GALVANIZd

We've Moved! + Other updates

2008-03-13T19:47:00.000-07:00

With the help of my good friend Malcolm over the next few days, I've moved this blog over to http://www.galvanizd.com/ after signing with my new host as well as moving over to a Wordpress platform. I'll be playing around with the layout and we'll see how that turns out.

However, my writing won't be interrupted in the meantime. Next up... a post on my experiences with reading David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) and implementing his system of organization and productivity along with some other tricks and "tech" I've learned before coming across his material. :)

Additionally, after several failed attempts at completing a fully-fledged tempo run in the gym (something about running around in circles that drives me nuts!), I opted to run outside in the blistering cold and just got back after completing my first successful tempo run!

- Will

40 Days to Freedom!

2008-03-11T05:19:00.000-07:00

Exactly 40 days from now, I would have finished my last exam in my undergrad career. I've been in school for a LONG time, and it's time for me to move on to the next stage in my life.

I'll be posting my progress in terms of my understanding of Canadian Corporate Tax and Business Combinations in weekly updates. From here on in, it's making EVERY SINGLE DAY COUNT. By planning in advance and harnessing all of the resources I have at my disposal in order to get the best possible mark considering my poor performance of midterms until I write my last exam.

This is to be a public record to hold myself accountable so I can follow through on this commitment of focus and determination to overcome this last hurdle before graduation.

I am both anxious and excited of the outcome of this challenge.

- Will

FREE Income Tax Returns for Canadian Students!

2008-03-09T19:18:00.001-07:00

With tax season upon us, the majority of Canadian post-secondary students who don't know how or care to do their own taxes most likely decide to walk up to the local H&R Block cough up $30 to have their income tax return, compared to those fortunate enough have their parents, family member or friend do it for them.

For those of you who already know how to do your own taxes, did you know that you could file it online for free? With a partnership between UFile.ca and the Canadian Federation of Students, you can file your taxes online and on time for free can be found here.

As for those who aren’t fortunate of having their own taxes done for them, don’t despair! You can have your income taxes done for you for FREE through the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program (CVITP) run through volunteer initiatives supported by the Canada Revenue Agency.

After scouring the internet, here’s a list of free tax clinics that I found run by your school’s student union. (If your school isn’t listed, here are alternative services that are under the CVITP program if you follow this link)

Here are some common things to bring with you to make sure your return can be prepared:

* Photo I.D. and S.I.N
* Rent Receipts
* Medical Receipts
* Charitable Donation Receipts
* Public Transit Passes (Monthly or longer)

Information Slips
* T4, Statement of Remuneration Paid
* T4A, Statement of Pension, Retirement, Annuity, and Other Income
* T4E, Statement of Employment Income and Benefits
* T5007, Statement of Benefits
* T5, Statement of Investment Income
* 2005 Notice of Assessment for Tuition carry forward amount
* RC62, Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB)
* T2202A, Education Amount Certificate

Furthermore, I'm pretty sure you can attend any one of these free tax clinics even if you don't attend the school that's hosting the clinic, provided that you can prove that you're a student.

If I accidentally omitted your school and you know that your school does in fact have a free tax clinic, please post it in the comments so everyone can benefit! Thanks!

- Will

The Joy of Accepting Unexpected Offers

2008-03-06T11:16:00.001-08:00

We Laugh [out]doors
Originally uploaded by [wicked and lazy]

In any given day, we are given countless opportunities to engage in something we didn’t expect. For one reason or another we are too immersed in our own lives to be aware of opportunities, and if we are aware we consciously block those opportunities rather than accepting them to create joy that arises from the spontaneity in everyday life.

I am deliberately being as general as possible here by using the word “something”, because opportunities or offers can come in any shape or form. It can stem from a smile from a stranger, which can warrant you starting a rewarding conversation to being chosen to be interviewed at random and being asked “do you touch yourself at work?” (I’ll explain this later on… :)

Now to be explicitly clear, we’re not talking about unwelcome offers that are a threat to your own safety or are outside of your values and belief system; rather, I’m talking about the type that are non-threatening that you’ve determined and feel you can engage in fully with joy, ease and lightness.

The rule of thumb of your own acceptability of an offer or opportunity should be “Does this threaten or harm me? If not, can I have fun from this offer/opportunity?” If you’ve said no to the former and yes to the latter, then you can begin experience the joy of accepting unexpected offers!

What do you mean by “accepting an offer”?

The inspiration of this article comes from my improv (improvisational comedy) training at The Second City. I use the concepts I learned from my improv training to add more fun to my everyday interactions. The main concept or “technique” in order to create a scene or in this case, an interaction, and move it forward is to accept offers.

Accepting an offer is simply saying this statement to yourself (verbally or in your head) in the skit/scene or in this case real life, “Yes, and…”. The point of the “Yes anding” something is to heighten and explore the scene.

An example of this technique in action in a scene would be:

Mike: “Hey Franz, did you want catch the Patriots game with me and Geetha tonight? We have an extra ticket because August bailed on us”

Franz: “Yeah, and we can all pretend to be Manchester United fans talk with an English accent, bring horns to be loud as possible and try to convert Patriots fans to the real football!”

