Author Archives: smcgrath

Working hard doesn’t mean you’re doing hard work. It doesn’t even mean you’re doing good or smart work. It just means you’re extending a lot of energy and a lot of time towards the completion of some task. Sometimes productive. … Continue reading →

From a screened-in porch attached to a très charmant cottage on a lake in the Laurentians, it’s very difficult to think about work of any kind but Labour Day must be about something more than a last kick at the … Continue reading →

I love August. Everyone gets up a little bit earlier, stays out a little bit later and generally does their best to make the most of the summer before September hits. But I also love September. People start looking at … Continue reading →

When I tell people I spend my summers working at summer camps their reactions are fairly predictable. If they’ve never been to camp, they don’t get it. Why would anyone send their kids away for the summer? For them, it’s … Continue reading →

I once read that we teach best what we most need to learn. I had no idea how true these words were until I sat down to write about the next steps in my own career trajectory. For the past … Continue reading →

Sometimes in life we’re faced with situations that cause discomfort, sometimes even pain. There are many ways of facing these and without knowing the context I can’t pretend to know what the appropriate response might be. I can tell you … Continue reading →

Purim is a Jewish holiday during which we celebrate the story found in the Book of Esther. It’s a story fraught with meaning but the central plot line follows two characters (Mordechai and Esther) who uncover a plot by a … Continue reading →

On Friday I had the privilege of delivering a workshop to a dedicated group of camping professionals at the Ontario Camping Association’s Annual Conference. The theme of the conference this year was Live-Lead-Learn – an amazing linguistic triptych whose image … Continue reading →

Three weeks into January and the craziness of the end-of-year holidays is already no more than a back-story to the comfortable old routines and rhythm December interrupted. But aren’t we forgetting something? What about all those resolutions we made? Those … Continue reading →