How To Achieve The Extraordinary

How To Achieve The Extraordinary

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You want to do extraordinary things. We all do, I think this is quite universal. We’d all like to achieve something (or many things) that seem to be out of reach for most people.

We want to be in that small minority that climbs an 8,000 metre mountain, wins a marathon, builds a wildly successful business or becomes a famous actor.

What makes these things extraordinary? Extraordinary things are extraordinary, simply because so few people achieve them.

Then why is it that so few actually manage to achieve them? What, exactly, is stopping us?

Conventional wisdom tells us that we need a plan to achieve our goals. We need structure. We need tips and tricks. I am a little obsessed with reading self-help and psychology books. If you’ve read even a fraction of the books that I have on achieving goals, then you’ll be familiar with some of the common advice:

  1. Write it down
  2. Break it into smaller tasks
  3. Set deadlines
  4. Make yourself accountable
  5. And so on…

This is all great advice, and is probably very useful. But what I often find missing in the common advice, is this:

To achieve the extraordinary, you have to be willing to …

Spring Cleaning

Spring Cleaning

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I came to realize lately that I have accumulated a huge number of online accounts over the years. Social media accounts, forum accounts, online services of every kind. Mobile app accounts, maps, instant messengers, heck even web browsers need an online account these days.

I have well over a hundred online accounts. How on earth did I accumulate all of these?!

We all know the dangers of giving away personal information to online services, even though we’ve become decidedly too comfortable with giving it away. Can you even sign up for a website anymore without it asking for your phone number, address, birth date, or, annoyingly, your mother’s maiden name?

But at least that is data that we decide to give away. Either you enter it into the text box, or you don’t. You create the account, or you don’t. We have an explicit choice.

Today’s online services are not so clear about how they get your data, about what information they collect, or how much of it they have. Services like Google, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and many more, collect massive amounts of information about us every time we interact with the internet. If it requires an online account, …

*Tap* *Tap* Is This Thing On?

*Tap* *Tap* Is This Thing On?

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The last post on this blog was in October 30th 2022, which as of today, was fifteen months ago. Fifteen! It’s been a moment.

When I sit down to write a blog post, I want it to be the perfect blog post – insightful, captivating, beautiful. I’ll spend days researching and brainstorming, writing and rewriting, consulting references, and endlessly polishing. I think what comes out in the end is a nice product, something that is worthy of sharing with others.

But there is a problem. I rarely end up posting anything at all.

I believe this is a common problem that most writers have in the beginning. The desire to not just write anything. To write something amazing! Plus it’s scary to put your ideas out there for all to see. What if I say something half-thought out or misinformed, and end up looking like a fool?

But I’m not going to become a better writer unless I write more often, and at my current pace that is going to happen… never.

It’s time for a change.

I’m going to start publishing to this blog more frequently. But it’s going to be more raw and unpolished than …

Why I’m Deleting Facebook

Why I’m Deleting Facebook

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I opened my first Facebook account when I was a freshman in College. Back then, the website was restricted to those who had a college or university email address, and had just opened registration to students in Canada. Everyone in my college signed up. Since then, I have been active on the website on a near-daily basis for the last 16 years.

Facebook and I have had a good run together. I met my ex-wife on Facebook. I created a popular Facebook application that ran for many years. Through Facebook, I connected with an amazing group of friends when I lived in Ottawa, some of whom I still keep in contact with a decade later.…

Turn Your New Year’s Resolution into a New Year’s Challenge

Turn Your New Year’s Resolution into a New Year’s Challenge

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New Year’s eve has come and gone, and I’m eyeing the beautiful blank pages in my 2022 calendar, imagining the great things I might accomplish with a full year’s time.

I could start a new project I’ve been thinking about, work on breaking a bad habit or creating a new one, or just resolve to get better at something I’m already doing (like writing here more often… whoops!).

These are classic New Year’s resolutions, which seem to be a love/hate relationship for most people. We are all familiar with that sinking feeling you get looking back at the year and realizing we fell short in achieving what we set out to do the previous New Year’s eve.

There is an inherent problem with New Year’s resolutions, and it’s right there in the wording. A resolution is a firm decision to do, or not do, something. And while that determined vision for the future (hopefully accompanied by a clear goal) is well intentioned, hopes and determination are not enough to push our monkey brains into the concrete action needed to succeed.…

Pick a Direction, Not a Destination

Pick a Direction, Not a Destination

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Sometime during my junior year of high school, a school guidance counsellor unceremoniously delivered the news that I must decide what to do after graduation. Like most 17 year olds, beyond the vague notion that I should probably go to college or university, I had little idea what I wanted to do in the next six months, let alone in the rest of my life.

Walking the school halls one day, I noticed a flyer stuck on one of the bulletin boards advertising a program at an Ottawa college that would teach you how to become a video game developer. I liked video games, and I was already an aspiring programmer, so I figured it was a perfect fit. I spent weeks crafting a portfolio, applied to the program, and to the surprise of 17 year old me, I was accepted.…

The Secret to Achieving Goals

The Secret to Achieving Goals

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When I was eighteen, I traded my PlayStation 2 for my brother-in-law’s old snowboard. I had never skied or snowboarded before, but I figured it couldn’t be that hard. My first trip to the hill was a rude awakening, as I quickly learned that snowboarding is hard. Over the next 7 years I attempted to fulfill my goal of becoming a snowboarder, but I could never improve enough to make it down a full run without bailing, or nearly bailing. All these other people at the ski hill can snowboard just fine, so what was I missing?

After my snowboard collected dust in the basement for many years, this past winter I decided to try to learn snowboarding again. Reflecting on my previous efforts, I noted that I went to the ski hill infrequently, and at random. There were years that I only went once. Other years I went many times, but let week or more go by between visits. I decided that if I were to finally learn how to snowboard, I needed to practice more often, and more consistently.

So I bought a season pass to a nearby ski hill, and without fail, every 2-3 days …