Here, you can see that Franz has accepted Mike’s offer and heightened and explored it. It may seem absurd, but the sheer fact of trying to convert hardcore Patriots fans to the “real football” amidst insulting American beer as a drink for girls can be daunting and well… fun! If Mike and Geetha are willing, they can further “yes anding” Fred, with the end result being fun, spontaneity and havoc ensuing!

How you can apply this in everyday life

A few weeks ago, I was walking towards the men’s change room to get changed for my tempo run. As I was walking I looked into one of the Studios at the school gym where I go for training. As I looked in, I saw a room full of women who were doing some sort of Tae-Bo like cardio workout program, where the instructor enthusiastically invited me (a complete stranger) to join in.

After asking myself, “Does this threaten or harm me? If not, can I have fun from this offer/opportunity?” and determined that the offer was safe and fun (alongside my utter inability to turn down offers of this nature). I fully committed to the offer and as a result, had a fun and amazing workout that was even better than the tempo run I originally planned for.

“Do you touch yourself at work?”

Just the other day, when I was walking towards the library to get some studying done for one of my accounting courses, I was stopped by a scruffy looking reporter holding a microphone with his cameraman.

What happened afterwards went along the lines of this:

Reporter: “Hey, do you have a minute to answer a few questions?”

Me: “umm.. sure.. what did you want to ask?”
Reporter: “We wanted to ask you a few things about your job”
Me: “hmm.. okay…
Reporter: “Where do you work?”
Me: “I’m not at liberty to say” (because I’m not supposed to divulge details like that)
Reporter: “Do you hate your job?”
Me: “Well, I wouldn’t say that I hate it but, it’s unrewarding and unfulfilling…”
Reporter: “So you hate your job then.”
Me: (taking a clue here and accepting the offer) “Yeah, I hate my job”
Reporter: “Why do you hate your job, though? Does your job entail you having to touch anyone?”
Me: “Haha. NO.
Reporter: “Do you touch yourself at work then?”
Me: “Yeah...sometimes…*shifty-eye + big toothy grin*”

Obviously that isn’t the truth, but I had effectively heightened and explored the interaction by accepting his offer by employing self-deprecating humour with the outcome being laughs shared by all.

*** Note *** I don’t condone using self-deprecating humour all the time as you want people to laugh with you not laugh at you, through my experiences and training I deemed it appropriate to do so.

After the interview, I found out they were shooting for a promotional campaign for Staples Business Depot up here in Canada, posting their mini-interviews on their website and was given a $20 gift certificate for my time all from a quick 2 minute interaction. Not too shabby huh?(I’ll link to the interview when it goes live).

As you can see, above are examples from my own life of accepting unexpected offers. I feel that our time on earth too short to be drowned under the crush of waves that we call “life”. By employing this basic improv technique, you can create a sense of joy along sharing it with others by putting smiles on faces of people you interact with that will be guaranteed to resonate throughout the day.

Have you ever used the technique of “yes anding” unknowingly and “going with it”? Were there any situations in hindsight that you could have done so? Let me know in the comments!

If you learned anything or liked this article, please Digg it. I appreciate your readership :)

Fitness Update #4: Back in Business and Surpassed 10K :)

2008-03-02T20:00:00.001-08:00

I'm back in business and with the help of my new Mizuno Wave Nirvana 2's, I was able to run 10K within 1 hour and 3 minutes, shin splint free! :)

My run went a little something like this: My heart was pounding, eardrums were thumping to the beat of Justice's "Phantom Pt. II". My feet felt so alive, with the rhythm of my breath matched with the cadence of my stride. My lungs filled to capacity and exhaled fully in the crisp -1 degree celsius evening air. I was totally present, "in state" and in the zone. I felt powerful with every stride during my cool down.

With respect to my cross training, I'm up to swimming 24 lengths consecutively, which is a major jump since the 8 laps I started with during my first semester. Swimming is my other fitness vice, where I can become totally present and get into state, focusing on being efficient as possible with every stroke as I glide through the water. And I'm using some elements of the P90X workout program to increase my core body strength, while I save up for the PowerBlock weight system and a pull-up bar for use at home.

Anyway, here's the route that I took, which was supposed to be done two weeks ago, had I not developed shin splints.

- Will

&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/canada/on/toronto/895946725"&amp;gt;Queen Beaches&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br/&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyrun.com/find-run/canada/on/toronto"&amp;gt;Find more Runs in Toronto, Ontario&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

Fitness Update #3: Running a tight ship

2008-02-25T15:00:00.001-08:00

P1080425

Originally uploaded by eduardo.peiro

Since my last update, I've been swamped with studying for midterms after fully making use of Reading Week (March break for us Canadians) by reading :) The level of focus, clarity with what needs to be covered in my Consolidations and Corporate Tax courses has taken precedence of what would normally be training regularly for my half-marathon. But for anyone else during these times that require intense focus, you shouldn't drop everything that isn't related to my studies.

While I don't have my new running shoes that I ordered from eBay in my possession yet, I've supplemented some of my long and tempo runs by cross training with swimming. So far I'm up to 22 lengths consecutively, where I add an extra lap for each week.

Squeezing in a workout during midterms is challenging but not impossible. It doesn't need to be a full fledged workout. It can be a brisk 30 minute jog, a few laps around the pool to get the heart pumping or some core body work for the abs. You just need to keep in mind your priorities and stick to your schedule.

