http://www.ylcc.com/index.php/site/index/ en stu@ylcc.com Copyright 2012 2012-03-09T03:20:36+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/simply-now/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/simply-now/#When:03:20:36Z Today, choose to marvel, bask, and celebrate the beautiful things and people around you. There will always be something in your life you’d rather avoid or escape. The place you’re trying to get to, though, lives and breathes right here, right now. Life is STUpendous. Live here and now not somewhere else and some other time. Sometimes we need a challenge to feel like we are doing something or moving somewhere. There needs to be a goal. We are always reaching for something else. The next step. We only see the palace over the hill. In the distance. We spend all of our lives dreaming of being in the castle. What the marble floors must look like, the gardens, the high ceilings, the gold chandeliers. We can picture it. Then we say we can’t. it’s not where we are now, it’s too hard. Not from where we are in life we are living. We must look all around us and celebrate the life here and now. Once you accept that the next step is always forward. So today marvel indeed, celebrate the true beauty around you. Start with the reflection that is looking back at you. Learning and Growing, Motivation 2012-03-09T03:20:36+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/green-eyes/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/green-eyes/#When:06:40:08Z We left the Mercator early. 6 am. I was tired and a little groggy from a late night, celebrating. We had travelled to Zittar in the Netherlands for a night cap. Conversation, laughter and joy filled the terrace for three hours. It warmed the damp, cool almost spring air. We talked about adventure, leadership, family, love, Europe and of course home. The owner of the bistro spent time with us, chatting and asking us questions and answering ours. “I want to come to Canada, it is so much prettier than here.” The bistro owner told us. After a wonderful evening under the heat lamps we drove back to Germany and I knew my night wasn’t over as soon as I entered my hotel. I was greeted by the staff I had come to know fairly well over the last 4 days. “Come Stu, come have a drink with us, come.” Eugene (my favourite staff member) said to me. As I pulled up a stool at the bar, we began talking, his broken english, my sad attempt to not embarrass myself with the few words I had learned in German. He had come to Germany when he was 3, from Africa. His father a diplomat, representing his country in Europe. He asked me question after question about Canada. He told me he was coming to visit in the fall. He had been planning it for a year. He was so excited to tell me how amazing Canada was. As I finished my drink I got up to leave when I heard a spirited call for a drink from behind me. Eugene smiled and said “Hallo Jeff!” Jeff pulled up a stool beside me. “You speak english don’t you?” he asked. “Yes, I am from Canada. You?” I inquired. “Portland, Oregon. I am here with the US military, been 4 weeks, will be here for another 4 at least. I miss home.” He went on to tell me about how his friends and family are so jealous because of his world travels as an Engineer. He’s 27 years old and full of life. “It’s not as good as everyone thinks. I love visiting, I love exploring and I have seen much more than most. But man I miss being able to walk in a store and read the labels with ease and ask for help without struggling. I’m not complaining but honestly, my life is good at home. I like the grass there!” “You like the grass?” I quickly questioned. “You like the lawn? You like fields? Grass?” “No, I like the grass where I am from. I don’t need to find better Grass. Do you get it?” “Ahhh, the grass is always greener on the other side. Right. I do get it.” We clinked our glasses in a sort of mutual agreement of that comment. We talked for about an hour, sharing stories from our travels and what we loved about our home. We exchanged emails, facebook names and shook hands. ‘I like the grass’, that really struck me. It’s very dark in the morning. There isn’t much life other then the 6 bells ringing from the 200 years old church’s bell tower located a stones throw from the Mercator. As I entered the car that was taking me to the airport my driver Bruno quickly asked, “Are you with the Canadian Military?” I told him that I was in fact working with the military. We spoke for a few minutes, then it was silent. Only the occasional sound of his GPS barking directions in German broke the almost soothing hum of tires on cool pavement. The sudden silence made me realize that perhaps the conversation was now done. I tried to find a comfortable position to hopefully grab a bit of sleep. We had a 90 minutes drive ahead of us. I felt myself fading off. Then I was startled to consciousness by Bruno’s voice. “It’s my dream you know. Canada. It’s all I have ever wanted to do. 6 weeks. I am going in August. I am driving across Canada! You’re country is so beautiful, so big. I love to see it.” I smiled, “Yes. Yes it is, so beautiful. So big. The grass is something you have to see.” I closed my eyes and smiled. Thought of Jeff. Sometimes the grass is just fine where you are. Don’t just grow where you are planted, blossom. Family Life, Learning and Growing 2012-03-03T06:40:08+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/life-in-line/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/life-in-line/#When:13:04:45Z The mechanical sound of a pump startles me from a blank stare. I turn around quickly to see an elderly man with a breathing tube inserted up his nostrils. He carries his oxygen tank in tow, his weathered wife pushes him along. Behind them is a pair of very loud, somewhat rude teens speaking some very animated spanish. They seem to be passionate about something. They spatter their conversation with a few distinct english swear words. I regain my focus on… On, something. I have no real challenging thoughts this early Sunday morning. I look up to stark contrast. To my right is a young couple in love, giggling, touching and in a playful mood. They make me smile. Remind of the excitement of new love. Always so hopeful and innocent. “STOP IT!” breaks my somewhat inappropriate stare. “Sit down! Now!” Screams a young mom at her 3 or 4 year old little girl. Perfectly done pigtails, a cute plaid dress and the still reddish tinged cheeks from either the cold wind or perhaps a recently finished crying fit. Many of us in line focus our attention on this obviously stressed mother. I think to myself how hard it must be for a mom to travel alone with a child. To have to balance everything. The tickets, the carry on bags, the stroller and the continuously dropped ratty old teddy bear. Did I mention that she had a new born baby strapped to her in one of those organic baby slings. “Will you please help, for god sakes!” She finally says in frustration. She’s not alone, the father of the little girls I assume. Maybe the husband, maybe the boyfriend. He turns away from his unabashed stare of the very attractive young girl just ahead of him. “What?” he says with a roll of his eyes and a clear level of disinterest in his voice. Reluctantly he tells the older child to sit down in her stroller, playing his father roll that is “expected” of him. My eyes wander back to the young couple, still very much in love. How long ago was that married couple with children like that? In love, excited about their future? I am nudged from behind. Shaken from my work of fiction that I am creating in my head. “Buddy, can you move up?” suggests a guy in business suit, obviously numb to the world around him. Horse blinders on, blackberry in his hand, nothing maters to him except, well, him. While in my few moments of deep observation I had stopped paying attention to the people ahead of me. The line had moved up, maybe 10 feet. Better be more aware of the number of grey spotted tiles between me and shoes in front of me. A hacking cough again steals my focus. An elderly woman coughs into her wrinkled hands. She looks tired, worn and not at all excited about the prospect of going through the lengthy line. “Why do I have to take off my shoes? They take forever to put back on. You know they’re orthopaedic” She says with a real sense of disapproval. “When I was young flying was magical. You knew you were bound for adventure. You were treated like royalty. Not today, not anymore.” There’s a pause. Then I realize she is speaking to me. I look down at her. Her face quickly tells a tale of a long and full life. Full of carved lines created by laughter and sunken eyes perhaps attributed to sadness or loss. I am sure she could fill up a week of my time with stories, lessons and wisdom. “Yes, yes you’re right.” I reply. “It’s much more of an inconvenience today. Although, I guess this is the world we live in now. Can’t do much about it.” She grunts back at me. An agreeable grunt, but a grunt none-the-less. We stand quietly, shuffling along. I am mindful of my ‘buddy’ behind me. Don’t want to slow him down. We stand side-by-side now, like I am traveling with her. I look around me. Heads down. Almost all of them. The whole line. Fully connected to the mini-computers in their hand. Updating their profile status, tweeting their departure times, reading the “news feed”, texting a friend who is still asleep. It seems they are all unaware of the life going on all around them in this line. Like part of the herd, I glance at my iPhone, blank. no messages. No one wishing me well on my flight. Still to early to text anyone. I place my phone back in my pocket. I look down at my line-mate. “Dorothy.” She puts her hand on my arm and gives it a little squeeze. “My name is Dorothy. My friends call me Dot. Where are you off to?” Life happens all around us. Usually we think our life is the most important. I guess it should be in many respects. We get caught up in our problems, our celebrations. We rarely seem to see the other stuff. We don’t pay attention to the people who are beside us. Look up from the iPhone, blink and break our stares. Participate in the world. “Prince Edward Island. PEI.” “What are you doing there? Going home? Work? Vacation?” she pushes the conversation further. “I’m going for work. Just a few days.” I reply. “What do you do dear?” “It’s a bit of long story” I quickly say with a smile. “Well it looks as if we have some time.” We both look down the long snake like line leading to security. She winks and grins a warm grin. “Well Dorothy…” she stops me quickly. “My friends call me Dot I told you.” “Right! Well Dot I am a speaker and a bit of an author…” Life is beautiful. Leadership 2012-02-12T13:04:45+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-truth/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-truth/#When:13:29:57Z Early morning, coffee in my hand. Sun breaking the horizon. My trusty dog sitting at my feet, counting the hours until he gets to eat the same meal he had for dinner and breakfast the day before. The house is silent, Really silent. No cars on the street, the birds are sleeping deeply in their nests on a frosty morning. My slippers are on, my robe is tied tightly around my waist. This is the holy hour, before the world stirs. Before the cattle begrudgingly awaken and complain about their upcoming day, lack of sleep, unhappy marriage, sketchy co-workers or their disengaged children. I take a sip from my coffee. I stare at the screen in front of me, the blink of the curser waiting for me to type something. To share my thoughts. To write. I wonder to myself quietly “Do I have the right to share my thoughts?” Have I learned enough to share what I think. I type two words… I remember The damn curser flashes. It’s wanting more. It’s not satisfied with the effort. What do I remember. What is it I am trying to say? I sat in the car alone. There were no other travellers around me. The officer escorted me from the car into a small room told me to sit in the corner. “We are going to search your vehicle.” It’s a rental, there’s nothing in it. What’s happening. I didn’t mean to do anything wrong. I just wanted to help. I should of just told the truth. I wanted… That’s not it. That’s not where I want to take this. I take a sip of coffee and hold the delete key down. I remember I am back to the same point again. I was 8 or maybe 9. It was a typical unexciting family dinner. Rouladen, a german dish of wrapped beef filled with pickles, onions and mustard. Not a 9 years old’s favourite. There wasn’t a discussion about other menu options. You ate what was in front of you. I pushed the meat around my plate like an uninterested city worker shovelling sand into an already full pot hole. Somewhere between the chewing and struggled swallows food flew past my eyes. Then my brother made some sort of stupid comment. I was grabbed by the back of my shirt and tossed to the corner of the kitchen. “Hit him! If you want to show your a big man, hit him!” My father screamed at my brother. Is that honestly what my dad wanted my brother to do? My mom jumped up and covered me like the invisibility cloak in Harry Potter. Hoping to God that I could really disappear. Go away. Never be seen again. The disbelief in my nine year old mind was overflowing. This is what dinner was in my household. This was a tuesday or a wednesday. This is why… I can’t begin this way. I need to start when it all became clear, when it hit me like a ton of bricks. This time I just highlight it all and hit delete. It’s quicker. I remember The ripple that I felt for weeks. The pain that ripped through my heart. My wife had left a year earlier, the following year I discovered that my good friend had been having an affair with her. I had found out that this had taken place through his wife, not mine. There was other revelations as well. Some that would change lots of peoples lives. Forever. I spent a week in disbelief. I couldn’t figure it out. I wasn’t trying to answer any specific questions. Just the ones that hurt. As I walked through the door, the smell of freshly ground coffee in the Starbucks filled me with a sense of familiarity that warmed me. The smile from that Barista that I had seen so many times before reflected on my face. I ordered my Chai and proceeded to wander the book store attached to the coffee shop. Maybe a good “self help” book would be able to answer my questions and give me some perspective, some peace. I found it. There in the discount bin it was. A small grey paperweight. One quote. “If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything” A simple quote from Mark Twain written in 1894. Almost 120 years ago. I picked it up. 75% off. So it was about $2.50. I held it in my hand. It was like a lightning rod of reality. My life had been made up of lies. Made up of moments that weren’t real. Had we as a society discounted honesty so much that we took seventy five percent off it’s value? Had I? I’m not sure if this is the starting point either. I open a new page. I type two words on the page. “The Truth” It’s what the book is about. It’s about the lies that should have been truths, the stories that were just that stories. It’s the struggle we all face. The lies we tell others to protect them or to avoid them. It’s the dishonesty that we show to our co-workers or to our family. It’s the lie you tell yourself when you can’t face the truth. It’s a story. One of fact and one of fiction. My father was a compulsive liar. Dishonest and un-trust worthy. He told me stories of adventure that never happened. He was like Albert Finney in the movie Big Fish. How many stories were true and how many were lies. Have we discounted the value of honesty to the point it’s 75% off? Do some of us feel a need to share our story on facebook to make others feel less or jealous? Do some people no longer care enough to worry about the ripple that comes from a lie or what they say? I’m not sure. I’m not sure why I am writing this book. I think it’s therapy. If I learned anything at 21 it was how silly I was at 11 and how mature I had become. If I learned anything at 31 it was that I was so very naive at 21 and really learned what I now wanted in life. If I learned anything at 41 it’s that I didn’t realize how much I had yet to learn at 31 and how I missed the wisdom of the 11 year old. If I am learning anything today it’s that I honestly have so much more growth to embrace. That’s the truth. I remember Leadership 2012-02-08T13:29:57+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-duke-of-aylmer/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-duke-of-aylmer/#When:10:07:11Z I have to be honest with you. Like right up front. I never wanted another dog. I had two others. Bailey and Dakota. They didn’t work out at all. They were aggressive and I wasn’t a good owner. So when it was suggested to me that I bring a new dog in my life, I was reluctant. Not openly, more to myself. In fact I just bit my tongue and went and saw the little of cute little Lab pups. Once there you can’t help but say, “Ahhhhhhhhhh”. They are cute, tiny, like little plush toys that interact with you. We picked one out, named it Duke, I wanted Tiberious, and began the adventure of owning another dog. There wasn’t a lot of time before the we became me and I was now the sole caretaker of the dog. At first I resented Duke. He tied you down, costed me hundreds and hundreds of dollars. In fact in the last two years including buying him I have spent close to 5000 dollars. Owning a dog seems cute and fun to most but it’s a huge commitment to the actual caretaker. It’s like a job or a relationship. Quite often they seem like an amazing idea or like they will be whimsical at the beginning, then when the reality of life slips in, there a lot of work. You can end a relationship, quit a job or a team. But I was stuck with Duke. As Duke and I grew older together we grew closer. We had our share of fights. He ate slippers, sandals and stuffed animals. He didn’t come when he was called… most times. He licked everyone to the point of discomfort earning him the nickname “Sir Licks-A-Lot” by my son. This fall I was at camp alone. First time in 8 years. Just me mostly. I started to walk everyday and I took Duke with me. We would do 5k or 8k every day. It was great because I lost over 20 pounds. It gave me a chance to be alone with my thoughts. If there is one thing I miss about living at camp it is the beauty of walking along the lake and the quiet of the Moon Point Beach Dr. I talked to the Universe every day and would often look down at Duke as cars past by. It looked like I was talking to him rather than to myself. I think he listened to me though. As we walked along he would look up at me with those big eyes and if I stopped he had an expression of “Go, on….” We became close. He was my friend. My confidant. My partner. When I moved to Aylmer (in the GLA) I made sure that my new home had a BIG back yard. I wanted Duke to be able to just go out. He loves it. He is happy. This past week, I had a very long, sad and sometimes angry time. I was down and Duke knew it. He would come to me and rest his head on my knee and sigh. I would pet him and he would lick my hand, just once. Like a way of hugging me or kissing me on the forehead to say, “It’s going to be ok.” He won’t leave my side now. We talk at length and he knows more about me then most people. Last night I was sitting in my living room with a new friend and he kept putting his paws on me. Resting it like he was wanting to hold me. This usually means he wants to go out or have dinner. I got up and walked to the back door and he stopped.  He didn’t want to go out. He looked at me and started to walk back to the living room. We sat back down and he placed his paw again on my knee then his head and let out a deep sigh. He just wanted to say he loved me. That we are a team. He wasn’t going to leave me. We went out for a long walk to clear my head and get us both some exercise. As we walked down the main street of town a nice older couple stopped me and said, “He’s beautiful! What’s his name?” I said smiled and said “This is Duke.” They pet him, he of course gave them a lick. I am finally settling into this little town. I am finally excepting my new adventure and my solitude. As I walked away from that couple I looked down at him and said “Yes you are beautiful dog, you are a Duke, the Duke of Aylmer.” I had been looking for something or someone to cheer me up or come in or come back into my life. The whole time I forgot that I had the best friend I could ask for. Thanks Universe for reminding me and thank you for Duke. Family Life, Learning and Growing 2012-02-03T10:07:11+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-goal-is/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-goal-is/#When:03:04:27Z I love setting goals, I don’t always complete them. Sometimes I completely fail. Sometimes I simply write them down and forget about them. The shocking thing is that MOST people do nothing at all, in fact in a Harvard study of their graduates, only three percent of the graduates had written goals and plans; 13 percent had goals, but they were not in writing; and a whopping 84 percent had no specific goals at all. This is Harvard, not some community college like I went to. This is supposed to be the best and the brightest. I really love that goals, if you choose, can motivate you to do more than you ever expected. I am currently writing a new book called, “I’m Not With the Herd”, it’s a book about the 2% (or less) of the planet that out-perform the rest of the 98%. It’s not because they are blessed with any super human powers or strength. Yes there are those of us that may be a bit quicker with numbers or more agile with a basketball or hockey stick in their hands. Please know they aren’t better as a person then you or I. Here’s an amazing thought to chew on; there are no extra people on the planet! Everyone is supposed to be here. Why? I don’t know. I know that you are though and so am I. So, why not set goals to do BE, DO and HAVE the life you want. You can create an amazing life. Why do you have to do the same thing every day for 365 and call it a year and then do that for 60 or 70 years and call it a life. I had a great friend visit last night and I hadn’t seen her in about 3 years. We shared a drink and got on the topic of why marriages don’t work. How most of our friends are either divorced, separated or hating their long term relationships. I think it’s because when you get married you fall into the trap of doing the same thing year after year. You don’t want to do it. You never plan on it happening. There aren’t many people that get married saying, “this will suck in a few years” or start a job and say, “I will hate this in 6 months”. It happens because once you “settle”, most of us stop. We forget the joy we had when it started. When you start most things they are always awesome. The goals are set every day. Sometimes without even trying! It’s exciting to do all the firsts. Same as a job or when you volunteer for a club or cause. It’s the thrill of the pursuit, the build up to the program or the creation of the cause. I had a chat with someone over the holiday’s and they proclaimed that the organization they volunteered for didn’t appreciate them enough, didn’t recognize them enough or properly. Who cares, that’s not what it’s about. It’s about doing something for bigger reason than ourselves. It should be the goal we set when we joined. We should set our goals in life, relationships, jobs and community service every day. Once you stop you join the herd. I am writing new lists tomorrow for February. I am also righting a few OUTRAGEOUS goals for myself to. Things I want to accomplish before I am 50. They are awesome. They are grand and that’s the best part. I realized I have already accomplished a ton but I want to do so much more. I have had the opportunity to bring other along with me and my goal 20 years ago has changed so many lives. The ripple effect of a little goal setting about 20 years ago this month created many new lives now. The goal, I think, is to be more by challenging yourself to do, be and have more. Write a list of goals today. Set three to accomplish in the next 30 days. It may not only change your world but many more for years to come. Some people you haven’t even met yet! Goal Setting, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2012-02-01T03:04:27+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/whats-in-a-day/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/whats-in-a-day/#When:21:22:50Z I am writing this to talk about a day. One day. Today, tomorrow, next thursday, March 11th and December 6th. Any day, not yesterday, The day now and the day coming up. It’s really amazing. What happens in a day. Your day. Today, 378,000 iPhones will be sold and 371,000 babies will be born. Today, 21,000 children will die and 121 (in the US) people will die in a car accident. In the next 24 hours there will 115,000 marriages and about 50,000 divorces filed. On this day 1500 people will die of cancer in the US alone and over 38 million dollars is spent on coffee which is more than five times what is spent on researching cures for disease. Lots happens every day. Today someone will come home and find out they are dying at the same second another will find out they are pregnant. There are some today that will meet someone that will change their loves forever and some you will say goodbye to for the last time. Today you will make a choice to act or a choice to wait. Those choices will have good and bad effects on your future. This day may be the first of many or the beginning of the end. How do you spend a day? Do you watch TV or do you read a book? Do you kiss someone goodnight or do you tell someone off and slam the door? Will you spend time with your children, ask about their day and share yours or will you put them to bed during a commercial break? Today may be a first or it may be a last. It could be something you create or something you let go of. Each day however is a gift. It’s also for some a curse. One more day with pain or anguish. A day wondering if a child will live or die. Today someone will propose and someone will disappear. Today is amazing. Today is terrifying. What it should never be though is taken for granted. Nor should the people in it. May the ripple you create today wash over those in your