I’ve also been given the talent of being able to bring some of the esoteric things I think about into a realistic form. However, with this post I’m worried I might not be able to. You are either going to consider this post incredibly weird or incredibly intriguing, I’ll let you make the choice as you read along…

I’ve developed the firm belief that life and leadership are games. Life is a game of survival, and leadership is a game of progress. Ever since I’ve chosen to live a life of leadership (surviving to progress), I’ve been faced with 2 types of moments in my life: opportunities and lessons. Moments that work towards moving me closer to my vision/dream are opportunities and moments that don’t work are lessons.

What I’ve begun to wonder about is where do these opportunities and lessons come from? They seem to appear in front of me at the right time and the right place and my job is basically to just be aware of them. I’ve started to come up with the theory that I’m not the only one playing my game. I’m starting to believe that, whether it be a different dimension, the universe, God, angels, whatever the heck you wanna call it, that there’s something out there also playing a game to provide me with these opportunities and lessons. This might be mind cramping to think about, but let’s try to take it from a different perspective.

If we were to look at things from the perspective of this ‘other source’ it would basically be them playing to help me get closer to my vision. They’re objective is to provide me with the opportunities, but what’s out of their control is that it’s up for me to recognize them. So they need to strategically find ways to help me. Ever wonder why the same sh*t seems to be hitting the fan in your life but in various different ways? Perhaps you’re being given an opportunity to learn a lesson in different ways because you don’t seem to be learning it through one way.

What’s amazing about thinking of life and leadership this way is that it helps brings clarity to faith. When you know that you’re always being given something in life, you really can’t lose. All your job really is as a leader is to be aware. To understand what’s going to move you forward and what’s going to hold you back and make choices appropriately. If you make the ‘right’ choice you move forward, if you don’t, you’ll be given the lesson again.

It can be a very strange way to look at things like this, but what’s powerful about it is that it makes you feel like you’re not alone. That something out there, somewhere, is watching you and working with you if you let it. This has been a huge source of comfort as I wake up each day facing the unknown. Faith is the food of an entrepreneur.

My challenge to you is to start to look at life and leadership as though you’re being played just as much as you’re playing. That every move you take will lead to a result, and that result has always been put there as an opportunity or lesson. Embrace them and you will succeed. There is no chance, just choice. The choice to always, and I mean always, keep moving forward.

What I’ve begun to realize is that decluttering isn’t just something we should do for our environment, but for our minds as well. Over the past 2 months I’ve had the pleasure of coaching over 30 students and young professionals in finding their game. It’s amazing how many of them walk in stuffed up with mental stuff, and leave with great clarity on their futures.

You see, just as an apartment is hard to navigate when it’s a mess, similarly is our minds. When we are stuffed up with ideas, thoughts, worries, etc, it prevents us from really being aware of what’s all around us. The moment you start decluttering your mental stuff, is the moment you begin to feel great again.

Think of mental stuff as everything that is in your head that doesn’t fit together at that point. Once you organize and make sense of everything, things start to ‘click’ and your mind frees up again!

The process I use to help people declutter is pretty simple…

1) Get all the mental stuff out 

We do a lot of exercises in the first #GameOn Leadership workshop in an effort to get all the mental stuff out of people’s minds. Think of it as a ‘dump’ of information onto paper so that it frees you mind up to think of other things rather than trying to remember a bunch of mental stuff. This is similar to how you put to-do’s on a paper, create a grocery list, or gather up all the crap you have in your apartment into a pile before sifting through it.

2) Look at how much you have

Almost everyone I train is amazed at how much they really have when they get it all out on paper. With all the stuff in your head, it’s hard to really understand the amount of good things you have until you put them out on paper.

3) Look for trends and connections

This is the organization phase, where you look for common threads between what you have that you can use to help yo bring clarity to your mission and vision. It’s similar to that of cleaning your apartment and determining how the stuff you have can benefit your life in any way.

4) Clearly define what you want

Once you figure out what you have, analyze it a bit, then it’s time to define what you want. Often times what you have gives clues as to what it is you want, it just may not always seem obvious at the surface. What I get participants to do is to take their best ‘guess’ and then try it out for themselves. After all, you’ll only know what you love to do once you do it.

