Almost 500 Words on What .500 Means to Me

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I wrote a previous post entitled, “500 Words on Why the Canucks are saying Goodbye to .500,” and it’s time for a few follow-up words.

I was wrong.

Over the past 2 weeks, the Vancouver Canucks have staggered across the continent with one leg chained to a big, old cast iron ball of mediocrity.  They have left .500 only to return time and again.  It’s as if they enjoy seeing .500 as much on the way down as the way up.  It’s an old familiar place.  It’s the lobby of their favourite hotel.  It’s the front step to their favourite bar.  It’s like the first day of class all over again.  Will they stay the night?  Will they sit down and enjoy a drink?  Will they stick around and do an assignment or two, maybe get credit for the course?  Will they make the honor roll?  It doesn’t seem to matter these days.  It obviously just feels too good to be in that cozy place of promise and potential.  See, the thing about .500, about mediocrity, that is dangerous is that it often wears the clothing of contentment.  Just as often it wears the rags of regret and slumps wishing that it might soon be forgotten.  But mediocrity never does what we wish it will.  It can’t.  It’s not natural.

It’s not natural to be satisfied with half full or half finished.  You ever hear anyone enjoying half a friendship?  Anyone ever write a book about half-summitting Everest?  It’s not natural, but unfortunately it’s what we’re witnessing in the Vancouver Canucks’ play over the first 6 weeks of the 2011 season.  We’re watching a fashion show.  People keep coming out on the runway, but nobody really wants to take off.  It doesn’t look natural. They look like half of themselves.  They look like they are playing for half of a Stanley Cup.

Look at neutral zone play and second period performance.  Both have become pathetic monuments to a near devotion to .500 hockey exhibited by the Canucks in game after game.  Play in the neutral zone reflects the team attitude towards winning.  It’s neutral.  They get a loose puck on their sticks and look like they could take it or leave it.  Whatever happens happens.  Play in the second period resembles a team spirit that is happy to have done okay in the first, and now saving something special for the third.  The team loves it in the lobby right now.  Vancouver players are, at the moment, happiest sitting on the porch, parking on the runway, dressing up and staying home…

So, here’s the advice I have for my favourite players on earth:

Just stop it.  Stop holding back.  Stop resting in the robes of the President’s Forgotten Achievement.  Stop hiding in the hangover of discontent.  Play your heart out!  Kill the excuses!  Make embarrassing mistakes trying!  I can respect that.  Just please stop this .500-style, soft-voiced, smile-after-every-game, keeping-it-loose trek into the forgettable.  Just stop it.  It’s unnatural and unwatchable.

Return to your natural state, champions.  I can’t wait to watch you take the Senators to school on Sunday.

40th & 140.6: Component 1: Consistent Work

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“Its not how much you did last week that counts, but how consistent you have been training over the past few months.” – Roch Frey, Coached 3X Ironman World Champion, Peter Reid

Peter Reid on his way to winning his 1st of 3 Ironman World Championships in 1998

Well, it’s been 3 days since I threatened to prepare well for my 40′s…

I got stuck on the first one. Consistency.  Could I have come up with a more intimidating value to start with? I don’t think so. Let me talk about focus and teamwork and physical training.  Let me talk about those themes and practice them well for a day or a week, and then give me an interim report card.  Let me lather up with the sunscreen of self-congratulation and bask in those A’s!  Sweet, temporary achievement!

Who cares?! Nobody cares about interim report cards, mid-season polls, half-time scores, or mid-term reports.  Championships are won after the final game.  Bonuses are paid at the end of the year.  Grades are officially ascribed at the end of the full term.

Bottom line:

I want to win more championships, earn more bonuses, achieve better grades, and build more champions than I did in my first 40 years.

How about you?

If you do, than listen to me give myself a little pep talk on putting in the consistent work required to finish well.

Carlin, here’s the first reality you need to remember every morning.  Every morning, when you open your eyes awake, you get a new shot at the title!  Every day you’re alive you have an opportunity to really live. Don’t waste it!  Make the commitment:  Every day I live, I will LIVE!

That leads to the second reality.  It’s inescapable.  There are no off days.  There are rest days, vacation days, office days, flex days, training days, sabbath days, school days, and holidays.  But don’t allow job schedule language (work days and days off) to lull you into the sad existence of reluctance and escape.  Make a commitment that reflects reality.  Put your foot down.  No off days!