life like a warm current. May you take a moment and stop. Breathe to yourself and say thank you. This is your chance to be amazed and be amazing. To play, to run, to walk, to help, to cry, to embrace, to lead, to learn, to change, to sit or to stand. On this day, live. Fully. Completely. With passion, forgiveness, care and carefree abandonment. Be the you that you can be. Thank who you should thanked and say sorry to who you need to. Apologize, forgive, hold and be. Here. Now. Death is right there. So is the beginning of Life… on this day. Learning and Growing, Motivation 2012-01-30T21:22:50+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/if-you-are-lucky/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/if-you-are-lucky/#When:19:30:06Z If you are lucky, you will meet someone special. I am not talking about a life partner. I mean that would be nice. Although, I think Life Partner is a daunting title. I mean to say you will have a partner for life is truly a long time. Most relationships (romantic ones) end eventually. It is sad and never intended but it happens. In fact in Canada the divorce and separation rate is closing in 60%. The average marriage last about 14.5 years (Stats Can). This isn’t what this blog is about though. I am talking about someone special. Someone who really loves you. Not in an intimate way. Most people consider relationships to be dating and then marriage. I mean friendship. Real hard core friendship. Over the last few days as I struggled with the reminder of loss and tragedy I found I had a few really good friends. People that were here for me and were willing to forget what ever it was they were doing to listen and help. Better yet, make me laugh and challenge me to think. Today, my dearest and most cherished friend proved to me that she was just that. She had just flown back less then 24 hours ago from a remote country (19 hour flight) and had no sleep. She braved a mini winter storm and showed up on my door way to hug me. To talk, to listen, to tell me stories of her adventures in a far off land, to talk about social issues, love, loss and we debated what everything really means. We laughed, we both talked and we both listened. There was no expectations. It wasn’t about talking endlessly about loss, lost loves or lost lives. It was about celebrating this moment right now. With us. She left, but before she did we hugged for a long time. We didn’t say anything at all. Then we broke our embrace and she said, “I love you Stu, you ARE awesome.” Partners come and go. Some stay as friends some disappear as ex’s. If you’re lucky they will stay part of your life and you will celebrate together. But, if you’re really lucky you will find a friend that makes you feel like the world is on your side and you are beautiful or handsome, smart, amazing and valuable. I am blessed by her. I am also blessed that in one conversation my entire perspective changed, my energy shifted and I became wiser. Much wiser. Take an inventory of your relationships. If they aren’t helping you grow, it may be time to weed the garden. “You are who you have coffee with.” - Robin Sharma Leadership, Family Life, Learning and Growing 2012-01-28T19:30:06+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/untying-the-knot/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/untying-the-knot/#When:14:45:44Z I remember going through the buildings at our Pigeon Lake camp the first time we actually owned it. I remember seeing so much junk in every building. We ended up throwing out over 30 tons of “stuff”. Yes, over 30 tons. Although, amongst that junk there was something that really struck me when I entered Cabin 17, one of our larger cabins. It was an old plastic sign made to look like wood. It had a monkey holding onto a vine with a determined look on his face. There was a quote underneath that said, “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” It made me laugh. I thought I really agree with that mantra. In fact it was perfect for that moment. We had bought Pigeon Lake as a back up plan because we thought we were going to lose the Orillia (Lake Simcoe) camp. This new camp was kind of like the knot and we were holding on for dear life. I can tell you that I have lived by that saying throughout my adult life. Since I was 21 and started speaking and created the camps there have been a hundred knots I have tied and held on for dear life. Sometimes, despite my best grip, I slip off the rope and fall. It hurts sometimes really bad. I would even say it stings. The key of course is to find a new rope and start climbing again. But what if you untie the knot and jump off? You intentionally let go of the rope. You might say that goes against everything I teach and the exact story of our success. That’s true and it’s false. Here’s where maturity and experience come in. Sometimes in life you have to recognize when the knot needs to be untied. Even if we want something really bad or believe in an idea or want someone so much it hurts. There are signs the Universe will give you. Signs that say look again, try again and begin again. It’s the ability to have the wisdom to know the difference that matters most. Untying the knot doesn’t mean you fail, it means you know you need to move forward. I remember a program I had created to help transition students into high school. I really believed in it. People doubted me and told me why it would fail. I believed in the potential so much that I stuck with it. Ignoring the comments and the reality of how poorly it was going. In the end the rope broke, I fell and I fell hard. We lost over $80,000 and I was terrified I would get the “I told you so’s”. I thought for sure it was going to work. The students that went through the program loved it. I just needed to hold on! Right? Tie another knot! In the end when the dust settled we were still in business and what was most important we learned. We learned what we were good at. We also found a new rope and began climbing again. The Universe (friends, colleagues, family and even strangers) wants you to succeed. Don’t live your life to prove people wrong, live your life to prove yourself right. If that means untying the knot, so be it. Learn. Grow. There are lots of ropes to climb. Leadership, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2012-01-09T14:45:44+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/i-have-less-than-a-year-to-live/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/i-have-less-than-a-year-to-live/#When:13:20:42Z I have less than a year to live. Shocking statement isn’t it. If you are to believe a large amount of people that statement is true. Books have been written about it and a really bad movie made over 200 million dollars promoting the idea. Many believe that the world will end this December 21st on the Winter Solstice. This is a Mayan prophecy. It has also been said it’s not the end just the beginning of a new shift in the Universe. Still others have said the date has been misread and it won’t happen until the following year in 2013. Who really knows? Bottom line is, if it were true what would you do? Would you be proud of the life you have lived to date? Have you contributed to the world in a positive way? What have you accomplished and what have you put off? Perhaps a good idea would be to pretend that this is it. Your last year. If you knew for sure wouldn’t you live your days differently? If you can say no then good for you! If not, why not start to carve out a year you could be proud of. Look at how you spend your time. Who you surround yourself with and how you fill your soul. Do you read the great works and the biographies of amazing people or do fill your head with pages of gossip rags? Are you wishing you were living someone else’s life or are you creating a life you will be proud of? If this was the end, perhaps you should make this year a great start! “To make an end is to make a beginning.” - T.S. Eliot Goal Setting, Family Life, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2012-01-02T13:20:42+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/mulan/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/mulan/#When:13:55:34Z Remember that Disney movie Mulan? There is a scene that where Mulan sings about her reflection showing who she really is and who she dreams of being. I remember my oldest daughter Kristina being 6 or 7 and singing that song at one of our camp fires. She was amazing. I cried a little. The question though, is so relevant? We often try and model ourselves in the image of a sports star, some cool school “friend”, a celebrity or someone who is on the cover of a gossip rag. We get frustrated with ourselves when we don’t measure up or more likely bring ourselves down to that level. In 2012 why not focus on being the best YOU. Why not figure out how you can be a better person, son or daughter, friend, teammate or colleague. People come and go in our lives, celebrities rise and fall, but you will always be there staring straight back in the mirror. One of kind. Full of potential and yet to discover adventure. Make this year a year where you start discovering the person you CAN be. You are truly STUpendous! Happy New Year. PS You can join the 22 Days of Change starting on the 3rd of December by clicking on this link http://on.fb.me/uvaEaM Leadership 2011-12-31T13:55:34+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-power-of-start/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-power-of-start/#When:15:21:00Z You just gotta shake it. I remember years ago I did the Tony Robbins personal power program. 30 days to a new life. It’s a lot of common sense stuff. One of the things that I remember is the idea of shifting yourself when you are tired, down or sad. If you just do the simple action of getting up, going for a walk, have a little stretch, making a call to a friend that you know is upbeat, writing in a journal, making your bed, starting a new book or making a cup of tea. These very, very simple actions can change your entire mood and direction. I always have said “I believe you can change your life in an instant.” This really is true and it does work. I was feeling down yesterday, we all feel down and that’s ok. It’s important to look at why your down. Is it something you’re avoiding, something you don’t want to deal with, is it winter blues or are you just riding the bitter bus? Sometimes it’s a BIG thing and sometimes it’s just you need some fresh air and sunshine, a long strong hug or a good healthy meal! Whatever it is don’t avoid it, embrace it and make a simple 1% action step to change. The journey of a 1000 miles begins with a single step! I have to make a tea and you just need to START! Happy New Year! Goal Setting, Leadership, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2011-12-28T15:21:00+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/fail-up/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/fail-up/#When:16:15:15Z Woke up this morning and got inspired! How? Reading. I love reading, I do NOT do it enough. But man do I love it. This morning I came across a quote that really struck me. If you want to learn about success, talk to a successful person. If you want to learn about failure, talk to a very successful person. Wow, that really is true. I was watching a video last night by Robin Sharma. It was an interview he did for Studio 4. The interviewer, Fanny Kiefer, mentioned that people need to understand that it’s ok to fail as long as they fail up. What an awesome idea when you stop and think about it. Too often we commit to something, know it’s not working and are scared to let it go, to fail. Many of us won’t try at all for the fear of failure. This is a BIG reason many of us go nowhere or develop as humans very slowly. We need to shake that. It’s OK to fail, to let something go, to be a failure. As long as we don’t stop where we fail. We just need to fail UP. This is a simple concept that teaches us that as long as we grow and learn from our mistakes we get better. If we move forward or “up” then we are not failing at all. We are simply growing. I could tell you about a hundred failures I have had in business, friendships, relationships and schooling. I’m ok with all of them. I wouldn’t trade one of them. I love to get better. I am not afraid to say I am sorry or “I admit I made a mistake.”. These words don’t scare me anymore. The older I get the more I realize I have lots to learn! I am excited about that growth. To let go of the past and learn from it. Sometimes failing hurts, but like building muscle we have to feel the pain of the growth for it to show. “You learn more from falling flat on your face than you ever will in school.”  Billy Joel Leadership, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2011-12-19T16:15:15+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/jiffy-change/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/jiffy-change/#When:20:19:18Z I have been in the business of making peoples lives better for a VERY long time. More than 20 years. I am not saying that I am life-changer, I’m simply saying that the career in which I have chosen is one of change and development. Over the years I have worked with about 13,000 campers, about a 1000 or so staff and about 2,000,000 (two million) students and teachers. This is an awesome number when you stop and think about it. As I reflect on my year, I am once again humbled and honoured to be part of so many peoples lives. One of the things that has really stuck the last few years is the idea of manageable life change. We are always being told that we should set goals. Some say make them realistic, some say make them huge and audacious! Still others say goals are just instruments to remind us that we are failing or that we are not where we should be. I strongly disagree with the latter. I was reading an article many years ago about forming habits. How people need to create positive habits and get rid of negative ones. Then it hit me, aren’t habits just goals accomplished and now part of our daily lives? I mean if you want to get in shape you make a goal, then you start to create a plan to work out and eat right. That leads to a daily routine to reach that goal of new muscle or a new waist size. After you reach the goal most of us become hooked on the new healthy diet and/or the rush you get from exercising. You continue to do it long after the goal has been reached. Therefore the new lifestyle is now a life habit. With this in mind I developed the 22 Day Challenge. A series of small daily repetitive changes you can put into your life. There are many “experts” that say new habits take 21 days to form. Therefore the 22nd day instills that habit into your sub-concious, you just start needing to do it. There are those that say 40 days is the magic number. It doesn’t really matter, I believe that 21 days is a very real and manageable number. Three weeks of commitment. I do these all the time. I do them to help myself be better. To be a better dad, friend, partner, boss, camp director and speaker. I have taught this at camp and many staff have successfully completed 22 days of change in their lives. Some have even kept the habits going many months or years later. That’s the idea. It’s NOT about giving something up, it’s about starting something fresh. Many people participate in a religious practice of giving something up for a period of time, then when that time is over they go right back to doing what they gave up. Never understood that. To me that seems like a counter-productive practice. So, with all this in mind, I am inviting anyone to who is interested to join the 22 Days of Change program on Facebook. We will be a starting as a group on January 2nd, 2012. (never start anything new on January 1st). If you are interested please click on 22 Days of Change and “like” the page. Then, the key is to actually follow along and participate in the challenge. Please don’t just “like” it and then never check back. You are missing the point! I hope that you, along with me, will commit to 22 days of change. It can, if you choose, change your life forever. Goal Setting, Leadership, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2011-12-18T20:19:18+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-yo-yo/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-yo-yo/#When:17:17:11Z This summer I took my family to a beautiful cottage in Northern Quebec. We were right on the lake, the view was breath taking. I figured we would swim, play games, do a little boating maybe explore the area through a few hikes. We did do all this, but it wasn’t the highlight for my 11 year old son. On the second day I went into the small town and picked him up a Yo-Yo. It’s a toy developed more then 400 years ago. Hasn’t really changed in 4 centuries. Well, for Matthew, that was it. He didn’t stop working on it, making up tricks and best of all putting on shows synchronized to music. It was one of the high points for all of us. Every day there was something new to see! I found the Yo-Yo the other day and it it made me think, aren’t our lives a lot like Yo-Yo’s. I mean there are ups and downs and sometimes we have to do tricks to get through. At first glance we all think that playing with a Yo-Yo is easy. I mean it looks that way… from a distance. The reality is, it’s pretty difficult. Especially to truly master it. Here’s the thing, sometimes you flick the toy down and it get’s stuck, it won’t come back up. You may try and spin it back but it just sits there, staring at you. almost laughing. You think “I can’t even make a silly toy come back to me. Many of us will put it down and walk away. Call it a dumb toy or say “I can’t do it” and chalk it up to a waste of time. It’s like the problems and challenges we face in life. When we get hit with a down cycle many of us just walk away and give up, or what’s worse we slip into anger and depression. Then there others who will pick the yo-yo back up and re-wrap the string and try again. A successful and happy life is about picking the yo-yo back up and re-wrapping the string. Trying again. There are some tricks like “walking the dog” that are easy and some like “the bell tower” that are really hard. You may not master them all. That’s ok. Don’t beat yourself up. You need to try, sometimes you will get really good at some and other times you just need to forget the ones that frustrate you (friends, habits, relationships, negative people) and try something new. You have to understand that sometimes “things” may look easy and when you try them they ARE hard or not for you. That’s cool. That’s part of the learning process. It doesn’t mean you or your life should be considered a failure. Understand this, the Yo-Yo wants you to play with it. It wants to be flipped through the air, spun fast and held in the palm of your hand. Equally, life wants you to succeed. Life though, needs as much practice as the Yo-Yo. There are only a few Yo-Yo masters out there. They can’t do all the tricks but they can do a few really, really well. It wasn’t a quick thing, it took time and tons of failures. Treat life like that. Don’t give up, try! Make sure though you have the wisdom to know when to try the next trick. Leadership, Family Life, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2011-12-16T17:17:11+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/little-bits-of-joy/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/little-bits-of-joy/#When:12:10:59Z I remember it clear as day, like it was yesterday. I was sitting in a high-end Steak House with one of my closest friends. We were sharing a bottle of wine and talking about life. I was very down. I had gone through some pretty bad stuff at the time, my family had fallen apart and a dear friend had been diagnosed with a life threatening disease. I had gone on a date and was not called back.  I was complaining, going on about the world being against me. You know the feeling you get when you truly feel that the world isn’t your friend. She sat and listened and smiled, didn’t comment, didn’t judge or get frustrated with me. When I stopped complaining and came up for air, she looked me straight in the eyes and said, “You need to find little bits of joy in your life.” What? This seemed like a trivial answer to my “the world’s against me” problems. Then we looked around us, the great music that was playing, the amazing food on our plate, the ability we both had to be together and share our time, to talk, to listen, to enjoy the Ovation chocolate mints that we new were coming at the end of the meal, to pay for our meal and then to walk out on our own, working legs and into my car and drive to our homes in our peaceful city. That was over 10 years ago. I have forever remembered that dinner. We have talked about it often. We both have gone through more challenges in our lives but I try to find those little bits of joy that can fill my heart and life my spirit. It’s not always easy, but it is possible. Try. Make a list today of those little bits of joy, all of them. No matter how small. I bet you feel better when you’re done. Leadership 2011-11-03T12:10:59+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/apr/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/apr/#When:20:34:15Z I have been blessed with a good life. First, I live in Canada, enough said. Second, I have been able to meet incredible people who motivate, inspire and remind me that life is truly what you make of it. You ultimately are in charge of the roller coaster that you ride. I have been fortunate that one of my closest friends has been Robin Sharma the international best selling author, sought after speaker and the coach of billionaires world wide. I think we are friends because I don’t look to him to coach me, change my life or impart life changing wisdom. I look to him for friendship,  camaraderie and social conversation. This doesn’t mean he doesn’t push me with hard questions about my life. In fact I remember about five years ago over a cup of tea he told me I needed to take APR or Absolute Personal Responsibility. This has been ringing around my head lately. It is becoming clearer and clearer with each decision I make or think of making. We all play the blame game. Our lives would always be better if someone did something different, lived somewhere else, had more money, better education, different family or friends,  made a different choice or someone did their job better. Thankfully there are few of us that can look at a negative situation and say… “How could I have done better?” or “How did I get in this position?”. Be objective and try and learn and grow. Buddha says, “We are exactly where we are supposed to be.” Maybe it’s an age thing, life experience or being more open than most. I know people in my life right now that are playing the blame game and even bought a pass to ride the “bitter bus”. Get off! It’s true there may be outside forces or issues that will force you into situations or places that you may not want or feel uncomfortable in. So what! You’re not alone, we all deal with it, every single day.  The bottom line we need as humans and as leaders to take some APR. There are two quotes to think about: 1. “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it” - Charles Swindoll 2. “Don’t burn the bridges on the way up because you may need to cross them again on the way back down.” - Stu Saunders Take action today and start to realize that this is your life. Take it by the horns and love it, blame free! Embrace APR!! Leadership 2011-10-27T20:34:15+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/tsn-turning-point/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/tsn-turning-point/#When:16:53:28Z Today well lived Makes every yesterday A dream of happiness And every tomorrow A vision of hope. Sanskrit Poem My dad passed away a few weeks ago, he was 72. On the 22nd of October we held a memorial service to honour his life. It was nice. Many of his friends spoke and I met some nice people and re-aquainted my self with some family and friends I had not seen in years. They promised to stay in contact. My brother passed away 9 months ago, he was 46. On the 22nd of October we thought about the 46th birthday he would of celebrated that day. I heard from a few people saying they were thinking of our family. It was nice. First time I had heard from many of them since his service. I have a dear friend who has been battling cancer for about 4 years and doing everything in her power to win. She lives with passion, zest and love. All the time. She inspires me. What is it about death that slaps the living in the face? Is it the sudden reality of the fragility of life? Is it the idea of losing something and not getting it back? Once we embrace our mortality we begin to live. Why do we wait? Why don’t we live right now? Push ourselves to experience the awesome possibilities of life. Here’s what I get frustrated about in death. The hollow promises we make each other and ourselves at the time when someone we love dies. “I will keep in contact with all of you.”, “I will call you next week!”, “Let’s stop meeting like this.”, “I will love my kids a little more!”. “Wow, makes you appreciate life!”. Soon after though we rejoin the herd and shuffle along with nothing more than good intentions and unfulfilled promises. If death and sickness have taught me anything is that it’s the universes way of reminding us that life is what we make of it. If you don’t love your job, change it. If you love someone tell them. If you need to make new friends, make them. If you are unhealthy, get healthy. If you smoke, quit. If you are carrying around a grudge or anger, let it go. If you want to laugh more, smile first. Make this day the day you decide to be different. To hug, to kiss, to laugh, to run, to write, to say thank you, to play. To be! Make this day the turning point that becomes the anniversary of change a year from now. You have the ability, you have the tools. YOU are in charge.  “A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.” - MLK Leadership, Family Life, Learning and Growing 2011-10-24T16:53:28+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/keep-the-change/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/keep-the-change/#When:17:46:07Z I watched an episode of “The Dog Whisper” this morning and I garnered some wisdom from the shows host. He said a profound sentence that has been bouncing around in my head all morning, “To have a happy life, know when to move on and when to step back.” Isn’t that a powerful statement? I have lost my brother and my dad this year. In time I will lose more loved ones (as will you), and I will navigate my way through those times. I have had to look at many parts of my life and apply that statement. It’s not easy to move on, start something new. It’s scary to chart a new course for your life. Whether it’s a new job, starting a relationship or moving on from one, moving to a new city, getting older, starting a new family or losing those we love. Here’s the thing though, there are those of us that do the same thing everyday for 365 days a year 75 times and call it a life. There are others that will take the risks, try new things, embrace a new relationship, innovate, go out on a limb and challenge the unknown. These people change the world, create ripples that are felt for years, decades even generations. I challenge you to grab ahold of your life. Love it. You can treat life like a golf cart with a predetermined maximum speed or like a supped up 4-wheel drive ATV? It’s ok to go off-road. Be a trail blazer. This video inspired me as well today. http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=CA#/watch?v=dX9GTUMh490 Here’s to change! Leadership 2011-10-09T17:46:07+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/its-not-that-bad/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/its-not-that-bad/#When:05:00:34Z Sitting in the Saskatoon International Airport. My flight is scheduled to leave leave at 6:35 and get me home and in bed at around 11:30. Looking forward to being in my own bed for a brief break before flying to Newfoundland on Sunday morning. Problem is, it’s now 11:05 and I am still sitting in the waiting room at the Saskatoon Airport. We haven’t left. You see there is a problem with engine number two. They tried for two hours while we sat on the plane to fix it or reset it or something. It didn’t work. They asked us to leave the plane and come inside the terminal and sit and wait. Wait for something. A fixed engine, a new plane or maybe a Luck Dragon to fly us home. Many of the passengers are mad, many visibly frustrated. I understand. Plans are changed now for many. People they were going to meet, connecting flights, weddings to get to, kids to hug and games to play. We all have “things” to do. Some of us, like me just want to climb in my bed for a few hours. So while I understand the frustration I don’t get the anger. I am confident that Air Canada doesn’t want to anger its customers. They want to please their passengers, they want them to come back and book again. More importantly, they want them to be safe. How much would these passengers lives be changed had something been over-looked and what happened in Russia happened to us. The games, weddings, connecting flights, meetings wouldn’t matter anymore. So, I am now sitting in a comfy chair watching a CFL football game (only in Saskatchewan, go Riders) and typing on my MacBook using the airports free internet. It’s not that bad. Be happy, look at the big picture. Anger doesn’t build you up it tears you and those around you down. “Don’t sweat the small stuff and it’s all small stuff” - Richard Carlson Leadership, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2011-09-24T05:00:34+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/time-to-parent/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/time-to-parent/#When:19:33:24Z Driving home yesterday from a speech in Walled Lake, Michigan I heard a commercial for “Winners”. I was shocked and saddened. There was a young girl yelling at her mom because she didn’t purchase her the right clothes. She said, “Don’t you know mom, what I wear to school will make or break me!” The announcer then said, “Get your children what they want!” Really? People try and buy their children’s love, they want to be their kids buddies, they buy them all the name brands and designer labels. Some parents dress their little girls (6 year olds) in tops that say “Dangerous Devil”, “My mom is naughty!”, “I get what I want because I am cute”. These are shirts I actually saw at 12 Oaks Mall in Michigan yesterday. I even saw a baby shirt that said, “I’m living proof my mom is easy”  They put their 12 year olds in short, shorts and wonder why at 16 their boys have little respect for women or for that matter their girls for themselves. We can’t expect our children to grow up until we as parents grow up and become adults and start parenting. In twenty years of running a summer camp I know a few things. One, your child can survive and actually will enjoy being unplugged. Two, for sure your children are sponges. You get drunk in front of them, they will be more apt to get drunk, smoke drugs or do hard drugs they will too. As a parent you have a responsibility to teach and positively influence your children and your neighbours. Your actions, language and comments are being sucked in by them. The biggest challenge with this generation, the children, is the last one is so not ready to shape today’s. PLEASE be a parent. Love your children, they actually want to spend time with you. Remember when going out for dinner was special? They will love board games if we choose to be engaged with them. It’s more valuable than any app or video game. Let them Play outside (running on the Wii Fit is not playing outside). Allow them to get their designer clothes really dirty and embrace every single cut, bruise and scrape. You did and you survived. Stop taking their childhood away. They aren’t your BFF’s they are your opportunity to create a better tomorrow. Love them, teach them and spend time with them. They don’t have to be cool like you were or you were not. They really just want to be your child and be happy. I am not perfect, I am always working at being a better dad. I know I can do more and have made BIG steps to be more “there” for my three amazing kids. Like any work of art it takes time and effort. Shouldn’t we treat our children as if they were the most beautiful creations on the planet? To shape and colour in with the most vibrant of colours available. Something to think about. Leadership, Family Life, Learning and Growing 2011-08-19T19:33:24+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/christmas-morning/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/christmas-morning/#When:14:03:03Z One of my most vivid memories of being a child was Christmas eve when I was 6. My brother, whom I looked up to (because he was taller), was in a very excited mood. Santa would soon be here. He and I ran up and down the hallway much to my parents chagrin. We yelled, laughed, teased and played. I remember being absolutely exhausted. My favourite moment of that night was when Craig disappeared into the bathroom and returned moments later with his pyjama pants pulled low and his oversized pyjama top pulled lower to meet his bottoms. It made him look like he had short little legs and we all laughed. I of course, immediately copied him. Both of us running all over the house screaming “short legs, short legs, I’ve got short legs!”. My sides ached of laughter. That night was one of my favourite memories of childhood. It didn’t cost anything and it wasn’t pre-planned. It just happened. There is a great saying that goes something like; “The best moments in life tend to happen when there are no camera’s around.” I am not sure who said that. Maybe it was my mom or dad, maybe it was Martin Luther King or Tony Robbins. It doesn’t matter who because it does hold some much truth. I have been really hung up lately on the idea of creating memories and moments. The stuff you do at 16 will be the stuff you tell friends, family and kids about at 35. A picture can show the event but your words and description will give it a pulse. The amazing thing about your memories are they are yours. You have the creative license to tell the story. The mountain of snow you scaled at recess that was 30 feet high. The first kiss that was under the stars, near the water on a dock with a warm breeze soothing your sun drenched skin. The advise you got from a teacher that steered you in a direction you never expected. The random road trip that created small moments that become epic over time. There is no App, no video game or virtual experience that can be programmed for those morsels of childhood moments that become the feasts of the stories you will share with others. Unplug today, if the sun is shining, take off your shoes and crunch your toes in the cool spring grass, run, laugh, play. Create new moments. Be aware and store them to your rolodex of life. Life is beautiful. Leadership, Family Life, Learning and Growing 2011-05-07T14:03:03+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/up-where-we-belong/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/up-where-we-belong/#When:18:07:19Z “Up Where We Belong” is a song from the eighties. It’s sung by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes. It was a pretty popular song in its time. I haven’t heard that song for a VERY long time. Today, while I was cleaning my little cabin in the woods it came on the Radio. I was instantly transported back in time. Back to 1989. This was the year I worked in Grand Bend (the first time), I was hired to be the DJ of Sanders on the Beach. At the time Sanders was the most popular bar. It had three patios, outdoor music, faced Lake Huron and had some of the best sunsets in the world. People would line up for hours, yes hours, on a long weekend to get in and pay a very inflated price for a drink. I was popular. Not because I was good looking or the life of the party, but because I was the DJ of the coolest bar in “the Bend”. I wasn’t a great DJ. There were far better. I was selected by my brother to be ‘the man’. In an instant this morning, when I heard this song I was whisked back to a very different time. A time of pure young fun, absolute immature stupidity, summer crushes and blanked out nights. I was 19, I was invincible. I went on to work three more summers in the Bend and I always had fun. They weren’t the best times, but they were moments etched into my memory. Moments of new friends and a popularity that I never experienced in my life prior to those summer days at the beach. I struggle with young people that take jobs that are less then what they want just because it’s “better money”. I am challenged by youth that rush through the days of unbridled possibility. Those days shaped me. They helped me solidify my understanding of right and wrong, maturity and immaturity. There should be a place in everyones life to play, to be stupid and to be young. That one song reminded me of that. At the end of each night in the “Sandbar”, our dance bar in the basement of Sanders, I would play that Joe Cocker song. The young love of the day would dance, kiss and a sense of calm would envelope me. Somehow I knew that these times were unique, they wouldn’t last, but they were special. I miss those days, I miss the clean whiteboard. No idea of what was to be written or drawn. Absolutely ignorant to the real struggles or triumphs that would face me over the next 20 years. Why? Because it didn’t matter. I was up where I belonged. I was the DJ. Family Life, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2011-03-12T18:07:19+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/more/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/more/#When:14:16:48Z So often in life we would like to have more. In fact, I believe that most people want more. The question is are you willing to make a change to get more? There is a fine line between wanting more then you currently have and loving what you already have more. What I mean is that you already have a lot. I assume that you, the reader of this blog are sitting in front of your own computer. That’s more then 85% of the world can do. You are probably in your own home, again more then many people. You may even be at your university, growing and becoming… well… MORE. This higher education opportunity is again more then many people dream of having. I once heard a speaker say that people in North America are always trying to win the lottery. Why? You probably already have. Your life, here in North America (specifically the US or Canada), is full of far MORE then most of the world. So grow, challenge yourself, be better. The reason? Because you can, you have the freedom to be, do and have MORE. Remember though, while on the journey of MORE, celebrate the “already have’s”, because life is really already pretty awesome. Leadership, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2011-01-09T14:16:48+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/lesons-learned/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/lesons-learned/#When:16:27:57Z As the year draws to a close and the prospect of a new year approaches, the excitement of New Year’s resolutions is upon us all. We all make a set of goals and objectives trying to make our year better, our lives better. The truth is that studies show that 12 percent of men and 10 percent of women actually achieve their resolutions. So, I thought I would share what I have learned in 2010 with the idea in mind that it may help myself and perhaps you in setting your goals for 2011. 1. Be the kindest person you can be and the world will come to you. 2. Show gratitude every day and in every way. Thank you are the two most important words in any language. 3. Eat better, sugar and processed foods are not good. 4. Just because the label says it’s natural doesn’t make it good for you. 5. Drink at least 1 litre of water every day, if you can 2 litres. 6. Have the conversations you need to have, even if they scare you (this one I need to always work on). 7. Facebook is not the greatest thing in the world. 8. Playing on the Wii is not the same as playing outside. 9. Many parents are too over protective and could do well to remember their childhood. 10. Making someones day doesn’t take cash. 11. Reading a book is a still awesome. Including the BOOK OF AWESOME. 12. The value of a hand written note has way more value then an email or text message. 13. I can always be better and you can make that choice every day. 14. The more you give the more you get. 15. I really enjoy a glass of red wine. 16. I love taking my dog for a walk. Be outside more in 2011. 17. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side. 18. Grow where you are planted. 19. Journal, journal, journal! If your life is worth living, it’s worth recording. 20. Get up earlier. 21. Simplify your life. Clutter in your world = clutter in your mind. 22. I have a lot to learn - So do you. 23. It’s ok to say no. 24. It’s ok to say “I don’t know.” 25. Ask your parents about their childhood. 26. I don’t always have to make my kids life “better” than yours. My life (and yours) was probably pretty good. 27. Spend more money on a good mattress than a good TV. 28. Summer Camp is a good thing that every child should experience. 29. Apple has the best customer service in any industry. 30. Writing a gratitude list is a very good thing. 31. 1% actions steps are the key to all success. Break down your goals. 32. I can make a New Year’s Resolution at any time. In fact the 1st of January isn’t the best day (statistically proven). 33. I am incredibly lucky to be alive, live in the country I do and have the family I have. Thank you. Happy New Year to all! Forward this list if you think it’s valuable. Thanks to all those that have supported me, YLCC, OSLC and all that we do. Leadership, Family Life, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2010-12-29T16:27:57+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/friendaversery/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/friendaversery/#When:17:56:38Z It is said that children come to us more highly evolved then adults. In fact children are often quoted and used as examples of wisdom. They give us constant examples. In fact most parents will willingly tell you that their lives have been changed dramatically by their kids. They have new outlooks on life, new priorities and even a new appreciation for the little things. The wonder that a toddler experiences every single day is awesome. A butterfly, flower, dog, shiny key or bright piece of fabric can bring a clown sized smile to a one or two year old. The excitement of running fast or jumping over or in a puddle can amaze a four or five year old. The creation a seven year old makes out of a cardboard box can entertain for days even weeks. The optimistic perspective of a ten year old can create change in even the most shrewd forty-five year old corporate titan. My kids are amazing. They teach me every day and have for years. Kristina at six years old, now nineteen, said, “Wouldn’t it be great if life was like a VHS tape? You could fast forward through the bad stuff and rewind and watch the good stuff over and over again!” Yesterday, while talking to my ten year old son, he was excited to tell me about how special the day was. When I asked him why he said, “Today is me and Luke’s friendaversary!” “What’s that mean?”, I asked having an idea what this ‘holiday may represent. “It’s been five years since Luke and I became friends! Each year we celebrate our friendship.” Awesome. Truly simple. I hope that hallmark doesn’t hear about this new found celebration or else we will soon find “Friendaversary” cards available at local card shops. What a great idea, celebrating our friends. Luke and Matty don’t go out for a fancy dinner, buy an expensive gift or go away on a trip. Matty says they simply talk about “old times” and laugh. Please take a moment today to do two things; one, celebrate a good friend and two, ask a child about their perspective on life, what’s important and how to better enjoy our days. You may be amazed at what you learn. Leadership, Family Life, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2010-11-24T17:56:38+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/change-happens/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/change-happens/#When:18:58:41Z I haven’t written in a long time. I have started many a blog that way, I realize that. Got me thinking, why? Why do I write so much less then I used to? I think I have been in a bit of a funk. Things are going great right now, please don’t get me wrong. Life is actually pretty awesome. I just can’t seem to find the personal spark right now. I know it’s right there, just sitting there waiting. I am trying to make some big decisions right now, life changing, business changing, health changers. I know I need to spend some time with me, all alone, with my journal and figure it out. Change is ok. Scary and uncomfortable but good. I need to be ok with that. I hope that when I get through this process I am much clearer then I am now. If there is a lesson in all of this I think it’s ok to uncomfortable with stuff. I also believe that any good leader is always learning and growing. HERE IS BIG NEWS, you aren’t perfect. Far from it. No one is. I meet people all the time, even some that work with me that believe that they have it all figured out. They don’t. They really don’t. That’s a hard lesson to learn. Just when you get comfortable, you should force yourself to be uncomfortable. That where the growth happens. I also continue to be reminded that the grass isn’t always, in fact rarely is, greener on the other side. Grow where you are planted, shine even on those cloudy days and be ok with change, in fact embrace it. Leadership, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2010-11-16T18:58:41+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/this-is-not-how-its-supposed-to-be/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/this-is-not-how-its-supposed-to-be/#When:00:08:24Z A young boy stays awake for what seems forever, hoping and praying and thinking. He has tried for hours, days and weeks. Over and over and over he has shot the ball at the net. Sometimes it goes in, sometimes it misses completly, still other times it circles the rim three or four times and topples in… or out. The day comes and he is focused, he plays the scene over and over again in his head. He see’s the basketball falling though the hoop, the coach smiling and a friend giving him a well deserved high-five. He hears his dad’s words clearly, “Give it your best and the coach will do the rest. Just try your hardest.” It’s his turn, he lines up a the free-throw line and concentrates, like a mind-reader seeing the future. He is sure to others in the gymnasium he must look like an NBA forward bouncing the ball once, twice, quick little toss between his sweaty hands. One more bounce. He closes eyes and visualizes the ball swooshing through the hoop, nothin’ but net. He bends his knees, opens his eyes and releases the ball. It sails through the air like a slow motion replay. It is headed perfectly towards the net. Then, suddenly like a well pitched sinker in baseball, it seems to drop and it hits the front of the rim, bouncing off and not going in. “HOW?!” is all he can scream in his head. He stares at the net then the ball. He hears nothing. Then the silence is broken by the coach yelling at him to ‘move on’. This is not supposed to be the way it plays out. He was sure he would make the team, make his dad proud, make new friends, be popular. He runs out of the gym without taking a second shot. He quits. Life doesn’t have an app called “The Way it’s Supposed to Go…”. That’s the beauty and the tragedy that life is. The child isn’t supposed to be left by his parents. The couple is supposed to stay married forever. The dog isn’t supposed to be pushed out of a car because he’s inconvenient. The expectant mother isn’t supposed to lose her baby. The 31 year old woman isn’t supposed to be stricken with breast cancer. Friends aren’t supposed to lie to you. Large corporations and powerful politicians aren’t supposed to be crooked and dishonest. People and religions shouldn’t be intolerable. Insert whatever you want. But they are. So what do we do? What do you and I do? Adapt. Change, Try. Breathe. Grow. Accept. Move on. Fight back. Organize. Care more. Write more. Tolerate more. Dream more! We must learn from our mistakes. Increase our awareness and make better choices. The world needs more people to expect less, assume nothing and dream bigger… MUCH BIGGER! You can create how your life is supposed to be. None of us are entitled to anything. It must be earned and developed and nourished. It’s up to us to make it how it’s supposed to be. This school year, be a doer not an expecter! Make your year what it could be. Make your day how you want it to be, how it’s supposed to be. Leadership 2010-09-07T00:08:24+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/plane-tickets-to-sushi-dinners/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/plane-tickets-to-sushi-dinners/#When:18:30:04Z My life is amazing. I am given constant reminders every single day of how I am being guided by the universe in the most amazing ways. My favourite quote that I have ever said is… “Be the kindest person you can be and the world will come to you!” I made this up because it exemplifies what I believe. The kinder you are, the more the universe will shower you with opportunities, kindness, dreams, wonderful friendships and support. I once was kind to a gate agent in Chicago during a massive ice storm. She rewarded me with a seat on the only plane leaving that night… first class. I don’t do kind things because I want or expect anything in return. On the contrary, I actually get a little more joy when only I know. It wasn’t to long ago I was out for a sushi dinner at one of my favourite restaurants enjoying conversation with one of the most wonderful people I know. When we noticed the table beside us was in a deep discussion. These four young teenage boys all had looks of serious concern on their faces. I soon realized that they were short of money. They hadn’t considered their pops, the taxes or even a tip. So, we finished our meal and when I paid asked our server to put their entire bill on mine and I paid for it all, tip included. There was no big scene. I didn’t make a speech. As I left we made eye contact and they realized that I had bailed them out of their little shortage. I felt great! They were relieved and perhaps they will learn something from the event. One, bring enough money to pay for dinner. Two, how good it feels to be bailed out of a sticky situation and will in turn help someone else. So go out today and do something kind for someone. The key though, is to do it for the right reason. Do it because it’s the right thing to do and it feels SO good. Leadership 2010-08-03T18:30:04+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/living-the-dream/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/living-the-dream/#When:04:04:27Z I know I haven’t written a BLOG in a LONG time. I have been busy. I have been on vacation. Been spending time at the beach, going for runs, lazing around in Muskoka chairs, went for a couple of nature hikes, did a little rock climbing, spent a lot of time reflecting and reading, enjoyed a few spins on the speed boat, had some gourmet food prepared by my own amazing chef and I am currently bustin’ a move at the Disco! It has been an amazing few weeks. The good news is that I am on vacation for the next 6 weeks!! I know what you are wondering, how? How do I do this, how do I afford it? Truth is, it’s all free. In fact I get paid to do it. Honestly. No, I don’t work on a cruise line or some expensive five star resort. I own a summer camp. I have for 18 years. I am blessed by whomever you want to name. I am blessed by the ability to truly live out my dreams! Years ago a YMCA camp counsellor I said to who would ever listen that I want to own my own camp one day… and PRESTO, I do. Now, I would like you to believe that it was just that easy, but it wasn’t. It took a lot of time, hard work and patience.  