When To Cry Uncle

It’s 1pm PT on Sunday, March 3 and I’m writing this post while on a BC Ferry sailing from Tsawwassen to Duke Point on Vancouver Island instead of being on a flight from Abbotsford to Toronto via Edmonton.

My 10am flight from Abbotsford was delayed due to weather in Edmonton and that meant that I couldn’t make the connection in Edmonton to Toronto. As an alternate, Laura and I did our best to try to get me a direct flight out of Vancouver to Toronto but all the seats were taken due to the same delays that we experienced.

My flight to Toronto was to include speaking at Pro-Seminars on Tuesday in Toronto and on Wednesday in Kitchener. Thank you to our friend Bob Gignac for agreeing to speak in my place and I am thankful that the audience at Pro-Seminars is going to be taking care of. I could’ve flown out on Monday instead but that would’ve meant canceling Monday’s appointments and speaking a day after flying which doesn’t really work for me because of jet lag .

The old Simon Reilly would have done whatever it took, even taking a redeye flight, but the new, new and improved Simon Reilly just does not want to create that much stress which could very well have been conveyed to the audiences and all would have been for naught. As my friend Kate said on Facebook, “It was time to cry uncle” and we surrendered to the fact that I was not going to be able to easily make the flight to Toronto.

The reason that I was flying from Abbotsford was because Laura and I attended my Chilliwack Senior Secondary School Reunion Dance on Saturday, March 2 which was the icing on the cake of taking eight days off starting, Saturday, February 23 with six nights in Ucluelet on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. The picture is off the Wild Pacific Trail in Ucluelet.

Laura and I used our retreat in Ucluelet which included plenty of walks and daily yoga classes to think about where we want to be in our personal and business lives in April of 2018, our birthday month, five years from now. While we are still reflecting on this question, here’s what we have come up with so far:

• Personal highlights include living in Victoria, BC, continuing our travels which will include trips to the British Virgin Islands, Ecuador, Europe and Hawaii, singing in the Vancouver Island Soul Choir, yoga practices and contributing to Compassion.

• Business highlights include publishing a new book called The Inspirational Tipping Point which will tie into our work to help business people create sustainable change. This in turn will attract coaching, speaking and workshop opportunities.