Sometimes I think I have backed myself into a corner, though am never willing to throw up the white flag. Often it just takes but a minute to stop and think about it before I realise that my life is pretty darn good.

And no matter where you are in life, so is yours!

I heard someone remind me the other day to think of all the things I am grateful for in life. Of course, you can always look at people less fortunate to get perspective, but what is really great in your life now.

For me, I am always grateful I am healthy and have the use of all my senses. I am married to a beautiful woman who is also healthy and I have a wonderful family.

For now, I just wanted to say how good it is to sit out on the deck of the house where I am currently living and look out across the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean and south along the coast of Sydney.

Sure, not everyone has a view like this, but this is just to make a point.

Everyone who is alive has things to be grateful for. You should think about them every day!

VIP Success Club.

Almost every person dreams of their next vacation or holiday. The question often is where should I go and what should I do.

There are always many factors to consider including time, money, logistics and travel companions. We don’t always make the right choices either.

I guess the most important thing to remember is that a more traveled person has a greater view of the world. Visiting locations for children often give them a better head start for school. In essence, travel opens your eyes.

Ideally, everyone should have the opportunity to see as much of the world as possible, but we all know this is just not going to be possible. So for now, just concentrate on yourself. Plan a trip. It doesn’t have to be to the other side of the planet flying first class, it could just be to a camping spot you have never been only a short drive from your home.

Get out. See the world. Love life.

As many of you know, Liz and I spend a lot of time living in the winter. Sydney winter for the months in the middle of the year and Canadian winter in the Northern Hemisphere for the months at the end and start of the year.

The only problem is that we don’t really get to enjoy a good summer. For some, this is unthinkable. For me, it’s the only way I’d want to live. Sure Australia and New Zealand have snow, but there’s no where you can live on the snow for a reasonable price with all the mod-cons within close proximity.

So here’s how the average temperatures stack up for our average year. November to April, it hovers between 0 celcius and we’ve had as cold as about -25 celcius. The difference is an Aussie winter. Average temps in the depths of winter in Australia are about 16 degrees. Not bad. So realistically, summer for us is the shoulder seasons of Autumn (Fall) and Spring. We can still get temps well over 30 degrees there, so we don’t feel like we’re missing out.

This Aussie “winter” has been a little different though. It started with rain and lots of it. I think it rained for the most part for six weeks from May to June. But since then… it’s enough to make your eyes water if you live in a place where winter is cold and you’re not there to ski! Today is a classic example.

It must be 22 degrees celcius outside today. Perfect sunshine, light breeze, absolutely superb. But here’s the thing. Almost everywhere in the world gets some exceptions to the rule in winter, but Sydney has now had a few weeks of this weather.

My point, this is not winter! Let’s not get into the climate change debate here, but if this is the depths of winter and I’m on the beach wearing a t-shirt, bring it on!

Something that I struggle with quite a bit is finding balance. I talk about it alot and it’s something that I very deliberately work on, yet for some reason I still find myself coming back to the same issues.

Hopefully, if I talk my way through some of them, it might open your eyes to some issues as well. Issues like, when do we take time out, how do we take time out, how often do we take time out, what kind of time out do we take, you know the deal.

First and most important, you must make time for your family. This means kids, parents, brothers and sisters, spouses, other relatives and sometimes even yourself. Time spent is time you can never get back. If you died tomorrow, would you be happy with your life? If you can answer this question in a positive way, you are doing quite well.

Next, you need to make time for friends. Now be careful with this one. Some friends can bring you down. Have you ever heard the old equation that you take your five closest friends, add their incomes and divide by five to get your income? Try it. I bet it is really close! You see, wealthy friends want to pull you up, though friends without money are threatened by you earning too much and want to pull you back. Not consciously though, it is all done without thought. Even if you asked them, they’d tell you it was a load of rubbish. So why then does this equation work almost every time?

Finally, you just need to take time out to do things you enjoy. For me, it’s a kick of a football, or hitting a tennis ball. Maybe I’ll read or do some video editing. In fact sometimes, I just sit and stare into nature. The beach, the bush, the sky, animals. It seems to relax me.

So how much time? Well, that’s up to the individual. Find that balance between making money and enjoying life and you’ll be content. You’ll know when you’ve relaxed enough. Most people ignore this sign though.

Have a great week and get out there and be productive!

Ahh yes. What a superb weekend. I certainly did something different this weekend and thought I might share it with you.

A few friends and I got together for what we dubbed the Multi Sports Challenge, which was really just an excuse to get the boys together for a catch up. As with most people, time gets more and more scarce these days, so to get 9 great mates together in one place at one time is always a great thing.

The “sports” were great fun. Everything from beach flags, to golf, to poker and a whole bunch more.

So what the hell does this help you with? Well, it was something different. Something that usually wouldn’t come together. You realise when you do something out of the box how good it is. If you don’t think you have the time to do something similar, just plan it anyway, people will turn up. Then ask everyone to contribute. They will.

I have to tell you, all involved have been tremendously excited about this weekend for a long time and furthermore, will be talking about it for a long time to come. To be honest, I feel tremendously more motivated after it too as it cleared the head and got me excited about life in general as well.

For the record, I finished 3rd, behind “G” and “Alg”. Great work boys, well deserved. I’ll make sure I throw up a few photos and some video soon!

Actually the title doesn’t really have a lot to do with today’s post, except for the fact that when I say “ski”, I really mean “doing what you love most”.

My wife Liza said something interesting to me a while ago when I was wondering whether or not to spend some money on an activity. Let’s just say for arguments sake it was skiing in this case.

I said that it was hard to justify the money and she replied with, “can you even remember what you spent money on 12 months, 2 years or even 10 years ago?” I replied “no”, to which she responded that “you won’t even notice the fact that you spent this money 12 months down the track, but you are going to create memories that will last a life time”.

Wow! how true is that. Sometimes we get so caught up in trying to justify things when what we should be doing is spending time doing the things we love.