Consistent work wins championships, hearts, minds, and even money.  Consistent work flows from consistent living.  Consistent living is born out of an attitude that life is a priceless gift and a rare opportunity.  A consistent positive attitude is built on a foundation of realistic commitments (I will LIVE! & No off days!), and builds upon itself with aggressive daily decisions.  Here are 4 basic uncompromising decisions I must make every single day:

  • Pursue joy every day.
  • Pick up your team-mates every day.
  • Practice integrity every day.
  • Persistent, relentless, and tenacious at everything you put yourself to, every day.

There, I’m glad we had that little talk.  Listen to yourself make this argument.  It IS a winning argument!  Make these decisions.  Get unstuck.  You’re 40 now.  It’s time to shut up and do the consistent work that it takes to win.

Craig Alexander. This is what consistent work looks like.

“The main thing is just to be consistent with your training.  There’s no point in doing two great weeks and then nothing for two or three weeks. It’s better to be consistent over a longer period of time, that’s the way your body absorbs the exercise.” – Craig Alexander. 3X Ironman World Champion

40th & 140.6

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I’m turning 40 in a week.

I’ve been thinking ahead on this decade more than any other.  With each passing year, season, moment, the sense of value per choice is escalating.

So, if that’s going to happen, I need to come up with an approach that has been successful for me in the past.  At least once.  I need to treat the next decade like a relentlessly victorious assault on an Ironman.  It’s a perfect parallel.  Because, like finishing an Ironman, finishing my 40′s successfully is a daunting task, but it’s doable.  140.6 miles is an inspiring distance to cover, but it won’t allow short-cuts and half-measures.

Here’s the basic approach.  Effective preparation for triathlon requires building up consistent fitness and aptitude in multiple necessary components required to finish.  Components required to finish triathlons include: endurance, swimming, biking, running, strength, flexibility, and mental maturity.  I’ve chosen 7 key components to develop in order to finish my 40′s with joy, lasting contribution, and integrity:

  • consistent work
  • teamwork
  • focussed work
  • physical work
  • inner work
  • intellectual work
  • interpersonal work

I’m turning 40 in a week. That’s 7 days to prepare an effective preparation plan for 7 important building blocks to crush the coming decade!

Stuck

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Stuck.

Stuck?

What a perfect, ordinary word to describe circumstances that breed perfectly ordinary frustration.

Last weekend I was thinking back to the very first event I worked on my internship.  It was a senior high retreat for Salem Alliance Church.  The theme?  That’s right. Stuck.  Not suck, but it might as well have been.

I started the retreat off by backing a van full of equipment into a tree on the edge of the driveway of the camp we were meeting at.  It was a big 12 passenger van that I had borrowed from the family that just started employing Lori. Great.  I was scheduled to speak Saturday morning (THE worst time slot in any conference), after a full night of playing camp counsellor to a cabin full of full bearded 15-year-olds that were NOT happy to be there for the weekend. Nice.  After my morning talk, the only feedback I got was from the drummer of the band for the weekend.  He said, “Hey, did you know that you said the word ‘stuck’ 53 times in your talk?” I wanted to punch him in the throat. My talk lasted about 18 minutes.  My talk was probably about 15 minutes too long.

A few things have changed since then.  Thankfully, when I talk 15 minutes too long now, I’ve probably spoken for, like, 28 minutes.  And I’m not pulling together vans for youth retreats and driving them into trees.  But one thing is still the same, the theme, ‘Stuck,’ is still really very important for children and youth and the adults who care for them.

Last week I had a chance to participate in a two-day seminar with Dr. Gordon Neufeld called “Making Sense of Stuck Kids” for Education Programs in Institutions.  It was so good that I can’t tell you how many times he said the word “stuck.”  Ya, that good.

Dr. Neufeld is a developmental psychologist from Vancouver that is sought after worldwide for his ability to make sense of children’s complex developmental problems.  He presents basic concepts that unlock the roots of difficult behaviour, aggression, and actions that distance kids from each other and the adults they were built to depend on.  Neufeld does so with well over 35 years of professional experience as well as a lifetime of “study” as a dad of 5 and a grandfather of 3.  With passion and clarity, Gordon Neufeld opens up a deeper understanding of the potential that lies within every single child.

