Canadian Motivational Keynote Speaker Welcomes Toastmasters
I’ve been purposely not booking any talks as a Canadian motivational keynote speaker in January or even February since I don’t want to get all stressed out with hassles resulting from sudden bad weather days. Last year, a sudden wild snowstorm in January came on right on a day when I had to travel out of town to do a talk. It was just too stressful to travel when knowing there is an audience waiting.
So I decided to not travel to do any talks during the main winter months but I did have one exception in January which was to do my motivational keynote at World Vision which is located right here in Mississauga. Their internal Toastmasters club hosted the event which was an open house for their club.
Open Houses At Toastmasters Clubs
Although I am no longer involved with Toastmasters, I am still open to doing keynotes (but not short speeches) at Toastmasters clubs. What usually happens is that clubs hold an open house which the general public (or internal employee staff if a corporate Toastmasters club) is invited and I am featured as the guest keynote speaker.
Since World Vision was local and an easy drive, even if sudden snow comes, I agreed to this one speaking event in January. It just so happens that there was snowfall that day but it wasn’t bad enough to really affect driving.
The event went really well and this is what my contact Paskwa Mutunga, Project Manager of IT Implementation at World Vision had to say about it:
“Clint’s presentation at our Toastmasters club was absolutely outstanding. He showed us how to conquer our greatest obstacles using his own personal testimony as well as other examples we could relate with. Clint invited audience participation and used humor to keep us engaged. His message is simple and profoundly practical – make a 100% commitment to expand your comfort zone by 10% every week and you will see results. Thank you Clint & God bless!”
Any Toastmasters club interested in having me as a guest Canadian motivational keynote speaker is welcome to contact me but unless there is a travel budget, it would probably be a more feasible opportunity for clubs located within 2 hours of the greater Toronto area.
Here are the motivation quotes that I posted at my Motivation Facebook page during the last past of January.
“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” ~ Albert Schweitzer
“Those who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed.” ~ Lloyd Jones
“Throw yourself wholeheartedly into your work; the more you enjoy it the better you get.” – Brian Tracy
“Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.” – Robert Lewis Stevenson
“A cloudy day is no match for a sunny disposition.” ~ William Arthur Ward
“Whoever loves and understands a garden will find contentment within.” ~ Chinese Proverb
The first motivation quotes above by Albert Schweitzer is so important because it keeps reminding us that success alone is not enough for happiness. Look at so many people who are supposely successful yet they are unhappy. You read about such cases with celebrities all the time so we know that success is not enough. Instead, you must be happy to be really successful and much of it involves doing the things that you love doing.
Here are the other motivation quotes I posted.
“Humility makes great men twice honorable.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” ~ Winston Churchill
“When you make a world tolerable for yourself you make a world tolerable for others.” – Anais Nin
“What we call failure is not the falling down but the staying down.” – Mary Pickford
“Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” – Abraham Lincoln
“If life gives you limes, make margaritas.” ~Jimmy Buffett
The motivation quotes above by Abraham Lincoln is also quite inspiring as it suggests that happiness is really a result of a decision that each of us make for ourselves. If we choose to be happy, we will do the things that will make us happy. Happiness never really comes as a result of what somebody else does for us for the long term.
So the whole idea of being able to make somebody, whether a significant other or relative or friend, happy, is really only for the short term in my opinion. Long term happiness is a choice we all have to make.
Share Motivation Quotes With Others
I post these types of motivation quotes on a daily basis at my Motivation Facebook page. If you would like to get them at your Facebook newsfeed as they are posted so that you could be inspired on a day to day basis, just hit the LIKE button at my Motivation Facebook page – can also do this at the sidebar of this blog. Also use the various social media buttons below too.
Which one(s) from the above do you really like? Feel free to comment at the comments section below. If you missed the last motivation quotes summary, see it at More Success Quotes For January.
Don’t forget that if you want to see motivational videos, I have an entire collection of past episodes of Motivational WebTV archived for your viewing pleasure.
Too often, skiers come back year after year and they don’t really improve all that much. They become what I call ‘perpetual intermediates’. I estimate that 75% of the skiers I see from the chairlift will fit into this category.
This happens to people who have been skiing for 20 or 30 years or more too. The problem that we often see with these experienced skiers is that they have been skiing the SAME way for 20 to 30 years, i.e., NO significant improvements.
Since many of you aspire to become better skiers, here are some tips to help you and I’m pretty sure that these will equally apply to Nordic skiers and snowboarders as well.
