The Angus Mindset

Effective Leadership

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I have had a lot of life experience in leadership roles.

My first experience was in Army Cadets from 2006-2012. Also, I have been a ball hockey player and captain for many years. I started hockey in 2011 and still play to this day.

Currently I’m a peer support worker in the mental health field. Leadership is something I have been able to practice for many years.

In cadets I learned the importance of leading by example. I was the Sergeant Major of my unit in 2012, and was also a staff cadet in the summers of 2011 and 2012.

The most important thing to do as a leader is walk the walk.

As a ball hockey captain, I took pride in leading a hard working and physical team that would compete in both regular season and playoffs.

The reason I was a successful captain wasn’t because of goals or assists. It was because I could lead the charge with my intensity and work ethic. I had teammates that were better at putting points on the board. I had other teammates that would grind and play hard minutes.

My best moment as a captain was leading my 8th place Ottawa Knights to an upset over the 1st place team. I knew the opponent was expecting to win the cup.

We squeaked into the playoffs and I instilled confidence in my teammates. We won the game 9-7 because we outworked the opponent. I have always played hockey with intensity and commitment to defense.

In cadets I demonstrated dedication and was almost perfect with attendance. This showed the other cadets the importance of dedication. I strived to lead by example. I didn’t have to talk much to gain the respect of the cadets around me.

Leadership is about example above all else.

You also have to have the empathy to understand the people you are leading. Asking them what their goals are and working with their self-interest is also key. Effective leaders are able to put themselves in the shoes of the people they are leading. Leadership requires you to understand people.

Your vision for the people under your leadership needs to have something in common with their vision. Rallying a team around a common goal or goals is a huge part of getting buy in from your people.

Fear based leadership is going to get buy in as well, but for the wrong reasons. If your people can’t talk to you openly and share their points you won’t get the most out of them. Coaches in hockey can often be hard nosed but they have a much shorter shelf life than a players coach would.

To sum it up, your example matters above all else. You don’t have to say much if you set a good example. Empathy is also a major part of effective leadership.

To your success,

Angus

The Power of Polarity

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I have considered the power of polarity for a number of years now.

The concept was shown to me when I read Steve Pavlina’s blog many years ago. The concept talks about using energetic flow in a polarized direction by deciding to become 100% dedicated to service to self or service to others. But not both at the same time.

There are two polarities, light-working or dark-working.

Light-working is the idea that you dedicate your life to serving the greater good.

Dark-working is the idea that you dedicate your life to serving yourself.

Most people are somewhere in the middle, and this is why they have mixed results.

The common person hasn’t made a decision to be a light-worker or a dark-worker.

When you choose one polarity, your motivation will skyrocket.

You’ll become a more congruent person. Your intentions may be the same either way, but your energy will flow better because a polarized person has one direction of energetic flow. The flow is either love energy (giving) or fear energy (taking).

Choosing the light-worker path means that your life now becomes about service to others.

Your mission is to make the greater good better off.

I have leaned more towards the light-worker polarity. The goal of serving all helped me become a better Army Cadet because my efforts were about making my unit better off.

I still wanted individual success, but this was for the purpose of being able to make a larger contribution.

Light-working doesn’t mean you neglect yourself, in fact you have to take care of yourself more so you have more to give.

Consider that you have to be more selfish to make a larger contribution to humanity.

More money allows you to be more generous. It also allows you to reward yourself for the contributions you make to humanity.

Dark-workers will also eventually know that the best way to serve self-interest is to be service oriented.

To have money and success it takes contribution to the market.

A dark-worker may have an easier time using marketing to manipulate potential customers. The light-worker may feel like it eats away at their conscience to practice marketing.

The work here in business is about integration, if you truly create a great product that helps others, you’ll want to do marketing.

The thing that held me back with marketing was the idea that I didn’t want to be too intrusive.

As someone who’s beginning to embrace light-working I have to consider that my efforts to market are still benefitting others. So I would actually be screwing people over if I didn’t make efforts to market.

Being a dark-worker would be all about personal gain. A dark-worker would actually try to extract as much profit as possible from a business. The light-worker would be focused on service.

The real work is to polarize, but to use the opposite polarity when it makes sense to do so.

The work of integration between service to self and service to others is a part of this process.

The dark-worker learns to think about the greater good to get more success. The light-worker thinks about how to get fair value for their contributions.

If I want to make more money so I can ultimately be more generous, this is a good reason to be selfish and selfless at the same time.

Using polarity to think about the good of all means that you yourself are part of the greater good. Also worth noting that a dark-worker can make a greater contribution to mankind because they are fulfilling a greater role in the game of life.

Choosing a polarity is something that will occur gradually.

You might be drawn to being a Jedi or a Sith.

When you take the light-working polarity to the extreme, it will seem like you are self-sacrificing.

Only at lower levels of consciousness will it feel like a difficult decision.

At lower levels of consciousness you are wrestling between your self-interest, and your conscience. At higher levels of consciousness you will be able to see that each polarity is actually two sides of the same coin.

As you have a higher level of consciousness, you’ll find your actions would be similar regardless of what polarity you picked.

