Warren Macdonald's Unlimited Adventure

Change of Address

First up; thanks for reading.
I truly hope you've found what I've had to say useful over the last couple of years, and want to encourage you to join me over at my newly acquired blog residence at: http://warren-macdonald.com/index.php/blog
Look forward to seeing you there and continuing the dialogue.
Thanks again!
Warren

Mankato MN Men's Forum, Tuesday March 10 at 5pm

On my way to speak at the 5th Annual Men's Health Forum in Mankato MN.
Here's a flyer (below), as well as some recent press about the event.
Be great to see you there!
Warren

Download NEWMClinicFeb09

Sharing to help others

One thing that gives me satisfaction from what I've been through is being able to share insights to help others who find themselves in similar situations; such as shark attack victim and navy diver Paul de Gelder who lost a leg to a bull shark last week in Sydney Harbour.
Read on...

You're Move...

I had a guy take me to task last week with the following:

“If we all create our own reality like you say we do, why is it that I have to get caught up in this recession/ depression? I bought a modest house, I don’t buy a new car every three years despite the flyers turning up weekly in my mailbox offering me “0%, nothing down”, I don’t have a 50 inch TV. If we all create our own reality, why is it that I’m losing my job next week, when I didn’t do anything to create this situation?”

Good point Joe (not his real name of course, but we’ll call him Joe). And lot’s of people I come across feel the same way. The fact is though, that yes, we do create our own reality, and it’s that reality that then filters out into our family life, our work life, our community; where it forms the collective reality that we call our society.

The truth of the matter is that the overwhelming majority of us have been living beyond our means, and it’s the majority that shape the collective reality. Now, when I use the word reality, please don’t think that I’m going all “woo woo” on you. By reality I’m referring to our collective consciousness; what’s acceptable, what’s not; what we value as important; how we live our lives basically.

It’s not just in how we’ve chosen to spend our money that’s shaped our reality. A huge factor has also been how we choose to spend our time and where we’ve chosen to put our energy. Just because you didn’t go into debt, doesn’t necessarily mean you were paying attention. Remember, our reality is shaped by what we give our attention to, and the sad fact of the matter is we know more about pop culture and sports than we do about how our economy works, or at least we did before the melt down started….

So, my question for Joe, and my question for you, is: What are you putting your energy into? If you, like Joe, are staring down the barrel of losing your job, you’ve got some tough questions to ask yourself. Have I been spending more time at work pretending to be busy that actually doing something? Have I been spending more time on Facebook than actually working?

What if you spent that time looking for ways to tighten up some of your processes? What if you spent it taking the extra step to solve an issue for a client; therefore providing more value? What if you took a training course that would equip you with skills valuable to both you and your employer?

This goes for time outside work also. If you’re really worried about losing your job, should you be investing another minute of your time caring whether the Cannuck’s ever win another game.

Please don’t make the mistake of going into denial; the writing is on the wall, there will be more job cuts: Caterpillar 20,000, Sprint 8,000, Home Depot 7,000, and that’s just his week…

So, the reality we’ve effectively created is all around us, and it doesn’t look pretty. We can get all overwhelmed by that, we can feel all defeated; or we can choose to take action. What are you going to do? What are you going to do to make yourself not just recession proof, but depression proof?

Let’s start with what you have right now, and to get you started I want to share this story with you.

Last week I visited a family of refugees fromBurma, brought toCanada by the Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB). I’d been asked to visit to provide some encouragement to a nine year old boy named Ta Hey Tha who’d been born with no arms or legs courtesy of the Burmese military using agent orange as part of its “campaign” to stamp out the riff raff…

As we were being introduced, you could see interest in Ta Hey Tha’s face that I was different; that I was more like him than anyone else in the room, but a deep sadness still pervaded this little boys eyes. A sadness built up over a lifetime of, not just being limited, but of being shunned by his community. Disability is not treated the same way in other parts of the world as it is in the west, and although we still have a long way to go here; in many parts of the world the disabled are hidden from the community out of shame. So, I think you’ll agree Ta Hey Tha has a fair bit going against him; it’s no wonder he’s not happy, but when Shauna (CFOB) suggested I challenge him to a game of marbles, something in him changed. I’m not going to say he got excited; Ta Hey Tha didn’t smile the whole time of our visit, but when the marbles were bought out and dumped on the floor in front of him, all of a sudden he had a purpose…

Over the next twenty minutes, I proceeded to get my arse kicked at marbles by a nine year old boy without arms, or more accurately, with no arms just below the elbows. My clumsy flicking of each marble with thumbs that hadn’t flicked a marble for 30 years were absolutely no match for the way Ta Hey Tha rolled each marble between his two stumps carefully whilst taking aim, then rubbed them quickly together to shoot the marble out with incredible accuracy. He didn’t just beat me; as I said, he absolutely kicked my arse!

The moral of the story of course, is that Ta Hey Tha beat me by focusing on what he has. The list of things he doesn’t have is immense, far greater than you and I can imagine and far beyond not having arms and legs. He doesn’t have any control over what bought him to be in this position in his life; the reality of others determined Ta Hey Tha’s reality before he was even born. But it was he who turned himself into an arse kicking marble player, and it’s you, and you alone who can equip yourself with the mindset and skills to not just survive, but thrive; no matter what happens to the economy.

It’s your move.

What have you got?

What are you going to do with it?