Get Lots Of Mileage
As you progress from a beginner to intermediate level, it actually takes longer to achieve noticeable improvements. Changes are more subtle and harder to make. If you get out on the snow only a few times each season, you will not improve.
You have to ski lots in order to get out of that plateau that perpetual intermediates are stuck in. This means at least 20 ski days per winter if possible.
Get Coaching
Like many other things, your skills will improve faster if you get coaching from certified ski instructors. CSIA instructors can help you zero in on what YOU need to work on and HOW to train to improve in those areas.
Been skiing a long time and don’t think you need lessons? Can you ski as well as a CSIA Level 4 instructor? Here’s the video that sets the gold standard for modern Canadian skiing.
I personally can’t ski like a Level 4, which is why I still get coaching (on a weekly basis all season long). I take in 2 to 5 hours of on-snow coaching each week from higher-level instructors!
In fact, during a 3-hour training session with a Level 4, we were told that even Level 4s train together to help each other improve. So there is ALWAYS room for improvement.
It’s NOT how fast you can come down a black diamond slope – it’s HOW you come down that matters.
When you are skiing at a local ski area, you might sometimes see groups of ski instructors (wearing similar uniforms) in session together. They are in fact in regular training, which means taking ski lessons from a higher-level instructor from their own ski school.
So if certified instructors realize that they need ski lessons, what about you?
If you are a former racer or experienced advanced skier, you will still benefit greatly if you get some updated coaching from a Level 3 or 4 instructor. Ski technique CHANGES over time with the equipment improvements and getting updated through coaching helps you get the most PERFORMANCE out of modern ski equipment.
One Lesson Isn’t Enough
Let’s say you take a ski lesson at the beginning of the season. Then you go work on what you were told to work on for the rest of the winter. Is that enough?
It’s better than nothing but it’s not ideal. You might claim that you are skiing better as a result of that single ski lesson you took. But how do you know for sure? How do you know that other bad habits didn’t creep up while you were working on fixing one up?
Even if you have really improved, what about OTHER additional skills and competencies to build upon? Do you think you have received enough training already?
Again, do you ski like a Level 4 yet?
The issue with all skiers including certified instructors is that NONE of us can act as our own external eyes. We simply do not know what we look like when we are skiing. This is why we all need external eyes of qualified instructors who are better than us to catch any areas that need to be improved upon.
Certified instructors are trained to assess and detect what is happening in your technique when you ski. It is a major component of our own training as instructors.
Skiers also benefit from continued coaching to help add on those building blocks to keep improving. This is why REGULAR coaching throughout the season is essential. It doesn’t mean that you need a lesson every single week. Even ski lessons spaced throughout the season will help you improve more than a single session at the beginning of the winter.
It’s no wonder that Paul and his sons from my Toronto Ski Meetup group as well as my students from the ski camps and 8-week programs at Glen Eden become the skiers achieving the most improvements. They get regular coaching with feedback.
Even better is to take ski lessons from different certified instructors if at all possible. Different instructors may catch different issues with your skiing. Different instructors may also explain things in slightly different ways to help you get a better understanding of your own technique.
And if they all happen to be consistent with certain points of your skiing, then you know for sure that you have those things to work on.
Train During Your Free Skiing
Too often, ski students do drills only during ski classes and never while free skiing. The drills that your instructor has provided aim to work on certain skills to help you improve.
If you approach your free skiing too casually and never actively work on the specific skills and drills that your instructor has prescribed, you will likely not improve much. Before I teach classes (and sometimes in between classes), I am actively training to work on my own ski technique and this includes doing specific drills I was shown during the training sessions I take.
I’m not saying that free skiing should be all training and no relaxed, fun, casual skiing. Just find a happy medium to ensure that you do get in some adequate training during your time on the snow when not in a ski class.
Get Proper Equipment And Tune Your Skis
As you progress in levels, you really need better ski equipment, i.e, more expensive. Beginner skis are easy to turn but do not allow as much performance at speed that intermediate skiers need. Also, properly tuned skis will keep the performance even on icy conditions. You need sharp edges to hold on ice.
Take The Level 1 Instructor Course
If you are already a decent high intermediate skier (but again, how do you know for sure if you haven’t been recently assessed by a qualified CSIA member?), take the CSIA Level 1 instructor course. Even if you don’t intend on ever becoming an active ski instructor, the Level 1 course will give you a very thorough understanding of ski technique and teaching. It will also give you a full three days of ski improvement from two different Level 3 or 4 instructors who are the course conductors.
