Bulletproof Your Finances Against Political Storms with Dwight Heck
Are you feeling overwhelmed by the constant barrage of political noise and economic uncertainty? In this eye-opening episode, I dive deep into the art of “election-proofing” your life in Canada. But don’t let the title fool you – these strategies are invaluable for anyone looking to create stability in an increasingly volatile world.
Financial Stability in Uncertain Times
- Creating an emergency fund that acts as your personal safety net
- Auditing your debt and developing a strategic payoff plan
- Budgeting with a buffer to absorb unexpected costs
- Diversifying your investments to minimize risk
- Smart tax planning strategies to keep more money in your pocket
Mastering Your Mindset
- Controlling the noise: How to stay informed without getting overwhelmed
- Strengthening your daily routines for mental clarity and emotional balance
- Clarifying your personal values to become unshakeable in your convictions
- Setting and celebrating short-term personal wins
- The importance of real, face-to-face conversations in a digital world
Throughout the episode, I emphasize the power of taking control of your own life, regardless of external circumstances. You’ll learn how to shift from reacting to responding, and how to live with intention and purpose.
“Your life doesn’t wait for elections to come or go. Your life is waiting for you to take charge.”
This conversation is packed with actionable advice for anyone feeling buffeted by the winds of change. Whether you’re concerned about upcoming elections, economic shifts, or simply want to build a more resilient life, you’ll find valuable insights to help you navigate uncertain times with confidence.
Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to create stability and peace of mind in a chaotic world. Tune in now and start giving a heck about election-proofing your life!
Apple Podcast Link:
Spotify Direct Link:
Links for other players are on the main podcast page or simply search for ‘Give A Heck’ on the podcast platform you utilize.
Connect with Dwight Heck
Website: https://giveaheck.com (Free Book Offer)
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/give.a.heck
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dwight.heck
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Giveaheck
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@giveaheck
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/dwight-raymond-heck-65a90150/
TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@giveaheck
X: https://x.com/give_a_heck
Chapter Summaries (Full Unedited Transcript follows):
00:00:02 – Introduction to Election-Proofing Your Life
I introduce the concept of election-proofing and explain why it’s crucial for personal stability in uncertain times.
00:02:34 – Financial Stability Strategies
Detailed discussion on creating an emergency fund, auditing debt, budgeting with buffers, and smart investment strategies.
00:31:14 – Mindset and Lifestyle Control
Exploration of techniques to manage information overload, strengthen daily routines, and clarify personal values for resilience.
00:54:50 – Taking Action and Moving Forward
Emphasis on the importance of personal responsibility and taking concrete steps towards a more stable and purposeful life.
01:09:41 – Closing Thoughts on Kindness and Personal Growth
Final reflections on the power of kindness and the potential for personal development in challenging times.
Full Unedited transcript of Episode:
[00:00:02 – 01:01:43]
Good day and welcome to Give a Heck. On today’s podcast I’m going to be discussing on a solo basis. No guests today on how to election proof your life in Canada. Right? There’s so many global tensions going on, national tensions and decisions that are going on locally in our country and then what can we do to personally control that? So I’ve been working on a checklist which for those that are listening or watching you can reach out to me and I will send you the checklist in a PDF format. And this is what the conversation is going to be about literally. I’ve got notes down here. I will be reading out some things that I’ve thoughts that I’ve, you know, come to realize that it’s something that we need to literally follow a pattern or a process to control what goes on within our six inches between our ears. When it regards to our daily life, our purposeful living, our intent to live purposefully takes work, takes effort and there’s specific things we need to worry about. So let’s talk tariffs, taxes and the ticking clock to Canada’s next election which is happening right at of April here. The US is ramping up trade pressure, tariffs are tightening around the globe and here at home we’ve got inflation, housing pressure and a major election. As I mentioned on the horizon, the tensions are not just political though, it’s very personal. So things can start out in our lives. Being political can be family politics. It doesn’t necessarily have to be your elected officials in politics, whether it’s municipal, provincial in Canada for you in the US that are listening and it would be the states, your US States. And then we also have our federal level. So there’s lots of personal feelings that come into play because for certain things Canadians or anybody in the world has a short term memory and other things we have a very long term memory and we remember little things about the last political