The hardest parts of this whole journey has been one, making the actual decision to start the camp and two, believing in my dream SO much that when everyone else around me told me that we should not expand, not move and not even keep doing the camp, I said no. The only two true passions I have in my life are my kids and growing YLCC (YouthLeadership Camps Canada, that’s my camp). There were a plethora of exits provided to me on silver plater. There were lots of “reasons” I could of folded up the tents and no one would have thought any less of me. Except one person… me. I would forever know that I quit, that I gave up. My job, my career is my vacation. There are tough times and as we grow tougher choices I am faced with. That’s ok, even the most perfect vacation can have rainy days. You just have to make a new plan, adjust your sails and regroup. I guess my challenge to anyone is to find that ONE thing that you believe in SO much that you will do anything to make it a reality. Maybe it’s a new business, a family, making the team, graduating with honours, writing that book or owning your own camp one day. The only thing you have to remember is that you need to work hard, don’t give up, believe in you and ignore the critics. I’m off to a much deserved rest. Goodnight and dream deeply! Leadership 2010-07-16T04:04:27+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/to-bend-the-universe/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/to-bend-the-universe/#When:00:48:47Z What I am about to write may seem strange. Perhaps laughable. These next few paragraphs will I’m sure make you question my sanity. You may even turn to a person and shake your head and comment to them, “This guys nuts”. So if you don’t want to hear what I have to say then please, visit somewhere else on this information super highway called the Internet. I control the universe. The universe does not control me. I have the ability to bend my reality which ever way I chose. If I ask for it, it will mostly like come my way, not always right away, but it will come. Cool, huh? That’s the secret. No, not the cheesy book that was being peddled a few years ago on the Oprah show.  Don’t get me wrong Winfrey fans, the book at the core has a good message, the law of attraction. It’s true, it works. The problem is that it was set up to read more like a lazy mans universal shopping list. Just ask and it will come. Of course everyone that night said, “give me a car” or “I want to win the lottery”. It didn’t work. That’s not how the universe roles. It is s give and take thing. You have to give more then you take. If you do you will receive more then you could imagine. The other night I challenged the universe to show itself and to prove the connection that I believe we share. As I ran later then usual, breathing in the fresh night air, celebrating the legs that carry me down the safe street I live on. I was startled by the flash of a firefly millimeters from my right eye. It almost seemed to be showing off. Dancing against the night sky, darting back and forth like a child discovering the wonders of a sparkler for the first time. Back and forth it shot. I didn’t try and shoo it away. I looked at it, I could see the translucent underside of its abdomen. It was like a million mirrors reflecting back the light or the magic. I stopped in my tracks and looked at it. It hovered in front of me, shifting from the right to the left. I said, “hello”. It stopped in it’s place zipped around my head and gave one more brilliant flash of light and was gone into the bush by the roadside. I looked up at the night sky at the millions of stars and back to the long, dark road ahead of me. I was alone. No noise except the hum of a car in the distance and sound of a breeze through the trees. I felt like I had been touched, connected in a new way. I decided to put it out there. “Universe, I am watching your magic and I am aware. If you are listening show yourself. Let me see you are listening.” Suddenly a half dozen brilliant lights sparkled in front of me and shot to the same bush my friend from earlier had disappeared to. “Really show me universe. Show me you’re really there, that we are connected.” Then out of nowhere like a scene from Avatar, there were hundreds within 2 meters of me. Sparkling like a newly decorated home at Christmas. “Show me!” I yelled out. They blinked brighter and were joined by more. My eyes began to fill with emotion, goose bumps covered my skin, my heart raced faster. “Thank you…” was all I could muster. Then as fast they appeared, they were gone. Just a few were left to flutter and flicker away into the forest. I was alone again, but only in the literal sense. I realized that I wasn’t alone at all. The universe was beside me. Then and now and tomorrow. I can communicate with the universe. It listens to me, it works for me. It only needed me to take off the blinders of the filing system we (society) has developed. You are this, you come from here, you make this much, this your god, this is my god, I’m right, you’re wrong, I live for Friday, I count days till I’m “done”, I will do it when it’s more acceptable to… “them”, parents, teachers, society, community, preachers, friends, genre or class. Then the naked mole said “but why not?”. That’s right. You can control the universe too, this is not exclusive to me. The key is that’s it is not a secret at all. It, the universe, is waiting to show you. Ask, just ask. Speak out loud, don’t be afraid. It’s not a shopping spree awarded by the local hit music station though and it’s not magic. You will need to give to get, thank others for everything, believe and of course have patience. The universe is listening… Right now… Blink, blink, blink, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzip! Gone.  Leadership 2010-06-08T00:48:47+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/really-really-no-really/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/really-really-no-really/#When:13:14:08Z I wander down the street, enjoying the sunshine, my soul is warmed by the sun and the full day that was ahead of me. I wait in line for a tea at the local fair trade coffee shop. I stand behind a woman in her late twenties. She turned to her friend and said “This weather sucks, so frickin’ hot. I hate it, I really hate it.” This actually made me say out loud, “Really? Really? No? Really?” She turns and glares, I look at the price on a bag of coffee and point, smile. Behind me a couple of teenage brothers are very grumpy busy complaining that their parents wouldn’t buy them the new iPod’s. This made them very upset. “Mom is such a B!&CH! I asked her like three times, I even took out the garbage today. Man I hate her!” Again, I repeat (this time in my head), “Really? Really? No? Really?” Hey whiners, STOP! Most people in this country have NO idea the beautiful life they have been given. I once, complained to a friend about not getting what I want, I was depressed. Feeling empty. She simply smiled and said two of the most important words that I remind myself of every single day. Those words, find joy. If you think it’s bad please move to Afghanistan. Otherwise, enjoy your clean drinking water, you freedom to travel, the sounds of birds and not bombs, the freedom to dress with as little clothing as you want, to shop in grocery stores full of fresh foods, to walk into a public library and READ, to vote freely, to own an iPod, iPad to have eyes. To simply be whom you want to be. This idea has been repeating itself over and over again in my head for months. In the winter it’s to cold, the summer to hot, the spring to wet, the fall sucks because the winter is coming. Our jobs are unfulfilling, our parents are unfair, our teachers are mean, adults “don’t get it!” Young people just waste it. We spend our youth wanting to be older and our adulthood wishing we had done more when we were young. This is a never ending cycle. It’s human nature right? Just the way people are. Never quite having enough. The internet connection is not fast enough and there is nothing on TV. Here is the idea that I wish we could all embrace. Find joy, move forward, learn from our lessons, celebrate our freedom, help someone in need and laugh often. Care, listen, love and say thank you. Find Joy, find peace, find beauty. Embrace what’s right. Be STUpendous. Don’t get caught up in extremes. Don’t judge. Be you, be fair. There are no extra people on the planet. You matter, you can count, you really do count, be happy that you learned to count. Life is hard, life is equally sweet, life is a choice. You are who you spend time with. The past is gone, the future is unknown and today is a gift that’s why it’s called the present. Be the change, be the example, be, simply be. In the end you will succeed if you choose. Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it. Breathe, dream, find joy. Yes, it’s really, really just that simple. Really. Leadership 2010-05-31T13:14:08+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/mchappy-life/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/mchappy-life/#When:22:19:39Z Simple isn’t it. Life, I mean. It is the the one thing we all have to participate in it. I guess we could choose not to if we want, but then what’s the point. We all are given the same opportunity to lead a good life. Yes, no doubt that where you are born, the country, the economics and the time you are born all have significant impact on how you will live from day to day. But, the chance to choose to live fully is given to everyone. There are the stories of people in every corner of the world that have been born into war, mediocrity, poverty and hunger yet still live extraordinary lives. Nelson Mandela, Oprah Winfrey, Terry Fox, Richard Branson and my mom are all great examples of people that have lived well despite the hardships presented to them. My mother during the second world war witnessed and survived the Blitz full on. She was shipped to the country side of England, separated from her mother, father and brothers. When the war was over and she returned to London the front of her home was gone. She could stand on the street and look at her home resembling more of a doll house then the family home she left. Most of the walls missing, destroyed by German bombs. She would live that way for more then a year, no washroom, shower or privacy. Today, she is a proud home owner and she is actively living each day. Why is it we complain, whine and bitch about everything. We are SO lucky to live when we do and how we do. We are responsible for our own happiness. It’s now always easy. Unlike a McHappy meal we just can’t order joy. We need to make decisions that will help facilitate our own happiness. If you aren’t happy, then make the change. When you know what will change you from a negative attitude to a positive one, do it. I too need to make a constant effort every day to make sure I am setting myself up for success. I need to put out what I want back. I need to attract the uninhibited joy into my life. This is my choice and it’s your choice. Make it. Stop complaining and start celebrating! “To attract something that you want, become as joyful as you think that thing would make you. The joy, not the thing, is the point.”  - Martha Beck Leadership 2010-05-09T22:19:39+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/a-full-life/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/a-full-life/#When:01:33:19Z This may seem arrogant. You may call me pompous or full of myself. I’m not though. I swear. I am sitting on the most comfortable couch, with the most relaxing music playing while absorbing the smell of the burning cedar and sound of the crackling fire. I am incredibly rich and successful, but not in dollars and cents. The fall of ninth grade I was confronted by 5 members of the football team. They told me they wanted to show me something. I was then tackled, forced into a small, cannonball like position and bound using masking and duct tape and made into a human tape ball. They then rolled me into a storage closet and I was left there until the custodians found me many hours later. I hated myself, I wanted to run away, to die. How could I be such a loser that it would become the goal of 5 senior high school students to humiliate me to the point of tears. As I lied in the closet, hearing the laughing of students and the bells ringing for class changes, I was helpless. I was truly alone. I was was unable to do anything to change my situation. At that moment I felt as if I would never amount to anything in my life. I was not much more then heap of useless crap. I am nothing. I awake some mornings and walk from my front door, wander through the woods and make my way to the beach. The sun rises over the water. I climb into a kayak and paddle my way through the placid water to make my way to the middle of the lake. I see the warm sun rays cut through the morning mist wafting up from the water. The morning air fills my lungs. I close my eyes and smile to myself. This is mine. My life is blessed. I am more, I have more, I do more then most. I stood at the back of the gymnasium door, nervous. I was in grade 11. In a few moments I would be called upon to stand in front of 1400 of my fellow school mates. This moment was a double edged sword. Half of me, so passionate about what I believed in, half of me fully aware I would be laughed at, heckled, pointed at and ridiculed. The call comes, I walked out to centre of the floor. Their laughter was clear, piercing. The chants of fag, loser and geek shoot directly to the core of my soul. At that moment, I feel as if my life will never be much, I will never date the popular girl, never have the group of friends that laugh together in the coffee shop. I will, for some reason, fail. Standing on the stage I finish my speech.I am 39. I feel good. The audience is clapping, cheering and smiling. I acknowledge their acceptance, their emotion, their positive affirmations. As I say thank you, they rise to their feet. A standing ovation. I am a success. I am making a difference. I will be remembered. I get more then I give. Today I am not alone. I open my wallet to see the shiny and warm faces of my children. I am their hero. I am loved by them. They are inspired. Today I embrace my best friend, the same one I have had for 20 years. He cried a little last night as I read the card he gave me for my birthday. True friendship. Today I got an email from a parent that said I changed their daughters life and in turn their families. Today I thank the universe for my life. Once I felt as if I was never going to be anything. Today I feel as if I could do, be or have anything. What will tomorrow hold? It will be better then today. Hard to believe, but it will. Leadership 2010-03-15T01:33:19+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/a-life-difined/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/a-life-difined/#When:14:38:06Z How you live your days defines your life. I am not sure where I read that quote. I am not sure if perhaps I strung it together myself. The point though, is not new. Each and every day of our lives we choose to live how we want. It’s true you may have restrictions from bosses, coaches, parents, financial means, geography or physical ability but no one controls our attitude. I once wrote a blog called the “Bitter Bus”, the point being so many of us live our days riding around as passengers on the bus of bitterness. We complain, whine, blame and make excuses. We exist rather then evolve. Each day is a chance to get better, to grow and to learn. Why not choose to be the star rather then the extra of your movie, your life, your day? Today I had trouble getting out of bed, putting on my winter gear and venturing out into the deep snow with my dog Duke. I struggle through the packed ice and with each step I labour to the next. I think to myself, “turn around”, no I can’t. After the first five minutes have been conquered I get stronger, I search for deeper snow, for challenge. I move to the lake and embrace the cutting wind as it strikes my face, burning it. I pick up my pace, high step through the snow drifts. My Lab and I throw the stick for a while. His enthusiasm is never changing. Heading around the point I find the path back to my home. I take the hills instead of the path. My dog breathes heavy, panting, whining a little but continues. When we arrive back to the house, I peal off the gear and my shirt is soaked with sweat. I feel as if I won, I am an Olympic athlete that has conquered my foe. That foe is me. I am the only one that decides how I live. Back on the couch, I pour my coffee, Duke is fast asleep on his bed. I open my Mac and begin to write. Already I feel as if I am winning. Today I will CHOOSE to live fully, to live deliberately, to define my day. There is no bitter bus, it does not exist. My life story is a result of my days. My mortality is my coach, reminding me that I must win, play hard and find a way. I am the star and not the extra, the passenger or the observer. Are you? Leadership, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2010-02-27T14:38:06+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/something-from-nothing/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/something-from-nothing/#When:01:05:28Z One of my favourite children’s books of all time is by author Phoebe Gilman. Something from Nothing is a fable of a young Jewish family that is poor and doesn’t have much. Joseph, the young boy in the story, is given given a blanket that he loves and takes with him everywhere. It becomes tattered and torn and his grandfather makes it into a jacket, then a vest, then a tie, then a button. When he loses the button Grandpa believes that there’s nothing else he can make. Joseph disagrees… from the lost button comes a wonderful story. The story inspires me because everything in life comes from nothing more than an idea. You can trace everything back to one moment of brilliance, usually by one person or maybe just a couple. Think about it; Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, McDonald’s or public health care. It all came from NOTHING but an idea. It took someone to say why not? Instead of we can’t. I am sitting in a boardroom in a beautiful old church in Ancaster, Ontario. I am on the second floor looking down at a packed room full of camp displays. One of them is ours, YLCC. 2010 will mark our 18th summer. 18 years ago I sat in a make shift boardroom (my mom’s old dining room table) and said to a friend, “Why not?”. What started out as 50 kids for a weekend is now a camp that works with over 8000 youth a year! What is it that you want to do? Why can’t you do it? For every excuse you make there is a solution. For every solution there is a first step. True it’s easier to say it’s too hard, too expensive, too much competition, too many road blocks. The path of least resistance rarely takes you anywhere interesting. Find it, find your passion. What is it that drives you? What do you want to change in your life, your community, your (our) world. You know you have thought about it! You need to trust yourself. One small note of caution I want to put out there to all of my younger readers (anyone under the age of 75), the grass always seems greener on the other side. Sometimes it is, rarely though is it true. Make sure you learn all you can from where you are, as my friend Robin Sharma always says you can lead without a title where ever you are. When your ready though, create, create, create! Don’t be afraid to fail!! You might, lord knows (and anyone else who knows me) I have! That’s ok. You learn more from falling flat on your face than you will ever learn in school. Adversity should create new enthusiasm! So take a moment and truly think. Be honest. Perhaps the next BIG “thing” is whirling around up in your head. You too can create something from nothing! I believe in you. Leadership 2010-02-11T01:05:28+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/is-it-just-me/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/is-it-just-me/#When:01:23:42Z Is it just me that thinks that the world is a little messed up? Am I the only one that questions the country that says it’s Christian and then sells a bobble head Jesus for 19.99 with proceeds going to the Christian Corp of America? Is it just me that wonders why people believe that they need to put others down to bring themselves up? Is there anyone else that wonders how the world will change and hopefully understand the need to do that dramatic change, when the current generation thinks that a real tragedy is not getting the new iPhone or the car on Thursday night? I must be the only one that is thinking that proroguing the Canadian Parliament until after the Olympics is irrational. There can’t be anyone else who thinks that there is more money is “trying” to find a cure for Cancer, MS and Parkinson’s then actually curing anything, so why bother! Is there any reason why Microsoft Word corrects the spelling of Oprah and not Ghandi. Where is the logic in the American Cancer society raising $146 million (or so) in fundraising in 2009 and the citizens of North America spending 2.8 billion on hand sanitizer in 9 months. I must be the only one that is questioning this. Why are we so quick to think that what we see is what we get. Why is it that profit can be made off of fake Haiti fundraisers and it’s washed away in the news to celebrate Jennifer Aniston’s 5 year anniversary of being separated from Brad Pitt. Is there a reason we attach such weight to such gossipy drivel? Is there no one else questioning why hollywood actors band together to raise money for Haiti yet there are still tens of thousands in New Orleans that don’t have adequate housing? Wouldn’t it be a better headline that read “New Orleans wins battle against poverty, homelessness and hurricane devastation” than “New Orleans wins battle over Minnesota”? Why is that we have to wait for Haiti to be devastated before we realize they need help? Do you think Sierra Leone is praying for a tsunami so George Clooney can raise them 30 million dollars? Is it just me that thinks real leadership has to start by looking in the mirror, turning the channel and sweeping our own doorstep? Maybe it is. Maybe I am the only one. I hope I am not. We need to look at the BIG picture. Trust me it’s giant and I seem to be looking through a panoramic lenses. Of course, it could just be me. Leadership 2010-01-28T01:23:42+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/mooooove-over/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/mooooove-over/#When:16:53:50Z I have been working on my idea of the “Herd Mentality”. This thought is that most humans move together in what they do and how they act based on the Herd, everyone else around them. I believe this to be true because I see it every day. Every where we go there are a plethora of examples. I was in Costco with my son a few weeks ago and it was packed, the parking lot was full and there were people roaming the isles with overstuffed shopping carts full of items that they really need in mass quantity. I mean who really doesn’t need 4, 2 litre jugs of olive oil? As we picked up the two items we came for we approached the check out area. It seemed like every line was 20 people deep. People were mumbling and grumbling. My son and I squeezed our way through the herd to the middle. There were three lines with only a couple of people in them. We were quickly at the cashier paying for our couple of items and were on the way. Matthew turned to me, (please keep in mind he’s 9) and said. “Why is everyone lined up in the long lines and not the short ones?” True wisdom from a child! You can’t deny the obvious question. Here’s the thing, it doesn’t take much of a shift for us to get ahead of the crowd. To move away from the herd. Once we did we were successful in getting out of Costco and on our way to much more fun then waiting in line for 30 minutes. If you apply that same idea to life you will find that it doesn’t have to a massive chage in thinking, your actions, your habits to take you to the next level. So next time you are feeling like you’re part of a herd trying MOOOOOOving to the left or right and see if you can’t free yourself up a little. Leadership 2010-01-18T16:53:50+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/moments-that-matter/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/moments-that-matter/#When:16:08:51Z Being a single father you realize how lucky you had it before the separation. I don’t mean the relationship I had with my partner but the access every day to my children. When you’re married you find lots to do that doesn’t involve spending time with the kids. You are busy, you have work to do, there is something “else” to do. “I’ll be there in a minute…” is a far to common phrase that resonates through too many households. I am granted access to my children for a total of 66 hours once every two weeks. When you take out sleeping, 26 hours and the drive 12 hours, I have the opportunity to spend 26 hours with my kids. That’s less then 3 days per month of “face time”. Somewhere over history our court system has deemed this an adequate amount of time to build and maintain a quality father, child relationship. Well I am here to say that it really isn’t. It’s actually completely the opposite. Since there is not much chance of this changing and parents being considered equal, fathers that do care need to create “MTM’s”, moments that matter. Running a camp I get to work with so many young staff that come from single parent homes. I’ve asked many of them about how they remember growing up with having to live with two parents. So many have said the times they spent with their father were so amazing, or they remember those time with such clarity. Why is that? It’s because a good single father needs to work to create so much in a very short time. It’s our job to create MTM’s every moment. If we don’t we risk being lost. It’s not a competition, it’s a responsibility. So, last night my son and I got to enjoy a BIG MTM. I purchased two tickets at a charity auction for a Toronto Maple Leafs game and we watched them lose, it was a horrible game. The Leafs were abysmal. Here’s the thing though, our night was amazing and we created a true MTM. The moment of clarity for me was when Matthew turned to me and said, “Dad, this is the best night of my life.” Please understand that this is not meant to say that all fathers deserve equal access, there are many that do not. Each father is different and there needs to be less of a quick, one sided judgement.  