Graceland, Ontario

Friday, June 14, 2013

Getting Up the Day After

There can’t be anything more annoying than having to work the day after. After what? It doesn’t matter. Could’ve been a wedding, a family get-together, a party, a show, a big meeting, a product launch, a Grand Opening, all that does is the nagging pain in your head and the desire to get more sleep.

But, when we concede to our desire to relax, we make a fatal mistake, break the antique dish. You’ll soon see what I mean…

After the retreat from Stoney Creek a week or so previous, the American forces met up with Major General Morgan Lewis’s reinforcements. But they didn’t have time to make use of them. British commander Captain Sir James Lucas Yeo of the Royal Navy started bombarding the American forces and, with the help of native allies and Canadian militiamen, pushed the Americans back to Fort George. Over 230 Americans were captured, injured or killed.

The big lesson from this is the Americans, who’d suffered a devastating and unnecessary defeat a week previous, nearly reassembled as if nothing had happened. Only the British follow-up really pushed them back.

Many times we get complacent after something works out. We say, “we did it! Hooray!” And though there’s nothing wrong with that, complacency is where we mess up.

When you’ve done something well, be like Captain Yeo. Follow up. You won’t want to; you’ll want to party and enjoying your success. But your victory will turn to a frustrating loss if you’re not careful. The art of getting things done is only bettered by the art of making sure they’re ACTUALLY done afterwards. Results and endings are all that people remember and, therefore, all that matter.

Make sure you make yours a good one.

Alex H.

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Saturday, June 8, 2013

And THIS is What Happens!

Lost.

We’ve all been there. When someone tell’s you to do something but not how and you get completely lost. You try your best but you might as well be speaking Jupiterian.

Such is the case with bad leadership. It makes you feel foolish and it messes the overall project up, too.

But none so much as what happened at the Battle of Stonycreek in 1813.

The War of 1812 was in full swing − the

U.S.

invading what would become

Canada

, a series of British Colonies. The Anglo-Canadians were losing. The

U.S.

forces had burned York, the capital, a month before on April 27^th, then Newark, the old capital, on May 27^th. Only weeks later, on July 6^th, British/Canadian forces under General Vincent stood outnumbered and on the retreat. But, they still had an opportunity. Followed by a couple thousand Americans, the British planned a surprise attack to make up for their meagre 700 troops.

The battle started at 2 in the morning and after a short time it became clear the British were going to lose. They had too little men and couldn’t break the American centre. Then something happened…

General Vincent, the British commander, was thrown from his horse. Unable to lead, Major Charles Plenderleath took command. Realizing the bad situation they were in, he created a small force to take out the American cannons and hopefully turn the battle around.

The small force did that − and more. They captured the American commander Brigadier General John Chandler when he went to check on his artillery. Then, they captured Brigadier General William H. Winder, the American second-in-command when he made the same mistake. Without any leadership, the winning American army retreated, leaving the outnumbered Anglo-Canadian forces on the field.

Canada

was saved to everyone’s great surprise… once again.

Leadership means so much. The British won because they had someone telling them what to do. When there’s no vision, no plan to follow, things go to hell quickly. Even when everything should be in your favour, if it’s clumsily executed, you’ll lose just as the American’s did exactly 200 years ago.

Many people are scared to walk up to the platform and take charge. They’re scared they’ll make a mistake and things will go badly. Ironically, even if they do poorly, they’ll still lead better than no leader would. Someone has to be the one to make the plan. If no one else does it, it might as well be you.

Because, sure as eggs scramble, if it’s nobody, you’re in for a ridiculous loss.

History rhymes, as Mark Twain said. Make sure you only mimic the parts you like.

Alex H.

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Saturday, June 1, 2013

Flying Off the Flippin' Handle

There’re few things that make me feel like flying off the flippin’ handle. Still, even for the best of us, there’s always at least one…

You’re reading a perfectly good article when either in the article or in the comments somebody, whether it be the writer or the reader makes some comment about a wrongly used word (“their” vs. “there”, for example). Then, instead of it being a simple, “Oops, used a wrong word, happens to all of us − we’re human, ya know!” response, people start saying “even a Grade Nine knows how to use that word. What sort of writer are you?”

