http://www.tugofthekite.com/index.php http://www.tugofthekite.com/index.php?entry=entry100311-174109 Confucius.

Some time ago, a friend invited me to attend a Buddhist service on a Sunday morning. I had never been to a Buddhist temple and I was curious, so I eagerly went along. What struck me most about the service that morning, which lasted just over an hour, was the silence. With the exception of about ten minutes, given over to prayer and a few words from a monk, there was nothing but individual contemplation... and stillness.

As I was leaving, I saw the following notice taped on the window next to the front door:



Six Right Livelihood Guidelines

Consume Mindfully.

Eat with awareness and gratitude.
Pause before buying and see if breathing is enough.
Pay attention to the effects of the media you consume.

Pause. Breathe. Listen.

When you feel compelled to speak in a meeting or a conversation, pause.
Breathe before entering your home, or a place of work, or school.
Listen to the people you encounter. They are buddhas.

Practice Gratitude.

Notice what you have.
Be equally grateful for opportunities and challenges.
Share joy, not negativity.

Cultivate Compassion and Loving Kindness.

Notice where help is needed and be quick to help.
Consider others' perspectives deeply.
Work for peace at all levels.

Discover Wisdom.

Cultivate a 'don't know' mind.
Find connection between Buddhist teaching and your life.
Be open to what arises in every moment.

Accept Constant Change.



... posted by the entrance to a Zen Buddhist Temple on College Street in Toronto.

Read the words again... slowly and this time, out loud.

Hmmm...
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Drew is a personal life/leadership coach, mentor, speaker and author. His passions is writing, speaking and coaching - working with clients seeking to take their lives to the next level and helping those who are in transition and thinking about making big life/career changes. www.drewsimmie.com

If you would like to set up a meeting with Drew or have him speak to your orgnization, he can be reached at 1.416.927.9065 or by email at drew@drewsimmie.com. Follow him on twitter@thekite, facebook and LinkedIn.
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So often it seems that we live out our lives in chains, not truly realizing that we are our own jailers. Whether at work or in our personal lives, the barriers many face and the difficulties that confront them often seem overwhelming and insurmountable.

That’s especially true today. The last two years have been difficult for everyone. They have wrought challenges on many levels. At such times it’s a good idea to remind yourself of all that you have accomplished and all the pluses in your life. There are many. Make a list. Write them down.

It’s all too easy to lose sight of your talents and all you have to be grateful for – what you can still do in the future, if only you will stop for awhile and remember that you’re bigger than you see yourself.
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Drew is a personal life/leadership coach, mentor, speaker and author. His passions is writing, speaking and coaching - working with clients seeking to take their lives to the next level and helping those who are in transition and thinking about making big life/career changes. www.drewsimmie.com

If you would like to set up a meeting with Drew or have him speak to your orgnization, he can be reached at 1.416.927.9065 or by email at drew@drewsimmie.com. Follow him on twitter@thekite, facebook and LinkedIn.
]]> http://www.tugofthekite.com/index.php?entry=entry100309-185725 There are literally thousands of self help books in the market, some of them very helpful, thoughtful and certainly worth studying. Others… not so much.

One of the best one I have read – and always recommend to my clients - is a book entitled The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.

Essentially, it’s a book about how to uncrate your creativity. Developing your ability to connect with and trust the messages emanating from the right side of your brain is paramount to your success in today’s information age.

A way to do that, suggests the author, is to write what she terms "your morning pages." Take 3 blank sheets of 8 ½ X 11 pager, and each morning, before you open your computer or turn on the TV or the radio, sit down and fill these three pages with whatever thoughts come to your mind. Streaming your thoughts is an ideal exercise and a great way to get the creative process started.