I've been experimenting with Parkinson's Law and Pareto's Principle (80/20 rule) just not just studying for midterms in order to increase my productivity but all areas of my life as well. So far, it's working great, but I need to be conscious of these principles as well as visual reminders of those principles. The results have been positive so far, and I'll explore these concepts further in a future post.

Why I insist on training during studies is that it keeps my mind sharp and my energy level up in order to what I need to get accomplished despite having a full day's worth of studying, and more... which reminds me - I have to go to the pool now. :)

I've got some awesome articles on cultivating charisma, leadership and improv coming down the pipeline. Stay tuned!

- Will

6 Hacks to Quit Smoking Once and For All

2008-02-19T20:32:00.001-08:00

I Quit
Originally uploaded by adrianadesigner

If you’re a smoker, how many times have you tried to kick the nasty habit of smoking only to succumb to the supposed ‘pleasures’ or ‘enjoyment’ of nicotine running through your veins? Probably more than 3 times would be a conservative estimate. I’m sure all current and ex-smokers can relate through their struggles of kicking the habit.

As an ex-smoker myself, I have tried to kick the habit for a total of 6 times. At my heaviest period of smoking after starting at the ripe age of 19 until 24, I was going through a pack every two days. Needless to say, I didn’t feel that great after feeding my lungs with cancer sticks. It was that 6th time, I decided to try something drastically different.

Being sick of the disappointment of crawling back to cigarettes as my outlet for releasing stress., whenever I felt stress coming on, I’d immediately reach for my pack of cigarettes and if I didn’t have any on me, my eyes would automatically scan for any smokers in my vicinity in order to buy a smoke off of them. I found this behaviour to be extremely problematic and disturbing, and sought after ‘extreme’ measures to address this problem. I desperately wanted to reclaim my health and fitness back.

Here are the 6 Hacks of Effectively Kicking the Smoking Habit:

1. Undertake Hypnosis sessions - Yup, you read it right. Hypnosis. While hypnosis to many sounds hokey, creepy or is brushed off as an illegitimate science, bare with me for a moment. I decided to take hypnosis sessions. As I’m a highly experimental person and I use myself as a guinea pig for anything self-improvement related. Only after determining the safety risks are nil would I recommend it to anyone else. I knew of an acquaintance of mine, Luke Chao who is a Certified Hypnotherapist and runs The Morpheus Clinic, which happened to be steps away from my school.

Apparently his claim to fame was that he successfully performed hypnotherapy on a relatively well known Porn Actress named Sydnee Steele to kick her habit of smoking. Her testimonial is still on his website. Without going into too much detail, I determined it was a safe environment and most importantly it worked after 3 sessions for me. If you can afford the upfront costs (about $80 per session for students) it will save you your health a whole lot of money as the temptations of smoking are drastically reduced. Most importantly, however, you have to WANT to quit smoking and make a commitment to yourself. If you genuinely enjoy smoking, then you’ll be hard pressed kick the habit.

2. Gradually ease into it - For the heavier smokers out there, this here's technique that helped me drastically cut down my consumption - I simply refused to buy packs of cigarettes as I know having full access wouldn't be a constructive way of kicking the habit.

Take your time and don't beat yourself up if you cave in. Expect it, as it will happen and know that it won't happen another time as it may well be a bit of a struggle to quit smoking on hypnosis or willpower alone.

Perhaps taking resorting to nicotine alternatives such as Nicorette gum or the nicotine patch will help curb your cravings so you can wean yourself off of smoking altogether. Be sure to see if these methods poses any health risks to you before deciding to choose this as an option.

For any of this to work, you need to set a timeline for yourself, let’s say quit smoking within 3 months. You need all of your progress to be clear, specific and most importantly measurable. I had the help of my old blog at the time to keep track of my progress.

If, however, you do succumb to the urge, you can buy a cigarette off someone for a dollar, and keep track of how much you’re spending through your buying ONE cigarette at a time. The amount that you spend will astound and appall you.

3. Avoid social smoking situations - what I mean by this is that if you started smoking as a social activity, like myself, you might want to avoid these situations altogether. When your friends/colleagues invite you to join them for a smoke, politely say "No, I'm quitting smoking, I'm sure you understand where I'm coming from". No harm no foul. You didn't insult your friends/peer group and you saved yourself from falling into a situation where you're more susceptible to caving in due to peer pressure.

4. Join a quit smoking program - they’re FREE and they’re there to help and support your journey to kicking the habit and most likely they’ll have contests and prizes as an added incentive to join and follow through.

Throughout all of the province of Ontario (Canada), post-secondary institutions have what is called the “Leave the Pack Behind Program” (LTPB) which is launched at the beginning of each semester. They do regular checkups with breathalyzers that measure the amount of carbon monoxide in your breath and can detect minute traces of it to determine whether you’ve smoked or not.

I had joined this program and a won $200 tuition credit for my school, a ton of prizes and had a party for all winters just for following through on that commitment to my health. How freakin’ cool is that??

5. Get Accountability Buddies - If you don’t have a quit smoking program in your area, have Accountability Buddies. Make sure that they are super supportive of you, give you constructive feedback, will grill you if you don’t follow through and most importantly WANT you to kick the habit.