I mean, give me a break. It only gets worse when you read something like this from a blogger who YOU KNOW has made their own mistakes in the past.

There’s more to a writer than getting the words right. Yes, ironic as it sounds. Writer’s need to understand form, they need to have a “voice” to give their writing personality, they need opinions on things relevant in their topic area, they need to know how to answer questions effectively. As a side, they should also have good people and networking skills to maximize their success.

Getting one word wrong once in a while won’t kill a career or make a bad writer for that matter. All it does say is that writer made a mistake, overlooked an error, and maybe should spend more time looking over their work before submitting it.

Nothing more.

It’s easy to say someone isn’t cut up for their work because they made this error or that mistake. B.S.! None of us are perfect and we’re all learning, however long we’ve been at something. Being critical of someone else, especially when it’s not constructive, will not only hurt the other person − it’ll create you an enemy.

And make you a hypocrite.

And aren’t you better than that anyways?!

We’re all trying to express ourselves, through writing or otherwise. The least we can do is give the other guy some basic respect.

We’d expect no less from them.

Alex H.

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Friday, May 24, 2013

Why You're Missing Out if You Don't Believe in Teamwork

Working with other people can be difficult.

Really difficult.

They don’t always have the same viewpoint as you and they certainly might not always agree with your plan of action. Many times, we believe we can work better by ourselves.

And though that may sometimes be true, it may also lead to us slamming our pinkies in the door jam.

200 years ago today, the Unites States and Britain, with Canada as the chopping block, were fighting the War of 1812. Britain/Canada started out well but by 1813 the cupcake was upside down.

American guns from Fort Niagara started wrecking havoc with British Fort George on May 25^th 1813. To mount things up the American Lieutenant, Oliver Hazard Perry, who later won the Battle of Fort Erie, taking the Great Lakes away from British domination, brought in fourteen ships of varying sizes to increase American firepower. The ships helped outgun the British.

The navy then worked with the American army to move 4000 troops over to the Canadian side on May 27^th, 2013. The British/Canadian defenders had no option but to retreat to safer ground, losing one of their capitals of commerce to the invaders.

The thing is it wouldn’t have been possible without the American Navy working at first with Fort Niagara’s guns to overpower the British and then by supporting the American troops on the Canadian side.

Like the American navy and army at the Battle of Fort George, we must remember to work with the strong people closest us, the ones who have the skills to turn things to our advantage. We may not always like them but without their skills we wouldn’t be quite as effective. Sure the Americans might’ve beaten the British by shear force of numbers but they hadn’t to that point in the war (Detroit, Queenston Heights) nor did they later with battles like Lacolle Mill afterwards.

Combined skills, working with others, will cover weaknesses that even the most skilled find when working by themselves. We are powerful beings, not perfect beings. Working our strengths off others can win a battle or change our lives.

But only if we allow the magic of teamwork to flow.

Alex H.

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Friday, May 17, 2013

How Mothers and Bodybuilding are Alike

Helloo0O Ladies and Gentlemen!

Welcome back to Graceland Ontario, your one stop location for success advice from the greats. Today, in light of Mother’s day a couple days back, we’re going to talk about being thankful for getting to where we are today. And I think some of you might be surprised by what I say.

What’s your earliest childhood memory of your mother? If you’re like me, you probably have a couple. I couldn’t tell you for sure which one was first, but I think it’d be of my Mum driving me while I was in the back of her car, playing with me while I watched TV or at Christmas dinner. I remember as a kid always wanting to impress my Mother because I loved her so much. Sometimes, I felt like I fell short.

But, as you grow older, sometimes it’s easy to get the whole “grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side” mindset, in everything. Now, I’m not saying settling’s good, but all of a sudden you feel like you aren’t enough and others are better. And, many times, mothers become embarrassments you’d rather not show your friends.