Until our courts realize that parents are of equal value and that a good father has an equal role in the upbringing of a healthy child, I will continue to find and create MTM’s for my children. I also encourage all parents not to take the time you have with your kids for granted. These days happen only once. Leadership, Family Life, Learning and Growing 2010-01-10T16:08:51+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/new-day/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/new-day/#When:17:01:49Z There’s a great quote I read today and posted on Twitter… Today never occurred before, it will never be repeated. At midnight it will end, quietly, totally, forever. The hours between are full of possibilities. It’s a new year, a chance to start over, to create new, to evaluate what has and what could happen. I am not a fan of New Years resolutions. I am not a fan of the idea of January 1st being some whimsical day that has such significance that it can change our lives. It can’t. The day is irrelevant. It’s just a day. There are 12 firsts every year. There are 52 monday’s and of course we have 365 midnights. Each of these could be starting point… couldn’t it? Here’s my theory, it’s just mine, it doesn’t mean it’s right. Every minute of every day is a chance to start over. To create new habits, ideas, choices, friends. You can make January 5th a “New Year”... if you want. Please don’t get discouraged if you already have slipped on your 2010 resolutions, it really doesn’t matter. You can start again tomorrow. It’s brilliant, isn’t it? You have control of you, not Dick Clark, not some stat holiday, not some app on your iPhone… YOU! Chew on it, it’s a new way of looking at making resolutions of making change. Happy New Year! Follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/ylccstu Leadership 2010-01-04T17:01:49+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/because-of-you/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/because-of-you/#When:14:38:25Z I am not a “writer”. I have never published a novel. Poetry is not my thing. I am not that eloquent. I love to “spell check”. I am not the owner of multiple degrees. My awards shelf is small and the accolades are yet to arrive. I write though. I write to express my thoughts. I write to share ideas. I write for me and I guess in the end I am writing for you. There’s something about have someone else read my thoughts. It is even better out loud. It’s like a second chance at thinking it through. Sometimes when I hear my BLOG read, I hear the words I wanted to say but somehow didn’t. Imagine if you had someone else in your head to read your words back to you before you spoke them. Before you hurt someone with careless comments. Before you said “hate”. Maybe you wouldn’t be so quick to say no or even yes. Maybe if I could of had you read me my thoughts when I was making all those poor choices… maybe I would have done things differently or not at all. Perhaps I wouldn’t have said some of the things I said or acted the way I did. Perhaps though, I would not have lived this life at all. There is something about hearing my thoughts with such eloquence and clarity that makes me sound smarter. Here’s the reality though. Most of us don’t have our thoughts read back to us. We have to trust ourselves. Sometimes that person is a scary person to trust. Maybe, just maybe we’re not supposed to have that angel on our shoulder. In the end the universe might just want us to learn from our own mistakes and have no filter at all. Really isn’t that what life is all about? I think we actually get this opportunity given to us everyday. It may be the role of a mom or dad, teacher, sister, brother, uncle, coach, doctor, friend, partner, the speaker in the assembly or stranger you meet only once. What if they are telling us that we need to rethink our choices, decisions or path. We choose not to listen though because we don’t need to be “told”. We already know. I think we are supposed to listen but we don’t. It takes forever for us to learn. Hey, maybe it’s this blog? In the end I still like it when you read my BLOGS back to me. Leadership, Family Life, Learning and Growing 2009-12-02T14:38:25+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/mistakes/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/mistakes/#When:18:30:10Z I remember growing up in the eighties and listening to Billy Joel. He was pretty popular back then. I saw the “Storm Front” tour at Maple Leaf Gardens. There is line from a Billy Joel song that says “You learn more falling flat on your face then you ever will in school.” That line has stuck with me for 25 years. Yesterday was the annual Grey Cup football game in Canada. The Montreal Alouettes won the game on a last second field goal. They also lost the game on a last second field goal. You see the other team, the Roughriders, had sent out too many men and were called for a penalty just as the first kick missed the uprights and the Roughriders won. Then didn’t win. Montreal got a second chance and didn’t miss. Now they won! The look of sadness was so clear on the losing players faces. They just thought they had won, they jumped, screamed and celebrated. Then they cried, yes some were in tears. I know it’s just a game. For these players though, it could have been a moment that they won’t ever have again. After it was all over they interviewed the coach responsible for the mistake. He said something that really resonated with me. “It was a mistake, I take full responsibility for it. If I have the chance to be in this situation, it won’t happen again.” Incredible response, such poise. He admitted he made a mistake, took full responsibility and learned from it! That’s great. You can’t teach mistakes in school, the real life hard lessons are so powerful. It’s how you deal with them that matters. Yes they hurt sometimes, but, if you pick yourself up, dust off the dirt and pain, you learn. Be a leader, learn from your mistakes! It’s never too late to start. Leadership 2009-11-30T18:30:10+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/family-time/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/family-time/#When:22:42:28Z Every night as a child without question we came home and my family ate together. It was just the way it was. We all talked at dinner, sometimes we fought, sometimes we just sat together and celebrated our disfunction. This continued well after my parents separated. My mom would make dinner for my brother and I. Even when she was a single mom, working full time and struggling to make ends meet. As the generations changed, the idea of nightly dinners disappeared. There became Sunday night dinners. One night a week that you would try to eat as a family. Now, in 2009 we fall to the quick fix, microwave, boil in the bag, throw in the oven for 20 minutes type meals. The real crime is that a family dinner has become “eating out”. I am guilty of this as well. I am a single dad that struggles with eating at home, making a dinner, creating a meal that everyone likes. It is MUCH easier to just order off a menu and let someone else cook and clean. It doesn’t make it right though. I was just in Michigan, having dinner at a very expensive chain restaurant, on a Tuesday, in an area that is the hardest hit in America due to the current economic “crisis”. Not a seat open in the house. 15-20 minute wait. I look over at a family of four, drinking pop, eating a tower of onion rings, one of the boys standing on his chair while eating, the oldest daughter texting, the middle daughter playing her Nintendo DS, the mother reading an email on her Blackberry, the father was oblivious to it all. I asked my waitress how much they spent on their dinner… “about $200…” I was so saddened. I was sad for that family because they won’t have the experience that I had. My family was and is far from perfect, but I cherish those dinners more then ever. I am making a commitment this weekend to my family, we will eat at home, I will cook and we will all talk, laugh and argue together. That’s a family, I hope it’s not too late to save that old idea. What’s for dinner tonight? Leadership, Family Life 2009-11-18T22:42:28+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/commit/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/commit/#When:20:32:49Z Leaders are people that can commit to something, anything, all things. There are two keys to being a success at this skill. One, is not to over commit. The other key is to simply follow through with what it is you say your going to do. It’s that simple if you say “I will do that.” then you should do it. If you are having a hard time with following through you should go back to whomever you committed to and say, “I need more time.” or “I may have over extended myself.”. If the person you are working with is not irrational then they should, I hope understand. Just don’t leave it to late so it can’t be fixed. The other and just as important type of commitments you make are the one you make to yourself. If you say you are going to drink two litres of water a day, do it. If you say you are going to stay in shape and walk everyday, walk every day. It’s true there may not be anyone to call you on it, but you will know and your confidence will be damaged. ALWAYS under promise and OVER deliver. That’s my commitment! Leadership 2009-11-16T20:32:49+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/oink-oink/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/oink-oink/#When:17:30:10Z Here are my thoughts on the current H1N1 flu. I was reading today on the “Facebook” and saw some 22,000 plus people had joined a group called close schools because of the swine flu. I had to join and I had to read the wisdom behind this suggestion. Well there is none. They do have a fancy, very scary logo though. Here’s my take. The Logo is dumb, the hype is dumb, the billions of dollars being made off this “pandemic” is dumb, the whole thing is dumb! Thousands die every year from the flu… and car accidents, cancer, aids, being hit by busses… why not put all of the students, teachers, hyper reactive parents in a padded room and let them live out their days being fed a liquid diet so they don’t choke! This is the most asinine over-blown media driven event ever (except SARS, Bird Flu, Mad Cow, Y2K and soon 2012). God help us if we have a real global crisis. It’s sad that people get sick and die… but this is not the global emergency that we have spread. If schools wanted to do something of value then make a massive effort to ban smoking within 2 km’s of your school. Way more people will die from lung cancer then will ever die from the swine flu. I was in mexico at the height of the scare last spring and came back with sure enough… H1N1. I survived, I stayed home for a couple of days and now I am living to type this BLOG. Please people, parents (that’s me too), media, school’s and school boards take a deep breath (somewhere away from anyone who might be coughing) and calm down. We will be ok. Wash your hands, drink liquids, take natural vitamin C and don’t share your pepsi…. you (the VAST, VAST majority) will live! PS the drug companies are about to make over 4 billion dollars… hmmm Leadership 2009-11-03T17:30:10+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/moments-of-clarity/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/moments-of-clarity/#When:11:39:04Z Have you had them? Do you ever find yourself say… “Yes! That’s it.”? When you do, you need to jump on those moments. You need to embrace those moments. I am searching for one right now. The winter is coming, blah, it’s a time that I always start to question my future. What do I want to do with the next 20 years. I am approaching my 20th anniversary of what I do. Working in and with schools. 20 years, 2 decades that is a long time. I am truly blessed to have a good team and a wonderful support system. We have amazing clients and even more amazing staff. This year we worked with thousands and thousands of young leaders. It’s amazing what we do. I wonder if it’s what I want to do for the next 20 years. This is not bad, it is a healthy question. One you need to ask frequently. Am I happy? Nothing is perfect. There are always ways to make it better. You can grow exactly where you are planted. Change can come not from always moving, complaining or quitting but from attitude and approach. I like that. I think I just a had one of those moments. Goal Setting, Leadership, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2009-10-23T11:39:04+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/thankfulgiving/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/thankfulgiving/#When:15:58:32Z This is Thanksgiving across Canada. In the US you have to wait until November. Either way this holiday is the least commercial of all. We tend not to give presents to our children, we don’t spend thousands of dollars trying to out do the neighbours in decorating the homestead. This is the perfect time of year to live the holiday. Write a list of what you are most thankful for. The people, your home, your job, your family and friends. Make that list and try and make it at least 20 items long. If you can do more (I believe you can do 100 if you stopped and thought about it), do more! We have all heard of the law of attraction, what you give you get. The more thankful you are the more you will see return back to you. I truly believe this. Here are my top 20 things that I am thankful for: Emily, Matthew, Kristina, Mom, Patrick, Ange, Laura, Trisha, Craig, Arlie, Jack, CJ, Rich, Brenda, Erin, Ian, Iain, Shannon, Johnny, ORNJ, Robin S, Jason A, my home, my camp staff, my drinking water, my country, my health (usually), Rich S, trees, nature, hand written cards, the ability to read and write. Thanks way more then 20 but there are actually close to 100 on my list right now. Make a list and be honest about it. Then read it out aloud. Don’t be shy. Share the list with your family and challenge them to do the same. Thanks to you the reader of the STUpendous BLOG! I would love to read your list so post it here! Leadership 2009-10-12T15:58:32+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/maximum-leadership/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/maximum-leadership/#When:16:31:43Z The other night I was at the local fall fair and the kids I were roaming around trying to find some healthy food choices, besides yummy Corn Dogs. We noticed the big show that night was the actual North American Touring cast of Disney’s High School Musical Summer Celebration. Right away the children looked up with their best Puppy Dog eyes… “PLEASE!!!!” Tickets were $30 each… four of us would be $120!! I said sorry but no. It’s ok to say no to children (big lesson for some parents and children). We continued to wander around when a young child, around 8 years old, tapped us on the shoulder. “Excuse me miss, would you like these?” Ange my partner, looked down to see this young leader holding out four tickets to that night’s musical production, fifth row! “Can we give you anything for them?” asked Ange. “No, we can’t go and we want you to have them!” Then he and his mom smiled, turned and walked away into the hustle and bustle of the fair! Max, this young man, demonstrated selfless leadership. Giving without taking. We must have said thank you 5 times. He just smiled and said “No problem!” What do you do on a daily basis to give without receiving. Wouldn’t the world be better with more of that? I think so! Side note: Thanks for the comments on the video’s, you are to kind. Here is the link for Day two of the video journal http://bit.ly/3O9tYY In leadership, STU! Leadership 2009-09-21T16:31:43+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/goodnight-but-not-goodbye/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/goodnight-but-not-goodbye/#When:20:54:31Z Hello leaders of the world. I am so sorry about not posting for almost two months. I was away, home every night, gone most days and dreaming deeply each night. I had the opportunity to see the future, to contemplate the past and live gloriously in the present. Yes I was at summer camp! This summer over 1000 campers came through the gates of Youth Leadership Camps Canada. They came from a dozen different countries and varied backgrounds. They came to learn, to lead, to laugh and to share themselves with each other. It was a banner summer. The best in the 17 years that YLCC has been in operation. There were many tears on Saturday as campers left for their homes and sunday as most of the staff went their separate ways. The rewards that are given to the staff are endless. It’s up to them and the campers to continue to share in the lessons learned. I want to thank everyone, the staff, campers and parents that made the camp so successful. A few summers ago a former staff member quit saying the camp wouldn’t be successful without them. They were the reason we were success. Since they left the camp has more then tripled its size and now has two locations. I am not saying anything negative about that person but the one thing I learned this summer is that YLCC is a success because of a larger group of people that work SO hard together to make the magic happen. One person alone can not succeed without the help of others. Terry Fox had to have someone drive the van. YLCC doesn’t succeed because it’s located in Oro-Medonte (Orillia). It succeeds because people care. We are already planning for the 18th year of summer camp. It will be a success again. It will grow some more. I will have less to do with that success. It will be a family that works together to Dream, to dare and to do and that is the magic that is YLCC! Leadership 2009-09-02T20:54:31+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/turn-the-key/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/turn-the-key/#When:11:52:20Z One of my favourite phrases that I heard from my dear friend Robin Sharma was the idea of “the power of start”. Simple concept but yet so true. In order for any change to happen in our lives we must simply start the process. We can hum and haw all we want. We can research and debate the pros and cons of any change, but the excitement doesn’t happen until we actually start the process. Don’t be afraid to start small. We call them 1% action steps, small, sometimes tiny little movements towards the goal. It may not seem like much but it’s the act of the start that gives us the momentum to push, to grow and to complete whatever it is that we are trying to accomplish. So start today, make the change, start your engine! PS - YLCC 2009 started today, it’s so exciting to watch the 100 new campers arrive with such energy and enthusiasm. They are about to start their journey of leadership! Goal Setting, Leadership, Learning and Growing 2009-07-06T11:52:20+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/hallmark-happiness/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/hallmark-happiness/#When:20:06:02Z Here I sit on my deck on a beautiful sunny Sunday, I reflect on my good fortune. I have three children. All amazing and unique in their own ways. I am a single father and don’t get to see my kids nearly as much as I would like or probably should. Today is also Father’s day. The holiday was started in 1910 and became an official holiday in 1972 after president Nixon signed a congressional resolution. It’s mostly celebrated in North America. The day really became big when the Hallmark greeting card company realized there was plenty of money to be made. More money is made on Mother’s day then Father’s day but there were no shortage of people lined up yesterday buying a card at the last minute. Please don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the idea of a day dedicated to recognizing the role of a father in a child’s life. Their role has been downplayed for most of history, their rights have been pushed aside in most custody cases. I am all for a one day “special” high five, a nice hand made card and a cup of tea made for me. I think though that we NEED to celebrate our loved ones; family, friends and colleagues every single day. It’s not in a card on a specific day that has great impact, it’s the phone call when you least expect it or the hand written note that arrives in October for no reason. Those are the moments that I would cherish much, much more. So today celebrate your dad, grandfather or friend who works hard to raise his children. The real challenge and gift is to do it again some other day, not on a calendar but in your heart. Please follow me on Twitter. I will be sending out a FREE Twitter Cast called “Breaking from the heard” on Friday for all those that are following me in Twitter. https://twitter.com/ylccstu Family Life, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2009-06-21T20:06:02+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/clarity/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/clarity/#When:20:16:37Z I miss journalling. I Journal. I should journal more. There’s so much to journal about! What do you journal about? Journal… is that a diary? So many of us live our lives like we drive cars. Sometimes it’s smooth and then sometimes we find ourselves spinning in a snow bank or deep mud. We are in a car (living a life), we are going somewhere (we have a job, family, car, vacation in the distant future), we are pressing down the gas (moving forward slowly), spinning and spitting up dirt and snow (making mistakes whilst moving in some direction). Eventually without persistence and dedication we give up, call a tow truck to pull us out (turn to quitting, drinking, sleeping, depression or plain anger). If we are lucky a car will stop and people will help push you out (teachers, friends, colleagues, coaches, ministers or parents). Why is it that some people never seem to get stuck in the “mud”? Why do some people drive 10 times more then we do and yet never seem to use their CAA/AAA card? Simple, they have more clarity. They have a clear and precise destination in mind. They have taken methodical steps to achieve their goals one at a time. Each time they get a little stuck they pull out their journal and reflect on the path they started from, the achievements that got them to where they are now. They look at the goal (end destination) and see if a course correction is needed. They ask the tough questions. They realize that to succeed in any part of life the more time you take to plan (journal, ask questions, adjust the course, become problem solvers rather then life blamers), the better the journey will be. What are the steps you take each day/week/month/year to take responsibility for your life? If the answer is none, not many or this sounds like stuff for chicks, you may want to reconsider the next thing you do or step you take. It can start now. Get more clarity. Get a journal, write the date and this statement… “At the end of my life I want to have accomplished these ten things…” Write the list, if more then ten, great! If less then ten keep asking yourself for more. This could be the first step in a beautiful adventure. Start now! Leadership 2009-06-17T20:16:37+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/silence-is-golden/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/silence-is-golden/#When:17:28:01Z I am away at a wonderful retreat just North of Toronto. Leaders from 15 nations have gathered to spend an intensive weekend with Robin Sharma. I strongly encourage you to visit his website to see all the amazing tools and resources that are available to you. We spent some time in silence yesterday. For some it was very hard to sit in absolute quiet, others embraced it. I haven’t written in so long. The longest I have gone in almost 4 years. Why? I think it’s because I had nothing really to say. I was so busy. Busy figuring out how not to be busy. Don’t we all do that sometimes? Spending time at this retreat, although I am a facilitator it is a rejuvination of my spirit. My 5 week absence has been 5 weeks of silence in a way. Time to think, reflect and focus. Take sometime today and sit in pure silence. Think about all the aspects of your life, everything. Write out what you are “busy” doing. Sometimes we find in the end that we don’t have to be. You can be quiet, it’s ok. Leadership 2009-06-07T17:28:01+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/positive-pandemic/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/positive-pandemic/#When:17:08:00Z So much news over the last week about the Swine Flu. I am in fact a person that was in Mexico for the beginning of this “crisis”. I have been in quarantine for the last 5 days. I am fine. I feel as if the world is almost excited about the negative news. It got me thinking about a different type of pandemic… a positive one. What if we tracked positive acts that happened around the world. You would turn on the news and see a world map showing positive acts happening in real time. Instead of WHO (World Health Organization) there would be WPO (World Positive Organization). It would be so exciting not depressing. I am all for it, I think if we focused the amount of media time on positive actions rather then negative hype the world would be a better place… Ok I have to go now there’s an update on CNN about the positive flu… Leadership 2009-04-30T17:08:00+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/seventy-three/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/seventy-three/#When:18:01:20Z Here’s the amazing thing. My father is 73 years old. He and my mom who is 70, have been living in the jungle for 5 weeks in Costa Rica. Their days are full of adventure. Hiking through the mountains, riding rafts down the river, waking at 5 am to swim under a waterfall. I just got a bunch of pictures from them. The one I have included is of my father repelling down a cliff into a warm pool at the base of a waterfall. He’s 73 years old. Stop putting off the life you were destined to live people. Do something amazing today. His actions have inspired me for sure. Family Life, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2009-04-06T18:01:20+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/rejuvenate/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/rejuvenate/#When:16:04:25Z I am sitting at my dining room table. Steaming cup of coffee in my hand. My windows are open. The song of a thousand birds echo from the trees. I close my eyes and feel their excitement to be awake. They are soaking up the brilliant morning sun. I look out to the grassy hill in my front yard. The long grass has been pressed down by the snow. It looks like a heard of wild animals had perhaps stampeded through. Amongst the open yard there are two radically