Membership in the CSIA after you obtain your Level 1 also has many benefits including instructor discounts on equipment as well as continued training opportunities each winter with Level 4 instructors even if you are not an active instructor teaching ski students. Personally, I think that this alone is worth pursuing the Level 1 because getting free coaching from a Level 4 each winter is an opportunity that most skiers will never have.
So there you go – hopefully I’ve given you some ideas on how to progress from beginner to intermediate or finally get past that perpetual intermediate ski level. Becoming a better skier will enable you to enjoy more of the mountain and more varied ski conditions, which will result in more fun on the snow!
Clint Cora
CSIA Level 2 Ski Instructor
CSIA refers to Canadian Ski Instructors Alliance, the governing body for professional ski instructors in Canada.
Okay, I have to admit that the title of this blog post is a bit weird. I haven’t been able to blog as often during this winter because of my busy ski instructor schedule and some of you must be thinking that I’ve gone off the rocker writing about waking up like a dog.
Let me explain. I was just highly motivated this morning. Each morning here at my home without fail, one of my Lhasa Apso dogs Chester, starts to prop himself up at the side of my bed between 6:30 and 7 am to see if I’m getting up yet. He does this even if it’s still dark outside.
I’m quite use to this of course but for some reason today, it dawned on me that Chester is actually setting a pretty darn good example. When he gets up, he’s wide awake, full of energy and enthusiasm. He’s ready to go for another day no matter what is in store.
Include This In Your Motivation Techniques
Chester must have already decided that it was going to be a great day no matter what. He made that decision to be super positive and his resulting energy first thing in the morning certainly shows!
This is definitely something the rest of us should include in our own motivation techniques. You make a decision to be positive and you will more than likely approach your day, even if full of challenges, with more energy and gusto.
For me, this is yet another example of how my pets have taught me something useful. In a prior post, I talked about how my dogs have taught me more about compassion and responsibility. Now it seem that at least one of them is teaching me more about motivation.
Some of you may have already seen this last year but below is a video that shows both Chester and his sister Roxie exactly how they greet me each morning. You can see why waking up like a dog in this case, is a good thing for motivation.
We have a special program here at many of the ski resorts in Ontario which are geared specifically for first timers who want to expand their comfort zones and try out snow skiing. This program is called Discover Ski and a special rate covers all rental equipment needed (including helmet), a beginner lift ticket to access the easy ski slopes and a beginner lesson by a professional ski instructor.
The only things that people bring to such a program are warm winter clothing and enthusiasm to see how much fun snow skiing can be.
Just this past weekend, I ran such a Discover Ski program for a group of first timer adults at Glen Eden, one of the places I teach skiing at near Toronto, Ontario. There was a group of seven adults who chose to expand their comfort zones on the snow in order to enjoy Canadian winters in a completely new way.
From what I can gather, we had a very international demographic with folks originally from India, England, Germany, Ukraine, Trinidad and China.
The program which was run in the evening under completely lit ski slopes perfect for beginners, was a huge success. There were lots of smiles everywhere as everyone had a great time while learning a new winter sport.
Learning to snow ski is very much expanding one’s comfort zone but these folks did it the right way with the best program under professional supervision and instruction from qualified ski instructors (yours truly plus an assistant instructor).
Some even claimed that they can’t wait to be on skis again and booked the next ski outings the following day!
Interestingly enough, two days later, I taught a couple from Namibia, Africa their very first ski lesson and they told me that they don’t have snow back in their home country. They were here in Canada for conferences. And just today, I taught another couple who just immigrated from Egypt a few months ago and they are already trying out a winter sport!
I’m so impressed with these folks as they are willing to try out a winter activity that even many Canadians have not tried yet.
Want To Learn To Snow Ski?
Because of the success of this Discover Ski program, I am gauging the interest level to run another similar evening this winter for greater Toronto area residents (adults only although children age 8 and over can participate in a similar program taught by other instructors).
If you live in the greater Toronto area and would be interested in participating in a Discover Ski program with me as your ski instructor at Glen Eden in Milton (cost is $44.95 plus HST), just go to the following survey to see the potential dates;
If there is enough interest, I’ll post further details on how to get into a possible future Glen Eden Discover Ski Program with me this winter. I’m also available to teach experienced beginners and intermediates at other ski resorts in southern Ontario. Just go to the Toronto Ski Meetup website for more details on where I will be on various dates this winter.
Here are some more nice success quotes for January that were posted at my Motivation Facebook page.