Contribution requires selfishness, and meeting your self-interest requires contribution.

So being a highly conscious dark-worker won’t make you evil. It will allow you more freedom from your conscience to execute positive decisions for yourself. A light-worker will be able to focus on themselves so they have more to give.

The reasons for your actions will have a great difference if you choose to pick a polarity of service to self or service to others.

You will find your actions may be the exact same regardless of why they motivate you.

Motivation will be endless if you decide to pick one polarity.

I’m not polarized yet but I’m leaning more into the polarity of contribution and I’m also able to now practice the more selfish aspect of light-work which is allowing yourself to get value for the value I’m giving.

To your success,

Angus

The Flow of Manifestation

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You are always moving towards your true desires.

I began to understand the law of attraction at a conscious level when I was in 11th grade back in 2011.

My motivation in learning the law of attraction was to get my high school crush to love me back. I didn’t know how the law of attraction truly worked back then.

I knew that reality is going to render opportunity and also work with you to fully help you manifest what you want.

In 2006 I was using the law of attraction without actually knowing how it worked. I was a natural with the LOA.

Back in October 2006 I was in 7th grade and a private in the Army Cadet program. My mom began to tell me that my thought creates my reality. She had recently heard of the book called “The Secret.”

I was very inspired in my Army Cadet career. I didn’t know that my level of inspiration was actually moving me towards my desires. I had some desires at the time, my first being about being the best Army Cadet in Canada. The other being about helping my cadet unit be the best unit in Canada. I was very proud of my success in cadets and strived to be an MVP calibre cadet by helping those in my unit become better.

In 2004 my Dad passed away suddenly. I also look back in this time of my life as one where the universe was communicating with me. I was having a conversation with my Dad about 4 weeks before he passed away. We were talking about not taking life for granted. He told me that anyone can pass away without warning and I began to wonder if he would go out that way. I had a deep feeling that his passing was imminent.

Later on that May he passed away suddenly.

Part of my motivation for joining cadets was to make him proud. On Feb 11th 2006, I went to my first NHL game. I didn’t actually love hockey at this point in time. But it’s a day I always remember because only 2 years later I would become obsessed with the NHL and a die hard Ottawa Senators fan.

Back to the law of attraction.

The first part of manifestation is being clear about what your soul really wants. This comes down to feelings, not physical objects.

I wanted the joy of winning. As a competitive soul, I always wanted to come out on top. In cadets I wanted to be the most excellent cadet in my unit, but also to have the best possible unit.

I wanted to become the Sergeant Major before the end of my career to help my unit while leading by example. Using my leadership and rank to influence my cadets for the better.

In 2006-2007, I was promoted to corporal after setting the intention to get my promotion in Dec 2006 ahead of most of my peers. I earned the promotion by being on my shooting team and drill team. I also knew my dedication to excellence would be the reason for this success. Sure enough my intent manifested because I had a very strong desire to be a success.

In class when I was in grade 7 I would actually draw pictures of myself in uniform as the Sergeant Major. I would have a chance to get this position in 2011 or 2012.

In 2008, I was a die hard Sens fan and wanted to attend NHL games. My Mom’s boyfriend would take me to 20 Sens games per year. I was able to manifest this desire because of how badly I wanted it. I also didn’t enjoy school that much, and my Mom was able to put me in a private school to allow me to excel in cadets.

I was able to accomplish a lot of my success in cadets because I had a couple of unfair advantages. But I took full advantage. It’s amazing what the universe will do to manifest your soul desires.

My soul desire to be a great cadet and attend hockey games had a common theme. I wanted the feeling of winning, and winning as a team.

I strived to be the best individual and team player I could possibly be.

My future self had plans for me, and the law of attraction can sometimes work backwards in time. You can have a destiny to be in a certain position in your future, and your future self can influence your current self to allow you to manifest the life of your dreams.

You want to have a sense of trust that life has big plans for you.

I have always had trust in the universe.

My imagination was a preview of life’s coming attractions.

Everywhere I went as a leader, I was dedicated to helping those around me. I personify leading by example, and in Cadets I was respected long before I was able to recognize how much respect I had.

In 2011 I was going for a promotion to Chief Warrant Officer, and one of my friends got the rank ahead of me. My defining moment in Cadets was how I responded to this. I knew the following year I was going to get the promotion, so I did my very best as the senior Master Warrant Officer. I embraced the role I had and strived to show my peers the value of loyalty to the unit and not giving up.

I ended up realizing my dream on June 3rd 2012. I was promoted to Chief.

At this time I was also appointed the Drill Sergeant at Connaught Ranges. I met one of my best friends that summer. We talked to each other lots about the law of attraction. We knew each-others language. To this day I see him from time to time, and we always have great conversations.

That summer he was a company sergeant major, and I was the second in command of the entire camp.

The day before I was appointed Drill Sergeant, the base RSM had a conversation with me saying “there’s no doubt in my mind you can do this job” he left the conversation at 11:11PM and the next day I was appointed DSM of the camp.

The law of attraction can work in any direction of time.

In 2013 I was arrested as I got in trouble while having a manic episode.

