I’m grateful for the things I normally take for granted, but really shouldn’t. They are: Good health, overall happiness, family life which feels crazy at times but is still the best thing ever. I’m also very grateful for friendships including colleagues, close friends and old friends.

Last week I was asked to be in my good friend’s wedding party! That means a lot. I had never been asked before. It is a great honor to be asked.

My new job is going really well! I couldn’t be happier. The project they’ve given me is exactly what I wanted. I can’t believe how things worked out. Thanking God for this wonderful miracle. Oh and the people are all really nice and smart too! I feel like I’m part of something great!!! I still remember the day they contacted me to come in for an interview. They’ve been amazing from the start!

Thanks for these wonderful times!

Here are some of the wonderful things that took place in my life during 2019:

1. I discovered the wonders of giving and feeling gratitude! This has changed my life. I discovered this wonderful website where I get to read your posts and share mine.

2. I’m grateful for having my family. My wife and kids, my mom, dad, brother and sister. I’m also grateful for having the most wonderful friends in the world and for having the chance to see so many of them during this past month.

4. My dad’s health. He was diagnosed with cancer back in October. I’m grateful that it was discovered before it had time to spread. I’m very happy that he is getting treatment and is putting a great effort into taking care of himself. I’m happy he has my mom to help and care for him. I’m also grateful to have wonderful siblings and that I’m not the only one going through this time alone.

4. Family time: I’m grateful that we can spend time together. I’m grateful we were able to go on vacations this year. We always have fun together and I’m looking forward to many more. I’m grateful we’ve spent this holiday season together here at home. Such a peaceful and fun time.

5. Job: I’m really grateful for having had a job in 2019. In addition to paying me a salary, it provided me with many challenges and allowed me to grow as a person, big time. I’m grateful that my boss decided to invest in me and help me develop as a leader. This really means a lot to me. I’m also really really grateful for landing my dream job working in sports analytics!

6. Business partner: I will write a separate post about this. However, I’m super thankful for having a wonderful business partner to help run my side business. He puts so much time into it. I’m also very thankful for the business itself and for having customers who love our service. The financial reward from running this business has allowed myself and my family to live very comfortably.

7. Toastmasters: I learned a lot about myself and about leadership while I was our club president. I’m really thankful for the opportunity along  with the help and guidance I received. I’m still glad to be a member and that I can participate in meetings again. It helps me grow personally. It’s also lots of fun because the club is full of amazing people!

Finally, I’m really grateful to be alive here in 2020. I look forward to this wonderful year to come and to many many more posts on this site!

Happy new year!

There’s freezing rain outside and tons of ice accumulating on cars, driveways and streets. Fortunately, most people including myself and my wife are off today and we don’t have to venture outside at the moment. I love just staying indoors and enjoying time off with the family. It’s the little things in this world that make life so great!

I also had time to do some work around the house, including something I had been putting off for over a month! Feels great to say it’s done and it feels even better to be motivated to tackle more challenges around the house today.

I will be venturing out in this weather for dinner with friends tonight. Looking forward to meeting them, catching up and sharing many laughs. I’m truly grateful to have them in my life.

We will be heading to a friend’s place tomorrow evening for NYE. While I don’t get worked up about bringing  in the new year, the fact that we’re also bringing in a new decade is pretty exciting! Feeling very grateful to be able to celebrate with friends and that all our kids get along so well (which allows us adults to have a great time while the kids play).

Happy New Year!

I’m happy to be working in a field that I’m passionate about. It makes me feel really good. I get satisfaction out of reading and researching about a topic that excites me! The field is sports analytics. I wanted to work in this field for over 2.5 years and now it’s finally happening!

I’m also greatful that the company is full of amazing people. My new colleagues are really welcoming. Everyone is so nice!

My new manager is also wonderful! She really has confidence in me. This makes me feel great!

My new team is also awesome. They are such nice people, very helpful and collaborative. They are also very smart!

I’m learning a lot on the job and there is a lot of room for me to grow.

I’m truly excited and very grateful for this opportunity.

We had our relatives over for Christmas Eve. Once again, my family and my wife’s family celebrated together. As usual, it was a nice time.

Now, they’ve gone home. My wife and I are exhausted from cooking, cleaning and hosting. However, was so worth it! It’s great having everyone with us. It was really nice that my brother in-law and his family drove up from North Carolina this Christmas. We don’t see them too often. It was nice that my uncle was released from the hospital yesterday and that he could make it. It was also a wonderful surprise that my niece could make it too! I’m thankful that we have each other along with a roof over our head and food to eat.

Our kids are asleep. It’s time to place the gifts from Santa Claus underneath the tree! I love the fact that they still believe in him. It’s so cute.

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!

Ian

My favorite thing about the holiday season is spending time with friends and family. Unfortunately due to distance and/or busy lives we don’t see everyone nearly as often as we’d like to throughout the year. However, that is part of what makes this season so special!

I cherish these times a lot and I’m really grateful for them. The vibe is always good, people are more relaxed than usual because they usually take time off from work and disconnect from their daily stresses. The kids are home from school. It’s just wonderful!

I also love it because I’m off from work and I get to sleep in. In addition, I’m grateful for being able to spend time on hobbies and playing with my kids.

Happy holidays everyone!

Back in the 90s, I was fanatical about learning to play the guitar. Then I let life get in the way. I lost interest and stopped playing. It left a small void in my life. For one, as a result of stopping guitar, I stopped discovering new music too and at the same time I got very tired of listening to the same old songs. Music was once a huge part of my life and now it was forgotten.

