I thought I’d give you a little bit of a view of what our Province looks like. Yes, it’s been create by our Government at great expense to promote the 2010 Olympics, nonetheless, it will give you an idea what our Province looks like under ideal weather conditions. It’s beautiful! Time has given us this beauty – thousands and thousands and thousands of years! Have a look at this video – then come back .. .
However, the entire West Coast holds this kind of beauty including Alaska – there is incredible wilderness here yet, however, slowly but surely, that beauty is being torn away by investors – investors building and building and building. While they are building, they are clear cutting down huge sections of trees.
For what? For people to build huge mansions or expensive apartment blocks in which “investors” don’t live and don’t allow others to live in either – a real waste!
They take away what the rest of us cherish - what our Government promotes as the beauty of this Province – and replace it with man-made buildings, unoccupied. This is what our Government calls investment!!!
In the name of investing, the 2010 Olympics have come to our City whose beauty has been greatly diminished and quality of life has been drastically compromised. Every single inch of ground since the Olympics were announced has been built upon in the downtown core. There has been more building in the downtown core since the Olympics were announced than ever in our history – but they call it something else!
Our beautiful North Shore Mountains, once covered in thousands of trees, are not littered with houses and apartment blocks – growing by the month. Our Islands are seeing dramatic changes – large homes which no one occupies changing the landscape and charm of the Islands. Areas such as White Rock, Langley and Abbotsford, once gorgeous suburbs, have had acres and acres of trees cut down in favor of huge black parking lots for Walmarts and townhouses and apartment blocks.
Everything that people came here for is systematically being destroyed acre by acre!
Soon the beauty you see in this video will disappear as swarms of “investors” come to British Columbia to destroy what is beautiful about it and replace it with so called “economic growth”. It may be economic growth but it’s killing the quality of our lives and the beauty which are visitors come to see – all in the name of greed!
You can feel the energy building! Lots and lots of visitors are already here. The cruise ships to house fans and security are docked and occupied. The flags are flying. The City has been cleaned up. The City streets have been blocked off. They’re stopping Olympic protesters from entering the country . . . oh, yes, the madness has already started and there’s a distinct change in the atmosphere.
One mountain which is hosting an event doesn’t have enough snow. They’re trucking it in! It’s a coastal climate and that’s what it’s like here – our cherry blossom trees are blooming as are our daffodils and tulips – it’s an early spring and sunshine is predicted for the rest of the week so keeping the little snow at that venue will be a challenge.
The press have arrived – at least some of them – and after the Super Bowl today, likely there’ll be an invasion tomorrow.
The Olympic torch has come across Canada with hundreds of torch bearers of all description. It is was in Lillooet yesterday and traveling to Hope then Abbotsford and coming into Vancouver for the opening ceremonies this week.
We’ve invited the World – and representatives of that world are here – more to come – everything seems to be ready though last minute panic is setting in – there’s always something that will go wrong no matter how well anything is planned and organized. Let’s hope for the amateur athletes, it’ll be a great experience!
Traveling can cause so much upset with your time management - it can be crazy making! Your time management totally goes out the window if something happens in your plans such as weather delays or plane malfunctions or your car breaks down. Be ready.
Some people fume and waste a lot of time complaining about something no one can do anything about whenever they experience travel delays. Instead, “reset” your mind to positive and get going on what you can do in the moment.
Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, stop, think and start accomplishing something you value such as:
if you always have a lot of emails, catch up on emails either on your laptop or PDA or on the computers available in airports, internet cafes, etc.
call people on pay phones – be careful of your roaming charges with your cell phone if you don’t have the appropriate plan
write an outline or the start of a proposal you need to get done when you return home
go for a walk and get your exercise in for the day
research on the internet for information you need or will soon need
talk to a stranger – you’ll never know how interesting they are until you talk to them!
pick up newspapers or magazines and catch up on the latest news or developments in your industry
read that book you’ve been meaning to buy and read
connect with friends nearby
meditate to destress
write in your journal
breath – take some deep breaths and try some relaxation techniques to bring your stress down
There are a ton of useful and productive things you can do with your time if you stop fuming about what you can’t do anything about, use your time for something enjoyable or productive and, as a result, make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear by taking control of yourself and your time. That’s good time management at times when things go wrong during your travels.
Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics in Bloom! Yes, that’s right – Vancouver has cherry blossoms on the trees, daffodils blooming and tulips in advanced stages of sprouting. Would you ever connect the Winter Olympics with a City where it seldom snows and often finds itself in Spring before much of the rest of the country? Most people wouldn’t. They are trucking snow in for one of the venues.
That’s what happened this week – we saw our first daffodils in bloom and our early cherry trees too. The City is preparing to welcome the world as it drives its citizens to distraction. City streets are being closed down, residents are leaving the City and tourists are starting to arrive. Opening ceremonies are less than a week away.
If any City entertains the idea of hosting the Olympics, I hope, that unlike our Provincial Government, it consults with its citizens first. No one can know the enormity of the impact on locals until the Olympics are awarded. It isn’t pretty. And it’s made worse by an unresponsive agency, VANOC, who have portrayed our Province in the worse possible way. First, at the closing ceremonies in the previous Winter Olympics where we were portrayed as people ice fishing for food, to a people who have no originality as our mascots for the Olympics look exactly like Japanese characters, to frumpy outfits for our athletes and volunteers to completely ignoring our finest talent such as David Foster who is a citizen of Victoria and known worldwide for his musical prowess. Did VANOC ask him to compose a theme song for Vancouver Olympics? Of course not! They completely ignored him. The concentration on the Aboriginals has been heavy and many who have never been to this City have the impression that we are all Aboriginals. They consist of approximately 5% of our population. Our City is culturally diverse with every nationality represented in our citizenry – would anyone recognize that fact from the Olympic promotion? No. Heaven only knows what else will be coming up - it’s not been a positive experience for the majority of the people.
Contrast that with the Calgary Olympics. In Calgary, the atmosphere was positive expectation and citizens were included and encouraged to participate. For those who experienced and participated in the Calgary Olympics and have experienced the Vancouver Olympics, the contrast is incredible. Vancouver’s Olympics have a totally different feeling – there’s a lot of negativity surrounding the Olympics because of the way the Government and its VANOC organization has operated – an autocratic, non-inclusive, corporate driven entity disregarding collaboration and cooperation with its citizens. There have been a host of fine dinners and events for “dignitaries” and “politicians” and “friends” for years now. Our Provincial Government has spent nearly $1,000,000 on buying tickets and our City almost $400,000 – why? Of course, they won’t say why – they just do it – spend, spend, spend our money like crazy while taxing us more and more. We will likely be paying for these Olympics for many years to come! We the people – not the party goers!
I was there – in GM Place when the announcement came through we had won the games. I thought it would be fabulous to have the games in our City. The Olympics was always something I got very excited about. I cheered! Though, at the time, I wondered why we would bid on the Winter Olympics rather than the Summer Olympics – anyhow, we got it – and I was glad!
The reality of what’s behind the games though is not so positive as you see it unfolding. The City has been chaos since the announcement – everyone is cashing in – especially developers and it’s been a major distraction for politicians. Instead of governing, they are preoccupied with cashing in on the Olympics. So many things are “sneaked in” under the guise of the Olympic banner. We, the people, are forgotten. They tell us of the great economic boon the Olympics will have to our region – it’s already known throughout the world as a paradise so why would we need a boon that is naturally occuring anyway.
Will I watch the Olympics and participate? Yes – it’s here – we, the taxpayers, have paid for this big party – in the main, it’s not about amateur athletes any more as super athletes waft into the City with their entourage and limosines – no matter – I will see, participate and still watch but the shine and wonder of the Olympic movement is heavily tarnished in my mind having watched the shenanigans over the last few years. The pall of negative politics surrounding what used to be such a proud and wonderful movement for amateur athletes is incredible.
Oh, yes, there are still some of the athletes are truly amateur and whose sacrifices and their family’s sacrifices will be on display – but some of the gold-medal winners may not be amateurs but multi-millionaires paid and supported in lavish lifestyles by big business or already highly paid hockey players. I’ll be looking for those special amateur athletes who still are part of the games and who represent the true spirit of the games. The Olympic movement has lost its way – I hope it finds it again.
