Nordstom’s is getting a lot of publicity this year for their stance on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Namely, they are going against the decorations trend and are choosing to wait on Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving is over. People everywhere are enjoying this and re-posting their signs. This past year, I saw Christmas decorations in WalMart before Halloween…

A week ago, I received a message from a blog reader. He commented that my entries have been longer of late, and while he tried reading, he was lazy to continue on. He suggested I should create shorter versions of my articles for busy and lazy people like him. For perspective, my guest posts on

“I’m feeling guilty because I procrastinate too much” A quick search on Twitter confirmed my hunch.  There are a lot of  people talking about procrastination, and the tweets I surveyed  are filled with feelings of guilt, regret and remorse. The word “procrastinate” is a heavy one, and I believe that people are  trying to solve the problem…

A Typical Life? I gotta be honest, I really like my life. Of course I have my moments (being human and all), but for the most part, it rocks. Not a day goes by where I am not thankful for, or totally aware of, what I have and what I’ve been given. Of course it’s not…

I told my friend Graham that I often cycle the two miles from my house to the town centre but unfortunately there is a big hill on the route. He replied, ‘You mean fortunately.’ He explained that I should be glad of the extra exercise that the hill provided. My attitude to the hill…

Let me give you what might seem a strange piece of advice – be lucky. Sometimes you have good luck and sometimes you have bad luck. But do you have a choice? Can you make your own luck? Dr. Richard Wiseman has studied why some people are lucky and others are not. He advises that…

Earlier this week, I wrote a post about limits and how limits engender creativity. Unfortunately, I opened with a lengthy discussion of my recent forays into SLR photography, and the point of that post seems to have gotten lost. Since it’s an important point, I thought I’d revisit it, this time…

Sixty Eight Going on Thirty Three For those of you who have read my book Fattitude, you have already ‘met’ one of my favourite people; Jan Frazer. Jan is one of my personal trainers, has worked along side me at Harper’s Personal Training for about fifteen years and is sixty eight years young. She’s a…

  How do you do that?  You give away what you got. It’s not that complicated, really. Short on time? Some people are always running out of time – like it was cash or something.  They run out of time and they’re always in a panic to get things done. If you’re always out of time, then do the…

The Story of the $800 Jeans I recently watched a presentation given by a journalist (Benjamin Wallace) who had taken an extensive look at the way people shop; what they buy, why they buy, how much they spend and why some people are prepared to part with obscene amounts of money for the supposed ‘top shelf’…

2009 is now here and it is time to start planning for this New Year. Just what do you want from the coming year? How sure are you to achieve your New Year resolutions? Getting a fresh start with the New Year is an artificial custom – you can begin to get the life you love…

Bill Gates recently said, “We are in an economic downturn but an innovation upturn.” Most people are focusing on the downturn and the dangers it poses rather than on the opportunity for innovation. Most businesses are restructuring and streamlining their operations. How can you maximize your chances in the change maelstrom? One way is to…

If you live in Australia, the US, the UK, Canada or New Zealand, then you live in the same place as me; Fat City. Fat City of course, being more of a collective mindset, and a culture of eating too much and moving too little, than any geographical location, or ‘literal’ place. And while it’s…

Following the herd is a sure way to mediocrity. Patti Wilson I don’t know about you, but one of the things I’m afraid most in life is mediocrity. For me, life is too precious to be lived in mediocrity. Life is a golden opportunity, and we should use it as good as we can. Living in mediocrity…

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could.Ralph Waldo Emerson Sometimes we start a day with the previous day still in mind. We think about the mistakes we made in the previous day, how things went wrong, and how we felt bad about it. No wonder it becomes difficult to…