Now, first off, I’d like to say after dealing with Mother’s other than mine, I’d take my Mum any day over them. They may seem cooler at first, but you tend to find they make all the “mistakes” your Mum makes while tending not to love you as much.

Whatever your relationship with your Mother, it’s important to realize how much you owe them. Without her, you typically wouldn’t have been born (quite literally) and you certainly would’ve grown up to be a different person. You are indebted to her for the way you are today.

But I hear some of you saying, “my Mother was terrible and I hate her and she made my life a mess”. To that I say, even if she contributed to making your life less than it could’ve been, she’s done something great for you. Instead of directly teaching you how to behave, she’s given you a challenge to overcome. And if you’re here, you’ve probably either overcome or are attempting to overcome it. Like the pain it takes in a gym to forge beautiful muscles, she’s given you a barbell to lift up.

And when you make it, you’ll have taken your life to a whole new level.

So, whatever your current situation or relationship with your mother, be thankful. Challenges are learning opportunities. The person who gave you them, or taught you to deal with them, is the person who helped shape your character most.

As Abraham Lincoln said, “All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother”

So do you.

Alex H.

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Saturday, May 11, 2013

Being Thankful for Surviving a Plague of Flying Crocodiles

Helloo0OO Ladies and Gentlemen and welcome back to Graceland Ontario, your one stop location for success lessons from the greats. Today we’re going to talk about gratitude,

As you probably didn’t know, my birthday was the other day and, like happens for most people, I went between happy for all the presents and attention to shocked by the extent of my age. But, thinking about it, I put things in perspective and it might help you to hear my conclusions.

Every year, every month, every day, there’s a thousand things that can go wrong, at least half of them lethal. You can electrocute yourself, poison yourself (in multiple different ways − through cleaning supplies!), you can drown, be murdered, hit by a car, beaten by an angry spouse, and consumed by an epidemic of flying crocodiles. In short, there are a lot of reasons why both you and I shouldn’t be here (and I haven’t even gone into the biological improbabilities of it or the chances of super illness).

Yet, chances are, if you’re reading this, you are! I mean, isn’t it fantastic that despite the overwhelming odds, we’re still alive.

Every birthday provides us with a mark of stability, like the Queen does or the Olympics. It’s something so human and so natural it can’t help but ground us. At this point, it allows us an opportunity to see how far we’ve come since the previous year, to see what went right and wrong.

But it offers something much more… the chance to be grateful that we survived. There’s only so many birthdays you have. If you have one hundred of them, you’re fortunate.

Enjoy each and every one of them and celebrate with open heart. After all, you never know when those flying crocodiles are going to show up, hungry and waiting to take you away before your next birthday.

Alex H.

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Saturday, May 4, 2013

There's No Reset Button on Life

There’s a lot of talk in the media about “starting anew”.

We get indoctrinated with it from when we’re young and the grownups have their New Years Resolutions. But from there, things just go down the driveway.

Before you know it, people are giving you “clean starts” and “new beginnings”, even if you’ve been shoved in jail all night for unsuitable touching.

There’s nothing wrong with changing the way we act, it’s just the way we approach it. There’s this thought that life has a reset button, like a game. That if we don’t like what’s going on, we can get back to the last save point – an ok situation where nothing’s great but nothing’s bad – and start all over again.

But life doesn’t work like that.

That view of life misses all the lost opportunities you’ve forgone, it doesn’t recognize that just because you reset, most other people won’t accept your decision.

It doesn’t even recognize the good you can learn from making mistakes.

Instead of looking for the reset, the start over, look for the turn around. This is where you say, “that does it! I’ve had enough. No more twinkies. I’m losing weight”.

Or when you say, “I’m taking control of my life. I need to take more responsibility for my actions if I want things to get better”.

When we decide we want things to change, we CAN change them.

But we must realize that we’ve got to create change out of the crumbs of our old life. Only by navigating the struggles of the old can be find the wonders of the new.

Not by “resetting”.