5) Re-organize your stuff to help you get what you want

Now that you’re clear on everything you have and what you really want, it’s time to get creative and start re-organizing all your mental stuff so that it helps you create the HOW in getting what you want. For example, I’m not an engineer AND leadership coach, I’m a leadership coach that has applied engineering to leadership development. My degree now makes sense to me based on what I want. Similarly, when you clean your place you would organize things so that they’re easy to find when you need them.

This is a bit tricky to do, hence why I do coaching workshops, but once you get it, it’s amazing what you can see. You begin to realize that EVERYTHING you have is an incredibly valuable assest in getting you what you want. You are only limited by your creativity at this point.

“When you make sense of your world, you are in control of your world.” ~ RC

I remember watching in a video a while back that there’s been more technological advances in the past decade than there has in the past fifty years. The stat staggered me! It’s amazing how far technology has come, but more so what it’s able to accomplish.

Already we’re seeing many cases where technology is taking over some common jobs. In Japan trains drive themselves. Why hire someone for $15/hr here to aggregate data when you can leverage an outsourcing platform that can get it done for $3/hr? A neat little tool called Tungle.Me can pretty much erase the need for a receptionist in a modern company. These are just some basic examples of how technology is taking over the tedious, but what does that mean for those who used to be employed for these jobs?

While I can’t say it’s going to happen in the next couple of months, I am confident that in the coming years the advancement of technology is going to force tedious and repetitive jobs into the hands of technology.

When it does there’s going to be an interesting shift. Many people will be forced to become great to survive. It will no longer be the survival of the fittest (strength to get the job done), but rather the wisest (smarts to make the job fun).

I honestly believe that those out there who are settling for ‘good’ jobs in life are going to hit a brick wall that will hurt a lot. There jobs will be taken over by technology and they will be left struggling to survive. Those who start building their ‘greatness’ now will have the upper hand since they’ll know what it takes to not do the jobs of technology, but rather use technology to innovate and create. The great will create the future and with the ever-booming advancements of technology, rely on it for ‘good’ jobs more than human resources. They will look to work with other ‘great’ individuals since true synergy comes from innovative minds.

I’m not sure what to technically call this blog post, but I guess it’s a humble warning. By humble I mean it’s arguable since there’s no saying what I write will come to be. It’s a warning because if it does come to be, at least you now know.

My advice: Start aiming for great. Find what it is your do best and keep getting better. Live out your passion no matter how that may look at this point, and bank on the fact by doing so you’ll have nothing to lose as we enter a very innovative future.

As always if you need help, I’d be more than happy to be on your team!

“A career that fulfills me and that pays high. One where the work doesn’t feel like work at all and I get rewarded fairly for my efforts.”

“Great go get it!”

“How?”

“If either of us knew that you’d already have it wouldn’t you? Learn the game. Play the game. #GameOn”

You see, happiness is a choice. It needs to be fully chosen in order to be experienced.

While you can’t force anyone to be happy, it is possible to positively influence somebody to be happy. To inspire them to get that intense energy that would light anyone up.

First, Choose Happiness Yourself
One of the biggest mistakes people make is they try to make someone happy without choosing to be happy themselves. I did this for a very long time, remaining unfulfilled and trying to get others to feel fulfilled. At the end of the day like attracts like and if you aren’t feeling happy yourself, people will see it in your body and hear it in your words. To inspire anyone around you to be happy you must choose to be happy yourself.

Second, Lead By Example with Happiness
You know you’ve chosen to be happy when your action reflect it. The happier you are, the more you will have achieved and see those achievements in your life. When I say achievements I don’t mean the fancy car or title, but rather the progress you’ve made in the direction of your choice. Once you have actions to back you up, your words become more powerful. For example, when I explain to people what it’s like to build a business and remain happy, it carries more cred because I’m currently doing it. When you try to regurgitate a book alone to help someone, it has a less of a chance of working because that same conviction you gain from experience won’t come through.

The beauty about the 2 points mentioned above is that even if the person chooses not to be happy, it doesn’t take away any power from you. I think a lot of people try to make others happy because they feel it will make them happy in return, and so if it doesn’t work they feel less happy themselves. Your happiness must be independent of someone else’s happiness. 

This is why I believe Leadership is progress, and not influence like many sources state. Yes influence is part of leadership and I do my best to influence someone to live out their dreams, but if they choose not to I don’t let that hinder me. I continue to progress and hope that one day my actions will inspire/influence them to do so as well.