By focussing on explaining 3 natural processes of development, Dr. Neufeld affirms the potential within every child to grow to maturity.  He also then allows people who care for and work with kids to look, with insight, at which processes in particular have been arrested or hindered.  Herein lies the stuckness.

You know it’s brilliant and helpful when a hack like me can remember and crystalize the approach in one paragraph.  Of course that’s just the beginning.  Participating in learning with Dr. Neufeld, you realize how beautiful, complex, and robust human beings really are.  And, most importantly, you realize how much we were meant to mature alongside each other.  And that’s the biggest challenge for a lot of stuck kids… the stuck adults who care for them and work with them.  I need to grow too.  So do you.  We need to help each other get unstuck, and Dr. Neufeld is a great helper.  He has understood that it takes a lifetime, and he has given us a spectacular and inspiring lifework to make sense of it all.

Read and explore:  www.gordonneufeld.com

 

Scarred For Life: Ignite Youth Conference, Edmonton

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Carlin speaking from the deck of the "Blackberry Pearl" at ERBC

Last weekend I got to speak to a few hundred high school kids at Ignite Youth Conference in Edmonton.  It was, without a doubt, THE coolest speaking opportunity I have ever experienced.  At the same time, the weekend theme was one of the most compelling for me personally, too.

The invite came from my good friend, Joel Jacobs, a pastor at Ellerslie Road Baptist Church, the host for the weekend.  I was Joel’s youth pastor in my first church at Devon Alliance Church about 15 years ago.  So, it was pretty moving to have the chance to be a part of his spectacular leadership team on an incredibly successful project like Ignite.

He and his team have built this event up from a small local church weekend retreat to Edmonton’s largest fall youth conference.  I could tell how highly anticipated the event has become when I arrived over an hour before doors opened, and there were already youth lining up outside.  Pretty exciting.  This year’s special guests, Starfield, and Panic Squad, had a lot to do with the excitement.  I was pretty pumped about hanging out with these guys too.  (And they were great!  Both groups of guys were so much fun and really easy to be around.  Such a privilege, boys, thanks again.)

Panic Squad performing at Ignite YC '11

The theme arrived very shortly after the invite. (And the slogan for the theme shortly after that, but I can’t take credit.  The words “Scarred For Life” came from the creative mind of my good buddy, Justin Hubert.  Just brilliant!)  I was thinking about some of the most common issues that youth deal with in our agency.  I get to do staff training with child & youth care workers that come alongside a lot of teenagers experiencing self-harm behaviours.  In one of the books that I’ve read on the subject (“Bodily Harm” by Jennifer Kingsonbloom), one idea really stood out to me.  One young man was quoted as saying about his own self-inflicted wounds, that “with every scar, there is a story.”  It’s true, and the stories are worth hearing.  I also thought immediately, “Hey, I know someone whose scars tell a story that’s really worth hearing!”

With every scar, there IS a story that is worth hearing.  Most of the time, the story’s worth hearing because we are intrigued by the where the scars come from.  But we’re even more compelled by a story when we understand who or what cause the scars were suffered for.  And then in one unique body, the scars can be life-changing when we realize that they were endured for us.  That unique body, that inimitable story, that distinct person is Jesus.  The profound description of Jesus’ scars on the cross, spoken by the prophet Isaiah, immediately came to mind.  Hundreds of years before Jesus enthusiastically, yet agonizingly, gave himself, a sacrifice, Isaiah spoke, “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.”

We just simmered in this eternal reality for the whole weekend, trying to get our head around what it means for us.  While our scars, incurred through our thirst for adventure, scream, “I’m bored!” Jesus scars say, “You’ve been freed to live with passion.”  While our scars, suffered by atrocity and abuse, sigh, “I’m rejected and broken,” Jesus’ scars say, “You’re healed and you’re not alone.”  Saturday night, it was incredibly humbling to see so many young people stand with each other, in hope, trusting God and taking steps towards healing.

Yup, that was memorable.  Very fun. Love the kids.  Crazy.  I’d sure love to be able do more of that.