I had my friend Frank Whitestone support me through the LTPB Program, where he would check up on me regularly to see how I was doing. Having Accountability Buddies was actually one of the requirements to join, but having Accountability Buddies works equally well if you don’t have access to a similar program, where the only prize you get is your health back.. but you can't put a price on that.

6. Leverage through exercise – you can gain more leverage for your crusade towards destroying the habit of smoking by exercising regularly and working towards a specific outcome. While it certainly isn’t easy when you’re coughing and wheezing after running around for a few minutes, exercising can very well be be the final nail in the coffin to your quitting smoking.

It was my decision to train for a marathon that effectively nullified any thoughts of smoking. I took massive action and cut out anything and everything that was a detriment to my training as nothing would come between my focus and vision of crossing the finish line, healthy and smoke free. While training for a marathon may not tickle everyone’s fancy, taking up something that forces you work your lungs be it a sport or an activity – anything physical that gets your heart pumping and your lungs expanding should seal the deal in your quest to quit smoking.

As I mentioned in point 1, you have to WANT to quit smoking and give it everything you’ve got. Think about all the pain in the future you’ll have to endure when you’re suffering from lung cancer awaiting treatments in your hospital bed. If you imagine potential reality vividly as if it were REAL, I can guarantee it will scare the living daylights out of you and you’ll look at cigarettes in a different light.

Keep in mind, however, that the process to quit smoking will vary from person to person, whether you decide to take massive action to kick the habit like I did or combine any of the approaches I described above, you’ll be on your way to a much healthier future for yourself!

So to recap, the ways that you can effectively squash the habit are to:

Hypnosis
Ease yourself into it and measure your progress
Avoid social smoking situations
Quit smoking programs
Have accountability buddies
Exercise!

Let me know in the comments section of your experiences with quitting smoking. If you’re a non-smoker, share your experiences of your friends who smoke and how dealt with the situation and how you can a part of their support network!

If you learned anything or liked this article, please Digg it. I appreciate your readership :)

Fitness Update #2 - Don't wish me to "break a leg"

2008-02-18T21:02:00.000-08:00

Today was a painful experience. My long run is up to 10K's, but my shins gave out. The 'achilles heel' that led me to pull out after running 5K's in agony were ... my running shoes.

For every runner, the lowest common denominator and most important piece of equipment is a decent pair of technical running shoes. They take brunt and abuse of our running endeavours, so it would only make sense to check out whether your shoes have seen its days. I figure I had about two more months in them for running, but boy was I ever wrong. I had to get shin splints in order to numb the pain and decided to retire my Mizuno Wave Inspires. They've served me well, but I digress...

For all runners out there, dropping by a stores that focuses solely on running such as The Running Room is a great way to check out your options of what shoe is perfect for you. You can get a proper fitting of a decent pair of technical runners, to see what type of shoes were best for your foot type.

I eventually picked up a pair of Asics GT-2130's, which are supposedly the most popular running shoe in North America, but their cost was a bit of a turn off and since I'm on a budget, I'll be returning them to get an older model of an equally better if not superior running shoe. I found the Mizuno Wave Nirvana 2, their 2005 model on eBay for $55 USD, which is substantially cheaper, the only setback is the wait time, so I'll be doing some cross training to maintain my fitness level.

Keeping in check your running shoes or whatever fitness equipment that is crucial to your success should be taken into account as we often take them for granted and don't consider the consequences should they fail on us.

For now, it's back to the gym for me, while I'm patiently waiting for my shoes to arrive...

- Will

Here's the route I was supposed to take. I made it half way and had to take a streetcar for the trip back home. Next week, I'll be back at it, but until then.. cross training :)

&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/canada/on/toronto/895946725"&amp;gt;Queen Beaches&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br/&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyrun.com/find-run/canada/on/toronto"&amp;gt;Find more Runs in Toronto, Ontario&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

9 Tips on Becoming a Better Public Speaker

2008-02-15T13:30:00.000-08:00

Time and time again, public speaking or presenting in front of an audience lists as one of the top fears or phobias held by people around the world. Why can some people speak effortlessly and with ease, while others fall flat on their faces or don't even bother? The truth of the matter is, to speak in front of an audience is not a natural thing to do. We all had to start from somewhere. No one is really naturally inclined, because public speaking is an art and as such, it takes consistent practice and refinement.

You ever wonder how Sen. Obama Barack got to the level where he is today? I bet you that it was through consistent practice and refinement that he was able to get to the level where he is today in swaying millions of people to relate and buy into his new vision for change in America.

It's not surprising that people aren't scrambling for opportunities to speak in front of an audience. The fear of being judged, being in the spotlight or being seen as an authority can stop anyone dead in their tracks. You have to acknowledge that the fear, pain and anxiety associated with public speaking is self-created, which is insane. The key is to face your fear, acknowledge it and just do it! You grow and learn so much by pushing your comfort zone.

Public speaking is one of those skills that helps develop your character and gives you that unshakable confidence in order to interact and communicate with people in an effective and confident manner. But in order to get better at anything we often look for guidance.

Here are a few realizations after reflecting on my first speaking engagement in front of close to a hundred people at the Ryerson Tri-Mentoring First Impressions Gala on behalf of Social Relations Institute.

1. Research your audience - find out or think of all the reasons why they're attending the event you're speaking at, what sort of value you can provide to them, why they're there and what they want to get out of the event, and what your message to them will be. Once you've answered those questions, try and weave your findings and ideas around the theme of the event and cater it to your audience. PREPARE and KNOW what you'll be talking about!