There’s a funny thing about the past though, and that is it will never go away if you try to just ‘move on.‘ I believe every moment of our lives happens for a reason. When something happens to you and becomes a past that cripples you, it is because within it is hiding lessons yet to be learned. You are holding into it because it contains something you haven’t taken in from it yet. Just as great moments allow you to seize opportunities, not so great moments allow you to learn lessons.

So in my opinion, yes you should move on from the past, but not until you’ve learned the lesson it’s teaching you.

So you’re probably wondering “How do I know what the lesson is so I can move on?” and well unfortunately there is no cut and dry answer to that. I’ll share with you some insights but to get a real feel for moving beyond the past effectively, I highly recommend you check out one of my workshops.

So let’s use a typical example we have probably all been through that’s tough to let go of: A break up. Beginning of 2011 was the first time I got hit hard by this. You can’t help but get stuck in this exhausting mental thought process of thinking about how things were, and how they can be, without accepting how they are. On and on the thoughts flood your head bringing you down. You try to move on but are pulled back to it all finally realizing you don’t know what you got till it’s gone.

So while again it wasn’t as easy as Step 1,2,3, for me, in general I’ll list things that seemed to help the most:

1) Learn the lessons

A few months after it all I started to realize all the hidden lessons that existed in the situation. I wrote them all down, looking at all the things I did that worked and didn’t worked in and after the relationship (notice how I didn’t use right/wrong, because there is no right/wrong, at the end of the day the relationship just didn’t work.)

 2) Stop blaming others

Many people spend so much time blaming the other person as though they have something to justify. There’s a great quote that goes something like “judgement is like drinking your own poison and expecting the other person to die.” Blaming others does absolutely nothing to help you move on, instead it fuels a fire of furry. Again they did nothing ‘wrong’ because to them they prob didn’t see it as wrong just as what you thought was ‘right’ they didn’t see. We live in a world of perspectives.

3) Accept your mistakes

On the other end of the spectrum a lot of people will beat themselves up saying “I’m not good enough.” The past is the past and it can’t be changed, but when you accept your mistakes and learn from them you’ve done everything you can to make the most of the situation. It was hard to accept I was a pretty big douche in my past, but the moment I did, the moment I was able to create a new future for myself and future relationships.

4) Celebrate what worked!

Next it’s important to celebrate everything that worked in the situation. While it might be tough there are def. things that you did that you can be proud of!! Remember those and remember you’re not a bad person, you were just undergoing a lesson taught by life when you did things that didn’t work.

5) Move on in a different direction

When you’ve gone through the first 4 phases, then it’s time to move on. You’ve gotten everything life wanted you to get out of the situation. Now it’s time to move on, but don’t keep moving in the same direction. Actually APPLY what you learnt from the lessons in step 1) and put the changes into action. While it may be tough, it will be worth it. At the end of the day if you don’t change anything you’ll continue to get what you’ve always gotten.

I truly hope that helps and remember this applies to more than just relationships. Whether it’s getting fired, or losing someone, or anything where the past is holding you back, try the above out! The emotions will always be the hardest to deal with, but the more you push to get yourself to get in the right mindset, the more you will begin to move on from the past.

In our research we have found there is no way to get rid of this killer, but there is a way to avoid him. Many of our case studies show he avoids anyone who faces his superior, ‘FEAR’. You see ‘FEAR’ doesn’t like to be seen, it only likes to be felt. That is why it gets ‘HOW’ to kill the dreams. When someone faces ‘FEAR’ head on, it runs away and the person begins to see another invisible force called ‘HOPE’; the protector of dreams.

‘HOPE’ controls a superhero that goes by the name of ‘WHY’.  Once someone witnesses ‘HOPE’, ‘WHY’ is summoned to the rescue to guide the person (unconfirmed, they say she is actually part of The Avengers!! but can’t be seen in the film). She offers empowering purpose to the individual and works with the universe to help the person bring their idea to life. She is a timid superhero though because she knows a lot of people laugh at her and don’t believe in her. However, because of this, she also becomes very protective of the person she is helping because they actually believe in her. She is grateful that they care about her.

One famous case study happened to an individual who wishes to remain anonymous (He did however allow us to share that he is the creator of the Game of Leadership). According to this individual, he lived much of life scared to face ‘FEAR’. Because of this, ‘HOW’ began to beat away his dreams. He used to kill any ideas that came to mind because he had no idea HOW to bring it to life.