party that was in power or the current political party, but we forget about the slimy people that were in power prior or prior to that. And what do I mean by that? I don’t care what you label a political party. They’re all the same. When I vote, I go through and I analyze, I look at information and then I basically vote the least slimiest. Isn’t that a terrible way to have to feel that way? And I know I’m not the only person that feels that way in Canada or or again my US friends listening. You feel the same way. I’ve had many conversations with people from Europe and around the world as well. Sad that we’re in this circumstance in our lives where we can’t completely trust any one political party or candidate that they put forward to be the president, the prime minister, whatever the case may be. Right, so let’s continue on. In this episode, I’m going to give you tools to election proof your finances may sound funny, but it’s something that you should be doing even without an election. But I figured that would be a great way to, you know, get people to call to action to do something. So election proof, your finances, your mindset and your lifestyle. So you don’t just survive this next government coming up, you, you thrive in your own world because at the end of the day, what happens outside of your home or your work or your business is controllable to a certain extent. But once you vote, you literally can continue to communicate. You can write your local members of government, you can voice your opinion and talk about it like they say the cows come home. But it won’t matter because once that person is elected, these parties give you initially what they talk about and then it’s just thrown out the window and they do whatever. Well, does it affect your local life? Absolutely, it does. But with courage and conviction and some planning, you literally can live a purposeful existence, a life with intent, so that the noise outside of your home again, or your career or business is minimized. You can’t get rid of it, but you can minimize it. So here’s some things we’ll go to. Why this checklist that I created matters or what we’re going to discuss. What’s really happening now? Well, between economic uncertainty, a shifting political climate in Canada and rising global tariffs, we’re standing in a pressure cooker right now. Like a crazy pressure cooker. One moment this tariff is put on, one moment this is removed. One retaliates more than the other and there’s a lot of hurt people on in the planet today. And this was all started by us presidential person that was voted in. President Trump and his party has literally caused so much dissension and anxiety. And, you know, it’s not fair, but it’s something we have to deal with. So what can you do? Well, what do you do, let’s say with something like groceries are up right now. Right. Housings that are reached for many, they can’t afford it. They’re saying generations after me are struggling to get into homes. So for millennials down, they’re struggling to get into homes. Parents are having to help them. Heck, even in my generation, parents have helped Their parents have helped us get into homes or make it down payment. Because life, depending on your circumstances can be very challenging financially, especially if you have a lot of kids like me, five kids, they’re all adults now. But you know, even one of my own daughters has four kids. It’s financially a pressure cooker for her all the time and she needs to ensure that she can survive just like we all do. You know, with, with groceries being up in cost. How do you, how do you fix that? We really can’t fix that except to cut back on, on things that are wants and only by the needs. And unfortunately those needs like meat, vegetables, fruit can be very expensive. So it can can take a juggling act which will involve budgeting, making lists of what is essential that you need so that you can stay healthy and continue to move forward. But we’ll talk more about budgeting in that in a moment. So their election proof checklist covers some of this stuff. It’s not rocket science, it’s just things to help you look at and make you have those aha moments. So it’s wow, I really do have to think about that. So I hope it helps you. You could take the election proof off of there and just call it a checklist for living intentful in your life to be able to defend against the things, the unknown things, the unseen things that haven’t even happened yet. To ensure that you’re living the best, most intentful and purposeful life. So really, let’s get into the financial stability part of the checklist. Money is emotional, right? But really, does money have a personality? Not really. Personality is developed by the person wielding that money. So the money has a personality. Good in the good hands of good people, evil in the hands of evil people. And then, you know, it could have a mixed personality. One moment somebody’s using it for good, and the next they’re using it for bad because they have an emotional roller coaster, a valley of despair one moment in their mindset and the next moment they’re really excited and their money wields that emotional portion of their life going up and down. So what really happens when you’re looking at protecting yourself through instability in the economy, the tariffs that are going on, grocery prices rising, everything rising really, from our utilities to our