Stu Saunders Presentations

Stu-Pendous Blog - Archives for March 2009

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

What’s your best?

Mar 28, 2009

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!

Posted by Stu Saunders in Leadership on Mar 28, 2009 at 7:31 am | Permanent Link | Comments (6)
Short… sweet

Mar 25, 2009

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.

Posted by Stu Saunders in Goal Setting Leadership Family Life Learning and Growing Motivation on Mar 25, 2009 at 1:26 pm | Permanent Link | Comments (6)
Celebrate?

Mar 17, 2009

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.

Posted by Stu Saunders in Leadership Family Life Learning and Growing on Mar 17, 2009 at 5:53 am | Permanent Link | Comments (1)
Focus - Commit - Follow through

Mar 9, 2009

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.

Posted by Stu Saunders in Goal Setting Leadership Learning and Growing on Mar 9, 2009 at 12:57 pm | Permanent Link | Comments (3)
Perspective

Mar 2, 2009

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…

Posted by Stu Saunders in Leadership Family Life Learning and Growing on Mar 2, 2009 at 9:34 am | Permanent Link | Comments (14)
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