different worlds. A small patch of snow is holding on. Defying the warmth of the sun. Refusing to melt away into the soon forgotten season. Inches away, a small patch of neon green bursts through the trampled grass. Reaching for the sun. Its tiny leaves stretched outwards like a father waiting for his child to fall into his arms. I see myself as both the snow patch and the green new growth. Holding onto my past, trying not to let go of the coldness of what I know needs to be cut free. I live though for new growth… reaching for brighter, warmer days. To grow and learn and be stronger, more alive. What are you doing today to grow? Let what you know needs to… go. Spring. Rejuvenate. Leadership, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2009-04-02T16:04:25+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/whats-your-best/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/whats-your-best/#When:15:31:32Z 4 years ago I attended a conference that changed my life. I was working hard at my business, the business of leadership development. I was doing the same thing I had done for years and years. Making small changes, doing little things. Then I was invited to spend a weekend with Robin Sharma in Toronto at his Absolute Best Self Weekend. It quite honestly changed my outlook on life and how I perceived my limits. Within two days I had created a new plan for my life, my business and my future. I continue to use the tools I learned at ABS every day. I also can’t tell you how many great people that I met that are now friends. One of the most powerful nuggets of wisdom I picked up was a quote by Arthur Schopenhauer “Nearly Everyone takes the limits of their own vision as the limits of the world. A few do not. Join them.” That single quote and the skills that I learned at ABS transformed my life. Is there a quote or an event that has changed yours? It’s good to remind ourselves that we need to challenge ourselves daily to be better, to do more. Please take a moment and share a quote here on the STUpendous that has had a great impact on your life. If you are interested in spending three days that can transform your life I strongly encourage you to experience ABS! Leadership 2009-03-28T15:31:32+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/short-sweet/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/short-sweet/#When:21:26:38Z I am sitting at my favourite Starbucks enjoying a latte. I know all the staff, I am a regular. The manager is sitting at the table beside me. She has just promoted a young barista to a shift supervisor. I am happy to see her so excited. I open my Macbook and look at my dozen new emails. “I don’t know it you heard?” says the manager as she leans over to me. “No, what’s the news?” I reply. “Sandy the other Starbucks Manager, her husband passed away on Sunday.” “How?!” “Sudden, don’t know all the details. Went into hospital on Wednesday and was gone on Sunday.” “How old?” I asked. “39” “I’m 39.” We were all silent for a few minutes. Life is short, we need to make it sweet. Be great, be awesome. Stop complaining about silly things that are truly silly. Hug your children, love your spouse, smile at a stranger, lead without title. Now. You know this stuff. I talk about it all the time. This is not new. “The sad part about it is we all go back to our lives and not think about it in a few days.” the manager adds as I empty my inbox. True. Need to stop that, need to stop. Goal Setting, Leadership, Family Life, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2009-03-25T21:26:38+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/celebrate/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/celebrate/#When:13:53:11Z Just a quick BLOG today. It’s St. Patrick’s Day and I hope everyone enjoys this the most green of days. I challenge you though to do it wisely… you don’t need to get drunk to celebrate. Please be safe, approximately 207 people die or are seriously injured each day in Canada from drinking and driving. Please know that the only people that truly benefit from you drinking to excess is the companies that make the drinks we buy. More money is spent every year promoting the use of alcohol than on any other product on the market.  The alcohol industry generates more than $65 billion annually and spends more than $1 billion on advertising. Please remember A.C.E. today and every day… Awareness - Choices - End Results. Leadership, Family Life, Learning and Growing 2009-03-17T13:53:11+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/focus/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/focus/#When:20:57:15Z My dearest friend returned fro a three week life changing program at the Hipprocates Institute in Florida. She is a breast cancer survivor and went there to detox and I mean DETOX! I won’t get into the details of it, but it was serious! When we got together for a tea yesterday I asked what she would tell someone about what she learned if she could only tell them one thing. She said… “Focus, commit and follow through.” If you do that with anything in your life you can change dramatically. Think about those three simple but powerful steps today. I am. Goal Setting, Leadership, Learning and Growing 2009-03-09T20:57:15+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/perspective/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/perspective/#When:17:34:00Z I would walk up the path to the shop almost every morning to say hello. In at 5 am there wasn’t much of a chance that you wouldn’t find Gord already there, cleaning up his workshop, painting a door, fixing one of the tractors. You knew he was there, he had the morning news playing or perhaps the all oldies station. Humming to himself, tapping his feet. “Morning my son!” came the chipper and fatherly voice from the back of the shop. “Morning Gord! How’s the day lookin’?” I would reply. “Incredible, did you hear the birds this morning? Incredible!” That was Gord, pretty much every day. Until he got sick. After a mis-diagnosis by the local hospital… Hernia they said. He moved to Calgary to be closer to his son. When the pain continued he went to the Alberta hospital. Not a hernia at all, nope. Cancer. He has battled it for the last three years and we have thought about him often, hoping and praying for him to get better. I hadn’t seen him since he left. Had a couple of telephone calls, a few holiday cards back and forth. Then on Sunday morning came a knock on my door. There he was Gord and his wife. Big hugs all around, so good to see him. We all gathered around the dining room table to catch up. It was great… until… Henni leaned over to me and said, “Gord’s here to say goodbye. The doctors have said he has 6 months.” SLAM! Wow, what do you say. I just tried to smile and soak up the moment. His smile, making everyone laugh at the table. Henni, wiping away the tears that were forming in her eyes.” After about a 45 minute visit, I went to show Gord the Dining hall, we renovated it since he left. He said he was so proud of us, of me. He gave me a big hug. Just before he left he said, thank you for letting him be part of YLCC. It meant a lot to him. Then he drove away, tears in both of our eyes. It’s strange to think… I may never see you again. I felt empty. Life has a strange way of trying its best to show you its fragility. My dearest friend Laura who is 29 is recovering from her Chemo for Breast Cancer, another example of how life couldn’t care less if you feel you’re to young or to good to be hit by its incredible power. It may not be fair, but it’s life. I was diagnosed in September with progressive MS and that is scary as well, who knows how my life will turn out from this point on. I don’t plan on getting sicker, but I can only do so much. What I do know is that I am getting less and less patient with the petty little problems that people (me included) waste their time and energy on. Complaining about their situation, their cards that they were dealt, the place they live, the way a friend treats them. Here’s the point. YOU can CHANGE anything YOU want. The new rip in my jeans doesn’t deserve anger, it deserves to be fixed, or patched or perhaps to make some styling seventies jean shorts out of them. People who complain about their weight while eating a sticky bun should stop and look in a mirror. Put it all in perspective. I remember being crushed in high school by a girl who broke my heart, devastated in fact. I was trying to remember her name the other day…. perspective. How much time did I waste being upset? Yes, I know that at the time it was important but that’s because I was unable to put it in perspective! My daughter was sick last night, she was coughing and hacking. At 2 am she began to cry because she just wanted to fall asleep. I started to get a little frustrated, thinking ‘come on just take a drink of the water I gave you suck it up’... then I thought of it from her perspective. So I got up, talked to her, wiped the tears away, fluffed up her pillow and went to the 24 hours drug store. I purchased some couch medicine and returned to give her a tablespoon of the cherry flavoured concoction… within 30 minutes she was asleep. Thankful, I did my job, I’m her dad. Nothing else matters. I sat in my bed at 4 am, thinking of Gord and saying good bye. I thought of my life and my kids. I think I need to keep working on putting things in perspective. I need to focus on what’s truly important. Today could be the day that it all changes. For you as well… Leadership, Family Life, Learning and Growing 2009-03-02T17:34:00+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/doctors-orders/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/doctors-orders/#When:16:27:00Z I am a baseball fan, not obsessed, but a fan. My team is the Toronto Blue Jays. Roy Halladay is one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. Won the highest honour a pitcher can get, the Cy Young. Won 20 or more games twice. Was part of 5 all star teams. Good at what he does. A.J. Burnett, another pitcher, left the Blue Jays this year to sign a BIG deal with the New York Yankees - 86 million dollars. He was asked about his time in Toronto, he said he learned a lot from the Ace Halladay. He learned from one of the best. Halladay was asked what he thought of the compliments that Burnett showered him with… here’s his response; “It’s nice to hear those compliments, and I’m glad to be a part of that…but I think I learned things from him as well,” said Halladay. “And that’s the great part about baseball, if you keep your ears open and pay attention, you’re always going to learn something from somebody.” Roy hit the nail right on the head… except that statement isn’t only true in baseball it’s true in life. Keep your ears open. Listen. Learn. Lead.   Leadership 2009-02-19T16:27:00+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/lessons-from-a-tea-cup/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/lessons-from-a-tea-cup/#When:21:15:25Z Sitting in a Starbucks, just finished interviewing a great young man for a possible job with our organization. I asked him what his passion was… great question. I was looking around the coffee house and saw a tea cup for sale, it has a tag attached to it that read… sip. talk. write. read. eat. listen. be. I love that. Aren’t those powerful words and actions. I like how each word is followed by a period. Which means that each one is singularly important. We need to SIP. We need to TALK. We need to WRITE. My favourite is BE, because we need to sometimes stop pushing for tomorrow and BE in the moment. Live in the moment now, do what you love now, cherish the moment now. It was a beautiful night this past Sunday and the sky at my home was incredible, millions of stars. My daughter suggested that we put on our winter gear and grab the sleds and enjoy the night. So much laughter… beautiful. My favourite moment, my BE, was when we lied down in the snow and looked up… magnificent. That was a time to not think about the next day, week or month, but to BE in that moment. Write down each of those words and then write a little after each word. Sip - Who do you have coffee with? Talk - Who do you have conversations with, are you spending enough time in good conversations? Write - Do you journal, write letters (real letters, cards, notes)? Read - What are you reading? Gossip rags or great books? Eat - What do you eat? Good food, bad food, healthy food? Listen - Are you listening to yourself, your body, to what matters (two ears, one mouth for a reason). Be - Are you in this moment. Enjoy it! Write your list, in your journal and perhaps share it here on STUpendous BLOG. Maybe you will inspire someone else with your list. Leadership, Family Life, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2009-02-17T21:15:25+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/there-is-a-difference/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/there-is-a-difference/#When:17:05:00Z I am sitting in the Apple Store at The Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto. I am so excited about the vibe… I want to buy three more Macs. Here’s why Mac is SO successful, they take customer service to a completely new level. There are more then a dozen Apple reps walking the floor, but not so much to sell, but to help. I do mean help. Yesterday we came in to just make some inquiries about Mobile Me and ended up having a 30 minute chat with Scott “our” guy. He spent so much time with us. Answered every question, calmly. Then Angela mentioned that she was having some issues with her iPhone. Next thing you know Scott had made us an appointment to get her phone looked at. No charge, no hassle. All the staff wear t-shirts that say different cool sayings like, “I could talk about this stuff for hours.” or “Not all heroes wear capes.”, there are other fun cool sayings. I am sitting across from a man who is about… 60. A young man from Apple, wearing a shirt that says, “No pain, all gain.” is spending tons of time with him, no frustration, no time constraints. It’s not like when you go into a Future Shop or Best Buy and everything is password protected and they hover over you like you’re a thief. It’s friendly, it’s… cool. That’s the what a leader is… different then the mass, friendly, helpful and a hero. Oh, I just had to add this. Angela just met with Matt our “Apple Genius”, explained her challenge and then Matt said… “Ok, let’s get you a new phone.”. Done, no other questions. Awesome. Leadership 2009-02-12T17:05:00+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/cani/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/cani/#When:14:14:57Z I am a lover of learning. I love to learn it’s that simple. A true leader is in constant evolution. If someone says they “know it all” then they have stopped growing, growing is all about who we are as humans. I was listening to an audio program yesterday while I was running (great time to learn) and was hit with an awesome idea. The idea of CANi. I put the I in small case because that’s what you do (iPhone, iPod). Here’s the HUGE Idea… CANi stands for Constant And Never ending Improvement. That’s what life is all about, constant improvement. If you stay the same and do the same stuff and live the same routine eventually you will get left behind, depressed, stagnant… you get the idea. The greatest leaders, organizations, companies are committed to CANi. In everything they do, every single day! So here’s the question, are you committed to CANi? The answer should be a resounding YES! Ask yourself these three questions before you fall asleep at night, write it in your journal or simply tell someone. 1. What did I learn today? 2. What made me think today? 3. What do I want to learn tomorrow? I would challenge you that if you don’t have an answer for number 1… you need to think about CANi! Goal Setting, Leadership, Learning and Growing 2009-02-09T14:14:57+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/it-all-matters/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/it-all-matters/#When:18:20:01Z Just read an article today about Michael Phelps the multi gold medal winning US swimmer. It seems that he was photographed at a party with a hash pipe, smoking… drugs. Ok, I know it’s not a big deal, an elite athlete, millionaire now, what’s a little puff between friends. I can tell you how BIG of a deal it is. He has now lost over 2 million dollars in corporate endorsements, with many more looking at contracts with a fine tooth comb… for a way out of their relationship. I googled Michael Phelps today and found over 51,000 images relating to the story, 285,000 web links and a new Facebook group. What we do every day, in an instant can ruin a lifetime of hard work. I am always worried that I will make a mistake and be wrongly labeled or maybe properly labeled. What we do in today’s world is and can be placed on the internet so quickly that, like a tattoo, it can be hard and costly to remove. Take time today to think about what you say, do, how you act, who you associate with, where you find yourself and what situation you put yourself in. If you know that something you are going to do could cause you possible ramifications then maybe you should just say no… Think twice act once, it may cost you more then 2,000,000 dollars. Here’s a great question to ask yourself… “Is what I am about to do going to make me, my family, my current or future kids proud?” If not, maybe reconsider! Side Note: I never add on to my blogs but I did want to add on a thought due to some of the comments. I want to be clear that I am not judging Mr. Phelps, we all make mistakes. What I am saying in 2009 we no longer can live as life care-free as we once did. One mistake can possibly be broadcast to the world almost immediately. It is important again to think twice and act once. “It may take 30 years to build a reputation. It can take only 30 seconds to destroy it.” - Jim Collins Leadership, Learning and Growing 2009-02-02T18:20:01+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/there-right-there/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/there-right-there/#When:11:16:13Z I love getting up early, very early. Love it. Truly! I was up today at 4:30 and I was reading some great quotes. Check out this one. “For lack of attention a thousand forms of loveliness elude us every day.” —Evelyn Underhill I am not sure who Evelyn is but she hit the nail on the head. I had three of our summer staff come visit yesterday and they went for a walk around the property. When they came back they commented on how beautiful everything was. True, so true. Take a moment to today and look around you and see the loveliness all around. It’s right there, there and there… Leadership, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2009-01-27T11:16:13+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/today/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/today/#When:15:27:00Z Today is an important day, the most important day, in fact thinking about it right now, I believe this is the most important day of my life. Sure, there have been days that stand out as spectacular, even life changing, but today has to be number 1. I am sure at this point you are wondering what I an talking about? Stu what’s happened? What is the big news? Did you win a lottery? Did someone donate 1 million dollars to camp? Did Jennifer Aniston ask you out on a date? Were you named Time Magazines Person of the year? NOPE! Still the most important day though!! Still confused? Ok, I will let you in on why today is SO huge, for all of us! It’s because we are alive. We have a choice to live fully! I know, I know… cheesy! But stop and think about it though. Isn’t it great to have an opportunity to do something with your day? To follow up on an idea! To spread love and kindness, to laugh and play! I am in Kingston this morning and I was enjoying a morning coffee at the hotel looking out over the frozen lake, sun shining, bouncing off the white snow and ice. I was reading the paper and opened it up randomly to the obituaries… I started to read… Died at 91, 87, 93, 78… I started to think wow those are full lives. “Survived by their three children 8 grand children and 2 great grandchildren…” Then I came to Mike’s obit, “Lost his battle to bone cancer at 16, mike is survived by his parents, two brothers and his dog Corky. Mike lived each moment to the fullest, making us laugh even on his last day.” Sixteen, wow. I bet you Mike would have liked today, it would have been the best day of his life because he got just one more. So, today is the most important day of my life… thank you for being part of MY journey and thank you for reading the STUpendous BLOG! Now go and have the greatest day of your life! Leadership 2009-01-24T15:27:00+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/long-time/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/long-time/#When:02:39:15Z It has been a long time since the last blog… I have been busy. Trying to get my year started and create days full of accomplishment and joy. Life has a way of pushing you, giving you a challenge here and there to see if you’re on the ball or if you are missing the point. I have to admit to you that it has been a hard start to my 2009. I started a really big project and I am struggling to get it done. I have set myself a fairly lofty goal that if I complete it for 365 days has the potential to change my life. It’s not a diet or an exercise plan, it’s a way of living. It’s a conscious choice to be a leader in my own life, if you can’t lead you how do you lead others? So I apologize for not being here. I am committed to being better at that. It takes a little swallowing of my personal pride to say that I am not doing all that I can each day. It’s also something that you need to recognize before you can change it. So… I am recognizing it. What are you NOT doing that you thought you might be doing in 2009. What New Year’s resolution have you had problems sticking to? Here’s the good news, it can be January 1st any day! You can start again tomorrow. It’s your life and there’s no rule saying when you can or can not make a change! So get to it! Leadership 2009-01-16T02:39:15+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-still-pond/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-still-pond/#When:12:44:32Z When I was a child I used to live by a giant pond. It may have in reality, been a tiny pond but as a small boy it seemed giant. I used to wade in knee deep and catch frogs and bring them home to keep as pets only to be told to release them later by my parents. There was a big old apple tree that we used to climb and rip off the crab apples and see who could throw them the furthest, if you hit the pond you were king. Then there were those days when you would sit by the waters edge and be in harmony with the crickets, the bull frogs and the birds. On those days I would peer down and see the reflection of a boy with unkempt hair and dirt on his face. Sometimes I would wonder if I would ever grow up, if I would stay that boy forever. Reality is I grew up. We all do. Some faster then others. Now as man in my 39th year of life, approaching 40 I stop and reflect. Some people I know spend their days still avoiding the reality of getting older, they fear the idea of being more mature, or responsibility. They still drink like they did when they were 21 years old, they sleep away their days with excuses. I even have a friend who lives with his parents… 39 and still at home. He says he has it “perfected”. Maybe he does… who knows? I have other friends still who are executives in big companies. Making lots of money and holding great positions of power. Although I wonder if that choice has cost them some of the innocence of life, some adventure. Then there are a few people I know who travel the globe choosing to live the ways of a transient, a gypsy. Country to country living off of this adventure called life. As I sit in my home at 5:55 am on New Year’s Eve day and write this blog I reflect back to that pond and then travel through my life. Looking at the adventure that it has been. The places I have gone, people I have met, the mistakes I have made and the celebrations I have been part of. I wonder what will come next? I wonder where I will be in 12 months. Who will I be in one year. I will be different, but how? The amazing thing is, as opposed to when I was a child catching frogs by the pond I am in charge. Sure life can throw you obstacles and challenges but it’s how I, as an adult deal with them. I wonder now if I was able to look down at that reflection in the pond what and who would I see? Who would look back at me? At the end of each day, after spending hours at the pond I would hear my mom or dad’s voice yelling for me to come home. I would run to my house and be full of stories, many I wouldn’t tell, many would remain my own secret wondrous adventure. Then after dinner I would find my bed and fall asleep dreaming of what was next, what would happen tomorrow? Never knowing what the next chapter would hold. It’s the same thing today. I have more control of my reactions but no more control of the day, or year that shall unfold, but I shall make the most of it. Happy New Year to all the STUpendous BLOG readers. Thanks for your comments and thoughts. I love writing it and I love that people read it. These are just my thoughts, not always right and quite often up for debate, but they are mine. Each year at this time I write my top ten wishes for the year so hear goes my top ten for 2009: 1. A cure for Cancer. 2. My dear friend Laura to get better. 3. A cure for MS. 4. Strength for my sister in law Arlie. 