Cheers to a new year and another chance to get it right. Oprah Winfrey.

Leave it to Oprah to put an optimistic spin on it.

Optimism isn’t always fashionable, I know. Particularly this past year. Cynicism is endemic. If we were to believe what we read on our screens and in print, the times are truly challenging, to say the least.

But Oprah isn’t alone. In spite of the cynics and pessimists, there are good things going on all around us and much for which we can be thankful.

There are countless people, quietly doing their best everyday for themselves and others, refusing to give into exclusiveness, greed and selfishness.

They make an active choice to stand up what for they believe in and continue to work towards a better world.

Not blindly, but rather with a hard-earned optimism, they embrace the new year and celebrate another chance to get it right.

In that vein, I wish you a happy New Year… and all the best in 2018.

And those new plans you have in mind? There isn’t a better time . Go for it!

Need some street-savvy marketing assistance with those new plans? We could talk. Like me to speak to your group? I am easily reachable. Text/call 416.450.8867 or email drew@drewsimmie.com

The holiest of holidays are those kept by ourselves in silence and apart; the secret anniversaries of the heart. Henry Wordsworth Longfellow.

It’s that time of year again. For a few days at least, people stop their frenetic pace and take time out to gather with family and friends, to share a meal and gifts and to express feelings of gratitude, love and hope.

In our global, interconnected village, however or wherever the greetings and wishes are conveyed, or in whatever language, as the old year winds down and a new one beckons, the message is as universal and timeless as this medieval Celtic blessing:

May peace and plenty be the first to lift the latch on your door and happiness be guided to your home by the candle of Christmas. And in the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship and never in want.

My best wishes to you and all whom you hold dear. All the best in the New Year.

This is the last post of 2017. Please join me again the first week in January and watch for some exciting  new developments.

Thinking about starting out in a new direction in the New Year? Need some pointers? Like me to speak to your group? I am easily reachable. Text/call 416.450.8867 or email drew@drewsimmie.com

When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed. Maya Angelou.

Gratitude is the inward feeling of a kindness received. Thankfulness is the action of expressing your feelings for the kindness shown you.

Living gratefully is an important link to those qualities of heart and mind which tend to lend themselves to simplicity and sustainable motivation in an ever-changing, fractious world.

Developing an attitude of gratitude for what you have rather than what you don’t can unlock the fullness of life, bringing with it a sense of peace and equanimity.

Simple acts of kindness such as lending a helping hand to someone less fortunate or aiding a group of people in distress, or even something as small as flashing a smile to a stranger can have a positive effect on our long term moods.

Developing an attitude of gratitude for everything that happens to you, knowing that everything in life is an experience to learn from and grow more, is a step forward to achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.

Something, indeed, for which to offer a heart felt thank you, especially at this time of year.

Hmmm…

Thinking about starting out in a new direction in the New Year? Need some pointers? Like me to speak to your group? I am easily reachable. Text/call 416.450.8867 or email drew@drewsimmie.com

In today’s market place, creativity is the key to building and sustaining any type of viable business.

That means working in a new space – reliant not only on your linear, metric-driven left brain side, nor with an over emphasis on the creative, right brain side, but in using both in tandem.

It’s all about listening to your intuition and then taking the practical information and filtering it through both sides to a new space, between the two spheres.

It’s here where you are at your best – following your hunches, but also using your smarts and your experience to bring your work to successful fruition. It isn’t always easy. Don’t be discouraged. Few of us are Mozarts. Inevitably it is a trial and error process that can take time.

Here are three tips to help get you there:

1. Think outside the proverbial box. That’s where the status quo isn’t.
2. Focus on a bigger future even though you can’t always see it.
3. Play the game of life with joy. Life is a very special when you approach it as a splendid gift and a once-in-a-life time adventure.

Stay strong. Life sparkles and you’ll find yourself totally engaged when you are working in the magic middle space.

Thinking about starting out in a new direction in the New Year? Need some help finding your magic middle space? Like me to speak to your group? I am easily reachable. Text/call 416.450.8867 or email drew@drewsimmie.com

Like a pair of giant needles, technology and globalization have knitted us together, like it or not.

Whether we are in Toronto, Toledo or Timbuktu, we are living in a giant global village – interconnected, interdependent and demanding we broaden our world view.

Broadly speaking, a view world is a set of expectations and biases we have formed that shapes how we see and feel about people in other nations and, indeed, even in our own cities and neighbourhoods – each with their own world view.

Accommodation isn’t always easy but as distances and time continue to shrink, it is good to remember that most of us, regardless of where we stand on the globe, are just trying to get through the day, striving to stay alive, better our conditions, to do the best by our families and those for whom we care.

We are not the same, of course. Our cultures, religions, educational backgrounds societal differences can make strangers of us – but only if we let them.

The songs we sing, the stories we tell, sounds and words that to others can sound foreign, even threatening. Still, as the world gets smaller, we need to make the effort to narrow the gap, remembering that a stranger is only a person whose story or song we have never heard – until we are willing to listen.

Need a good listener as you plan your future? Like me to speak to your group? I am easily reachable. Text/call 416.450.8867 or email drew@drewsimmie.com