One day in late 2011 he got so fed up he walked straight up the ‘FEAR’ and stared it straight in the eye. He even reported giving it the middle finger and attempting to kick it where the sun don’t shine; however, the latter was ineffective seeing as it was an invisible force. Nonetheless, as soon as he did a bright light struck his eyes, nearly blinding him. He was scared by this experience, but for some reason it just felt so right. After some time of being blinded, he began to notice some strange occurrences happening in his life. He felt this deep sense of passion and purpose, almost as though something had come to his rescue. On top of that, It also began to feel as though the ‘universe’ was conspiring to help him bring his idea to life. He is quoted as saying “this $h!* is weird to the max,” because it was almost like a dream… when actually in fact it was. His dream began to see the light of day, and he couldn’t believe it! All his life he had waited for a moment like this, and he was finally experiencing it.

He has reported running into “HOW” once in a while but he has learned techniques in defending his dreams. For the most part he keeps his eyes deadset on “HOPE”, accepts the help of “WHY” and keeps moving forward inch by inch.

His advice to all those scared to face ‘FEAR’ is to realize what fear is. It is a False Image Appearing Real. You see if you actually knew ‘HOW’ to do something all at once there would be no point in life. The game would be boring since you would have nothing to learn or accomplish. The whole game lies in finding how to do something using “WHY”.

His final words in our interview was to wish everyone the best of luck. Because he knew no matter what he said, it is the CHOICE of everyone to either live in “FEAR” or live with ”HOPE.”

Which will you choose?

So I know it’s a static pic, so not the best to tell the direction of the escalators, but imagine at any point in time the either of the escalators could be going up or down, but never the same direction. Also imagine that the top of the escalators/stairs is finishing a goal.

When making a choice you will either..

1) Hit an escalator going down that makes it EXTREMELY difficult to get to the top.

2) Hit an escalator going up that can either make it easy to get to the top or have you waiting to get to the top

3) Hit a set of stairs that challenges to work to get to the top, but at the end of the day you control the pace

When you think about it realistically, it seems smartest to find the escalator that’s moving up right… in my opinion, not quite. To me there are a few issues I have with this…

1) We often don’t know which is the up escalator or down escalator, and so often times while we think we’re being helped up we might actually being held down.

So for example, when I first started with #GameOn Leadership I told myself I had to find a grant/investor to do it. So I went around trying to find just. Thank goodness I didn’t! Not only did I not have any luck, I would have wasted a lot of time trying to get it. Also say I even did manage to find one, it prob. would of hurt more than helped because of all the constraints of having an investor.

2) When we are on a ‘so called’ up escalator, we tend to relax, lollygag,  and wait to get to the top.

For example, say I think everything is working perfectly and I slow down, and I might miss the perfect opportunity that await me had I stayed on pace.

3) What if the escalator breaks down?

You get on an escalator and you think you’re moving, but in essence you’re not. It’s broken and you have no idea. You wait and wait and wait then die. Sound familiar?

The best route in my opinion is the STAIRS! Yes the good ol’ stairs!!

Why? Because you have complete control of your pace and when you believe you always have to work to get your goals you will always keep your @$$ in gear! There’s no ‘chance’ involved, it’s all choice. You know that if you slow down it will take longer to get to your goal and if you speed up you will get to your goal faster!

So as you pursue you passion, always remember “GO FOR THE STAIRS!”

Imagine life without any of these responses. With the elevator, there’d be a lot more injured hands; with the fuse, there’d be a lot more fried computers; and with the kettle, there’d be a lot less timely tea.

You see, each of these responses is feedback. Feedback is defined as “a reaction or response to a particular process or activity.” (dictionary.com) Without feedback we’d have a lot of problems. Being an Aerospace Engineer by trade and pilot, I can tell you first hand that feedback is a huge part of the aviation industry. It’s what allows you to get from point A to point B safely. Everything is working in sync with each other to work as designed.

And then there’s us… humans. Many of us have seemed to miss the memo on feedback. So I now present it to those of you who haven’t figured it out by now, “If you’re failing, it’s because you haven’t understood the feedback.”

Now by failing I mean anything that’s NOT WORKING in your life… so your career, relationship, health, etc. Whatever it may, it’s probably not working because you are doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, which Einstein defined as insanity.

