MH3 Life Lessons, Living Life, Opinion

Resolute

According to Wikipedia, the origin of New Year’s resolutions ranges from the Babylonians promising to return borrowed objects and pay down debts to the Romans making promises to their god Janus, the namesake of the month of January.

While there are many online sources that can tell us from where the tradition sprang, there are even more voices that offer unsolicited advice on why people don’t succeed in completing their vows. Reading those essays made me realize that this year I need to do a little better job of thinking through my resolutions.

Perhaps I need to start with the most basic question of all. Should I make any resolutions? Hmm. That leads to the startlingly obvious issue….why do I make them?

I would be lying if I didn’t admit to you that I do feel a New Year is monumental. Materially you could argue it’s false. The most physically significant change to our lives is adjusting our date memory to end in a 3 versus a 2! The rest? A new scorecard for your business? A new semester for your schooling? A new season of holiday weekends to plan?

But the feeling does persist. Yet I am not sure I can articulate it.

Perhaps it’s because there is no more liberating feeling than starting over. A clean slate. A fresh beginning. A whole new ballgame.

If last year was a tough one, you can see a world of potential in this one.

If last year was a great one, you can envision keeping your friend momentum chugging along!

If last year had ups and downs, surely 2013 will be all peaks.

Most of us like keeping score. Keeping score until infinity isn’t any fun. So a calendar year provides a nice tidy beginning and end to your personal game of life. The year is the entire game. The months and weeks become periods. The days become shifts.

So back to the resolutions? I am going to put to use this Wayne Gretzky quotation, “You’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

So don’t be afraid of making resolutions you don’t achieve. Make a few. Chase them with enthusiasm.

My #1 Resolution for 2013? I already told you!

Be resolute.

MH3 Business Lessons, Opinion

Ten Reasons I Hate “Top 10” Lists!

I hate my magazines and newspapers this time of year.

Just when I have time to actually read them all, and not get weeks behind, they turn into mirror thin replicas of their normal selves. Not just in thickness, but also in depth. For the end of every calendar year brings the onslaught of the annual “Best of” Lists!

Top this. Worst that. Best this. Headliner that. Plays of the year. News story of the year. Players of the year.

Can it be that our short term memory is really that….um, what was I going to ask? Assuming you are able to read, the odds are ridiculously high you were alive on January 1st. Therefore you probably were aware of what happened in the last 365 days. So really folks, we do need the media to remind us of what just occurred?

Inspired by irritation, I am going to fuel this hypocrisy conspiracy and provide you with my own Top 10 list. My list is focused on what I detest about lists. Which in a circular way becomes such an immature topic, you probably shouldn’t flatter me by reading it. But because my privacy invasion software allows me to perform unnerving functions, I will let you know now that I can see through your screen and indeed you are STILL reading this. So now you have to finish this blog and read my list. The pissing me off list…

Continue reading “Ten Reasons I Hate “Top 10” Lists!” →

MH3 Living Life, Opinion, Work

Merry Christmas!

Burnt out from all the Holiday socials you have slogged through?

Running on fumes from all the last minute requests from your boss?

Panicked about the number of presents you still need to buy?

Hang in there. The holidays start in a few hours.

They can’t come soon enough. Seriously. I don’t get this December thing. It is insane. It seems that every year it gets busier and busier. The meetings. The parties. The planning. The final push to hit numbers. The job seekers. The networkers. The out of the blue emails from associates long forgotten. Sick kids. Extra hockey practices. Plus a staff cookie exchange.

Just this morning I’ve got someone else trying to book a meeting for tomorrow. Please go away. It’s Christmas time.

Seriously. I mean it. I’m spent. Tired. Exhausted. I don’t have one more meeting left in me. I can’t even think about when I’m going to buy my niece’s present. Let alone stocking stuffers for ten people. Why does my family still do stockings anyway? (Are you now trying to figure out what Christmas stockings are?It’s not that I’m cranky. It’s the opposite in fact. I love Christmas. My parents always did a great job of making the season feel really special when I was a kid. Snacks for Santa. Sitting in the usually off limits living room reading fables. (Yes I’m old enough to have grown up in a house with “off-limits” rooms.) My Dad pretending that reindeer were landing on our roof.

I just want some time this year to enjoy it. Can’t we slow Christmas down? Create a nice holiday pace? Give it that Hallmark card feel. Heck some snow would help.

That sounds nice doesn’t it? Hopefully you’re going to do the same. Relax. Chill. Take time away from the grind.

Okay? Sound good? You good with this plan?

Great! So stop bloody emailing me!!!!! (-:

Merry Christmas.

MH3 Football, Life Lessons

Have a Safe Holiday Season

I used to drink and drive. I probably shouldn’t put that in print.

It’s nothing to be proud of. Not words that make one look good, smart, or cool. But thanks to society, maturity, and unfortunate tragedy I smartened up.

Yet our society has not shaken the deadly shadows of drunk driving. The tragedy in Dallas, where Cowboy Josh Brent killed teammate and long time friend Jerry Brown, is the most recent high profile reminder. After a night of private clubbing, and according to tweets several pails of Ace champagne, Brent was allowed to get behind the wheel.

Minutes later the car was flipped over. Brown was dead. Brent was in shock. Families and teammates would soon be in agony.

Nothing can be done to change what happened in Texas. But we can all try to make sure it doesn’t happen closer to home. Unfortunately for me it’s been top of mind for the past eighteen months given the result of a tragedy involving two former football players of mine.

I’m not going to rehash the story for you. Instead I am going to ask you to watch the attached story from CityTV. If this doesn’t stop you from drinking and driving, I am unsure what will.

Have a safe holiday.

http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/life/video/238209

http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/topic/the_inside_story_with_avery_haines/article/238208

MH3 Football, Sports

Did the Chiefs get a Two Minute Warning about Jovan Belcher?

