It was from Matthew Milan, back in the day. I loved the concept then, and I love it just as much now.

Start at the end and work your way back to the beginning. I think what I love the most about it is that the process that you go through helps you recognize signs of success and signs of trouble, before you even start. And, it helps you to think ahead and ask “If we’re three weeks in and we haven’t seen X or done Y, then here’s what we’ll do to get back on track to our most desirable outcome…”

Planning for your own failures ahead of time so that you can ultimately succeed. Love it.

I took some water from the shower into my mouth and spat it out. It didn’t feel right. I did it again — still, didn’t feel right. I couldn’t quite place what was different, and carried on. As I exited the shower, Kathryn handed me a glass of juice. I brought the glass to my lips and took a sip, at which point I found myself covered in OJ. Something was wrong. I thought that maybe my face was just asleep — similar to when a foot, or hand falls asleep. I tried to tell Kathryn something was wrong, but I couldn’t speak properly.

The entire left side of my head from the neck up was completely paralyzed. No movement. Nothing at all.

I remembered at the visitation the night before telling my best friend in the entire world, Graham Turner, and my family that I felt a bizarre headache behind my left ear. It wasn’t like any headache I’d felt before, but I didn’t have any other way to describe it. And why was it behind my left ear? I attributed it simply to me being tired and stressed and thought nothing more of it. Until the next morning when I thought I had experienced a stroke.

It took me three months away from my full-time, high school teaching job to recover from what was termed Bell’s Palsy. The doctors said my immune system was vulnerable due to lack of sleep, and several other factors. When Granny passed away, my body wasn’t able to properly fight a viral infection I had picked up, and my 7th cranial nerve was completely destroyed — eaten through by what must have been the most carnivorous virus known to humans.

Eventually I got better and was able to return to teaching. But really, from that point on, I questioned everything about what was important in life and what I wanted to do with mine. With great clarity I pronounced that relative health is one of our most precious gifts, and that I was going to take steps to ensure that I held on to mine.

And with that I left teaching to start my own business — first, as a contract trainer (putting my teaching background to good use was a logical first step) and, second, as a web developer to scratch that itch I initially felt when I was building web based resources for colleagues and students starting in about 1994.

I simply wouldn’t be where I am today if Granny hadn’t passed away ten years ago, on January 20th, 1999. Her passing was, quite literally, a life-changing experience.

As I sit here, in Toronto, my father’s mother (we called her Nen-nen) having just passed away early in the morning on January 23rd, 2009 (almost 10 years to the day after Granny died) I can’t help but wonder what the next ten years will hold for each of us.

There were pieces of the site that I just hated using or working with. Why? Because I was doing things manually, and anytime you do something manually, it becomes tedious and a pain to do. What next? You just end up not doing those tedious things. Like posting. Keeping track of the events that I’m speaking at. Add to that the additional work of managing and responding to comments and that lead to inactivity.

So, with that, we unveil this new version — a new design with new functionality via some WordPress plugins. Jeff Smith, (the perfect hybrid designer/developer) who works with us over at Further Ahead created something that I just love — a beautiful design that inspires me to fill the screen with worthy writing. He also did the coding and WordPress integration, and some custom WP plugins (and mods to existing plugins) to help manage the speaking/training events listed over in the sidebar and the tumblelog that pulls in content from the pieces of me scattered across the internets. All in record time so that we could go live. The wonderful illustrated bench graphic was commissioned from the brilliant artist Anton Peck. Huge thanks both of them for such a wonderful job on this project!

The first version of the blog is archived for historical purposes, and with the magic of some rewrite rules (we hope) we haven’t broken any incoming links. I’m sure there are a few things that still need some tending to, but for the most part, here it is. Welcome!