gas prices for our vehicles to vehicles, everything. So really, at the end of the day, to make sure there’s five core things that I’m going to talk about right now to recession and really election proof your life. Because at the end of the day, even if you’re listening to this. After the election, there’s another election coming along, whether it’s in your municipal or it’s your provincial or, or again, four years from now, another federal election. So let’s recession proof our lives. Let’s make it as, you know, comfortable for us to have that. Oh, my gosh, look what’s going on in the world. Look what’s going on in our country. Look what’s going on in our local city or our local community. Look what’s going on with my job. Look what’s going on. Right? All these things that we have to be aware of. But we can make it so that we are more bulletproof and less vulnerable to the decisions and changes that are going on around us. So, number one, emergency fund. Reality check. How many of us don’t, I mean, don’t have an emergency fund? And why? Well, I’m a prime example. When I was, you know, still a single dad of five young kids, raising them on my own, I had financial pressures, extreme financial pressures. I couldn’t afford even the basics of life. Some months, robbing Peter to pay Paul was an emergency fund at the top of my priority list. No. Did I know better that I needed it? Yes. But sometimes when you take your numbers, your financial numbers and you break them down, you do not have extra to put into an emergency fund. For those of you that believe you do, how do you ensure you do have enough for an emergency fund? Well, consider goal setting. And you got to take some budgeting into account, detailed budgeting, and you understand what needs and wants are and you put those numbers down. And amongst those, if your money is high enough and you’re not having what many Canadians or people in the States and around the world deal with, more month than money, more days in the month than the amount of money they have, and there’s no way they can put money into an emergency fund. I know I didn’t have the ability. It took me years to get to that point. But if you have that ability, let’s talk about you doing it right now, making that a priority within your budget. Aim for three to six months of core living expenses. What are, what are core living expenses, you ask? Well, your roof over your head, right? Whether you’re in a house, an apartment, a condo, a townhouse, or whatever the case may be, you have to pay that cost. Then you have utilities like power, maybe you have natural gas. You have to pay for water. You have to pay for, you know, even in our city, you got to pay for garbage collection, etcetera. Right. So those are all the reality of your core basic costs that you have to insure. Plus obviously you have to pay and have money for food amount, have money for the ability to put gas in your car to get to work, or let’s say you’re somebody that works at home. You still have to have money to pay for the extra utilities you’re using because now your utilities are being used throughout the day. You have to ensure you’re paying for good Internet connection. If you’re doing stuff like I do, where I do a lot of video calls. So there’s things that we need to worry about. This is something you really need to be sensitive about too. If your job’s in real estate, health care, education or public service, aim higher for your emergency fund to be like six months, right? Get to that goal. I’m not saying any of you have the ability just to dump money down and say, well, here’s three months here, six months. I’m saying take baby steps to do this. And it all starts again. You’re going to hear this word a lot about budgeting, understanding your inflows and outflows of money. What are my needs? What are my wants? What do I need to accomplish to stay ahead of the game in life? And one of those things you end up prioritizing once you have a budget where you can look at versus what your income is, is an emergency fund. Saving for your future is important and it needs to become a priority for all of us. Again, I understand there’s times in my life, as I was very honest with you, that I could not do it right. And even lately, with everything that’s going on, I don’t have extra to put into an emergency fund. I do have an emergency fund, but I haven’t been able to put money into it for a while. And I understand, but I always have it in the back of my mind that that is so important. So as soon as it gets to a point where my inflows are greater than my outflows and I can understand that, I can do it again, I will do it again. And it becomes first and foremost in my mindset before I budget for anything else in my life. And again, we can talk about this in detail how that works, just go to my website, giveaheck.com, go up and book a free no cost phone call with me, we’ll have a conversation. Next thing, edit your, you know, go in and not edit part of me, but audit your debt, check out your debt, don’t wait for the government to fix the affordability of your life. Right. Check to see what happens. What do you have for debt? Are you in a circumstance where that debt’s going to take you forever to pay off? Maybe you’re only making a minimum payment on your debt. In most circumstances, financial debt, whether it’s credit cards, lines of credit, loans from the bank, the minimum payment is not