All posts filed under: LinkedIn

Purge

If you could only use what you could fit in your back pack, for one week, what would you take, what would you leave behind? I had to make that choice on the evening before I left into the desert in October in Chile.  I was running a seven day adventure race. We have many mandatory items and a few choices on food and clothing. The trick is to take everything you need, and be as light as possible. Carrying extra weight through the desert can make things difficult. In fact, it contributed to significantly wearing me down in my first two races. As I was doing a fall cleaning this weekend, I was reminded how life follows you into the desert. I like to get as much use as possible out of things I buy, maybe I keep them a little too long. Keeping “extra” things in the desert  can clutter your chances of success. Holding on to the comforts of home, can short change getting back to nature and weigh you down. When …

What happens when you experience CRUD?

“The CRUD you walk through in life, adversity experienced, gives you strength to endure” – Me Day 3 – Atacama Desert Run As we closed up camp around the fire after 83KM down after two days, one of our friends and Six time veteran shared that Day 3 would be the most challenging. He said you’ll see some terrain you have never experienced before that will mentally wear you down. As we finished the 2nd checkpoint and the first 20km, we were about to enter a difficult stretch. The race organizer as we passed said you are about to enter 10km of Crud. We asked if it was runable. She laughed and said not really. It’s one of those responses that was unsettling, and vastly under stated. Little did we know we were not only entering the most difficult stage of the entire race but what the three of us running together would describe as the most difficult stage we had ever run (or would walk) in our combined 10 desert races. If you would …

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

“Well you probably needed a good butt kicking in your prep for Antartica.  Better to struggle out here than down there!  Now we know where we need to focus the next three months,” said my running coach and mentor Ray Zahab. He would know. He has crossed most of the world’s deserts and poles on serious expeditions. In the spring he recently completed back to back treks–through the Canadian Arctic and right after across the Atacama Desert in Chile–in over 40 days. This three day race was short, compact and the terrain was difficult. It was great to be back on home soil in Canada and see the challenge it presented for me and other competitors in all its beauty…and it kicked my butt! My hydration was off in the sweltering 97F heat the first day and it impacted me the rest of the race. I was was able to gut out a decent run over 53KM on day one, but when you forget to change the oil often enough on your car, it will start …

What’s Your Minor?

What is Davos like for a female CEO? Barri Rafferty is a CEO of a major PR firm and she joined us at TEDX in May to share an identity crisis she went through as a women CEO. She was attending her first World Economic Form in Davos and as she arrived she noticed only 15 percent of the attendees were women. It really hit home for her when she was asked multiple times during the event “whose wife she was”. This was one of the biggest learning opportunities of her life and yet she couldn’t shake this feeling that nawed at her all the way through the event. It was really an “identity crisis for me” as she described. As she got home from that trip she wondered, was she a mother or wife first or a CEO?  Could she be all three or did she have to choose? She was mentoring young women in her company, but was there something more she could be doing? It started her on the path to champion …

How to Win Friends and Influence Polar Bears

I started my first job, many, many, many years ago working for a partner company of Xerox Corporation in Canada.  They gave me three postal codes (the Canadian Equivalent), a three ring binder with a bunch of paper that had my current account list and sent me to the big City in the East, Toronto for a week of Training. There was a lively and passionate bunch of peers wanting to learn how to sell the Xerox way.  Back in my time, many said you could not go wrong, learning that skill set.  The sales trainers were unbelievable and I thought that would be a great job to have one day.  We all headed out for lunch everyday through to the underground food court, near Yonge and Bloor Subway station.  At the time, the throngs of people rushing back and forth was overwhelming.  I was happy to get back to the land of ice and snow in Edmonton, and test my new skills. First I had to pass my demo tests.  The Xerox 5614, desk …