We have rain – cherry blossoms – daffodils and tulips - wonderful new venues and the torch relay getting ever so much closer to BC Place where the opening ceremonies will take place after its journey throughout communities across Canada – there will be cheers and fun. After the fiascos of VANOC, however, we, the taxpayers, the citizens are wary of how we will be staged for the world to see at the opening ceremonies and how the Olympics will fair. It could be an embarrassment or it could be wonderful. We’ll know soon.
130,000 people signed on in support of a group on Facebook. Without warning, it was gone! Just disappeared! No notice or explanation from Facebook.
Who’s in charge of Facebook? Is Facebook truly a social media site? Who is owns it?
Bill Tieleman who created and administered the group has no idea why the group was removed from Facebook. Does it mean any Facebook group can disappear without notice or explanation? Anything, that is, which criticizes a government move? Are we not a democratic country where freedom of expression is still a right?
It’s not the only group to have disappeared on Facebook. Another group protesting another tax – 8,000 strong – also disappeared.
Dale Jacakaman, President, Amuleta Computer Security says there could only be 3 explanations:
a) Facebook had a technical issue with Bill Tieleman’s account
b) Facebook had a security issue with Bill’s account
c) One of Bill’s computers was hacked
Two of Bill’s accounts dealt with issues most damaging to the British Columbia Liberal Party; it’s difficult to believe it was just coincidence. Apparently, the answer won’t come from Facebook because it’s near impossible to reach Facebook security.
In the US and Canada, therefore, are we to expect that if we dare criticize what our governments do that our social media accounts will disappear? Who’s in charge of Facebook?
Are our online communities now threatened? Are they no longer a safe place? Can they be stolen from us?
If you want to talk to Bill Tieleman yourself, you can reach him at www.thetyee.ca or at his blog, billtieleman.blogspot.com
People love to play games. The games they play are often fun and energetic like Cranium or Monopoly or Pictionary. However, some people also like to play games which cause themselves and others to waste a lot of time.
You know them – they are the people who think the rules are written for everyone else and not them. They want things their way no matter who is inconvenienced or who gets hurt – the bully syndrome. Yet, on the other hand, if someone else doesn’t follow the rules, these game players are incensed, especially when they lose!
The time they consume is extraordinary! Just to get their own way . . . for the smallest, most idiotic win.
Here’s an example. A landlord had a tenant. This tenant decided to disregarded the terms of their lease. The lease required that they get written approval from the landlord to assign or sublet the rental unit.
The tenants decided to just go ahead, sublease without written approval with still two months to go on their lease. They sublet to a family. And then wanted the landlord to check out references and financial ability to pay rent and utilities after the people who sublet were already in the unit!
The tenants just handed over the keys to the people to whom they sublet and that was it.
There are rules to follow. Did they want to follow the rules as laid out in the Act? Of course not and they’ve spent a lot of time and energy “trying to wiggle” their way out of the situation. If they have followed the rules of common decency, none of this would have been necessary. Instead, they tried to pull a fast one and it has wasted everyone’s time – theirs, the people who sublet, the agency responsible for resolving disputes, and, of course, the landlord.
People who want to get their own way at all cost sap everything out of others – time, money, energy. They do the same on the job. The wisest thing any boss can do is to get rid of these kinds of people as soon as possible. They have no sense of right and wrong as they are not concerned with anyone but themselves and want what they want at all costs – and the cost is high! No company can afford to lose that much in either time or money or both!
Oprah today gave the world a glimpse of “Undercover Boss” coming on CBS February 7th – this is a must see for all executives and managers. I think some executives and managers will shocked to see what happens and may even have some ah ha moments of their own! Hopefully, it will inspire all executives and managers to do the same – go on the front lines regularly and clearly understand how the decisions they make impact the people in the company and thereby make better decisions.
The disconnect between management and non-management people in companies is acute in today’s workplace. These top executives – no one in their own companies even knew who they were! That’s right – no one recognized them – likely the employees didn’t have a clue who runs the company at head office because there’s no connection. The disconnect “blazes” across the screen. And why should they bother – management is not interested in them.