5. Patience and understanding. We all could use more of that. 6. For all of my family to all have a healthy and happy year. 7. For my nephew CJ as he embarks on his new journey to the West. Be safe and be wise. 8. For Brenda and Rich’s baby. May it be healthy and full of joy! 9. YLCC, OSLC and the YLCC LTC to have another great year! 10. I wish for PTY to be a success and that I have the strength to live the life I know I can. What are your wishes for 2009? Share them here on the STUpendous BLOG! Talk to you next year! Goal Setting, Leadership, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2008-12-31T12:44:32+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/colours-or-colors/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/colours-or-colors/#When:04:31:00Z I am reading a book to my daughter, she received it from her Grandma for Christmas. She asked me to read it to her, not because she can’t read but because I believe she feels it will ensure that we can spend more time together. I am more then happy to do it. Although I find myself sometimes putting her off… I guess it’s because I think there is something else I should be doing. In reality though what could be more important then spending time with my children? I learned the value of not being a “commercial dad” a long time ago. Putting your children to bed during the commercial break is not a very good way to end your child’s day and fill them with great thoughts before they fall asleep. Which brings me back to the book, the story is about a little girl who can see a colour in everything. She sees the number two as pink and the number four as pale blue. She also sees people in a unique colour, her mean older sister she’s sees as a murky swamp water brown, her best friend as the warm orange glow of ambers in a campfire. Very descriptive and beautiful. When we finished the first chapter she turned to me and said, “What colour do you see me as dad?”, hard question. “Rose pink, because you are loving and caring and roses are given by loving and caring people and they are pretty just like you!” I felt pretty good about my answer, “What colour am I Emily?” I returned the question. “Thick Green Grass!” She said confidently. “Why Green?”, “Simple, it’s because grass is strong and holds the world together and that’s what you do for us.” Wow, how do you beat that? I smiled and hugged her a little longer then usual. I am truly blessed to have the three children I have. So here’s a question for you… What colour do you see yourself as and why? Are you happy with the colour you see and what could you do to be a little brighter and more bold? Leadership, Family Life, Learning and Growing 2008-12-29T04:31:00+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/whats-important/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/whats-important/#When:11:14:56Z Dream - Dare - Do. These are the pillars of YLCC, the summer camp that I run in Ontario, Canada. The idea is to truly dare to do the things that you dream about. To many of us waste time doing what’s not important. I find myself sometimes using a game on my iPhone for 30-40 minutes before I realize that I have just wasted my valuable time. Focusing on what’s important in our lives os SO important. It also includes realizing what you value as important. Who you value? Do you spend enough time with your family, your friends, your children? So this holiday season, take some time, in fact take some time right now and write a list of what’s important, what you do with your time and what you value in your daily life. This is the day that you could start focusing on what’s truly important. What you focus on becomes what’s important. Leadership 2008-12-19T11:14:56+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/now-you-see-it/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/now-you-see-it/#When:12:31:22Z I went to the mall the other day and was doing a bit of festive shopping. I stopped in at one of my favourite shops. Teaopia! I was chatting with the manager and she made a comment to me that ressonated with me for a while. She told me the story of when she was a little girl and would go walking in the woods with her father. One day he asked her, “Can you believe all the mushrooms that grow in the forest?”. She responded, “I don’t see any mushrooms?”. At which point he pointed them out to her as they walked. Suddenly from that point forward she could see hundred of them throughout the tree lined path. Here is the point, sometimes we don’t see the great things all around us, or the greatness within us. But have someone point it out and it becomes more obvious! So today, look around you with a little more clarity, you may be surprised by what you see! Leadership 2008-12-17T12:31:22+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/tis-the-season/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/tis-the-season/#When:15:39:22Z December is here and with it comes for most the celebration season. There are many religious holidays that are celebrated at this time of the year. It’s also the time of the year where we celebrate with family and friends. Eat food and share gifts. The gifts can come in the form of something purchased from a store or they can appear in the form of a visit from a friend or a card in the mail. It truly can be the most wonderful time of the year. I also believe that December is the most important time to plan your 2009. Why wait until January 1st to start thinking about the new year. What if you take the time now to evaluate your 2008. Take some time to list your successes, failures, triumphs and tragedies. You need to see how your “season” went to make changes and develop a game plan for the new year ahead. Create four lists; health, family, spiritual/personal growth and wealth. Under these headings write down the key goals that you want to achieve in each category. Plan out your year, where will you be by the end of January, June, September and then December 1st. Be a specific as you can. If you want to be in the best physical shape then be specific, how do you want to look, feel, what do you want to eat, how long do you want to sleep. With Family and friends figure out the connections you want to make, the bonds you want to strengthen and the time you need to spend with those you love. Hug some more, love some more and listen some more. Do the same with the spiritual/personal and wealth. You get the idea. Make 2009 the best year you can by building momentum towards it now. It could and will be the best year of your life (so far) if you choose. Leadership 2008-12-01T15:39:22+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/impossible/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/impossible/#When:19:01:48Z It’s hard to guess if the new President-Elect will be as great as many people believe that he will be. It’s hard to predict if he can or will bring great change to the United States and the world. There is no way to say if he will be “successful”. There is one thing that we can say for sure. The fact that he was elected is one of the most significant political/democratic changes that has happened in the last 100 years. It’s perhaps bigger for me and my generation because we weren’t there during MLK, no really able to understand the importance of Mandela or Ghandi. We had seen great leaders like Terry Fox and Bono (I know he’s up for debate with some). Though to watch a man rise from obscurity to the highest office in the US and one of the most powerful positions in the world is truly an inspiration. To see the celebrations that took place on the streets of not only America but around the planet made me weep. I believe the world is tired of war, greed, hunger and sadness. The idea of one man being able to change the planet is daunting but still exciting. Nothing is impossible. If you would have turned to Martin Luther King in the sixties and said… “In about 40 years a black man will be President.” he may have said it was possible but the vast majority would have said “Impossible!” If there is one thing that I have learned it’s that nothing is impossible. You decide, you create your future. What do you want to do? What future do you see for yourself. American’s have a habit of saying, “Only in America!”. Although I do believe that America is a place that was founded with the ideal of possibilities, if you look around the world, in all sorts of countries, you will find incredible stories of people that have done the impossible. The country is irrelative, it’s the person and their will to survive, to succeed, to do more. I believe in you! Do you believe in you? Stop saying that you can’t… I believe that you can. One of my favourite parts of the campaign was a video/song that will.i.am created based on the “Yes we can!” speech. Below is the follow up to that song. If you can’t see it it’s on youtube Start today, be possible, yes you can! Leadership, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2008-11-20T19:01:48+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/small-packages/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/small-packages/#When:16:57:06Z Great things can come in SMALL packages. Think about a diamond ring in a little box… changes a life forever. Sometimes those small things can be people. A few years ago a young boy by the name of Bilaal Rajan attended YLCC for a week of camp. We knew he had great ideas and was full of drive and hope. Little did we know what he would go on to do. Last week he released his first book at age 12… yes that’s correct 12. He has travelled the world educating people about HIV/Aids. He has developed an Empowerment Workshop. He has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity. He is a reminder of what we can be, what we all should be. So as you party this weekend, spend tons of money on things that won’t really matter in a few years or even months, stop and think… “Am I living the life I could be living?” Be great, be amazing, be all you can be with this gift called life. Thank you for inspiring me Bilaal! Visit his website for more information or to buy his book. http://www.bilaalrajan.com “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Leadership 2008-11-17T16:57:06+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/reminder/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/reminder/#When:22:43:07Z It was the worst weekend of my life. I had been ripped apart. My soul stepped on and trampled. I was week and down. I had just received the worst news of my life. There was nothing that seemed to matter anymore. The questions, the sadness. People say they understand but they don’t. People say to you, “It’ll be ok!” It won’t. Life was swirling, turning black. Anger was rising, rage as red as the centre of the sun. How would I get even, how would I make it right? Who would pay for my sadness. How could I get anyone to understand? I stood alone, staring into the ball room at the hotel where the conference was being held, full of hundreds of positive, energetic souls… cheering, hugging, clapping. They didn’t know, didn’t have a clue what real life was all about. I was alone. Truly alone. Jaded. “Hey partner!” A calm voice doused my smoldering fire. A strong warm hand touched my shoulder. His energy shot through my soul. The voice came from a speaker by the name of Phil Boyte, I had booked him to speak at our conference that year. “Huh?”, was all I could muster. “It’s bad a time isn’t it?” He asked. “The worst” was my reply. “You need to be at home right now. You should cancel your speaking schedule for the next month or so and work on getting through this.” “I can’t afford to, I need to pay for…” “Don’t pay me. There are people in your life who are acquaintance’s and then there are those that are friends. I am a friend. Take the money you would have payed me and pay yourself.” I said yes and he gave me a hug and walked into the the crowd. Gone. I didn’t even have a chance to truly say thanks. I saw Phil again today, actually for the last three days. He called me after our first day together and said how good it was to see me again. How happy he was to work with me. I was taken back. He’s gone now and I forgot to say thanks again. I forgot to write a better note or give him a gift of thanks. Here’s the thing though… I don’t think he would ever want me to. That’s not what he does it for. That’s not who he is. I made a comment to a few friends the other day that Phil is in my top ten. He is part of my top ten really GOOD people. I don’t mean “best friends”, I simply mean good people. I am better because Phil Boyte is in my life. Thanks Phil, thanks for everything and thanks for those few moments so many years ago. You were the centre of the storm, the calm in the middle. I can only hope that one day I can repay him but not by giving him the money he is “owed”, but by giving someone else the same feeling and compassion he gave me. I am always trying to be better, to learn, to evolve as leader. I am not the best by any means. What I do know for sure though is that I have lots to learn, so do you. That’s ok. Who is in your top ten list? Who are the good people you have met, it could be someone you have know for years or just met once. If you want to really challenge your thinking write a few lines as to why they are on your list. You may surprised, you may also find a quality that you want to add to your life. Enjoy today. Live today. Grow today. Be STUpendous today! Leadership 2008-10-30T22:43:07+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/sacrifice/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/sacrifice/#When:20:19:31Z I am in BC watching the late night news. I try and avoid watching the late night news, never good to fall asleep with all that negative stuff floating around my head. The last story of the night though, was a powerful story about a young girl, who after visiting India was so taken back by the conditions of some of the children that she saw she asked her father to remove her from a prestigious private school and enroll her in the local public high school. Here’s the thing, she then asked if her parents would donate her tuition to a charitable group that help children in India. Wow, who at 16 would consider that, be that selfless? Makes me wonder what I can do today to give to the world around me? How can I help others more then I am right now. She is truly finding a cause that is bigger then herself and giving to it. Today, find something you can do and give to it. Be bigger and better then you thought you ever could be. Leadership 2008-10-23T20:19:31+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/foundations/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/foundations/#When:19:43:04Z I am in Alberta at a provincial youth leadership conference. Such great energy, young students running around laughing and cheering. Student leaders talking about what’s important to them and how they want to change the world. Building a strong foundation in their future. I love it! It inspires me so much to spend time with them. The conference theme is “Future Leaders, Doing Super Things!” Got me thinking that these students are making the right choices, surrounding themselves with great people, creating memories and learning skills they will use forever. Ask yourself this question, are you surrounding yourself with the BEST people you can. Are you finding ways to improve yourself? Are you sitting by and being cattle (following the crowd) or are you running ahead of the herd? Stop for a moment and look around you… happy with what you see? No, change it. You can do that anytime. Each day is new. Start today, change your direction, make new friends, invest your time in new activities. Get excited this is YOUR life. The better you do today the stronger the foundation you will build for tomorrow! Leadership 2008-10-17T19:43:04+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/thanks-o-meter/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/thanks-o-meter/#When:14:08:58Z Here’s an idea. Take a a full of day and make sure you thank everyone who dies anything for you during your day. Holds a door, buys you a coffee, lends you a book, whatever it is. Keep a list of the act of kindness. You may be surprised how much you say say thank you! Keep track of how many people say thank you during your day as well. See if it equals. This world we live in could use more kindness. You are directly responsible for how your day unfolds and you have the ability to affect those around you. Leadership 2008-10-14T14:08:58+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/5-minutes/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/5-minutes/#When:17:27:22Z The other day I was in Quebec City and I was speaking at the International Camping Congress. Now I have spoken for years to many different groups. Some audiences in excess of 3000 people. I have shared the stage with a Kennedy, Movie Starts, Best Selling Authors, Olympic Athletes, Television personalities and even a couple of Governors, Premiers and even two Prime Ministers. I love my job and I am honoured to be asked to speak each and every time. This speech that I did at the conference was perhaps one of my most fulfilling. I was proud of myself after I had finished! Here’s the thing, I was given only 5 minutes to speak! Now as a speaker that seems sort of funny. I am used to having at least 60 minutes to get a powerful message across to my audience. So I was challenged with such a short time. It was also a group of my peers. People that I respect SO much. So for the first time in a long time I was nervous. I wasn’t sure what I would say until I got up on stage in front of the microphone. It hit me just moments before I spoke. I told my audience of close to 700 that I didn’t have enough time to tell them anything useful because I only had 5 minutes. If I had more time I said I would tell them about the lessons I have learned from my days as a camper, CIT, counsellor and camp director and owner. I then told 5 very short stories and the powerful lessons I learned from each of them. Each time saying I wish I had more time to tell them that story. When it was done I was honoured to receive a warm round of applause. I had actually spoken for about 10 minutes. Later that evening a man who is one of the most respected in all of camping Mr. Jack Pearse took the time to find me and let me know that I had done a superb job and that he had learned from my short speech. I was at a loss for words. All I could muster up was a “thank you”. I have done more “important” speeches to larger groups and not felt nearly as satisfied after that 5 minutes on stage. Here’s what I learned, you don’t need hours of time to make a point. Sometimes we only need a be a few minutes to say thank you or to support a friend or even impart some wisdom, no matter how insignificant it may be upon a group of leaders. Today I am happy. Thank you to all those who helped make the International Camping Congress such a success, and thank you for only giving me 5 minutes! Here’s today’s question… Please take a the some time to write the question in your journals, answer it and share your thoughts here on the STUpendous BLOG! “If you could impart some wisdom to friend, colleague or family member and you only had 5 minutes what would you say?” Leadership 2008-10-08T17:27:22+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/your-children/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/your-children/#When:16:35:39Z I have three amazing children. Got thinking this morning while I was journalling. It hit me like a bucket of COLD water. When my kids are reflecting on my life after I pass what will they think of me, my life, goals, accomplishments, how I chose to treat people? So I wrote a list of the qualities that I would love them to say when asked… “What was your dad like?” Even if you don’t have children you can benefit from the exercise. Picture you have lived a full life and your future children are sitting around having a coffee with a reporter. The question is “Tell me about your dad/mom, how did they live? What did they teach you?” Take the time to write this list in your journal and share your list here on the STUpendous BLOG! Here is something else to think about when you finish the list. What if it all ended tomorrow? What would they say now? Don’t wait to create the life that you want to live! Don’t wait to treat people with kindness, love and respect! Don’t wait to care about a cause bigger then yourself. Don’t wait to get up and see the sunrise, play in a puddle or work harder at something you love! Don’t wait!! Goal Setting, Leadership, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2008-09-26T16:35:39+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/show-time/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/show-time/#When:19:38:43Z Can’t help but wonder how some people show up on a daily basis. Show up for work, school, social events and life in general. I work with young people every day and sometimes I wonder what they are thinking when they put very little investment into making their days more fulfilling. They don’t “try” to be better. They have to understand that they aren’t going to be 15, 16 or 17 forever. They must realize at some point they will have to start to make something happen. I was working with some students the other day and found myself in awe of some of the negative attitudes of some of the grade nines. One young man had his pants so far down his legs he looked he forgot to get dressed. I watched him as he struggled to walk, looking awkward at best. I mentioned that he might find it easier if he pulled them up a little. He replied, “F u Old man!” Hmmm, I thought what was his plan for the future? What were his goals and dreams. I think you all know this! How you show up for life every day is the direct cause of your future. I hope that you understand that most people in life that are successful in business, sports, family and life that are people who show up fully! What you wear, how you talk, who you associate with is a direct connection to how your life unfolds. So stop and look at yourself today. Are you making yourself the best you can TODAY? Don’t just show up, show up fully! You never know who’s watching and what opportunity is about to present itself. Leadership 2008-09-20T19:38:43+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/waiting/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/waiting/#When:12:11:10Z We live in a instant gratification society. We expect everything fast and then faster! If our computers don’t load in tenths of a second we say it’s slow, we can’t wait for a picture to be developed, or good food to be made. The idea of unplugging from the cyber-super-fast world is scary. I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday, I was expecting all sorts of “results” and I received none. I was told that I have to wait now until next week. That’s frustrating. My first reaction was to be angry and start to question and blame. Then I realized that we as a human race could benefit a little from learning the art of waiting. There is a skill in be able to wait. In my case I want to know now, but in other cases we want to get results because we are excited. Here is the challenge today, take some time to sit in silence and do nothing. See how long you can wait there without moving. Be still. Try and do it for 30 minutes. Then write what you felt, thought about and experienced in your journal. Also, please share you thoughts here on the STUpendous BLOG! I can WAIT to read your response! Leadership 2008-09-13T12:11:10+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/fresh-obessed/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/fresh-obessed/#When:17:50:20Z Isn’t the first day of school grand!! Isn’t it the best day of the year for all students and teachers at every level? I think so! I spoke today to a group of freshman students at a local college. Had a great time, fun group. Before the presentation I was chatting with the Vice-President of the college and noticed a few students skipping out to do… well to go… they were on their way to…. well actually that’s the point. They probably went to wander around, sit somewhere, go to the coffee shop. One guy said he was going back to bed! I couldn’t help but think, they don’t get it. They are missing out. I know as a fact then when you are in school it seems like it will last forever. But trust me as someone who left college almost 20 years ago, it doesn’t last forever, not even close. After the presentation as 57 year old man walked over to me and thanked me. I asked if he was a teacher at the college? His response was brilliant… “Nope, I am making up for a lot of lost time, pissed away my youth doing pretty much nothing. I am going to get some of that time back. It’s a privilege to learn!” Why does it take us all so long to realize the good things. So, as you start another school year today commit to fun and make sure you also commit to celebrating every day the opportunity you have to learn! Be obsessed with the learning opportunities you have in front of you! It’s a chance for a FRESH start! Here’s today’s question… Read it, write it, answer it and SHARE your answer here on the STUpendous BLOG! “How will you take advantage of your NEW school year? What will you different to learn and grow? Leadership 2008-09-02T17:50:20+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-flower-between-the-rockst1/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-flower-between-the-rockst1/#When:16:32:28Z I am taking some time to unwind and reflect on my wonderful summer. I am trying to get back into my routines that exist for the ten months of the year that I don’t work at our leadership camp. I am so positive about the future of our programs and where we are going as an organization. I believe we have gathered the best team we have ever had and I try and celebrate them every day. In fact today we will have our annual end of summer celebration at my cottage in Georgian Bay. I was talking with a friend of mine who is planning a huge conference in Quebec City. I am one of the speakers and couldn’t be more excited. While we chatted she was concerned about the slow arrival of registrations. We were also talking about a dear friend who is battling cancer and doing it with a very positive attitude. As we were ending the call she said that her challenge didn’t seem so bad compared to cancer. I hung up the phone and looked out into the Bay and noticed a lone daisy rising up from the rocky shore. It stood strong in the wind, the waves lapping against the rocks. Got me thinking, we need to put our life in perspective more often. Not dismissing our challenges and failures but celebrating the 1% actions we take towards our goals, the good stuff that we have done. That flower represents to me the strength of the positive, the perseverance of the human spirit, the light of a true leader. So grow where you are planted, learn from your mistakes and remember that someone else is watching how you handle your challenges. Is it with grace or negativity? Here is today’s question… Read it, write it, answer it and share your thoughts