2. Brief notes and timing - have some brief notes or cue cards that you can refer to so they serve as reminders for you to stay on track and within your given time slot. If you're a Powerpoint savvy presenter, keep in mind that you shouldn't be reading your slides to your audience - any knucklehead can do that. A Powerpoint presentation should serve as signposts of what you'll be talking about. Also, you should be wary of cramming so much information that you get overwhelmed; you will also in turn confuse your audience with too much information.

3. NEVER memorize! - this is probably one of the most common ways of preparing for a speech in a class presentation, for work or at an event. When you're speaking to inform or persuade, memorization will come across as rehearsed or inauthentic. The purpose is not to remember your speech, but make a connection with the audience in order to get their attention and build a strong rapport with them.

4. Your mindset - Go in with the mindset of imparting a simple message that your audience can remember, relate to or implement in their own lives. The more the audience can relate and make sense of what you're talking about, the more effective you'll be able to inform and persuade people in changing their behaviours.

5. Visualize your success! - if possible, scope out the venue you'll be speaking at and familiarize yourself with the environment. When you do that, visualizing your success will be made much easier. You can imagine the entire audience applauding, the thundering of their clapping with hoots and whistles, and ultimately praising your speech/presentation. When you envision something to the point of it feeling real, you'll feel like you've done it and rehearsed it in real life many times before. It can give you that added confidence in order to deliver a high impact and outstanding speech.

6. Don't beat yourself up - if you don't do well as you originally envisioned, don't beat yourself up over it. You took action and did what the majority of people can't do - speak in front of an audience who see you as an authority in your field or topic.

Reflect on the things that need to be worked on taking into account your thoughts and experiences in a blog, journal or even with supportive friends/colleagues so you can learn, grow and deliver an even better performance the next time! Remember, becoming an effective public speaker is a process and journey - not a destination.

7. Measure your progress - you can do this two ways: as I mentioned previously, journaling or blogging, and videotaping your speeches.
Although the thought of watching yourself speak can make you cringe (as it happens to me), there are a lot of things that can be gained by watching yourself. It allows you to see yourself from the audience's perspective. You can pick up on little nervous ticks you may have, improve how you express emotion, and your body language to the audience.

Only 7% of our communication is done orally, the other 93% is done through body language and emotion. Since we can fully control our body language and emotions, we can tweak it so we can improve the way we communicate instantly.

If you want to go further with this, you can put your videos up on Youtube and share it with friends and colleagues so they can give you constructive feedback that you can take into consideration for future speaking engagements.

8. Turn public speaking into something enjoyable - instead of framing public speaking in fear, turn it into something enjoyable. For myself, whenever I feel extremely uncomfortable (as when I first started public speaking), I conditioned myself into knowing that there is a breakthrough to be had in my public speaking. It both excites me and pushes me to express myself fully, authentically, and passionately in order to capture an audience's attention to engage them.

9. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! - I can't stress this point enough. I believe it takes theory, skill and practice in order to be truly masterful in anything. Public speaking/Professional Presentation classes in school can be a great first start (for students, you can get credit towards yourdegree) to break you out of your shell and push you outside of your comfort zone. This is how I started out when I had taken by taking Professional Presentations at Ryerson University. It served as a great starting point and put on me this path of improving my communication to not only audiences but everyone in general.

Additionally, Toastmasters is another great way of honing the art of public speaking. I found out about Toastmasters through my Professional Presentations class, and I never looked back!
Toastmasters an International organization focused on developing communication and leadership skills in its members. As it is international, you most likely have a few hundred Toastmasters clubs in your area if you live in a major metropolitan city.

What are your thoughts and feelings on public speaking ? Let me know in the comments!

Fitness Update #1 - Cold Weather Running!

2008-02-10T18:55:00.000-08:00

So I've bumped up my long run from 8K last week up to 9K this week. The challenge for this week wasn't the distance, it was the temperature! I completed my run in about 58 minutes and 24 seconds, which could have been done faster had it not been for the treacherous terrain. Running through unshoveled piles of snow/ice aren't really that of a concern for me, what really concerned me were the patches of ice while I was going DOWNHILL on Avenue Road.

I have to say that I have a lot of respect for people who run for longer distances in sub -10 degree Celsius weather WITH windchill added! I am so glad that my friend Beverly, who is also training for a marathon had given me the tip of putting Vaseline on my face when I'm running in particularly frigid weather.

I finally got to test the limits of my midweight running tights that I picked up from Mountain Equipment Co-op (mec.ca)... probably -7 degrees Celsius is the limit to which it can sustain any reasonable amount of warmth for my thighs. By the time I got back to the Ryerson gym and had taken off my tights, my thighs were red as lobsters. Note to self - pick up a pair of heavyweight tights for these crazier days.

Below is the course I took with the use of the handy-dandy runners companion, MapMyRun.com :)

&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/canada/on/toronto/154197567"&amp;gt;RyeStClairAvenueQueensParkDundas&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br/&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyrun.com/find-run/canada/on/toronto"&amp;gt;Find more Runs in Toronto, Ontario&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

Importance of Sickness Prevention and Challenges of Becoming an Early Riser

2008-02-04T09:08:00.000-08:00

It's been quite some time since I've been waking up early. I was inspired through the different personal development programs I had finished, and reading great posts by found on StevePavlina.com and ZenHabits.com on the benefits of waking up early.