Bravely, the executives, Larry O’Donnell, COO of Waste Management and Joe DePinto head of 7-Eleven stores go in front of cameras while they tackle and learn the jobs on the front lines. What amazing executives to put themselves in the spotlight like this? A lot of executives would never dare! They talk about the contrast between their luxurious lifestyles and the ”awakening” that was in store for them living in budget hotels around the country and doing the work that front line people do. They found out that many people on the front lines are working very hard and how idiotic decisions they had negatively impacted the people on the front lines- the people who face the customers day in and day out.
One woman in Waste Management driving truck didn’t even have stops available to her during her shift and relegated to urinating in a can! How did her manager not know that? How did the COO not know that? The only question that came to mind at the moment was: Who’s managing? There seemed to be a lot of managers and executives but no one was managing! Managers are suppose to be taking care of their people – that’s part of their job – but no one seems to understand that notion.
An 18-year veteran of 7-Eleven stores sold the most coffee. When Joe dePinto went on the job, he understood how hard workers in 7-Eleven work for very little money and certainly are not rewarded with a luxurious lifestyle.
It is time that all executives and managers work the front lines every single year to understand how their policies impact people’s work. Perhaps then we might see some rational corporate policies and better treatment of all employees! Maybe, then, they would understand how to build and maintain a community instead of a lot of disconnection “departments”.
Without employees to serve customers and do the work, there is no company - no executives – nothing. Perhaps shows like this will finally wake people up to creating a better world – a community of equals on the job wherein there is respect for everyone’s role in the company – what a novel idea that would be! Yes, it does exist in some companies as Tom Peters points out but so many other companies are still working in the authoritarian dark ages!
I hope you watch this series – I know I will – finally, executives “out of the closet”! What a novel idea – executives actually understanding what people do on the job whom they are supposed to be supervising!
DO – stop talking about it! Just get the job done!
How many times does Tom Peters have to say it?
Are managers hard of hearing?
I was amazed to see a video on YouTube with Tom Peters still preaching the same message, ‘Don’t talk about it – do it’. And here we are decades later after Tom Peters first started delivering that message still on the same track of the same record! What is it about managers who have learned that meetings are the be all and end all? How is that efficient? How is it cost effective? Where are the economics?
In the health industry, it was meetings from morning til night. I was drained. I had never ever been in an environment with so many meetings to accomplish so little. And yet people continued to meet day after day, week after week. What a waste of valuable time and what a waste of the taxpayers’ money! Yes, of course it is necessary to have some meetings but meetings on purpose for information, to address a problem, to find a solution or whatever but . . . there is no necessity to be in meetings day in and day out. When does the managing part of the management job get done? Yes, I know, that’s the hard part!
Imagine how much it costs to have a boardroom full of managers sitting around meeting and accomplishing nothing except scheduling more meetings – the cost is astronomical! It was a habit in the health industry as it was in government and big corporations - nothing more. They truly believed that’s “how business is conducted”! Of course, there’s a status symbol attached to it too – if you’re in meetings all day, you must be important! Not.
Let’s simplify this notion:
Imagine if a farmer said to his/her family, “It’s time to plant the seeds but let’s talk about it first”. Because of the numerous meetings, the seeds are planted late or not at all. Where do you think we would get our food from? Absurd to think about it, isn’t it because we expect the farmer to know his/her business, get the crop planted on time for maturity during the growing season. Yet, we accept the notion of late planting or not planting at all in boardrooms – odd, isn’t it?
You don’t have to believe me – there’s a guru who knows the subject much better than I could ever. I believed in what Tom Peters had to say when I first read his books. I believe that, today, more than ever, his message must sink in especially in North America where we have seen a lot of shenanigans at the top but little in the way of productivity – a few getting extremely wealthy while thousands are losing their jobs! Could you expect anything else when people are meeting just to meet – eventually, like little kids in an unsupervised classroom, they’ll eventually get into trouble out of sheer boredom – much more exciting to plot than to actually do work!
Go, Tom Peters, go! One day the message will get through . . . . we hope!
There are three foundational tools to Time Management which are a must and I know why.
