Mar 16

Japan: Disaster or Opportunity?

Both!

It’s very upsetting for those close to this disaster. Many have been hurt or killed by this natural phenomenon and there are still worries about the nuclear reactor. I would certainly understand the fear and anger.

What happens when we face the fear head on and look past it to opportunity?

Historically, after a major catastrophy or war like the Second World War, there is a period of rejunevation. Germany and Japan suffered a lot of damage during that period. They are now very powerful economies. The current fear is evidenced by the fear we are seeing in the markets as a result of the situation this week in Japan.

Now that people are starting to see past the fear, the markets are starting to respond in a positive manner and people are starting to organize for the recovery phaze. I’m sure the fear will come and go over the next while and things will settle down again.

Once we get through this period, I wouldn’t be surprised if Japan went through another period of growth.

Think about this. How often do we experience a personal disaster and go through a time where we just can’t see anything positive coming from what has happened to us?

As with Japan, what happens after the disaster is totally up to us.

Japan will get back up on its feet and people will step up to the plate for Japan and help make the country safe and habitable again; just as those around you will provide encouragement and support for you in a time of need if you let them.

What will your choice be? Are you going to get back up on your feet and ask for help if you need it?

If you need a little push up the hill, swallow a little pride and just ask.

Frankly, people love to help by nature. It makes them feel good! Beats drugs or booze any time.

Have a great day!

Barry
http://imarketing.mysharingspace.com

Permanent link to this article: https://barryclermont.com/japan-disaster-or-opportunity/

Mar 16

The 10 Human Regrets

This is from Robin Sharma’s “The Leader Who Had No Title”.

I will make sure that this is not my list:

1. You reach your last day with the brilliant song that your life was meant to sing still silent within you.

2. You reach your last day without ever having experienced the natural power that inhabits you to do great work and achieve great things.

3. You reach your last day realizing that you never inspired anyone else by the example that you set.

4. You reach your last day full of pain at the realization that you never took any bold risks and so you never received any bright rewards.

5. You reach your last day understanding that you missed the opportunity to catch a glimpse of mastery because you bought into the lie that you had to be resigned to mediocrity.

6. You reach your last day and feel heartbroken that you never learned the skill of tranforming adversity into victory and lead into gold.

7. You reach your last day regretting that you forgot that work is about being radically helpful to others rather than being helpful only to yourself.

8. You reach your last day with the awareness that you ended up living the life that society trained you to want versus leading the life you truly wanted to have.

9. You reach your last day and awaken to the fact that you never realized your absolute best nor touched the special genius that you were built to become.

10. You reach your last day and discover you could have been a leader and left this world so much better than you found it. But you refused to accept that mission because you were just too scared. And so you failed, and wasted a life.

Barry:
What am I thankful for today? I’m thankful that God gave me the courage to try new things (and my wife!). I’m thankful that I have a beautiful little grand daughter. I’m thankful for the wonderful people who have touched my life, even the ones that caused pain because that is often where I have learned the most.

A couple of days ago I was on the subway and saw a young mother with her child. The child was having a great time and had jumped up onto a seat leaving the mother standing by herself.

A teenage girl was sitting beside the boy and got up and offered the mother the seat so that she could be with her son to protect him.

I made a point of telling that teenage girl that had shown a lot of class in giving up her seat to that mother. The look on the teenager’s face was priceless! Teenagers are not used to compliments from adults. Isn’t that sad?

See you who you can surprise today!

Permanent link to this article: https://barryclermont.com/the-10-human-regrets/

Mar 15

Feel the Fear

And then conquer it.

Starting a business or asking your boss for a raise are a couple of examples of fears that we may face. It could just as easily be a difficult conversation with an associate or family member.

Don’t deny the fear. It’s real. Feel it and then face it head on. Look the object of your fear directly in the face and you will soon discover that although the fear is very real and very scary, you can’t just turn away and hope it will move past you. Fear is like the bullies in your life. It will taunt you every day until one day you just have had enough and wrestle that fear to the ground.

Ever notice that when you take a bully on, they usually turn and run? Or they actually end up becoming your friend?

Facing your fear will not always feel good or necessarily end up with the outcome you hoped for but in the end, there will be a clear resolution and you can move on.

Don’t get stuck. Feel the fear, face it and then move on.

For all of the scary stuff out there, there is something much more wonderful just the other side!

Have a great day,

Barry

P.S.
Things I’m thankful for today: I woke up this morning! I have a great family. I have the power to make my destiny.
What are you thankful for today?

Permanent link to this article: https://barryclermont.com/feel-the-fear/

Mar 14

The Power of Social Networking

Social networking has become so mainstream that the big boys are getting involved.

Take a look at this article about their activities on Facebook for marketing purposes. Even they have noted that you need to be less “in your face” to win over your customer.

http://www.marketingmag.ca/news/marketer-news/agropur-launches-mona-mania-to-make-milk-cool-24302

I hope they are successful.

