have finally made a decision to start right now! Not to mention the fact that I’m 24 years old and struggling to find an entry-level job, partly because I’m confused, and also because of my physical disability and lack of experience acting as a barrier to the things I really want.

But after a lot of pondering and sitting on the fence deciding what I really want to do in life, I’ve come to realize that I don’t have to be a former Heavyweight Champion, a rock star, a world leader or any other notable figure to make an impact and truly inspire others. The fact is that your measure of success in life should be YOUR measure, not mine, your mothers or anybody else’s. At the end of the day, the people we look up to as being the most inspirational and influential people in the world come to be viewed that way because they are self inspired.

We all want to believe that our life has a greater meaning; that we’re not just going through the motions, living like robots or just watching time slip away. The key is to take those self inspired beliefs, the beliefs that you were meant to be a great leader, that you can prosper financially, that you can truly live the life you dream of and crack it out of it’s shell. Envision the person that you want to become right now and realize that the first thing you need to do is Get Started.

We’ve all heard inspirational clichés before: “Life is what you make of it.” “Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you’ll land on the stars.” Those sayings in particular are ones that have been told to me ever since I can remember and that I still hear occasionally and I know I’ve shared those same words of encouragement with others, as I’m sure we all have. So why is it that we procrastinate constantly and don’t take our own advice? It’s because we either don’t believe in the clichés that say anything is possible, or that we doubt our ability to reach our larger “pie in the sky” goals because of how daunting the process seems or how far above us the end result seems OR further still because we become so obsessed with what steps in between will guarantee success in reaching a goal that we get confused and overwhelmed and before you know it, we give up before we even began.

The key is to really make a concerted effort to block out these confusing, self-doubting feelings and keep things simple, direct and focused on the immediate future. So as I finish off my very first note to you, let me leave you with some words of advice to help GET YOU STARTED:

1. Focus on something you really want to accomplish in your life, and think of 3 smaller things you can do RIGHT NOW to get started towards that goal.

2. Each time you follow through on one of your initial 3 steps you outlined above, reward yourself for getting the ball rolling (whether it means patting yourself on the back, indulging in your favorite dessert or whatever it may be)

3. Recognize that no matter what positive or negative outcomes you experience throughout your initial three steps, you’ve turned what was once a dream into a goal just by taking the first three steps, and you’re now set on progressing through them until you’ve reached the finish line!

4. Once you’ve taken your first three steps, visualize yourself fast forwarding through every step towards your goal and let yourself feel what it’s like to have your goal in your grasp as if you’ve already climbed to the peak of the challenge.

I know at first it may be hard for you to fathom the idea of taking baby steps in order to reach your out of this world, ‘ginormous’ hopes and dreams. But keep in mind that carving out the life you want for yourself is a process and that things can still indeed snowball if you just keep a simple and focused approach. Keep in mind that although it is often tough to get going, people and situations around you will adapt and change to your energy level and that if you keep positive, the answer to all your questions will be clear and that you will get what you feel you really deserve.

I hope this post inspires you to sit down, focus on what you really want to do and zero in on getting started. They say good things come to those who wait, but that only applies if you keep those good things firmly in your sights to make sure they are still coming!

Until next time!