At the moment, my life is extraordinarily stressful as it has been many times before. You know what I mean – those times when you feel you are on the “washboard” of life. You feel sometimes that you are hanging on by a thread! That’s what life is all about – cycles – sometimes you have more stress than other times.
It’s at times like these that reminding ourselves what’s important is the most difficult – life seems dark. Most of us tend to go into the frenzied workhaholic syndrome – we think if we do more, put in longer hours, the more we will get done and we’ll be free. You and I know it never works that way!
The more hours you work, the more hours you work. It’s like an exponential curve of more and more and more until one day something happens – you begin to sleep through your alarm clock, you haven’t connected with friends and family on a meaningful level in months, and, no matter how many hours you work, nothing ever seems to get done. We look around us and our life is in shambles and chaos – just look at the state of your desk.
And society as a whole is against our slowing down. Our North American culture loves to promote the idea that if we work and work and work, we’ll succeed. We’re programmed into this notion. In our hearts, though, we know that’s not entirely true – there are a lot of people in this world who work very hard and long hours and will never achieve massive success because they find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time for all the wrong reasons or events have occurred in their lives which have altered their life’s course.
Because of the stressors in my life at the moment, I started to go down the workaholic lifestyle again – will I ever learn? I’ve learned a lot and it’s so much easier now to pull myself back and get real – resume solid time management and pay attention to my mental state. As we push ourselves to work more and more and more, we lose a lot – special times with the people we care about, enjoying the treasures life has to offer and ourselves!
I’ve learned there are three extremely important things to make sure we do during these stressful times – they are the foundation of everything else we do and critical to handling whatever situation we find ourselves in at any given time. Our first tendency though as the stress builds is to put these on the back burner:
In the number one spot – sleep – yes, sleep. It is the most important thing you can do for yourself is get sleep. Why? Because sleeps lets the body relax, repair and rejuvenate itself. It’s true, we may need more sleep the higher the stress. And yes, it may be the most difficult thing for us to do because our brains won’t shut off. Whatever it takes – get sleep. For a short period of time you may need a sleep aid like a glass of wine in the evening, melatonin or even a prescription from your doctor. Mostly importantly, you must decide to sleep. Because we’re stressed, we think we should be working or solving our problems or worrying instead of sleeping – big, big, big mistake. Sleep.
Exercise. 30 minutes of walking is good and regular stretching at your desk – just a couple of minutes every hour – stretch. Walking outdoors is really the best because you get daylight through your retina, oxygen into your system to support your body (notice that we have a tendency to hold our breath a lot when we are stressed) and be free of computers, desks, chairs, and other tools of our trade. If you can’t fit in 30 minutes for a walk, who are you kidding? Only yourself!
Organic Food - I used to pooh pooh “organic” until I tasted the difference. And what a difference! Then I learned about food, first through Oprah’s shows about good nutrition and then through experience. My body definitely loves organic better – there’s no question! It tastes like real food, it cooks like real food and it smells like real food. I need less because the taste is there and I’m never hungry not to mention the positive changes in my body – better digestion, better skin and hair, and a host of other things.
How are these time management tools?
Without sleep, your brain is on overload. Because of the stress, all your internal organs are in a constant state of
“alertness” – the fight or flight syndrome. Under stress, we do both all day long if the stress is intense enough. So if your internal organs don’t have the opportunity to relax, repair and rejuvenate, there’ll be trouble – maybe small trouble, but trouble nonetheless. Our mental state is not good either and despite the long hours, we’re actually accomplishing less! That’s right less - pay attention and you’ll see that’s true. We make more mistake in the work we do and the quality of our work can also be compromised. Why? Because our bodies, our brains cannot function at peak under the barrage of constant stressors internally and externally.
Without exercise, our oxygen, which feeds our internal organs including our brain, is severely restricted. Watch people who are in stress mode – you’ll see that they hardly breath. Our bodies were built to move – get the blood flowing to keep the nutrients circulating.
As a side benefit, you’ll find too that you have more energy and you sleep much much better!