At the time I didn’t fully know God had a plan for me.

I was found Not Criminally Responsible on the charge.

At the hospital I was getting help from I would eventually become the peer support worker in the same program I was in. I got hired for the position in 2022.

The life I have now is way better than if I was the one who scripted it.

Sometimes the universe has a plan.

I wouldn’t have been able to script my own life as well as the universe did.

Throw a lot of ball hockey in the mix and I get to play the game I love at the highest level in Ottawa.

You don’t always get what you think you want.

Drop socially conditioned desires and hone in on the true feelings you want to experience in your life.

Success, inspiration, triumph, winning, helping other people.

There’s no limit to how much you can create in life, and your life will be made of moments, not things.

Ask for a life with rich moments. A movie is made great for the moments, and you will have your moments.

To your success,

Angus

The “Why Not Me?” Mindset

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The truth is you are so much closer to success than you think. To be successful I understand that even average Angus is able to make an impact.

When I started coaching in 2018 my mindset was “Why not me?”

When I was in Army Cadets in 2006 my mindset was “Why not me?”

Success is not even a big deal. Do you think a million dollars is a big deal?

For most people it seems so far out of reach.

But what if I told you that you can do it faster and more easily than you think.

The reality is the extra mile is not crowded.

If you want to help other people but you feel underqualified, ask yourself if you are putting too many false prerequisites ahead of your own success.

Most people don’t succeed because they don’t even get started. The fear of not being good enough gets in the way when people are trying to get started.

You must think, “Why not me?”

You have what it takes. Use your life experience to frame yourself as an expert in the domain you have experience with. Lived experience is exceedingly valuable. I became a peer worker in mental health because I was able to share lived experience that benefits others.

I do speaking engagements because my words have power. I want you to believe that your story has power.

Once you have one success, congrats because you now have something you can repeat. Everything to do with large numbers is based off of one success. Then it becomes a matter of repetition.

Everything is won by playing the long game and being consistent enough to double down fully on your first success.

If you are on a range and you hit one target, you are capable of hitting all the targets.

In cadets I always had a “Why not me?” mindset towards my wins. I was the captain of my marksmanship team, the drill sergeant major at a summer camp, and eventually the Chief in my unit.

All of this came from the attitude that I’m good enough. Even while I was experiencing trials and tribulations in life, I decided it was God’s way of grooming me for a greater purpose. I always knew I had what it took to be successful.

The reality is you can be an authority today because all people of authority are self-appointed.

The fast lane and the extra mile is not a crowded place.

The world needs so much help right now, and you are more than qualified to start helping people today. I started this blog with a “Why not me?” mindset.

A million dollars? Why not me?

Success? Why not me?

The best possible girlfriend? Why not me?

You need to decide that you are the real deal.

At the start people will doubt you and tell you why your plan won’t work. They will have no reference to tell you why it won’t work.

In the beginning you need to have the conviction that you can have success.

Most people in the marketplace are consumers, so being a producer rather than a consumer is going to help you have a massive edge.

You can start helping others today.

Write a script as to how you will help others succeed. Refine it, have your first success, and then double down.

Once a winner, always a winner.

To your success,

Angus

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The Relationship Between Luck and Meditation

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I have been exceedingly lucky in my life. When I think the chips are down and everything is going to fall apart, there’s always something to bail me out. Alanis Morrisette in her song “ironic” says that life has a funny funny way of helping you out.

I remember in early 2018, I was doing hour long meditations for multiple days in a row. This put me in a flow state and the universe was basically giving me everything I wanted. I had 200 dollars to my name but I was in a peaceful state. In the car with my friend we were laughing our way to the casino, but it was as if we were laughing to the bank like we actually won. I hadn’t set foot in the building for a good 3 months before we finally went. I didn’t just go in thinking or believing I would win, I knew I would win. With the meditation I was doing, I was going longer than ever before. I really pushed myself to make the meditations as long as possible. I would leave the meditation feeling relaxed and optimistic.

When we got to the casino I gave my friend 100 of the 200 to try and win with. We made some money on slots early on, then went to war. The dealer would continuously flip 3’s and 2’s and the whole table was winning. Eventually we had about 700 in front us, I took the 700 to cash out and took my 200 back then split all the profits. We went to pick someone else up and came back for more at the casino. I declared my intent to leave that night with $1200.

Because I had all this good karma built up, I felt I was redeeming my good karma that I got in part from the meditation. I expected to win, so I put a hundred dollar bet on three different bets. I won all three of them and with the 600 in front of me, I eventually left the casino that night with almost 3000 dollars. My friend who got in the game because I gave him 100 left with about 1200 dollars. He went to work the next day and bought his coworkers lunch in exchange for them having to do all the work.

The relationship with meditation and luck is simple. Luck is a result of having a connection to your space. Positive assumptions and certainties are going to make you luckier. You also have more courage in this state and gamblers would win more by using larger bets. Meditation connects you with the present moment and allows you to get more positive energy. Meditation also clears up your mind and makes your intuition sharper. Doing an hour a day of meditation will allow you to be more at one with the present moment.

To your success,

Angus