About 2 months ago I picked up my old guitar again and started fooling around. Naturally, I had forgotten how to play after 20+ years. However, there was something in me that made me want to start again. I discovered a wonderful online course that I’ve been following since then. I quickly regained some old skills and once again I’m addicted to learning and playing music again. I’m  grateful to once again have a hobby I love and to embark on this beautiful path of learning to play an instrument. For some reason, I love the fact that the journey never has no end because there is so much to learn, it never stops.

Getting back into playing guitar has also allowed me to connect with musicians I’ve known for a while on a different level. Now we have something in common. This means a lot to me.

Getting back into guitar has sparked an interest in my kids to also want to learn an instrument. I love it and hope they enjoy learning and playing music (lessons begin in January).

Getting back into guitar has given me one more thing to look forward to each evening after work. After we put the kids to bad I head straight to the basement to practice.

I’m really grateful that music has become a big part of my life again. It just feels right.

I started thinking how each job I’ve had has impacted me positively in ways that go beyond just financial benefit that I am truly grateful for! Here we go:

Part-time job bagging groceries while in school (1996-1999): I was fortunate to meet a lot of great people. A lot of them didn’t speak English well. As a result, I got practice speaking French. Not only did we have fun together, I learned the value of a dollar. Now, I don’t mean disrespect to anyone reading this post. However, there were many adults working full-time as cashiers and grocery baggers. I saw how they struggled to make ends meet. This was enough to convince me to work hard in school because I wanted to experience a better financial situation as I got older.

First job out of school (1999-2005): I worked for an investment company for 5 years. I loved it so much! In fact, this became proof to me that you can actually love your job if you find the right match. They also gave me an opportunity to move to Barbados for 1 year with my fiance. They gave her a job in her field too. It was an amazing experience until the company shut down! We were forced to move back home with no jobs or a place to live just 2 months before our wedding. Guess what. We landed on our feet and became stronger for it. I also met amazing people on this job. We still see each other 1-2 times per year and always have a blast. I learned from them that you can make great friends with your colleagues and have lasting friendships.

I found another job quickly after losing the previous one and once again I met more amazing people whom I still see 5-6 times a year. I really didn’t enjoy the job however. This prompted me to launch an ecommerce website on the side, with the dreams of owning my own business and living off of it. Well I never made it that far, but that site still gives me enough income to cover my monthly expenses till this day. Back to the job itself, I ended up losing my position in 2009 during the financial crisis. The timing couldn’t be worse. There were no jobs in finance anywhere and we had a baby on the way! Going into work everyday and hating life because I hated my job taught me another valuable lesson that I’m grateful for. You can hate your job too and if you do, your performance will suffer. If you don’t perform well the company isn’t going to keep you. Therefore if the situation can’t improve move on before it’s too late.

I remained unemployed for 1.5 years with no money coming in. At this point my ecommerce site was still not generating money. It was a stressful time but guess what, we landed on our feet again and became stronger for going through it. I then received a call one day from a company who saw my CV on monster.com. They wanted to know if I was interested in working for them as a product manager. This was so different from my area of expertise, in fact I didn’t know what a product manager even did. Well, 10 years later I still work in this amazing field and I’m so thankful for the opportunity to transition careers. The reason being there are no Finance jobs in my city anymore so had I not lost my job, I would have continued to have trouble getting and maintaining employment or have to relocate in order to stay in finance. In started the new position in 2011 and realized I loved this exciting field! I learned so many new skills and was able to build a new career. I stayed in that position until 2016. I cherish that experiences, friendships and all the wonderful memories I shared with my colleagues.

By mid 2016, I began my second position in product management. What a shock, it was completely different. I learned so many new skills! It was stressful at first but was so worth it! It turns out that I ended up meeting such a special group of people on this job. We all agree that this was the best job we ever had and the bond we shared was like no other.

By mid 2018, a company reached out to me with a wonderful opportunity that I couldn’t pass up. While I loved this job a lot less, I learned (from mistakes) a ton about leadership, how to manage people and how to manage up. It was a rollercoaster ride here, but I’m still grateful for the salary I received, the nice people I worked with, the chance to practice French again, the chance to manage people. Overall, I gained a lot of experience that has helped prepare me for my next challenge.

In the new year I will be starting a new opportunity. I’m so grateful for landing this dream job. I’ve actually wanted to work for this company for almost two years now. I can’t wait and I know it will go well.

Ian

I’m so thankful for the following:

I’m grateful to be employed and receiving a good salary that meets my family’s needs.

I’m grateful my boss and I are getting along a lot better now!  I’m grateful for having received a wonderful evaluation and a good raise!

At the same time, I was just offered my dream job by another employer. This is wonderful news. Time for a new beginning in 2020! I can’t wait to get started!!!

I’m greatful for the holiday season and to have my whole family with me to celebrate (my wife and kids, my siblings and parents, extended family). I’m thankful for this more than anything else. I’m happy that my brother in-law will be visiting us with his family for the holidays. This makes my kids really excited to see their cousin!!!

I’m so thankful that we were able to bring my uncle to the hospital to get the help he needs. Hoping he gets out on time for Christmas.

And now for the things I normally take for granted but really shouldn’t: It’s getting cold outside! I’m thankful for having a roof over my head and heat. I’m grateful for being able to park my car indoors at home and at work. This is huge! I’m thankful for having clothes and a jacket to keep me warm.

Till next time.

I met up with a bunch of ex colleagues last night. Couldn’t help but think how lucky I am for having gotten a chance to work and know these wonderful people!

I’m also grateful that my boss is being so nice to me again. I love it! It motivates me to work hard.

Have a great day everyone!