Adventures in Personal Leadership Series- Orlando FL Event

A Test of Will: One Man’s Extraordinary Story of Survival
February 19, 2009
8:45am-10:00am
Warren’s story is a gripping tale of profound courage, strength of spirit and sheer tenacity in the face of overwhelming odds. A story that will both haunt and inspire you from the first moment of catastrophe.
Warren will not only share about his story of how the strength of the human spirit and boundaries of the human potential were stretched to the limits by his accident and the two horrendous days trapped beneath a massive slab of rock, but also will share about his experiences with the healthcare team as a patient undergoing bilateral leg amputation and the associated recovery process. Warren was the first person with an above the knee amputation to reach the summit of Africa’s tallest peak, Mt. Kilimanjaro. His story exemplifies a mindset of looking for opportunities
rather than obstacles.
Session fee of $75.00 includes Continental Breakfast and Warren’s presentation.
To register, please contact Ann Meyer at
616.802.6593 or annmeyer@cpmrc.com

More details at: http://www.cpmrc.com

Download CommunityLeadershipSeriesFeb09

Value

I spoke at a meeting last week for a branch of a well know financial planning firm here in Canada

A couple of things struck me on the drive home that I want to share with you, as I think there’s an important lesson here for all of us.

 

While it’s great that, despite a horrendous year in the stock market, their reps still delivered outstanding sales, I couldn’t help thinking that in order to have really provided value to their clients, an astute advisor could have stepped in BEFORE the crash to protect their clients money.

Now, before you say “that’s nice, but nobody knew the crash was coming”; that is simply not true. The simple truth is; we didn’t want to see it coming…

It’s great to know our products; that’s important, but to deliver the kind of value that makes you the ONLY choice in your line of business; that puts you in what Joe Calloway calls a Category of One. And believe me; if you could have saved your clients from the pain of watching 30% of their portfolio evaporate; you'd have no need to worry about competition.

Something to think about for all of us:

What’s the value I’m bringing to the table, and what do I need to do to best deliver it?

Man on Wire

Wow...

Depression Proof

Back in ‘95/ ’96 I was on the front line of a protest trying to step a road from being built that would effectively tear in half the largest piece of intact temperate rainforest in Australasia; the Tasmanian Tarkine. While we were in the forests, we faced constant threats of violence, sometimes developing into more than just threats.

On the streets, we faced regular jeering, contempt, and outright hostility. Individuals surely had their own reasons for their reactions; some no doubt relied on resource extraction for their livelihoods. For the most part though people were angry that we were making a fuss. They’d bought into the misconception that we had nothing better to do than collect welfare and upset the status quo. The former couldn’t be further from the truth; many times I forgo work to be involved; I personally had plenty better to do.

They were angry because they’d also bought into the misconception that if logging old growth forests were bad; someone, the government or otherwise, would stop it from happening. If they weren’t stopping it; it must be OK, so we should get the hell out of the way and let them get on with their jobs. Of course we knew then, as we know now, the government is largely run by the very multinational corporations profiting from resource extraction (often at the taxpayers expense through subsidies; at one point the Australian government was selling our old growth forests to Jan as woodchips for 9 cents a ton. You read that correctly, NINE CENTS A TON), so they were, and still aren’t, in any position to step in whether they wanted to or not. Anyway, my point here is not to delve into a discussion on whether logging old growth forests is OK; ; its not, and if you believe it is, then good luck explaining to your grandkids one day that there aren’t any more big trees because you had to cut them all down for toilet paper…

No, my point here is, if you think there’s some governing body (government or otherwise) that’s overseeing the show here making sure everything is OK, I’ve got some bad news for you.  There isn’t.

Now, I’m sure you’ve already figured this out for the most part given the current economic situation, but have you thought it out fully? Are you waiting on a cash injection (i.e. bailout) to secure you’re job; are you waiting for the market to come back to flip that house you got caught with?

If the answer is yes, my advice; quit waiting and start acting.

If you waited a year for them to tell you we’re in a recession before taking action, you’re behind the eight ball already. Don’t wait to be told we’re heading into a depression, by then it will be too late.

Questions to ask yourself:

• What do I need to do to protect myself and my family if I lose my job tomorrow?
• What can I do to cover my arse if my 401k drops another 25%; what are my options for moving it into something safer?
• What skills do I have to fall back on if the sky really does come down?
• What skills could I learn in a relatively short time to cover myself in a worse case scenario?
• What skills are needed in my community?
  

My suggestion, go through this process now; the longer you wait the more painful it will be. What will you have lost? Nothing, you will have fortified yourself; possibly gained a new skill set, and hopefully, if making time to invest in yourself has extracted you from in front of the TV set, you’ll have removed the single most dangerous weapon being used against you from your life. Seriously, you don’t need it; throw it away. No, don’t give it to someone; they don’t need it either, unless they promise you they’ll only watch DVD’s on it…

Ps

OK, maybe don’t throw it away; our landfill doesn’t need it either. Locate someone in your area who can recycle it.

Pps

Remember, there are only three types of people in this world.

1/ Those that make things happen.

2/ Those that see a situation developing and act accordingly.

3/ Those that find themselves wondering “What happened?”

I don’t recommend being in the third camp...

Food: The No: 1 issue in the coming years...

Again, for those that don't have time to read, Tableland is a great film for anyone interested in where our food is and is going to come from. Here's the trailer. Enjoy.

Brican Interview

Doing an end of year clean-up and came across this interview I did back in August for a chiropractic company called Brican.
Enjoy!
Download 07-08-08-MacDonald