During the time, I was able to keep it up for about 3 weeks straight back when I trying it out in late Dec '07 up until Mid-January 2008. That was when I caught the cold and had confined myself to bed for a few days.

Whatever momentum I had built up over the past few weeks of waking up at 5:30 AM, I felt I had lost. It was like having the wind being knocked out of me while running full-speed ahead.

While I thought it was something minor where I could recover on my own, boy was I wrong. It taught me an important lesson that when you build up so much momentum - a routine that you feel is working for you - becoming sick can just throw everything you've worked for up to that point into turmoil.

By day 4 after I had caught the cold, I took some DayQuil medicine in order to alleviate the symptoms, which helped me feel better, but I didn't feel I was my same 'great' self a day prior to becoming sick. What it boils down to is that being proactive about your own health is something that needs to be addressed immediately so you minimize the loss our most precious resource - time. I'll be adopting the use of ColdFX - a daily cold/flu prevention medicine available in all major Canadian Drug stores.

I have to admit at this point of my life, it's a constant struggle and battle to sustain that positive change especially when you're coming from toxic cycles of waking up to an erratic schedule.

I'm going commit myself to waking up at 5:00 AM for about the 2nd time now, and I'll report my progress and what make use of the time I have to myself in the morning, within a week.

- Will

The webtool that every aspiring Marathon runner should have - MapMyRun.com!

2008-02-03T16:03:00.000-08:00

After a brief discussion on the phone with my dear friend Beverly, she had told me about this awesome website by the name of mapmyrun.com. With MapMyRun, you're able to track the distance of your run in both km's or miles (which is useful for Canadians :) and measure your progress according to your own regimen. Also you could find a tightly knit community of runners that have various running groups or clubs in this area.

Below is a run that I completed earlier this afternoon to see how much further I could push myself. Here I chose my school, the Ted Rogers School of Management right beside Eaton Centre as the destination, where I'd swing around down along Bay St. and back east along Queen St East back home.

I'm excited to measure my marathon training progress here. I think I'll bump up my distance up to 10 km for next Sunday (weather pending). See you on the street or on the trails!

- Will

&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/canada/on/toronto/705943602"&amp;gt;Eaton Centre&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br/&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyrun.com/find-run/canada/on/toronto"&amp;gt;Find more Runs in Toronto, Ontario&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

The Power of a Warm Smile

2008-01-27T12:45:00.000-08:00

Lately, I've been thinking and experimenting of the simple yet powerful gesture of smiling in everyday life. I examined this gesture on two fronts; how it effects others and how it affects oneself.

Generally, I'm a pretty happy guy and as such, I smile a lot... well, no.. I smile pretty much all the time. I smile from ear-to-ear with a big toothy grin. I smile until my eyes can't be seen (I guess I smile with my eyes). I smile with my whole body and an open heart. It's pretty much hugging a person without physically hugging a person out of nowhere because that would be pretty creepy.

The precursor to the delivery of a warm smile is the initiation of direct eye contact. So how does this affect others? Through my own extensive experimentation by initiating eye contact and smiling at people from all walks of life; on the street, streetcars, subways, buses, malls - pretty much anywhere and everywhere, people will almost unconsciously respond in kind with a warm smile as well. In terms of meeting new people or strangers, it instantly creates a connection between two people through something so universal, simple yet profound in sparking a connection with someone.

Naturally, however, making direct eye contact with a person is seen as a VERY aggressive gesture. It sends a shot of adrenaline through our bodies and the other person because it's a biologically hardwired response to view direct eye contact as a threat, challenge or act of aggression. But when you follow up immediately direct eye contact with a warm smile, it automatically lowers a person's defenses because there's such a contrast between direct eye contact and a warm smile and instantly makes a person feel "good".

Why it works that way in my opinion is that a warm smile signifies whole-hearted acceptance of a person. When I smile at a person, I picture where the person might be headed to, what's on their mind, what were they thinking before I made eye contact. When it's coupled with the fact that its towards a new person, the effect is amplified in your favour because this sort of "risk-taking behaviour" is generally not practiced by society at large.

The foundation that makes this gesture consistent and powerful is your mindset or belief system when you smile in this fashion is your mindset or belief system. I *love* meeting new people, understanding them and blowing past the usual superficial pleasantries like "what do you do?" or "where you're from?". While most people are trapped in their own selfish thoughts of what's to be done in the future, what happened in the past, what needs to be done today in order to make it through the week. By getting down to the core essence of a person, you break that pattern of stress or insecurities. I like to get to know what drives them through life and by discovering their passions, you can open a whole new world of possibilities in connecting with someone.

During this process, you need to open yourself up as well, because how much the other person will open up is correlated to your level of openness. When you employ that sort of mindset, you will notice a marked improvement in your relations with new people, colleagues and friends in general.

How this affects oneself is simple. If you were try to feel depressed when you're forcing a smile from ear to ear, it's simply not possible. You can trigger the way you feel by how you express yourself physically. Like direct eye contact, you're biologically hardwired this way. When you smile for a set amount of time, you'll literally change how you feel and as such change your mood further adding momentum to your reaching out and connecting with someone.