designed to pay off the debt at all. Or it may be designed to only pay off a little portion of it to give you that warm and fuzzy that, you know, you think that it’s getting paid off. Now, I’m not talking about mortgages. Mortgages are designed to pay the debt down. You do see an end result. I’m talking about personal debt. Again, the credit cards, the lines, the unsecured lines of credits, the loans that you have, you know, overdraft, anything like that. It is an anchor on your life. And again, how do you get out of debt? You’re saying, well, it’s almost impossible. I don’t want to go to these debt consolidation companies and get them to help me to work on things. And I don’t blame you. I’ve helped my clients. Now, 22 years in the business, we sit down, we go over their debt, we look at their detailed budget, we understand their needs and their wants. They understand that maybe on their goal setting, they will go back to it. Maybe they want an emergency fund. We go through all their numbers, and it is just impossible. They can’t fathom being able to do that. Well, again, it all goes back to understanding the rules of the money game is involved. Number one, understanding your inflow and outflow of cash. What can I do? What can I afford? What can I achieve right now in my life? But getting out of debt is important because most consumers that are in debt will pay off that debt for the rest of their lives. And you’ll think to yourself, well, why is that? Well, maybe you’re this person I’m talking about. Maybe you’re a person that’s about to slip into this. You pay a little bit of your debt off, things happen. Grocery prices go up, utilities go up. Maybe there’s a family emergency, something breaks down, and you take some of that money and you utilize it for other things. And you don’t have that money. Oh, goodness, I got no emergency funds, so I got to put it on a credit card line of credit going to my overdraft, whatever the case may be. So you think you get in the head initially, but then you go backwards. Right. So your debt is really hard to pay off because you get it down few hundred, few thousand, then all of a sudden you need that because of emergency. Right. So how do you deal with that? Well, again, structured numbers, understanding what’s going on, understanding how important it is to pay off your debt. And your debt can fall into many different categories. As we talked about credit cards, loans, lines of credit, overdraft, the list goes on. And you, you add those numbers up and it needs to go within your budget structure so you can pay that debt down. Because if you understand compounding interest, your credit card, even though they don’t exist at 18% unless you’re somebody that has a lot of financial power to get it that low. Most credit cards are 28 to 32% in Canada. And I believe they are the same in the US and many other places. So if you think about a credit card being 18%, that interest continues to compound and accumulate. Let’s say you’re making the minimum payment on a credit card. They definitely are not designed to pay down debt. They’re meant to just service it enough so that they’ll allow you to continue to hold it. And the only one winning the money game of the credit card is the credit card companies. And if you owe a lot, it’s something that you need to make a need and focus on getting rid of when the timing is right. I’m not saying all this can happen right away. It does take effort. So we need to audit your debt, look at variable rates on your debt. Is there ability to lock in credit card creeping up? As we mentioned, Maybe you have $20,000 in an account, investment account, bank account, it’s making 6, 8%. Yet you owe 20,000 on your credit card and you’re paying 28%. What would be a good decision to make? Well, having that feel good, 20,000 in an investment or a savings account will not offset the grief or the pain of looking at that debt, accumulating interest constantly. So in certain circumstances, I’ll recommend my clients take that 20,000 making 6, 6 to 8%, put it against the debt that’s being charged at 28% because you’re never going to get ahead. So there’s simple little strategies that we can utilize and, and understand how to get out of making other people rich. And that’s what you’re doing with a credit card company, right? You’re making them rich or a bank with loans and, you know, personal lines of credit. The list goes on. Again, way more details than we’ll get into today. Go to my Website, book a call, let’s chat or even email me and get a hold of me that way and we can communicate. So, you know, let’s, let’s figure it out. Let’s work together. So we talk about that was auditing your debt. Step two, number three is budget with buffer zone. So while you’re thinking to yourself, how do I have a buffer zone? Well, you put a little buffer zone on your debt. It’s talked about being cash, right? That can be a savings, your emergency fund or whatever. But it needs to be realized that, okay, this month I’ve allotted, let’s say, $800 for groceries. Well, we also know what’s, what’s going on because of trade discrepancies and trade imbalances and tariffs now that certain things are going up. Well, if you budgeted for, let’s say 800 and now everything’s gone up, 3, 4% may not sound like a lot, but 3, 4% still affects your budget. It’s taken, let’s say, 4% and it’s $800. That $32 more you’re paying. Do you have that in your