Without good food, there is no good fuel for the body to work with during our daily activities and nightly repairs. Put diesel into a car made for regular gas – what happens? Or worse yet, put sugar into the gas tank. It’s not good. Neither is it good to put poor fuel into your own tank! I encourage everyone to learn about good food – how is your food grown? Michael Pollan has some small good books about food – you’ll be amazed at what you learn! GOOD FOOD = LOTS OF ENERGY = ABILITY TO FUNCTION AT PEAK!
These are your foundational pieces to any time management whatsoever – good or bad - take care of these 3 things consciously every single day and add a few good time management components to your schedule – you’ll see the great results you get. You’ll love the quality of your life and you’ll get done what you need to get done sanely and rationally even if you still feel the “pressure”. We all feel the “pressure” – it’s handling the pressure – that’s the key – yes, I know, easier said than done. And you need the good materials for your body to handle the pressure!
Think of it as a house – if a house is not maintained regularly with cleaning the eaves, painting, trimming plants, shoring up the fence and a host of other repairs, the house soon looks shabby and, soon, no one can live it in any more. Why do you think rich people spend so much money keeping up their homes? And look at a rich person’s lifestyle whether they be frugal or spendthrift - they have personal trainers, nutrionists, cooks, cleaners, golf, ski, own summer homes, go to spas and a host of other activities - each one results in what? Maintenance! And maintenance results in the ability to generate more money – if the house is in good repair, it fetches more money upon its sale and if the body is in good shape, a person is able to think and react better – interesting, huh?
Our bodies are our “houses” – good maintenance pays off! Believe me – it’s totally and absolutely true! There is no greater truth on earth! It is the foundation to the quality of your life!
It’s amazing how people keep saying they have no time and yet are consumed with talking on their cell phones or texting! Of course, they have no time – it’s spent on their cell phone!
A cell phone can be a terrific time saver in so many ways. Like anything that’s good and taken to the extreme, it becomes bad. It’s become an addiction for some people – they can’t be away from their phones for a second! I think some people must sleep with their cell phones under their pillow!
Watch people walking down the street. For blocks, they are continuously on their cell phones oblivious to what’s around them and to what they are doing. People talking on cell phone will walk off the curb without paying attention to the “Do not walk” sign, bump into people without apologizing, a host of other very dangerous or rude behaviors.
At meetings, people are using their cell phones for texting or their PDAs to respond emails or text messages – why bother going to a meeting if you’re not present? How can anyone distracted be contributing effectively?
In restaurants, people don’t turn their cell phones off any more. Sitting in a nice restaurant, having a great dinner and people’s cell phones keep going off. They run out of the room creating a very disturbing atmosphere. And, worse yet, they simply are not connecting with the people they came to dinner with. It would be better for them and everyone else if they picked up a pizza and stayed home alone!
How important is anyone in the scheme of things to have such an impact on others around them? They’re not. Most of us tolerate this rude and disruptive behavior because we don’t want confrontation. What you’re telling people is that their behavior is just fine with you.
Dr. Phil says, “you teach people how to treat you”. Next time, someone bumps into you on the street and doesn’t apologize or texts during a meeting or answers their cell phone in a restaurant, tap them on the shoulder and let them know you don’t appreciate the impact their actions have on you – politely. If we don’t speak up, the behavior will get worse as it will become socially acceptable to be rude and inconsiderate of other people’s time and space.
Notice your own behavior. Shut off your phone – it’ll go to voice mail. Be considerate of those around you – hear what they have to say – you might learn something. Be present when you are among family, friends and colleagues – there is no greater show of respect. And be polite – if you bump into someone, apologize. If you in a meeting, pay attention. If you’re in a restaurant, enjoy the ambiance, the company and the meal. No call is that important that you cannot be away from the phone; if it is, then stay home. Get back control of your life!
February 8, 2010 | Posted by wizard 
I thought I’d give you a little bit of a view of what our Province looks like. Yes, it’s been create by our Government at great expense to promote the 2010 Olympics, nonetheless, it will give you an idea what our Province looks like under ideal weather conditions. It’s beautiful! Time has given us this beauty – thousands and thousands and thousands of years! Have a look at this video – then come back .. .
Categories: MUSES ABOUT TIME | 
Tags: 2010 Olympics, beauty, british columbia, building, economic growth, greed, scenery | 
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