Here's an exercise that you can try out for yourself. Try to feel depressed when you're smiling and looking up at the ceiling. I'll bet you a pint of beer (or non-alcoholic if you don't drink) that it's VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE to feel depressed when you're doing so.

*insert I had my friend Rob Wilkinson message me on Facebook and here's what he had to add about smiling:

"did you know that smiling is Scientifically Proven to make you Happier? Smiling actually creates endorphins which stimulate natural responses that effect mood. That's why it actually helps when you try and get someone who's up to try and smile."

Try this stuff out. It's good for the soul :)

What are thoughts on smiling? Let us know in the comments section!

Related Links:

The Art of Smiling

Nabbed galvanizd.com!

2008-01-19T19:06:00.001-08:00

For a while I was mulling on trying to snatch a domain name that were either:

Or some combination thereof. I had logged onto Sedo.com in order to see what the bid process for galvanized.ca would be... and got a response... $6000!!!

Crazy stuff eh? Considering I'm a very tight budget, and trying to stay within $20 a week - it hasn't been the smoothest of rides.

I realized today that a lot of startup web companies names have their domain names mispelled. For instance, flickr.com or "lookr.com" etc. As long as it SOUNDS fine, you're still good to go in terms of marketing, simplicity in a domain name and ease to remember.

So I give you.. GALVANIZD.com! Haha.. cost me about $10.45 after registering via NetFirms.ca, but this will definitely be something fun to learn from and re-embrace the inner computer nerd persona I shed years ago.

I'm definitely gonna have to tap Malcolm, Josh or Garmond in order to get some help in getting this thing up and running.. haa :)

New Year's Resolutions versus Dedications

2007-12-31T13:18:00.000-08:00

Besides completing the Tony Robbins Personal Power II program which has brought in a world of massive change, it will be an extension or prelude to the Traditional New Year’s resolution. It’s not just your typical, “I’m going to start working out at the gym every day” or “I am going to quit smoking” sort of resolution. Rather, I’m using the Personal Power II program as a catalyst in place of the Traditional New Year’s Resolution, in order to bring forth all of the driving forces in my life follow through on all these massive changes and goals that I have set out for myself for the next year, 3, 5, 10 and 20 years. Yes, that far ahead.

You know the saying, “hindsight is 20/20”? Why not “foresight is 20/20”? I mean, of course we all can look back and say “Yes, I can clearly see that it happened, well.. because it happened!” and then reflect upon it. But why not use foresight or the use of a Compelling Vision in order to make sense of where we want to take our lives, reflect, measure and see what our progress is? That’s where to goals upwards to 20 years comes in with timelines attached.

So back to the title of this blog, what’s this talk about New Year’s Resolutions versus Dedications? What does Resolution mean exactly? What about Dedication? The definitions of both words according to Dictionary.com are:

Resolution

a formal expression of opinion or intention made, usually after voting, by a formal organization, a legislature, a club, or other group
a resolve or determination: to make a firm resolution to do something.
the act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, etc.
the mental state or quality of being resolved or resolute; firmness of purpose.

Dedication.

complete and wholehearted fidelity
a ceremony in which something (as a building) is dedicated to some goal or purpose
a message that makes a pledge [syn: commitment]
a short message (as in a book or musical work or on a photograph) dedicating it to someone or something
the act of binding yourself (intellectually or emotionally) to a course of action; "his long commitment to public service"; "they felt no loyalty to a losing team"

From the two definitions you just read, which feels more powerful? Which definition would you attach yourself to if you were to make a New Year’s Resolution versus a New Year’s Dedication will ultimately lead you to following through reaching your resolution? The resolution is more so being aware of a problem that you want to “resolve” and figuring out a course of action that you would embark upon, and having a mental state of “firmness of purpose”. But nowhere does it say anything about holding yourself accountable or “binding yourself both intellectually and emotionally to a course of action”. So when you involve and commit yourself to a Dedication on different dimensions and relate it to your own life and how it will benefit you, with enough reasons you can find a way to do justice to your Dedication.

So those were my thoughts with respect to using a Compelling Vision to where we want to go. So on to my New Year’s Dedications!

Complete my improv training at The Second City and get into their prestigious Conservatory Program.
Finish a full-marathon
Sculpt my body just like Bruce Lee’s
Wipe out my credit card debt and start on my OSAP debt
Get a job in my field and get into the CMA Accelerated Program in order to fill in the gaps of Accounting knowledge that I haven’t retained through years.
Give Marvel Comics a chance (I’m a DC comics fan ;)
See my eligibility for enrolling in a part-time degree in Sociology at UofT
Read at least 30 more books on self-actualization

Keep in mind that each and every one of these Dedications is something that I’m truly passionate about. From my understanding with past changes to my life, you MUST be passionate in order to keep on going at whatever it is you’ve dedicated yourself to and never have failure be an excuse to not follow through.

If you start using any of these ideas and concepts, you're well on your way when you JUST DO IT! So this year, instead of making a New Year’s Resolution, make a New Year’s DEDICATION.

Morning Glory and thoughts on Commitments in Life.

2007-12-30T11:01:00.001-08:00

I just got back from an awesome 45 minute jog for the first time in the cold with my new gear, tights and all, while listening to the Tony Robbin's "Daily Magic" CD, where it entails starting off with "breath walking" which is supposed to walking to a count of "four-four".