Listen to:  Sunday Morning Ignite Message:  Scars of Action

500 Words on Why The Canucks Are Saying Goodbye to .500

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It’s November 1 and, for the first time this season, the Vancouver Canucks face off against their fiercest divisional rival, the Calgary Flames.  If you know my marital arrangement, then you understand that this brings an annual, months-long, excruciating test of our covenant.  Every season, one of our cherished teams goes on to a successful season while the other languishes in 8 or 9th place uncertainty.  Every season, Lori and I overcome our expectations, disappointments, cruel jokes, inappropriate celebrations, and ultimately, for both of us, one final enormous disappointment.  One of us responds with class and recovers quickly.  One of us, well… burns things.

It’s time to begin the annual series once again. I’m just doing my part by laying out for you the foundation for my own disturbing, indefatigable, even if misinformed, optimistic prediction:  The Vancouver Canucks will win on the road tonight against the Flames and say goodbye to .500 for the rest of the season, on their way to another arduous campaign that produces another hope laden appearance in the Stanley Cup Final.

  • Vancouver still holds divisional authority.  Success in divisional rivalries is still the platform for building a championship team.  Teams with talent on 1 or 2 lines can impress early, but they show thin when up against the tough familiar faces of their divisional competitors.  This October, the Oilers have racked up an impressive opening salvo.  However, all 4 of their losses come directly within their division.  The Canucks, on the other hand, have supposedly struggled out of the gate, yet they have a winning record in the Northwest.  Like the older brother who is not only still bigger and stronger, the Canucks also still hold a firm psychological grip on their divisional little brothers. Calgary, Edmonton… Say Uncle!
  • The Canucks will consistently recovery through the 2011 months of the 2011-12 NHL season.  The harsh reality of the long trip to the Stanley Cup Final for teams in the new NHL is a seemingly longer trip back to health and potential.  This team has not lost the deep talent that took them all the way last year.  Without much of an off-season, they are simply doing the necessary recovery on the fly this year.
  • Vancouver is a team whose stingy defensive credentials are earned through swarming, relentless offensive production.  Crap, I’m running out of words, so let me summarize this point with 10 words:  President’s Trophy. Hart Trophy. Most goals for. Least goals against.
  • The core players and personnel of the Vancouver Canucks still own powerful unrealized expectations at work.  This factor may not be invisible, but it is incredibly powerful.  You cannot underestimate the daily attention to details that are taken care of merely because these men still haven’t finished what they’ve started.
  • Oh, and finally, Vancouver will say goodbye to .500 tonight because Roberto Luongo is a champion.  All he, and the twins, and #17 have done every year is IMPROVE.

And improve is what the Canucks will do again tonight, and for the remainder of this season.  I’ve got 500 words that say so.

 

5 Reasons Why David Booth is Just What the Vancouver Canucks Needed

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On Saturday, the Vancouver Canucks’ General Manager, Mike Gillis, made the first major move of the 2011-12 NHL season.  Gillis moved out 2 players with similar salaries, Mikael Samuelsson and Marco Sturm.  For these 2 talents, Vancouver received from Florida 1 draft pick (3rd round 2013), 1 salary that will never wear a Canucks sweater (Steve Reinprecht), and 1 legitimate, speedy, strong, impact line-mate for stud centre Ryan Kesler.

This is an excellent trade, and the timing couldn’t be better.  Here are at least 5 reasons why:

1)  Vancouver made a major trade and Roberto Luongo wasn’t part of it.

As per usual, the fan grumblings about their brilliant yet erratic goaltender have risen to the level of trade clamour.  The only thing different this year, is how early it has begun.  We, the fans, every year, show that what we know best is passion.  And every year, after one or two sketchy starts by our #1 tender also reveal that we truly do not know what is best for our team.  In Vancouver, this scenario is only aggravated by a magnificent goalie who just happens to be as capricious as his fans.  Thank you, Mike Gillis, for taking our mind off of our own inconsistencies for the moment.

2)  Florida is the perfect place for a player like Marco Sturm to continue to NOT make an impact on any game ever.

I’m sorry, but unmemorable personnel belong in a place where they are easy to forget.  Nobody cares who’s playing for Florida. Nobody.  Nobody cares where Marco Sturm is on the ice. Nice guy. Agile forward. Pretty nice career. But nobody on opposing teams care where he is on the ice, or if he is on the ice.  Just not an impact player.  Trust me, Florida fans won’t know the difference.