So here’s a simple guide you can use to start understanding what feedback is:

1) Take an action

Just go out there and do something! Try something! See what happens.

2) Get a Result

Every action comes with a result. So as an example, say you started a business and you tried to sell something at an event and no one bought anything.

3)  Get Feeback

Most people end their journey here and give up. They ‘fail’ and decide that they’re a ‘failure’. To an extent they are, because only failures give up. However, if they realized that what they did just DIDN’T WORK as planned, it means there is a possibility it can work.

In order to make something work you need to find out why it didn’t work. Think of a car, you can’t fix the broken part if you don’t know what’s broken! Tests are done to see which part has ‘failed’ and then the work is done to fix it.

So in the case of the failed selling attempt, the person should try to get in touch with people who didn’t purchase and ask what held them back from buying. Or they should find out if what they’re offering is what others want. They should analyze what didn’t work instead of dwelling on being ‘wrong’.

4) Take a new action

Great now that you’ve learned your LESSON from this feedback, it’s time to try again. Go out and try something different and avoid what didn’t work last time.

5) Repeat steps 2-4 again and again and again and again…. and again… 

It’s called WD-40 because the first 39 tries of the product ‘failed’ … whoever invented it took in the feedback and changed is approach 39 times… Thanks to this determination the guy has invented one of the most famous products to have ever existed. Angry birds guys ‘failed’ over 50 times before making Angry Birds, thanks again to feedback. Edison said it best, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

That’s it! Seriously. Feedback is your friend because it gives you a chance to make it work again. It gives you a new lesson and a new opportunity both at the same time.

So in life how do you find feedback?

- Look for trends - If the same thing is happening over and over again stop blaming life and start looking for what life’s trying to teach you. Once you get the feedback from life and alter your course, things usually change.

- Learn what feedback looks like - At the workshops I host I teach people how to look for feedback and how to use it to their advantage. After all, you can’t find what you don’t know what to look for. It’s simple, with practice.

- Stay focused - If you don’t know where you’re going you’ll have no idea what’s holding you back. You need to be focused on what it is you want for yourself so you can adjust accordingly to get where you want to go.

I could write a whole book on feedback, which I probably will, but for now just realize if you aren’t looking for it you will continue to fail over and over again. I will add more posts giving more insight into feedback so stay tuned!

If you have any questions feel free to ask them in my fancy new Facebook Commenting system below!!

Anyways an argument that seems to be worldwide is the battle between science and faith.

So which one is the truth, is it science or is it faith?

In my opinion both.

From a scientific perspective, God is fact. What exists in reality is what is. and to an extent that’s true. We believe what we see. Without science it would be impossible to navigate and evolve in our world. As they say, “numbers don’t lie.”

From a faith perspective, God is trust. What is meant to be will be. Everything happens for a reason, it’s our job to interpret that reason. While we believe what we see, we also believe what can be.

As I’ve said, and continue to say: Life is balance. What’s great is nature loves to back me up on this one: Man & Woman; Light & Darkness; Good & Evil; Science & Faith.

So where does science and faith exist? Well like everything else, in our minds.

There are 2 parts to our brain. Our left side is science, our right side is faith. Where to ideas come from? No idea, they just come to us. I can’t tell you where #GameOn Leadership System came from, I can only tell you it came to me. From this perspective, God is trust. However, that idea alone is nothing. How did it come to life? How did it show up in reality for all to see? It came from someone and something, so from this perspective, God is fact.

We can argue until we’re blue in the face about which side is ‘truth’ or we can drop this pointless game and start playing the productive game: Have faith in our ideas and use science to build them. I’ve played both sides of the game and can tell you the productive one is far more rewarding and fulfilling.

So with this I encourage you to begin believing in scientific faith. No I’m not trying to start a religion nor a cult, but rather an understanding that when you use both you gain the whole. Trust the unknown and face the facts. If you want to leave behind a legacy and say you have had a life to live, make use of both sides of your brain.

As Albert Einstein once said…

“Science without Religion Is Lame, Religion without Science Is Blind”

And as the bible says…

“Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Perhaps when we look closer, God isn’t something we wait for, God is something we choose. Perhaps it’s in the 7+ billion of us that God exists. Perhaps the ‘truth’ lies in the perspective that we are all one.