budget? A lot of people don’t. You just end up being stuck at a negative on the month because you budgeted for specific money but didn’t have any form of buffer zone. Again, the things I’m talking about are not possible for everybody. These are things that you can aspire to get to so that you can have a buffer zone. But what you really need is a financial lifestyle coach that can help you through this. And that’s one of the things I specialize in doing. I can help anybody in the world that I that obviously we have to speak English. Unless you have access to an interpreter, we can work together to help you. I may not be able to help you with specific products that are specific to your country or area you live in, but I can help you, though, through the rules in a money game, Understanding, goal setting, budgeting, and implementation of your money that you have. And you can look for the investment products or debt consolidation products in your area, and we can discuss it. I can help you through it. Power the Internet. I can be on phone calls with you. I can help you. You, you know, utilize and hire me for my services. I can help you. It’s just a matter of taking that first baby step, reaching out, having a conversation at no cost to you to see what we can do, how I can help you, how I can teach you and educate you to help yourself. So budget with a buffer zone can be Difficult, but sometimes you need to do it. Maybe cut out entertainment for a couple months. Yeah, it’s gonna suck. You gotta can’t go out to movies and maybe a supper or dinner part of me. But maybe you can just, you know, stay at home, make a meal on the, on the cheap, have some snacks in the cheap, watch a movie, right? There’s so many good movies. Yes, we all want to go out, but sometimes we have to sacrifice when we have the needs greater than that. So next thing is diversify your investments. Well, this isn’t time to make political moves with your money. What do I mean by that? Make sure you’re invested across sectors. What are sectors? While oil and gas is a sector, consumables are like for construction industry and stuff like that. That is an actual consumable product that is affected. Right. And we have lots of different sectors. You have energy, we talked about energy and gas. I mentioned you also have the electronics sector, right? Technology sector. There’s so many different sectors to be diversified in. Why is that important? Because, one moment, let’s say it’s. You have, we’ll use Coke, sugar cane. They use sugar cane, Coke and where they get most of their sugar cane gets wiped out because of a, of a storm. And literally, literally, that is a product that is required by Coke to make it so the prices of Coke could go up, right? Can happen. And at the end of the day, if you’re heavily invested in it, it’s going to bring your investment down. Thus how much money you have. If you’re invested in technology and Microsoft developed something new or Apple or Google, you know, with the Android and stuff, all of a sudden your stock goes up, right? So maybe it compensates for the down that you just had when it comes to sugar cane in a consumable category. So you know, there’s different things. So you want to be diversified, you don’t want to be invested all in the same thing because you never know what can happen. And now a tariff set adds a whole new level of, of uncertainty. You could take out even the storm and taking out sugar cane and just say that where they buy the consumable product from, um, the government has set a tariff on it that’s made it so high that it’s going to affect the sales of that product, thus driving the investment value down, thus your investment into the product. So diversification is good, but don’t rush to be too crazy about it. Talk with a professional about what it is that you’re invested in. What are your alternatives? With all the noise that’s going on around the world, your local country and you know, at the end of the day, staying invested outside of Canada is okay. Right. But to a certain percentage, again, talk to a financial professional about that. I have things that I utilize with my clients that keep the US exposure and other countries exposure low. Even before all the crazy has been going on here in the last few months in regards to government changes in the United States and tariffs and now our election coming up, there is things that you can utilize and do that when this stuff comes up. You’re already diversified in a, in a way where you’re, you know, lowering your risk. Again, every person has different risk profile. It’s something I go through with people to find out what your risk tolerance and profile is as well, so. But elections create volatility. Election decisions after the fact that what they promise can either go one way or the other. Very seldom do they go long term where it’s for the people. Usually it’s, it’s for the wealthy. And I know if you’re a wealthy person listening to this, that might sting, but it’s the truth. Politicians are always trying to do what’s best for corporations and the wealthy because they’re the ones that help fund their, their party to run, to get reelected and so many other different things. The list goes on. Again, I’m not against people having money at all. I’m against the middle class to poor consumer. Whether you’re Canadian, American, European, doesn’t matter where you come from. I want you to succeed