Cam Taylor

Be inspired. Be focused. Be tenacious.

Resilience – GIYC part 6

Resilience comes from an old Latin word meaning “to spring back” or “rebound.” Resilience is also the “ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like; buoyancy.” Birds need resilience in the form of grit in their craw if they hope to digest the food they eat. You need GIYC* (grit in your […]

Flexibility – GIYC part 4

Flexibility is a requirement for survival. ― Roger Von Oech Without flexibility, we can’t digest the tough assignments life sends our way. This quality is one of the eight gritty qualities needed to survive in life (as described by Robert Luckadoo*). The other seven are: diligence, tenacity, optimism, discipline, resilience, confidence, and purpose. The case […]

Optimism – GIYC part 3

The third quality you need to have GIYC (grit in your craw), is optimism. Without it, you give up more easily, are difficult to be around, and miss out on all that life has to offer. This is the third quality of the eight required to digest the tough stuff life throws at us. The […]

Tenacity – GIYC part 2

Without GIYC (grit in your craw), you are unable to digest life’s challenges. With GIYC, you rise every time you fall, keep going when tempted to quit, and maintain hope when circumstances overwhelm. In this post, we look at GIYC quality #2 — tenacity. The eight qualities (as described by Robert Luckadoo*) are diligence, tenacity, […]

Diligence – GIYC part 1

Since birds have no teeth, they need a way to digest their food which is why they have a “craw” or gizzard in their throat. They fill it with grit – small stones, grain and sand which serves to grind up food before it reaches the stomach. In life, we need grit in our craw […]

How to Maintain Optimism in a Dream Crushing World

An experiment conducted in 1967 resulted in a fascinating discovery. The experiment placed five monkeys in a cage with a bunch of bananas hanging high out of reach. Up against the wall, however, was a ladder could be used to climb up and reach the bananas. It didn’t take long for the monkeys to spot […]

Five Steps Through Failure

  “Failure is universal. It’s part of the human experience. It’s important to learn how to fail because the only way to achieve anything is to risk failing” (David H. Sandler). In order to get any where in life, you must learn to deal effectively with failure. Whether you are forming a new relationship, starting […]

No More Coffins

The future you see dictates the actions you take. The movie, The Best of Men, is the true story of German-Jewish neurologist Ludwig Guttmann and his work as the director of the Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. He immigrated to England in 1944 and brought with him a whole new way of seeing […]

The Power of Seeing “Old” as an Opportunity

This week, I saw age from a new perspective. I gained this new perspective when I watched a TED Talk entitled “It’s not too late to make a difference” by Jonathan Sackner-Bernstein. If you have 18 minutes to watch it, it’s worth the view. A Life Lesson As I get older and carry with me […]

Turning So-so into Say-so

The right words spoken to ourselves, over a period of time, can have a serious impact on our lives. It’s easy to grow bitter and withdraw from our dreams when we’re handed a lemon to suck on. If we allow those lemons to define us, we end up living a so-so existence. What I’m coming […]