OK, see that ridiculous picture up there?
That's me earlier this week...so embarrassingly proud that I can do what's called bar muscle ups.
That's where you pull up on a bar but instead of stopping like a regular pull-up at your chin...the movement is a bit different and you yank yourself right up over the bar.
For whatever reason I think it's the coolest thing to do.
It took me something like three years of work to do this thing. When I started going to the gym at 40 years old (I'm now over 50) I couldn't do a single pull-up...so it was a long journey!!
Remember, I already admitted this is embarrassing but for some reason I don't care. I'm super happy every-single-time I do one of them, LOL!!
Anyway...on to more important matters.
Trump won and the questions we're hearing most often immediately after this election are...what does this mean for Canada?
Here's our take.
He just got a pretty clear mandate to put America first, so I don't expect he's going to be doing anyone any favours, Canada included.
He's going to want to show that he is fulfilling what he said he would do, so that means that Canada is likely going to have some intense talks on things that they don't like (maybe Canada's tariffs/taxes on U.S. dairy imports??)...
...and maybe the U.S. will be much more willing to chat about things that they do like (for example...talks on energy and energy pipelines??).
Canada is resource rich and if managed properly (which it definitely has not been) can create great things for itself.
The bottom line is this...
Canada just needs to focus on itself and fix its own internal issues and not worry about much else at the moment.
Real income growth is non-existent in Canada.
Housing prices are too high relative to incomes.
Our healthcare system is looking and feeling outdated and slow.
Our education system could use an overhaul.
We're paying taxes on stuff that is already taxed (hello, carbon taxes).
Inflation doesn't look like it's going away anytime soon.
We have massive federal deficits and provincial deficits.
Canada owns no gold on the federal balance sheet. We don't save.
I mean, there's a lot to focus on.
But here's the thing.
It's almost all noise.
Your personal reality today is a direct reflection of your daily habits and your daily thoughts over the last 5 years.
Please read that again.
Your reality today is a reflection of your past daily habits and your past daily thoughts.
Do you understand?
What are you doing every day? Day in and day out?
Why are some people "getting ahead financially" and others not?
Why are some people happy, hopeful, and living life on their terms?
I used to own a book of quotes by Jim Rohn that I would open up daily at my Oracle sales job. If you're not familiar with Jim, he was one of Tony Robbins' mentors.
Here are some of my favourites from him:
"You either run the day or the day runs you."
"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment."
"Take care of your body. It's the only place you live."
"If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary."
"Formal education will make you a living, self-education will make you a fortune."
"If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much."
"We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment."
"You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of."
"If you don't like how things are, change it! You're not a tree."
"Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else's hands, but not you."
"Maturity is the ability to reap without apology and not complain when things don't go well."
"Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become."
One more thing to share with you this week...
Nick and I lived through a brutal recession in the 1990s.
Our father's drywall company didn't survive it.
The houses our family was flipping almost bankrupted us.
Our parents divorced.
Real estate didn't turn around for six years.
The tech boom came and then crashed hard taking my meager savings in Oracle shares from a decent number to almost zero again.
We quit our jobs with not much in savings, used credit lines to start Rock Star, we were told we were going to fail by our first brokerage, our second brokerage stole all our marketing, our next office landlord stole our rent via a sublease...
...we operated out of a public storage building for three months with no office for the entire Rock Star team, we saved and saved and saved and bought our own office space right as the pandemic broke out so no one came to it and then interest rates skyrocketed.
LOL!!!
Life is a crazy journey. We all get through it if you just keep going.
Motion beats meditation every time.
Failures are the raw material you need for success.
The real richness of life comes from the people you meet, the relationships you build, the experiences you survive, the laughs you have, and the family you nurture.
That's it for this week. Happy Thursday, everyone!
Tom & Nick