and live an intentful, purposeful life and hopefully we can do that for you or you can do it for yourself with whoever. So at the end of the day, start tax planning. Now. What do I mean by that? Well, in Canada you have different vehicles that you can control and how you can invest your money and how it’ll affect you immediately tax wise, how it’ll affect you into retirement, tax wise and yes, even estate planning. Right. So that you pass with dignity and that what you worked hard for can flow down to your beneficiaries, your loved ones or whoever you’re wanting to leave your money to in a tax efficient way. Because who really wants to give more of what you worked hard for when you pass to the government or even in retirement, even today. Right. Let’s limit how much tax we pay. Let’s do some tax efficiency with our investments again in Canada we focus on RSPs, TFSAs, non registered investments. And then there’s FHSA, which is the new first home savings account, which is really powerful for those that are in the us I do understand your products and services and I can discuss them with them, help you with understanding them and implementation within your plan, but I cannot help you at the end of the day utilize or do that product. It’s the same for all the rest of the countries as well. I’m only licensed in a couple places in in Canada that are close to me, British Columbia and Alberta. But again that is for the actual product or service at the end of all the planning stage, all the focusing on planning and getting you to understand your numbers, your goals and helping you understand how to implement them and then continuing to move forward. So obviously if you’re self employed or you’re somebody that has a side income or a side hustle, track your expenses in detail, right? Understand how new policies can complicate your write offs as a business owner or self employed. Make sure you’re keeping up to date on what is potentially already been in place. Don’t always trust your accountant. I’m not here to cut down accountants, but I’ve had accountants in my life where I knew more about things that were changing within the tax system than they did. Why? Because again, I’ve done podcasts on this before. Not all professionals stay up to date on stuff. It’s your life, take responsibility, put in a little effort. Maybe like if you go get a second opinion and there’s so much information on the Internet nowadays, it’s not hard to find out what is continuing to change. There’s many different companies that when budgets drop on a municipal, provincial, federal or you know, again us. Every time I say provincial, just think you’re whatever state you live in. You can literally there’s people that write breakdowns and they put it in bullet form or they’ll put it in little abbreviated, you know, little explanations as to how this is going to affect you and they come out all the time, do not always trust professionals. I mean professionals of all type, even myself. Go and check the information, go verify it. So segment the la the next segment we’re going to talk about is mindset and lifestyle control. Well, you’re thinking to yourself, well what does that have to do with being election proof or being, you know, just life changing proof where you can be stable in a volatile world that can change on the flip of a dime, can change from today to tomorrow. Have you been following the news? Have you been listening to anything? Look at all the things that have changed financially in the world, the global economy, just in a matter of the last 30 to 60 days. Again, back to the tariffs. It affects everybody and it’s affecting a lot of people, especially those that don’t have any planning in place. Are you tired of being that person that doesn’t, or are you that person that thought you were, but really you’re not? Do you want to make your, your life better? Most of us do, but we just don’t know where to turn and where to start. And I’m here to tell you I can help you. Again, tons of professionals can do the same thing, but I’m the guy telling you that I’m here to help you in any way, shape or form. All you have to do is give yourself and me the opportunity to have a conversation. So let’s shift gears from dollars to direction of what we’re going to work on in regards to your mindset and controlling your lifestyle. Your mindset’s half the battle, let’s be real. Here’s how to stay grounded while the political storms around you can continue to brew. And again, political storms aren’t always on a government basis. We have political storms at our careers, our jobs, within our business, and how do we deflect? There’s always politics in everything we deal with in life. Even our kids going to school. There’s politics between different kids, the parents, the administration, the list goes on. So let’s talk about what can we do to work on our mindset, our lifestyle, and control it and you know, keep out as much noise as we can. Well, step one, just mention it. Control the noise. Pick two trusted Canadian sources that you trust that aren’t owned by the same people and utilize their services. I’m not saying becoming that news junkie. I can’t, I can’t stand that when I talk to people that all they are is people that watch news morning, noon, night, and before they go to bed. They’re constantly engaged in the news media. They’re always watching and listening to same people. They don’t get any varying