I would much rather my teens drink milk than beer!

Barry
“Great people construct monuments with the stones their critics throw at them”
-Robin Sharma: The Leader Who Had No Title

Permanent link to this article: https://barryclermont.com/the-power-of-social-networking/

Mar 13

Faith

Interesting. I’ll bet you thought this was a discussion about religion.

In many of the different courses and programs that I have been a part of, faith is a core component. Faith in a supreme being, for us Catholics, I’ll say God, is definitely beneficial but that’s not what this is about.

When we get out of the bed in the morning, we have a big choice to make. We can choose to have a good day bad or a bad one.

Picture of a sunset with quote.

We usually make that choice based on what we see in front of us. For example, the alarm didn’t go off and it’s brighter outside than it should be. We’re late. We can’t control the fact that the alarm didn’t go off and we can’t roll back the clock. What we CAN do is decide how that is going to affect us. This decision is totally based on faith.

We either have blind faith that this will be a lousy day or we have faith that we can make this into a good day. The first choice gives control away and the second allows us to maintain some degree of control over our life. If we have faith that we can turn the day around, guess what? It usually does!

Faith. Without any, it’s a lousy day.

Have faith in yourself and those around you and the universe will respond in a positive way.

Have a great day!

Barry

Permanent link to this article: https://barryclermont.com/faith/

Mar 12

The Leader Who Had No Title

I was looking for a totally different book that turned out to be unavailable at “The World’s Biggest Book Store” in Toronto last week when I came across this book.

Randy Taylor had mentioned Robin Sharma during a session I did with him a few years ago. I thought “what the heck”, any self development books have something to offer and picked up “The Leader Who Had No Title”. The message in this book is extremely import for anyone, not just people in business. This book is about living your life.

I highly recommend taking the time to read this book!

So often I hear that I don’t have time to read. Do you realize that if you were to read 10 pages of a good book every day, you would read 15 – 20 books per year? I’m just sayin’……

Barry
vbclermont@rogers.com

Permanent link to this article: https://barryclermont.com/the-leader-who-had-no-title/

Mar 10

Five months ago today….

My life changed forever.

My son Brett passed away after fighting Embryonal Rhabdomyosarcoma (Cancer) for almost two years.

Before cancer struck, he was in the best shape of his life. He was on track to become a policeman, a competitive weight lifter (we didn’t know that until after!).  He is the father of a five year old little angel. The last words out of Brett’s mouth were “Amiya, Amiya”.

This took us on a heck of a ride in this experience we call life.

Brett was actually my step son. I hate that term. He was with me since he was two years old. I had met an amazing woman with two great kids. I fell in love with all of them, not just Denise.

In the last days of Brett’s life, the two families shared many tears and became friends through one of the worst times of their lives. Even in death, Brett managed to make good things happen!

He told Denise many times that “life will go on after I’m gone”. We didn’t feel like it at the time but we work at it every day. We have a grand daughter that still needs us and three other wonderful children that are just beginning their adult lives. What an amazing experience to watch your children spread their wings!

Brett would be proud of his siblings!

Scott is “finding himself” through much more positive experiences. He has spent time in Quebec where he learned some French, that was his goal there and is now going to Jasper, Alberta before he goes back to school.

Ashley is out in Calgary again before she goes back to school. I think we’ve lost her to the west!

Dana has moved to Hamilton because she found a teaching job in Burlington. She worked really hard over the last few years and we’re so happy that she found something in her chosen profession. I know she will be one of the “cool” teachers!

Denise is continuing to grow her Pre-Paid Legal business while she works at a Montessori school and manages to be there as always for the rest of us.

Me? Still commuting to Toronto every day but also starting to work on developing a consulting business for small business entrepreneurs. A friend is starting a seminar business aimed at startups and we have discovered that I can contribute by offering services to get their web presence started.

Every day, we still keep waiting for Brett to come around the corner.

Every day we miss him.

Every day we are thankful that we had Brett for 24 years before God took him home.

Every day we thank God for our family and pray that He is watching over Brett until we get there.

In the end, Brett was absolutely right. Life goes on.

But we still miss him!

….Barry

Permanent link to this article: https://barryclermont.com/five-months-ago-today/

Mar 07

Canadians not calling in sick when bugs bite

There was an article in todays (March 7, 2010) 24HR in Toronto (http://eedition.toronto.24hrs.ca/epaper/viewer.aspx) that discusses the fact that many Canadians are reluctant to call in sick because they feel responsible. It infers that we are so dedicated to our jobs that we feel we are letting others down.

I don’t want to take away from that but I would love to know how the question was asked!

Many people I know today are working on contract and don’t get paid to take the day off.  I suspect that some employers make a habit of using “self employed” people to keep up their workforce numbers.

I don’t know many people in that position that can afford to take time off sick!

I’m just sayin’…

Barry

Permanent link to this article: https://barryclermont.com/canadians-not-calling-in-sick-when-bugs-bite/

Load more

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!