Walking to a count of "four-four" means you take four quick breaths through the nose and exhaling through your teeth making a "shhh" sound in four quick bursts. Each time you inhale, tap your index-finger to your thumb, second time would be tapping the thumb to the middle finger, third time for your ring fingers, then fourth would be your pinky finger to your thumb, and you would do it for each time you exhale and repeat. What this is supposed to do is that it brings you up to a state of mental alertness that engages all of your senses, so that you feel centered.

During this process, you're cultivating a storm of positive emotions and energy, being gratitude and visualization. There's nothing quite like it when you're filled with these emotions. It helps you put things in perspective of what your grateful for, your goals and the purpose behind it, and perhaps re-aligning yourself with the purpose of your life or whatever it may be.

Finally, he encourages us to use incantations that you repeat to yourself in order to feel your inner strength from within you. One simple incantation or affirmation that is used widely is, "Every day in every way, I'm feeling stronger and stronger". You can insert any word you want that is aligned with how you want to live your life. I insert, "more and more energized" in order to engrain the thought of me having an unlimited energy reservoir that will keep me going throughout the day.

It's kind of funny how I didn't really commit myself to running until I bought all the winter gear. And I hate wasting money.. so it's a win-win-win-win situation for me. I'll have the energy I need to take make the most out of my day, strengthen and expand my cardiovascular system, make the most out of the money I spent, and it will be one step towards completing a marathon, which happens to be a 1 year goal of mine.

With respect to commitment, I had a chat over coffee with a close friend of mine where we were talking about our motivations and goals. What my friend G had said was that unless you have a DEADLINE, you won't have anything "pushing" or "pulling" you to move towards your goal.

Here's a quote that I keep in the back of my head when it comes to goal setting:

"WHAT’S TALKED ABOUT IS A DREAM, WHAT’S ENVISIONED IS EXCITING, WHAT’S PLANNED BECOMES POSSIBLE, WHAT’S SCHEDULED IS REAL”

So when you actually book an appointment to see a trainer or schedule a block of time in your agenda to go running in the morning, you're committed to it. This is with the pre-requisite that you WANT to move towards that goal and commit yourself fully to it, so that there's no turning back and you're now forced to push yourself to achieving that goal.

Day 1: Re-discovering my Personal Power

2007-12-20T23:50:00.000-08:00

While I was overly eager in terms of starting up Tony's flagship program, Personal Power II, I had decided to go through the first few days of his program that I had access to before the official Personal Power II product arrived at my door in order to hit the ground running.

Today I had learned in the first day was along the lines of harnessing the power of decision. It is within us to take consistent action in order to make permanent, healthy and empowering changes in our lives. This is the antithesis to procrastination, the inability to take action whereby we find it to be more painful to take action than to sit around.

As Robbins tells us is that what ultimately keeps us from taking any meaningful action is fear: fear of failure, success, rejection, pain, the unknown or anything else you can imagine. There's nothing more crippling to have this emotion take control our lives and dictate the level of fulfillment.

Also, I had learned that Success leaves clues. It shouldn't be a surprise that people who are considered "successful" did end up that way because they were "lucky". They are that way because of a certain mindset or psychology. It is an unwavering belief in themselves that whatever they set out to achieve, they can attain and have a plan in order to reach those goals where they take action and follow through.

Having access to these people as "role models" would be the ideal situation that you would model yourself after. I've had role models before, but never in the context in improving my life all across the board.

Way before taking the program, I took it upon myself to surround myself with a positive social circle, all "go-getters" who share the qualities of integrity, substance, humility and constant hunger for growth and achievement. This falls in line with the saying, "birds of a feather, flock together".

From today's CD, I've learned that in order to attain any goal we set out on, we should never let it fall between the cracks without taking some sort of action towards its attainment. By taking that first step, we're able to build momentum.

As part of today's exercise, the two decisions I've made that I had been putting off that until I had made them NOW, would affect the trajectory of my life:

1. Follow through on the Personal Power II program and constantly journal my progress
2. Go to the gym/pool or at the very least have some sort of physical activity every day in order to give me the energy and vitality to take on life full on.

As for taking action, three simple things that I would do immediately that are consistent to my new actions were:

1. Get my gym bag and toiletries together to go to the gym/pool
2. Call to extend my online course

While seemingly insigificant, I have a feeling that I will have some major breakthroughs over the course of the next month or so. :)

It arrived!

2007-12-20T21:41:00.000-08:00

After an excruciatingly long wait while constantly checking the delivery status on the Fedex website, the Tony Robbins' flagship product Personal Power II has finally arrived! Some of you have said to me, "why don't you download it for free instead of buying it?!" I've been there, and done that. Although I've learned a hell of a lot from Tony's other programs such as Get The Edge and The Time of Your Life, I've decided to put my money where my mouth is after vouching for the effectiveness of Tony's products. Here I'll blog my journey of self-awareness, discovery, where I'll be using myself as a guinea pig to measure the effectiveness of my program. I will be blogging daily to measure my progress and perhaps some of you nay-sayers may be inspired and check it out yourself. I will be posting more information as to how I got to the point where I decided to take on this Tony Robbins Personal Power II month-long challenged in a post later on today. Until then, enjoy the pictures :)

- Will