“Don’t get too comfortable with who you are at any given time – you may miss the opportunity to become who you want to be.” ~ Jon Bon Jovi
“This bright new year is given me to live each day with zest, to daily grow and try to be my highest and my best” ~ William Arthur Ward
“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” ~ Martin Luther
“Our self image and our habits tend to go together. Change one and you will automatically change the other” ~ Dr. Maxwell Maltz
“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” ~ Lawrence J. Peter
“Enlightenment means taking full responsibility for your life.” – William Blake
“You’ve got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was.” – Irish Proverb
“At the end of the day, let there be no excuses, no explanation, no regrets.” ~ Steve Maraboli
“Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.” – William Feather
I really like all the success quotes above but the one by William Blake really rings out to me. His quote means that we should stop complaining about how bad the economy is and what an awful ‘hand of cards’ that we may have been dealt in life so far. Of course, our situations are not always our own fault as others may have been factors.
But instead of sulking and playing the blame game, it is up to us to take responsibility for our own life including our own happiness and well being. We all have the power to make decisions to take the right steps towards a better life so let’s do that.
Here are the other success quotes I posted.
“Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else’s can shorten it.” ~ Cullen Hightower
“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” – Margaret Thatcher
“We must take charge of our own destinies, design a life of substance and truly begin to live our dreams.” ~ Les Brown
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” ~ Aristotle
“The real measure of your wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all your money.” ~ Unknown
“If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.” – George S. Patton, Jr.
“You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” – Henry Ford
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” ~ Peter F. Drucker
Again, more awesome success quotes above and the one by Henry Ford especially means a lot to me. A lot of people are all talk when they mention what they intend to do with their lives and to help others whether on a personal or business level. But real great reputations are based on our actions rather than our words. Actions will always speak louder than words.
Share These Success Quotes With Others
I post these types of success quotes on a daily basis at my Motivation Facebook page. If you would like to get them at your Facebook newsfeed as they are posted so that you could be inspired on a day to day basis, just hit the LIKE button at my Motivation Facebook page – can also do this at the sidebar of this blog. Also use the various social media buttons below too.
Which one(s) from the above do you really like? Feel free to comment at the comments section below. If you missed the last success quotes summary which was the first complilation of the year, see it at Motivational Quotes Compilation.
For personal growth success, we often have to learn new habits and/or skills. In order to make such new habits stick so that we don’t give up on them, many experts claim that we have to put continuous efforts into them for 21 to 30 days at minimum.
This way, new habits or skills will be absorbed into your system which is exactly what we want. When habits or skills become absorbed into your system, they become second nature.
First Time Showing Acoustic Guitar
As an example, I will be showing for the very first time in Motivational WebTV, my acoustic guitar playing. I used this as an example of new skills because when I play guitar, I often do not know verbally, what notes I’m playing. However, my body does.
My fingers know where to go on the guitar and this is a result of playing songs and musical passages over and over again. In other words, my body has absorbed the notes.
Make New Habits Second Nature
You can do this for almost any area you want to get good at for personal growth success. Just work on them daily over time until they become second nature. Be prepared to put in the continuous efforts required to make new habits and skills stick.
Here’s the new episode of Motivational WebTV featuring my acoustic guitar playing for your added entertainment. Hope you like it.
Share This Video About Personal Growth Success
If you know others who would like this video, please share it with them so they can benefit for their personal growth success as well. There are buttons on the blog post to easily share it on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and by email. All past episodes are at my Motivational WebTV Archive.
If you have recently been successful in making a new habit or skill second nature, please feel free to share below.
As you may have noticed if you have been reading a few of my recent blog posts or Facebook posts or even Twitter tweets, I’ve been putting up some snow skiing content. Many of my readers also know that I’m a ski instructor. I’m sure that some people might ask why is a business motivational speaker working as a ski instructor during the winter?
This is a valid question especially given that nobody makes a lot of money from teaching skiing. So why would I teach skiing?
Well, it turns out that skiing is a relatively expensive sport. A typical day at a ski resort in Ontario can run $75 to $100 for lift tickets, food and gas for the car. Winter vacations to the Rocky Mountains are not cheap either.
I like to ski at least 50 to 60 days per winter. As a certified level 2 ski instructor, I also like to get as much training as I can with higher level instructors to help improve my own skiing. Such training with senior instructors cost in the hundreds. So if I had to pay for everything on my own, you can see that this is an expensive activity if I pursue it on a serious level, which I do.
When working as an active ski instructor, all of my ski-related expenses are paid for. I get a ton of free training with both level 3 and level 4 instructors on a regular basis. I get access to the ski slopes pretty well whenever I want for free.