For a scant period of time, perhaps a minute or two, the Kansas City Chiefs knew they had an unfathomable problem on their hands with Jovan Belcher.

You know the details. Minutes after shooting the mother of his three month old child, Belcher arrived at the Chiefs complex. Once there he bizarrely thanked the coach and general manager for their support, while holding a handgun. Seconds later he was dead. He hid behind a car. Pointed the gun at his head. Pulled the trigger. Ended his life.

The shootings ignited a tidal wave if reaction. Fans. Media. Teammates. We all had something to say.

I didn’t think the Chiefs should play the next day. They did and won.

Bob Costas railed against gun ownership. He was vilified.

College teammates described him as a caring person. Or at least that’s what they said.

By next weekend will it still be news? Still be a tragedy? For me, yes. I am such a fan, that I am deluded in believing that “making” the NFL or CFL or NBA would provide a person with eternal happiness. I am such a fan, that I believe playing with my wee daughter and then going off to practice football on a Saturday must define heaven. I am such a fan, I can’t imagine what Belcher would have to argue about with his girlfriend.

Of course I am wrong. OJ Simpson, Jerry Sandusky, Art Schlichter, have all proven me wrong. High profile people are messed up.

But still this thing drives me crazy. Did the Chiefs have any warning? Did Belcher’s college issues not surface when they signed him?

MH3 Events, Opinion, Sports

Feeling Grey

Toronto is feeling pretty Grey today. In a good way!

With our soccer team quietly faded out of sight and our hockey team faded out of mind, and our basketball team fading early as usual, you wouldn’t expect this to be the case.

But the only teams not monopolized by the Toronto sports monopoly formerly known as MLSE are making big news. News is great when it is news. And news we’ve got.

It wasn’t news that Toronto was hosting the Grey Cup this week. It has been big news though how enthusiastic the city has been about it. Good planning aside, this is partially due to the unexpected news of the Argonauts actually playing in the game. Which is as rare a sight as a Leaf shot on goal.

More big news of course is our Blue Jays plucking the Marlins to the bone. Re-signing their formerly fired manager. Plus picking up a one-time MLB villain, who has talent to burn.

Continue reading “Feeling Grey” →

MH3 Cause/Fundraising, TrojanOne

Mid Movember

4. BlogYou saw this coming didn’t you?

My annual Movember appeal.

Here is where I lay out all the reasons you should participate in Movember, support someone who is participating in Movember, or more selfishly, support MH3’s participation in Movember! I mean you know the reasons right? The causes and charities the movement supports? The measures they suggest you take for your own health benefits?

Then I add a dash of personal appeal, telling you about people close to me who have prostate cancer or perhaps sharing a story of a friend whose father has it. Or even more dramatically, I point you to the Movember web site to read the plethora of inspiring stories and messages they collect.

Continue reading “Mid Movember” →

MH3 Coaching, Football, Life Lessons, Sports

Dear 2012 Lawrence Park Panthers

4. Marks blogDear 2012 Lawrence Park Panthers;

It’s me. Your coach.

I need to issue you an apology.

The reason you aren’t playing in today’s championship game for bragging rights in Toronto high school football is because of me.

You worked so hard all year. Running hills. Doing Train Tracks. Military Mile. Hitting the sled. You showed up at most every practice rain or shine. You listened and you learned. You leaned on your brothers for support and led by example when it mattered most. You endured injuries from opposing players, insults by opposing students, and insane  conditioning sessions from my fellow coaches.

In short, you deserved better.

Continue reading “Dear 2012 Lawrence Park Panthers” →

MH3 Life Lessons, Living Life

Freedom 55

Freedom 55Today, November 2nd, 2012, is my parents’ fifty-fifth wedding anniversary.

Apparently, the emerald or any green stone is the appropriate gift for this midpoint between the golden (50th) and diamond (60th) anniversary milestones. Emerald is quite appropriate given my folks just got back from a tour of Scotland and Ireland.

Congrats, Mom and Dad.

1957 was not much like 2012.

In Arkansas, the infamous Little Rock Nine were the first Black American students to enter a white high school. “Enter” is a loose phrase as this small group were escorted into the school guarded by the 101st US Airborne. Pause and consider that. When my parents were getting married, black kids could not attend white high schools in the Untied States. Holy Obama. Continue reading “Freedom 55” →

MH3 Events, Life Lessons, Opinion

Lincoln Alexander: My Brother

Humiliated, I slowly climbed the steps of the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum). It was the late 1980s and this was my first invitation to a big fundraising dinner.

Waiting on the steps was my client, who flashed a mischievous grin as I exited the taxi.

Instantly that grin was abated by the swat of his wife’s purse. It took her only a nanosecond to decipher that I had been the victim of his latest prank. I’m unsure of its official title, but it somehow rhymes with tell the twenty-four year old agency guy it’s cool to wear his emerald green suit and burgundy wing tips, to an event you consciously know is black tie.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

Thankfully our table was well in the back and out of the sight of the head table guests and the keynote speaker. Not only was I the only person wearing a suit that looked like it walked off the set of the prime time TV show, Miami Vice, I was also the only person in the room who was close to the same colour as “Tubbs”.
That is outside of the keynote speaker, Lieutenant Governor Lincoln Alexander. I was thrilled. Alexander was Canada’s first ever black federal MP and first ever black Lieutenant Governor. He was an inspiration to a young black kid trying to navigate his way through life and I was pumped to hear him speak.

But now my sartorial embarrassment turned to anger. I seethed that I looked like a clown. Here I was listening to one of our country’s greatest Black Canadian pioneers and I looked like I came from a Malcolm X look-alike contest. Continue reading “Lincoln Alexander: My Brother” →