If you follow this blog at all you will notice that there hasn’t been much going on this past year in the way of entries. This does not mean that I haven’t been busy.
The Road less traveled
Early in 2010 I made a choice to change paths with regard to my focus and moved away from facilitation training. This has had a profound effect on much of the remainder of the year. I take pride in my word and my work. When I say I will do something, it will be done and it will be done well. When I came to the ‘fork in the road’ with regard to my training I had to make a choice. Choose to complete the training and keep my record un-tarnished or chose the path that would serve me better in the long run (even if it meant that I could not keep my promise).
While I still feel some sadness over not keeping my word this is a new place where I feel I can be counted on to “Do the right thing.” From this point forward I will alway make the best decisions I can with the information at hand and if that mean changing direction part way through a process then that is what will happen.
One of the largest positives to come out of this choice was me finding a new direction for being of service and a new ‘training’ program. I began studying with The Demers Group in their Core Alignment Coaching program. Through this 9 month program I will be come a Certified Professional Coach in April 2011 and with the work I have done already I can also be Credentialed by the International Coach Federation (ICF) around the same time as an Associate Certified Coach (ACC).
I am grateful to the Facilitator Training that I did. It helped to prepare me and allowed me to practice my skills, the skills I’m now honing in the coaching program. I am grateful to my employer who is supporting me in this training and encouraging me to move forward as I develop my skills.
The Purple Man
This past year also saw one of the most exciting Civic Elections Calgary has ever seen. A friend of mine ran for and won the Mayor’s Seat in Calgary. Naheed Nenshi. I couldn’t be more proud of him and the work he has done and is doing for my city. A city that I thought would not for for him based on race or religion turned out in droves to vote overwhelmingly for him.
I wrote an entry on why I voted for Nenshi back in October if you want to know more about how I felt about this and I include his youtube site if you want to meet him.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Nenshi4Calgary
This years big wood
It seems that I will now have an annual project that I’m constructing to keep my self entertained. In 2009 it was the Deck (see previous articles for that one) and this year is was a gaming table. What is a gaming table? Well a gaming table is designed for those who love, and I mean really love, to play games. Either board games or role playing games or war games. You name it this table will support that.
My buddy Brennan came back from a gaming convention raving about these tables he had seen there. He took me to the website to look at them and I just about died when I saw the price. These tables start around $10,000.00 and go up depending how you configure it. My reaction was to say, “I can build it cheaper than that!” When Brennen started renovations on his basement and it was to be his ManCave I decided that he needed a gaming table for it. Me and a bunch of friends planed this out and chipped in for the supplies. While I won’t disclose the total amount spent here I will say I made it for about 1/10 the price of the purchased table, and it took around 200 hours to build.
We delivered it to his house one night when he was out and surprised him when he came home. I believe he is still in shock. 
I learned so much on this project and was able to practice some new behaviors during the construction. I was honored to be assisted by Tarra for much of this project as well as my good buddy Aaron.
The Road Ahead
While I know that I’m beginning 2011 by continuing my journey training as a coach I’m unsure of what else this year will hold for me. I know that based on where I have come from and what I have learned this year can be an awesome example of living. I also know that I have the milestone of turning 40 in August so I figure it’s time to start planning the celebration.
I wish everyone the best in 2011 and a great night tonight.