There’s much more, of course, to this and many other helpful ideas, but if you’re trying to bump up your creative side, you’ll love this book.
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Drew is a personal life/leadership coach, mentor, speaker and author. His passions is writing, speaking and coaching - encouraging his clients to look for the best within themselves and coaching those who are in transition and thinking about making big life/career changes. www.drewsimmie.com

If you would like to set up a meeting with Drew or have him speak to your orgnization, he can be reached at 1.416.927.9065 or by email at drew@drewsimmie.com. Follow him on twitter@thekite, facebook and LinkedIn.
]]> http://www.tugofthekite.com/index.php?entry=entry100308-175627 Her accent immediately caught my ear. “Where are you from? I asked, as she gave me back the change from my pizza and a coke.



“Bukhara, Uzbekistan,” she replied. “Do you know it? Do you know where that is?”

”The Silk Road,” I replied.

She beamed back at me in appreciation, so pleased that someone in her newly adopted city knew of her country and where she was from. It’s not easy being an immigrant.

Bukhara is an old city situated on The Silk Road, an ancient trade route linking Asia with Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In its day, the city was a centre of scholarship, culture and religion hundreds of years before North American was even a glint in Columbus's eye. In fact, the area around the city has existed for over five millennia. Get a feel for the city. The sight of the blue domed mosque will instantly transport you into the city.

Goods and services first started flowing through that region in the year 206 BCE when the Han Dynasty opened up a route to export silk from China.

Back then, of course, it wasn’t only goods and services. On the backs of the horses and camels and in the holds of ships came a steady stream of different peoples, each bringing with them their ideas, customs, fashions and religions – mixing and mingling, intermarrying, learning, growing and expanding their horizons.

Just like today. Only now technology has scrunched time and distance. The flow of ideas and information is infinitely faster than it was the first time around. Now if only we can keep up to it...
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Drew is a personal life/leadership coach, mentor, speaker and author. He coaches people seeking to more their lives/businesses forward, and those who are in transition,thinking about making big life/career changes. www.drewsimmie.com

If you would like to set up a meeting with Drew or have him speak to your orgnization, he can be reached at 1.416.927.9065 or by email at drew@drewsimmie.com. Follow him on twitter@thekite, facebook and LinkedIn.]]> http://www.tugofthekite.com/index.php?entry=entry100307-164111
Bundled into following your dream and finding what you believe is your purpose, is an overwhelming belief in yourself.



It’s this belief that will support and sustain as you go out there each day to make your dream a reality. Dreaming a dream is one thing – making it happen takes a little longer – sometimes a lot longer. We all know the story about so and so who became an overnight success…. after slaving in obscurity for years.

It’s not uncommon for people, after they have struggled for 3-4-5 years and more to say, “If I had known what was involved, I might not have done it.” But they don’t mean it. Not really.

It’s not the dream – it’s who you become on the way to attaining it. No matter how long it takes you.
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Drew is a personal life/leadership coach, mentor, speaker and author. He coaches people seeking to more forward, or who are in transition,thinking about making big life/career changes. www.drewsimmie.com

If you would like to set up a meeting with Drew or have him speak to your orgnization, he can be reached at 1.416.927.9065 or by email at drew@drewsimmie.com. Follow him on twitter@thekite, facebook and LinkedIn.
]]> http://www.tugofthekite.com/index.php?entry=entry100304-204026
There’s a great mystery to life, larger and more wondrous, I believe, than any of us can know.

One of those mysteries is that each of us has a special talent, something that we do better than anyone else. The trick is to find that and when you do, you will have found your purpose. Then, you’ll never have to work another day in your life.

Where do you find ‘that,’ you ask? You find it in your heart. Whatever that purpose is, whatever inspires you, that’s what you’re looking for. Listen to what you heart tells you. It never lies to you. On occasion, your head will, but not your heart.

Ask yourself, what is that I really like doing? What is it that when you’re engaged in doing it, it’s as if your heart and mind are as one? You don’t notice the clock. The day flies by. Everything and everyone else fades into the background as you engage in that activity….you’re on fire. You’re lovin’ it.

