Dad Bud

The most important step to success is failure.  Photo by: @MidwinterPhoto Let’s talk failure . I know you’re thinking “we can fail on our own, what do we need you for?”. Well I’ve failed too, lots! So many lessons to be learned from failing, let you heed mine and hopefully minimize the failing yourself. We can’t talk success without first talking failure, then talking failure some more. Seriously though I’m 38 years old, 6 feet 4 inches tall, and weigh 220 pounds, with my height, size, great hands, and love of sports I should have been a professional athlete or something. I failed at it, I have many stories about how I failed at those dreams.  We talk lots about setting SMART goals, well I’ve set many STUPID goals over the the years ( S pent T ime U naccomplishing P riority I tems in my D ay) I’ll go back to the beginning of last year, that’s where it all began for my smarter or re-imaged focus on healthy living as a “dad”. I learned so many lessons from tha...

Be good. Anyone who has been coached by me in the past couple years has heard me talk about BeIng Good. The idea is something I’ve practiced for some time but was put more into context in a talk by John Herdman, Canadian Men’s National Soccer Coach, who previously managed to turn a distraught Canadian Women’s National team into world class competitors. Take some time to listen to his Ted Talk, it’s both light and enlightening. ( https://youtu.be/yO57_nx0weQ ) It is something I preach but also something I practice.  Strive for 80% effort in everything you do, every day, on every play, in every meeting, at every turn, even in practice, with your career, family life, education, health, and challenges you face, and you shall have success in life. His philosophy, if everyone on his team lived above that 80% line in effort, at all times, it wouldn’t matter what star athletes were out there as they’d be successful or at a minimum be satisfied with their achievements. In his words...

Photo by MarathonFoto Welcome back! You’ve survived the first blog and now you’re back for another. If you’re here for the first time, check out the first entry “Welcome!” as it’ll help explain a lot.  Step one in the journey, get uncomplicated! Let me explain. For me, balance and success in many aspects of life is fairly straight forward, it doesn’t need to be complicated and complicated will help push you to quit. You’ll hear me talk lots about simplifying and not over-complicating things. Generally, that’s where we fail ourselves and each other, we over-complicate everything to the point of thinking and believing “what’s the point, I can’t do that”. We quit easily because we set ourselves up for failure by being unrealistic with our expectations.  Fully cutting out food you enjoy, changing your lifestyle, or trying to compare your progress to that individual on instagram whose career is CEO of Exercising, these are all ways to lose your interest in going any fu...

Dad bod  Bud  Photo by Nigel, @midwinterphoto My name is Matt. I’m a dad of a 4 year old, but this isn’t just for dads of the traditional definition (read on).  I’m also fully committed to being a good husband, a great father, being successful in my career, and giving back to the community we live in. I’m your stereotypical 38 year old, fitting the broad definition of mass group of men in their late 20s to 50s (and beyond), who enjoy the occasional beer, bbq, chips, or other foods not on the national food guide. By occasional I mean every second day or so which helps attribute to the dreaded Dadbod, even if you aren’t a dad.  You may have been a former athlete turned armchair QB, a guy who had 10 or more friends in your 20s to go play a game of pickup basketball or hockey, were on Rec teams or intramurals simply because that’s what you did, or you went outside and threw a frisbee around with a friend when you were bored because it was sunny o...