here on the STUpendous BLOG! How do you celebrate your challenges? What have you learned from your failures? How could you handle the next road block differently? Goal Setting, Learning and Growing, Motivation, YLCC 2008-08-27T16:32:28+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-right-reasons/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-right-reasons/#When:12:12:00Z 15 years ago after the first summer of YLCC, by summer I mean 3 days, I decided that I wanted to make it part of my life. I wanted to expand the camp program from 3 days to a week. We did that, then it was two weeks, then three and four. We grew as big as we could then made the big switch to a new camp site and added two more weeks. For a long time we felt that six may be the longest. Then 2008 rolled around… Eight weeks later, all I can say is wow! It was a resounding success. I couldn’t be happier. I took last night to decompress and reflect. I tried to figure out why it was so good, so stress free. I figured it out, the team. We created a fantastic team this year. There was no drama, no stress, no real challenges. Was it 100% perfect? No, but that’s fine because we learned. The other big component to our fantastic summer was my Senior Staff, simply the finest total group of people I have ever had the privilege to work with. In years previous I had held onto people, or allowed people to stay at camp because of sentimental reason. I had hired those that had “great resumes”, I had struggled with trying to always show them I was proud in the past. It was hard. This year we put together a dream team that work for the RIGHT REASONS, the camp and the campers. Their soul goal was making YLCC world class. They did it. So thank you for a summer that camp directors and owners can only dream of. Thank you to the wonderful, young and dedicated group of counsellors that made that pure leadership impact on every camper. Thank you to Wakonda, thanks to all of our parents for trusting us and most importantly thank you to the campers for making deposits. BSE Here is today’s question… Please read it, write it in your journal, answer it and share your thoughts on the STUpendous BLOG by adding a comment. What are you truly thankful for today? WHAT A GREAT BUNCH OF LEADERS! - Thank you! Leadership, Motivation, Team Work, YLCC 2008-08-25T12:12:00+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/failure-success/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/failure-success/#When:17:48:00Z Speaking at a conference on entrepreneurship in Ottawa and spending some time with a lot of amazing people. Young and old. I asked the group what they have learned being a creator of business, what would they tell someone who is only considering being self-employed? Here is what one amazing 21 year old artist told me… “If you believe in what you are doing, don’t worry about the failures and the detractors. If you work hard and never give up, you will succeed.” How many of us give up at the first sign of diversity? The first wrong turn, or the first put down? The answer is too many! So take some and recommit to the dreams and goals you have. I believe in you. Remember the only true failure is one you don’t learn from. Leadership 2008-08-13T17:48:00+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/dream-dare-do/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/dream-dare-do/#When:15:49:56Z Had a great few weeks. I apologize for being away the past couple of weeks. Camp is so busy! So full! So fun! I truly love it. In fact the more I get into the summer the more I realize that it’s almost over and I need to cherish these last few weeks. It is a long 10 month “off season”!! One of the highlights of the past few weeks happened last Monday. We were blessed to have two amazing individuals visit us at camp! Steph and Matt are two West Coasters running around North America for the environment. Each of them running their own marathon every day, 42 kms each… 26 miles. They have a DREAM… Run around North America, raise awareness and one million dollars to help the environment. They are DARED themselves to do it… After thinking of the idea they got the people needed to believe in them and put it together. They had more then enough people tell them they were crazy (that will happen with any big dream you may have). Then they actually got themselves to DO it! They took what we teach each day at our camp and in our leadership programs… To Dream, Dare and DO! Is it easy? NO! Does it make life harder? YES! That’s the beauty of truly living isn’t it? You can spend your life as the passenger in the back seat of life or you can be the driver! The very real possibility of failure exists everywhere and with everything we try that’s new! We need to understand and accept this. If we don’t we will simply become the rock that gathers moss not the rock that is carved into the beautiful statue! It’s ok to be afraid, just don’t let that fear stop you. If I had you wouldn’t be reading this BLOG right now on this website and I wouldn’t have ever met Steph and Matt! This is me running with Matt and Steph for the Run For One Planet DREAM! For more information PLEASE check out their website and see how you can help! What is your DREAM? I DARE you to DO it! Goal Setting, Leadership, Learning and Growing, Motivation 2008-08-05T15:49:56+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/a-vision/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/a-vision/#When:15:16:14Z Can you trust me on this one? Can you stand outside of reality for just a few moments and pretend that you have boundless possibilities in front of you? You could grab them, any of them, anything you want is right there… waiting for you. Isn’t that a brilliant idea? I know, it’s hard, in fact I bet when I asked you to do it, many of you laughed at your own ideas and dreams. It’s the way we are brought up, most of us anyway. “Be realistic!’ “Don’t be silly” “Stop dreaming!” “Come back to reality.” “That’s a dumb idea!” If I could get a dollar for every time I was told that I would be able to vacation for a few weeks in an exotic place… I truly believe that you can do anything you put your mind to. If you push out the voices of doubt, yours and those around you, whatever you conceive can become reality. I heard a great story yesterday about former US President, Bill Clinton. When he was a young teenager he toured the White House and told the then President “I’m going to have your job someday!” I am sure thousands of children have said that, many have truly believed it but then most come back to “reality” and move on. Last summer I was driving through Algonquin Park and saw a legendary camp… Tamakwa. If you have ever seen the movie “Indian Summer” you may recognize the name. It’s been around for a long time. Many famous people have attended the camp. There is a sign at the boat dock that is made out of Birch that simply says, “Tamakwa”. You have to drive through it to get to the camp. I love that sign. When I drove past the camp last summer I stopped and got a picture of myself just underneath it. It was kind of cool. On Friday, while I was away in London, Ontario, the campers and staff did something that I am SO proud of. They built me (the camp) a YLCC entrance just like Tamakwa… but better. I have had many visions of events that will happen in my future. I dreamt once of this happening, I could see it. When I arrived back at camp at midnight I was met buy a bunch of campers, staff and senior staff. They stopped me on the road and asked me to get out of the car. I was then blindfolded and walked down to the entrance. They removed the fabric from my eyes… I was in awe. I was in tears. I was proud. My vision had become reality. I feel good about it, the campers and staff that built it feel good about it and in the end a new piece of the YLCC quilt has been sewn into our story. What is your vision of the future… what do you see happening to you? Remember to let go of reality and write a list… you just never know what will happen. Goal Setting, Leadership, Learning and Growing, Motivation, Team Work 2008-07-22T15:16:14+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/frustrated/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/frustrated/#When:18:56:18Z So I got this great new iPhone. I have been excited about this product for about 2 years. I really wanted it. I waited and waited and well… waited. It arrived last week and wow do I love the technology. It is slick and sweet. I was a hit when I arrived back at our camp… everyone wanted to see it, touch it. So now that I have had it for about 4 days I am completely frustrated by it. I can’t make my email work, sync my calendar and some of the apps I downloaded simply have disappeared. I have been sitting at my computer for about 2 hours… trying SO hard to figure it all out… no luck. I decided to reset my entire phone and try again. From the beginning. At the height of my frustration I got up to take a deep breath and try and relax, I don’t usually get upset about… well… anything, but I was. I took a brief walk around the building I was in and came back to my computer. I am now ready to start over, reboot both figuratively and literally. I will get through this and I need to realize it’s not important, not a big deal. Put your problems in perspective, for every issue that seems so horrible there is someone else going through something much worse. This doesn’t mean that your frustration or challenge doesn’t hold validity. It does, it’s just that if you try and put it in perspective you can deal with it better and usually get a BETTER result. That’s a simplification I admit but I do believe that it works! Keep breathing, keep leading… come on iPhone work with me. Leadership 2008-07-14T18:56:18+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/evolution/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/evolution/#When:20:26:02Z I love innovation! I was one of the silly ones that got up super early and went to my local Rogers store to buy an iPhone! I was third in line to get my new apple product. I knew there might be some issues with it launching in 22 countries but I went anyway! To say there were some glitches would be an understatement! Rogers computers crashed keeping me in the store for about 2 hours, there were only 6 phones of a designated 16 and then Apple’s web crashed frustrating hundreds of thousands of new users. My friends and I remained calm and about 6 hours later… I am typing this blog on my new iPhone! Too often we get so upset about things that we can’t change. It wasn’t the sales clerk in the store that caused the problem and in the grand scheme of things I still have what I wanted and I love it! I hope that we all take a giant lesson from this. When times are tough, take a deep breath and stop. Most times in the end it all works out! Leadership 2008-07-11T20:26:02+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-zone/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-zone/#When:16:59:58Z If you have been following my BLOG’s then you know I was working on a 22 day challenge. It was a HUGE succes, then I got busy with camp. Had some friends visit and fell off the challenge. It has been really upsetting me. Then I thought back to a book about a diet called the ZONE. It is one of many books that used to be around my house. The first page shared some brilliant life wisdom. It said something like this… “If you fall of the Zone diet, don’t panic because you can get right back on it the next day.” That’s the key isn’t it? You need to continue and work hard on the ultimate goal. Don’t beat yourself up. I am back on it again tomorrow. Back in my 22 day zone. I needed to tell you that so that I could remember it for myself. If you believe in what you are doing, keep at it. Goal Setting, Leadership 2008-07-08T16:59:58+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/panda/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/panda/#When:23:22:56Z What a brilliant last seven days! Our first week of YLCC is now done. There were so many amazing moments, too many to mention. There were simply great days of pure summer joy. One of my big moments happened on Tuesday. I took my son (happy birthday Matty) and youngest daughter to the movies. We went to see Kung Fu Panda. The movie was full of laughter, adventure and a really great message. Basically, the point was that (I am sorry if this gives anything away) if you believe in yourself you can do anything. There was a BIG scene in the movie where the Panda (Jack Black) realizes that he has the power to do what he needs to do. As soon as he said that, my son who is eight today turned to me very proud of his discovery and said… “Dad! Do you get it? All he had to was believe in himself, he has the secret power by just believing in himself! Do you get it?” I almost yelled out loud… “DID YOU HEAR MY SON!?” I was so proud! We all need to find the power with ourselves. It is incredible what I can do, what you can do, what we can do… think about it. Leadership, Family Life, Learning and Growing 2008-07-05T23:22:56+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/influence/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/influence/#When:14:54:15Z Who do you influence people on a daily basis? You can’t say you have no influence. You have friends, family, co-workers and even people who you pass by on the street or in a shop. I am so blessed that I work in a field everyday of my life with the ability to change the world around me. If you know me you might be thinking that due the fact that I am professional speaker and I run a summer camp that it’s easy for me. Truth is that you are right… sort of. I do get to get up every morning and speak to 85-150 people every day, impart some wisdom, share in great conversations and high five some brilliant young leaders. Beyond that though I try and influence people every single day everywhere I go! By influence please understand I don’t mean getting people to conform to my way of thinking. What I mean is that I want to create a positive feeling where ever I am. It feels good. I was in a store just the other day and I was joking with the staff, we were all laughing and smiling. I didn’t know any of them personally, but we all celebrated together for a few minutes. As I was leaving with my purchase the salesperson behind the counter said… “Thanks for making our day!” I stopped, smiled and returned the complement… “Thanks for adding to mine!” You too can do this every day. How we act, talk and carry ourselves each day influences those around us every moment of our lives. So before you set out today, stop and think. Ask yourself this question (and please answer it here in the STUpendous BLOG!), “How will I influence people in a positive way today?” Have an influential day! Learning and Growing, Motivation 2008-06-30T14:54:15+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/learning/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/learning/#When:15:07:41Z I have a confession to make… I am not proud of this. I have kept it to myself for many, many years. This part of my life caused my mother a lot of frustration for a good part of her life. It’s one of those things that I used to think that, if I had just one wish, I would go back in time and do it all over again. This is part of my life that I haven’t really spoken about. Ready for it? I was horrible at school. All of it. Elementary, high school and post secondary. I didn’t enjoy the structure of the classroom. I wasn’t “dumb”, if I enjoyed it, I excelled at it. I remember my high school principal saying to my grade 11 Math teacher… “Stu’s not here to learn, he’s here to enjoy himself.” I didn’t graduate with my friends, I had no cap, no gown. I did not walk across a stage. My parents did not snap a fun photo of me with my arms raised in celebration. There was no after party. I sat in the audience, alone. Wishing I had worked just a little harder, done just a little more. I learned a lot that evening. It would be strange for my old English teacher to meet me now. I keep three journals, I write all the time, I live for another chance to share my thoughts with myself and anyone who is interested. I have written two books and I am beginning my third. I love the passion I get from learning. In fact, one of my three journals is labeled “The Learning Journal”. Each day, I try and share some time with someone great. I watch, read or listen to a great thinker almost every day. It’s like going for coffee with them. This morning after my run, I watched a 30 minute interview with Richard Branson. He taught me something today. He pushed me to think about how I live my life. He said, “All you have in the end is your reputation.” Made me think about the day-to-day actions of the friends I keep, the staff at The Leadership Training Centre and the way I live my life. I got charged up. I am ready to learn more. Consider this quote… “The level of thinking that got you to where you now are will not get you to where you dream of being.” - Albert Einstein There was a time when I fought the learning, Now I have an insatiable appetite for it. I want to grow. Too many of us finish our formal school and put our lives on “cruise control”. Not this guy, not me. I want to learn more about the world, more about me. So what are you going to learn today? How are you going to push yourself a little further. I have met too many people that have said they wished they learned more, not less. Want to start? Look at this website ... it has a plethora of great wisdom… http://www.ted.com. Go learn, enjoy. Learning and Growing, Motivation 2008-06-21T15:07:41+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-beginning-line/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-beginning-line/#When:02:08:08Z Well it’s 10pm on Monday June 16th, 2008. I have done it. In two hours my 22 day challenge will be done. I have really changed part of the core of my being, of who I am and how act and react to people and situations. I am proud of myself and that’s ok. To often we don’t pat ourselves on the back. We don’t high five each other enough. It’s almost as if the thought of simply being excited for something you have done is a bad thing, you are considered to be arrogant or pompous. I strongly disagree. I was like that for a long time, hiding behind myself. Always concerned that if I tooted my own horn that I would be look down on. Now please don’t get me wrong. I am not talking about grand standing or showing off. I simply mean it’s ok to say “Good Job” and then smile and move on to the next challenge. I feel good about me. I like that feeling. As I got closer to the end of the challenge, friends were asking me if I was looking forward to a beer or sleeping in or taking some time of running. I was surprised at the questions. For a while I was thinking that it would be nice to just “get through it”. Now though I have created new habits, new thinking and simply a new way of living. Imagine if we all could instill 1 good habit every three weeks into our daily lives! At the end of a year you would have over 15 new habits! That’s awesome. So to answer their question… No. In fact I take the last 22 days as simply the walk and stretch to my the starting line, the beginning of the race. You just can’t walk up to a marathon and start running. More often then not you will fail. I am ready to put the feet into the blocks and begin the real challenge; the race of life. So what’s my next step? Another 22 day challenge. Another list of 15 things to change and work on, to get better at. Racers… Take your mark… Oh, by the way I will be writing a blog in the next couple of days that will explain how you can do your own 22 day challenge. So check back and again thanks for all the support. Goal Setting, Leadership, Motivation 2008-06-17T02:08:08+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-dream/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-dream/#When:01:05:20Z Sitting at the lake today, looking at a crowded beach front. Sandcastles being built, kayaks scooting about, people relaxing in the sun on a Muskoka chair. I am happy. My dream was right there in front of me. Something I had considered a whimsical thought once was so very real. I remember the first spring so many years (5) ago, only 8 school groups maybe 300 students. Now 2008, we will have close to 2000 students and over 30 schools. We are still growing. When I first thought of the 22 day challenge I compared it the idea of the creation of our camp. There were some doubters, some supporters and a lot of people that reserved their comments. I had tried a couple of times to start the challenge before and come up short, way short. This time I stuck to it, and now that I am on day 20 I feel great. I figure I have accomplished 95% of the challenge, a few little challenges on the route. One thing I discovered is the support of real friends, those that care. One of the big parts of the 22 day challenge was to let go of the things and people that hold me back from being the person that I truly want to be. I have done that and I have never felt so free. We tend to hold onto people, places, times in our past that we wish we could experience again, went a different way or even didn’t happen or met at all. I held on to a few of those “things” and it hurt me. I now feel free. I am surprised how much I have grown in such a short period of time. Thanks to all of those who have sent me support and encouragement. I will continue to grow as the camp will. When you find our what works and what is truly important then anything is possible. I have to run, I have to judge the sandcastle contest! Motivation 2008-06-15T01:05:20+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-run/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/the-run/#When:23:04:02Z Stayed at my mom’s last night. There is a certain comfort when you arrive back at the home that you grew up in. I recognized the smell and the feel. My mom has made many, many changes to the house, but in the end it’s still “home”. As part of the 22 day challenge (let’s hear it for day 16!), I run for six days and have one day of recovery. So this morning I had to run, but this would be another challenge for me because I have only run my run, my 5 km around our property. I was so nervous. The night before I mapped out the circuit by driving in my car until I found a 5 km route. When I awoke this morning (on time… 4:39am) I did my morning holy hour and then got ready for the run. Tightening up my running shoes I ventured out of the house. It was a beautiful morning, perfect temperature, a light rain was still falling after the mighty storm that carried through most of the night. I ran and I ran, 1 km then 2, 3, 4 and finally the 5th. The thing was I was still full of energy, still ready to run some more. So I went around my old street to the circle (it’s a court) and instantly remembered great games of hide and seek, kick the can, tag, king of the castle in the winter. As I ran by, I could here the laughter, the kids darting around, screams of pure joy. I could see all my friends… John, Chris, Anita, Lori, Derek, Brian, Pete and my brother. They were there, clear as it was 30 years ago. I continued across the road and did a lap around my old elementary school, still the same. I saw the place I won at marbles (a game long lost now), where we played 21, soccer and handball. I ran by where I had my first kiss, the time I tried a cigarette, that spot I was married for the first time… Darlene where are you? I slowed down at that exact spot that Kieth punched me… the same place where I got right back up and tried to fight back. I ran back to my mom’s home, my home. I ran up the steps top speed, just like I did when I was eight years old. When I got to the door I saw my face in the reflection of the window. I wasn’t eight I was thirty eight, a long way from that time. But as I turned around to look across the street at my old best friend’s home (long moved away), I felt good. I had done it, I grew up. There was a time when I thought 38 was like the end of a life. I would never reach that time, that age, no way. My elementary school principal once told my mom I shouldn’t take advanced courses in high school because I wouldn’t be able to handle it. I wasn’t focused enough, smart enough. My mom had faith in me, she signed me up for the advanced courses. I more then survived, I succeeded. As I move towards the end of the 22 day challenge I am very aware that I am capable of more. My mentor has always told me, “With clarity comes mastery.” I know that’s true now. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do something. You can be the person that YOU choose to be. I know it sounds a little cheesy, but I am proof. That run today reminded me of where I’ve come from. The street, the playground and the home. I am ready to keep going, to keep building, to keep getting better. Motivation 2008-06-10T23:04:02+00:00 http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/pushing-the-boundries/ http://www.ylcc.com/stu-saunders-presentations/stu-pendous-blog-detail/pushing-the-boundries/#When:18:09:00Z Spending a wonderful weekend with my friend and mentor Robin Sharma. It’s the annual Awakening Best Self (ABS) weekend held at an amzing place called the Kingbridge Centre. One thing that I love is the entire idea of the weekend, to find out what we as human beings can be. To look at the child that we were and where we lost the spark for learning, loving, laughing and truly living. Today is the 13th day of my 22 day challenge. It’s great because that’s what it’s all about, the challenge. I love to push myself and find the change in myself and then in turn help others find the change in themselves. This is the idea of the new website http://www.ylcc.com. We wanted to create a website that would better represent all of the work that we do with people of all ages. I have already felt the energy increased around our new website, we pushed the boundries of what we had, what we thought we could do. What we found is we can do better. Just like with our own lives. Day 13 is almost over and number 14 is upon me. Tomorrow will be the pushing of new boundries. I am excited for me and just as excited about you. Imagine what we all could do if only we pushed ourselves every single day. Man, I find life more exciting every single moment! Leadership 2008-06-07T18:09:00+00:00