That’s nice, you say. Following my heart is one thing, but how will I pay the bills? What will I tell the bank when they call? Here’s the thing – when you do what you love doing, the money will always look after itself.
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Drew is a personal life/leadership coach, mentor, speaker and author. He coaches people in transition, and those who are thinking about making big life/career changes. www.drewsimmie.com

If you would like to set up a meeting with Drew or have him speak to your orgnization, he can be reached at 1.416.927.9065 or by email at drew@drewsimmie.com. Follow him on twitter@thekite, Facebook and LinkedIn
]]> http://www.tugofthekite.com/index.php?entry=entry100303-181043 Be yourself. Everyone else is taken. Oscar Wilde.

Of all your possessions, time is the most valuable. When the day is gone, it’s gone. So shouldn’t you be living each one to the fullest, being who you know you really are, doing what truly inspires you?

Easier said than done, you say. That’s true. But nothing good ever comes easy and without a ton of work. But you’re worth it, aren’t you?

And what could be more important than singing your own song instead of joining in the chorus of someone else’s.

How do I do that, you ask? Is that possible? That’s the subject of tomorrow’s post.
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Drew is a personal life/leadership coach, mentor, speaker and author. He coaches people in transition, and those who are thinking about making big life/career changes. www.drewsimmie.com

If you would like to set up a meeting with Drew or have him speak to your orgnization, he can be reached at 1.416.927.9065 or by email at drew@drewsimmie.com. Follow him on twitter@thekite, Facebook and LinkedIn
]]> http://www.tugofthekite.com/index.php?entry=entry100302-221507 this link.


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Drew is a personal life/leadership coach, mentor, speaker and author. He coaches people in transition, and those who are thinking about making big life/career changes. www.drewsimmie.com

If you would like to set up a meeting with Drew or have him speak to your orgnization, he can be reached at 1.416.927.9065 or by email at drew@drewsimmie.com. Follow him on twitter@thekite, Facebook and LinkedIn]]> http://www.tugofthekite.com/index.php?entry=entry100301-212714 “No one who can rise before dawn three hundred and sixty days a year fails to make his family rich.” A Chinese proverb.

Last Friday evening, I went to see a documentary entitled Last Train Home. The story, directed by Lixin Fan, is centred on the lives of just one family, one ripple in the ocean of millions of Chinese migrant workers who have moved from the villages to the factories in the southern provinces to make a living.

They are sewing, assembling, packaging all the stuff we in the West are consuming by the container-fulls, all the while marveling at how inexpensive the products are.

It’s an incredibly hard life in the factories, really one of servitude, but it’s what they have to do, for it is only in the cities that the people can earn the money they need to live. In rural China, there is no social safety net. Nothing. They have to pay for everything, including their children’s education. Each peasant family is totally on their own.

The movie opens with a shot of thousands of people, some of them sheltered under brightly coloured umbrellas, milling around on the station platform. It’s pouring rain. Packed like sardines, they’ve been waiting for hours, sometimes days, pushing, shoving, straining to get on one of the trains. They’re headed home to their village for the only holiday a year they get – The Chinese New Year. Each year, at this same time, 130 million people make this trip. 130 million... all vying for a place on the train.

It’s the only opportunity they have to visit the children from whom they have been forced by circumstances to leave behind, in the care of the grandparents.Retaining some sense of connection with their children is difficult, if not impossible. The occasional cell phone call from Guangzhou doesn’t make up for the 50 weeks a year they are separated. How could it?

But like peasants everywhere, throughout history, the adults are living for the children, the next generation. Everything is about their education. Nothing else matters.

If you can’t see it in the theatre, and want to see where your designer jeans or the latest suit came from, rent the movie on a DVD. Even that comes from China! What can we do? It’s complicated. We’re global citizens now.

Viewing the movie helps lend a sense of perspective and serves to remind us in the West how fortunate we are. And how hungry they are.
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Drew is a personal life/leadership coach, mentor, speaker and author. He coaches people in transition, and those who are thinking about making big life/career changes. www.drewsimmie.com

If you would like to set up a meeting with Drew or have him speak to your orgnization, he can be reached at 1.416.927.9065 or by email at drew@drewsimmie.com. Follow him on twitter@thekite, facebook and LinkedIn
]]> http://www.tugofthekite.com/index.php?entry=entry100228-183416 Are we proud, or what?!


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