3) Acquiring David Booth is about relationships, and success is a product of great relationships.

Mike Gillis said that he met David Booth coincidentally last summer.  Something about that chance meeting revealed the kind of character, chemistry, and relational capacity to motivate Gillis to pursue Booth for months.  Ryan Kesler and David Booth go way back to minor hockey days in Michigan.  Relationships drove this personnel decision, and a team that makes decisions based on relationships is preparing to win championships, not just games.

4)  This trade highlights the clumsiness of the editorial staff of the Vancouver Province newspaper.

Nothing highlights the clumsiness and ignorance of a suggested trade more than the meticulousness and thoughtfulness of an effective trade designed by an accomplished General Manager.  One man who actually signs his name on a trade agreement, swiftly rebuffs a team of men and women making headlines who aren’t even willing to attach their name to their own meddling callowness.

5)  Mark Spector is an idiot.

Reason #5 is not related to the David Booth acquisition in any way.  However, I am a petulant fan of the Vancouver Canucks.  For this reason alone I will not miss this opportunity to be immature (as indicated) and disrespect Mark Spector as a journalist and as a man.  Spector, you stink.

Yes, for all 5 reasons, I feel better today as a Canucks fan.

Hazelnut Roast & Hearing God

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It’s Sunday afternoon and I’m sipping on a Hazelnut roast from Green Mountain Coffee.  I’m thinking, “You know, I’ve never enjoyed a single hazelnut in my entire life, but here it is burned into these beans, boiled in water, and I love it.”

I just sent this text to one of my pastors, “I don’t know what’s going on but I like it, and it’s uncomfortable.” I don’t understand it and that makes me feel uncomfortable, but it is what it is; It’s a joyful cup.

My coffee is enjoyable this afternoon because I’m pretty thankful to hear from God this morning on the topic of hearing from God.  It’s one of those messages that parallels the mystical experience that it speaks of.

“God speaks to those who belong to him.” Check.

“God speaks personally, clearly, and directly.” Check.

“God speaks through his word and through his whispers.” TRUTH.

I agree. I agree. I agree.

But I don’t really, can’t really, understand that, and that makes me uncomfortable, and I LOVE that.

What is there, really, for me to do about that?

Well, as far as I understand what God wants. He just wants me to stop what I’m doing and hear him more. He wants me to listen.  He’s got things to say about himself and about me that I need to hear.  He wants me to hear from him, and maybe feel uncomfortable, and love it.  And I do.

How about you?

Prodding Over Pike Place

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I can’t remember exactly where we were when Lynn said, “I think you should write a blog and call it, ‘Coffee with Carlin.’” Tell you the truth, I can’t remember if that’s exactly what she said, but it’s probably close. My memory somehow connects those prodding words with the reliable affirmation that comes in a cup Pike Place. Even if it’s been diluted with that yellow labelled infiltrate we all find in our cupboards, it’s still fulfilling it’s unprinted duty: bringing out the best in us.

Well, Lynn, here’s that blog.  It’s like you spoke it into existence.  Thank you very much.

Lynn and Justin Hubert are some of the best friends we’ve ever had.  They never cease to see the best, find the humour, or even hear the frustration. And this was another one of those moments in life when inspiration was activated through words of encouragement.

We were having dinner with Ron and Dianne Harder, and they suggested that I do a blog about coffees.  I guess they liked a series of tweets that I had started to spit out, commenting on the variety of blends I was experiencing. Thank you both. Here we go.

Driving my nephew, Kelvin Siemens, around Red Deer at the beginning of the summer, he turns to me and says, “Uncle, I think you should make a blog where you write about all the funny rants you go on.”  Kelvin, thanks. One love, buddy.

This is for you.

Ya, I know. It’s just a blog.

But I guess the point is, it’s no longer just a bunch of writing that I wanted to do. Because of the encouragement, it’s now a deep part of me that was invited into the world. It’s not just an expression of creativity that I wanted to hide from criticism.  Now it’s a joyfully crafted statement of defiance.  No.  I won’t shut up.  No.  I won’t stop laughing.  I have at least 5 friends that must like this crap, and they suggested I write this.