Stu Saunders Presentations

Stu-Pendous Blog - Archives for August 2008

These are the thoughts of speaker, author and camp director Stu Saunders.
For Stu’s original blog, you may still access his archives here.

The flower between the rocks

Aug 27, 2008

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?

Posted by Stu Saunders in Goal Setting Learning and Growing Motivation YLCC on Aug 27, 2008 at 7:32 am | Permanent Link | Comments (5)
The right reasons

Aug 25, 2008

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!

Posted by Stu Saunders in Leadership Motivation Team Work YLCC on Aug 25, 2008 at 3:12 am | Permanent Link | Comments (8)
Failure = Success

Aug 13, 2008

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.

Posted by Stu Saunders in Leadership on Aug 13, 2008 at 8:48 am | Permanent Link | Comments (1)
Dream - Dare - Do

Aug 5, 2008

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!

Posted by Stu Saunders in Goal Setting Leadership Learning and Growing Motivation on Aug 5, 2008 at 6:49 am | Permanent Link | Comments (4)
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