Business Motivational Speaker Lesson In Action
One of the lessons that I have always believed in is that happiness and success is related to being able to pursue your passions in life. Snow skiing just happens to be one of my passions. The fact that not only are my expenses covered but I actually get paid to do one of my passions, it becomes a no-brainer why I am willing to spend time teaching skiing during the winters.
Although I have to wake up early during ski days, I don’t dread going to work during my ski days, unlike most working individuals out there. I look forward to going to work during ski days much like I enjoy going doing my talks as a business motivational speaker.
The social element with many ski students as well as fellow ski instructors is also great for me as well. There is a certain vibe that all ski and other winter sports people have which bonds us. In fact, I’m hoping very much that any future girlfriend of mine will be indeed either a skier or a snowboarder so that we can enjoy the slopes together.
Helping People Have Fun On The Ski Slopes
A final factor that I can’t ignore which makes my efforts as a ski instructor worthwhile is being able to help people have fun on the ski slopes in a safe manner. I help people enjoy the winter and the video below shows just how even new beginners can have so much fun if supervised by professionals.
When you take all of the above into account, it’s easy to see why this business motivational speaker is a ski instructor.
Feel free to share your thoughts below about this video.
One very pleasant thing I experienced recently was a real sense of belonging in my own personal growth. Yesterday morning, a group of ski instructors, including myself, were taking a training session with a high level instructor at the ski resort I teach at for half of the week this winter. It was a session that started at 8:30 am for an hour and was completely optional as far as attendance goes.
It was interesting to see a rather good turnout since instructors didn’t really have to show up until about 10 am when the first lessons for the public started. But this group of ski instructors all wanted to come out early to improve their own skiing, which is a shared passion. Since we all wanted to get better, attending this training session was for our personal growth.
Shared Passions Brings People Together
However, since skiing was a shared passion, we didn’t have to improve ourselves alone all the time. Shared passions have a way of bringing people together which in turn results in the sense of belonging. I’m sure that after experiencing such a training session, most of folks from our group will surely come out again even if we all had to wake up an hour earlier.
Sense Of Belonging Can Advance Your Personal Growth
This sense of belonging can advance your personal growth since it demonstrates just how like minded people can end up helping to motivate and inspire each other towards our own goals. My past Motivational WebTV video on the effects of like minded people go into this more.
People in general want to belong to something. It is even better when people belong to groups where there are shared passions whether they be in sports, hobbies, community events or other interests. It makes such groups (and relationships as well) much more rewarding than just any arbitrary group of individuals that do not really have much in common.
So this year, I would suggest that you explore getting in with groups of like minded people who do share some of the same passions as you have. Your personal growth will be enhanced that much more.
To see how some of my own passions have helped me in my own personal growth, see my 3-part Personal Development Video Series via the box below.
Here’s one topic that you might not always hear from a motivational business speaker – affects of different kinds of energy.
I’ve been teaching holiday ski camps which are intensive 5-day programs in snow skiing. In fact, in a 16 day period, I will be on the snow for 15 of those days. I took only New Year’s Day off.
I was planning to do some work in my personal development and speaking projects in the evening after I got home after the full days on the ski slopes. However, I have been finding myself just drained after each day.
I had thought that since most of the ski day is using up my physical energy, this would not affect my mental energy in the evenings. However, I’ve been finding that my assumption has not been correct.
Physical Energy Affects Mental Energy
It seems that physical energy affects mental energy after all as I’m not alert enough during these past evenings to put much work into my ongoing projects. I find that I have just enough to do quick catchups on Facebook, Twitter, email and the odd blog post like this one.
As a result, any current big projects involving my motivational business speaker side of my business will just have to wait for a bit. After I was done with the two ski camps, I had another five straight days on the ski slopes as I taught one day at another ski resort followed by a full day of instructor training and development for myself. Then there are three more full days of ski teaching until I have a day off the slopes. At the time of this writing, I’m starting the first of those final three days.
The remainder of the winter will involve the first part of the week teaching skiing so with this experience, I will probably not expect to do too much heavy work on my motivational business speaker projects during my ski days. I’ll plan to do the bulk of this work on my off days.
Motivational Business Speaker To Resume WebTV
My Motivational WebTV series will probably not resume until next week as I have not had the energy to shoot a new episode during the holiday season. I hope to come out with a new episode either late next week or the week after.
In the meantime, there are a lot of videos to catch up on in the Motivational WebTV Archive. So please stay tuned for that video and other new developments once my current ski teaching marathon tapers down.
Hey, if you have had cases where physical energy affected mental energy, or vice versa, please share below.
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