opinions or knowledge. Pick a couple news sources, utilize it, find out some information. But do not climb down the rabbit hole. Life is too short to always listen to all that doom and gloom that the the news media outlets, even social media project at us and just pick a couple sources and that maybe not necessarily always contradict one another, but they support one another, owned by different media sources, different writers, whatever. And outside of that, you can also Google or use other services to ask for the alternate alternate of what you currently believe or read just so that you can open your mind up to different choices and different opportunities and education. So. And set time limits. Social media especially set time limits. I go on a social media, I utilize it to share some things for family, to see a pictures. I put stuff up about my podcast, I’ll put up stuff about financial things, but I leave. I don’t sit there and scroll for hours at a time. The most amount of time I spend on social media or the Internet is evolving sports right now because I’m a hockey fan and our team is in the playoffs and I love hockey. Right, you love whatever. That’s what I search for. But I’m not searching for the doom and gloom or the people cutting down. You know, others are being keyboard warriors which have done podcasts about as well. Keyboard warriors, if you’re one of them, be nice. You can communicate on social media or messaging or whatever, but you don’t need to attack one another. Try to look at the other person’s point of view and agree to disagree and walk away when it gets too tense. So again, plus, don’t let social media algorithms. That’s one thing I really did want to bring up. If you are somebody that searches all the time, you’re in Canada or the U.S. or wherever you are, and you’re always searching for things that involve the conservatives or the Liberals or the NDP in Canada or you’re in the U.S. and it’s Republican, Democrat, those algorithms are literally going to hijack you. They’ll only show you what you have been reading and that’s all you’ll see on your feed. They’re not going to show you alternative opinions, alternative thought processes or knowledge. They’re going to continue to feed you the same thing. If you’re searching up angry stuff, it’s going to be angry stuff. If you’re searching up sports and specific teams that you like or don’t like, that’s all you’re going to see. If it’s about politics and you’re, you’re focusing on liking one party over the other, that’s all you’re going to see. If you’re focusing on one knowledge or idea base, same thing. Those algorithms are not designed to keep us well educated. They’re designed to keep you on social media and continue to feed the emotional machine that we are and continue to fire us up, not calm us down, not keep us, you know, very balanced in education. They’re, they’re designed just to keep us fired up. And then you have people that’ll comment in your stuff again, those keyboard warriors, and they can be some of your Closest family and relatives, they’ll do the same thing. They’ll post their stuff. Well, what about this and what about that? And most of it’s not educated. Most of it’s just, you know, been learned, behavior taught for them from their parents. And they still follow the same thing, or their friends or workers or the community they hang out with. And they literally aren’t open to being educated. They’re just open to throwing mud. Avoid that stuff. If possible, tell that person, you know what, I don’t want to do this. We can communicate on a pleasant level and we can agree to disagree and walk away, but if you’re going to attack me or attack my opinion and views without some substantiated knowledge and evidence, we’re going to go our separate ways. That’s life, right? It is. It is life. So at the end of the day, there’s so many different things we have to. To worry about as well. You got to strengthen your daily routines, right? Your morning routine is more powerful than anything. I’m not talking morning news. I’m talking your morning routine. What do you do when you first wake up, your eyes open, you haven’t even got out of bed yet. Are you grateful for being alive? Are you grateful for having another day? If you’re Christian, like myself, right? As a Catholic Christian, I wake up and I thank God for allowing me to be alive, for giving me another day, another shot, another opportunity to be the best version of myself, to continue to grow, continue to serve and help others do the same, right? I’m grateful. I’m grateful that I have a bathroom to utilize. I’m grateful I had a bed to sleep in. I’m grateful I have a roof over my head. I’m grateful I have food in my fridge. I’m grateful I get to brush my teeth. It sounds corny. No, it doesn’t. It’s telling my brain that I am lucky. Some of it’s, I guess, isn’t luck. It’s earned. I’ve gotten. I’ve worked hard, but at the end of the day, I’m blessed. Well, take that word lucky out. I’m blessed to have all that I have. Blessed to have kids, grandkids, great grandkid. I’m blessed to have my mom and dad still alive. I’m blessed to have my siblings and everybody. We’re all relatively supportive and close to one another, and I’m blessed for that. I’m blessed that I have the opportunity to possibly see the sun rise, sunset, even the weather changes like snow. For us, that we get or, you know, rain or whatever. I’m blessed for all of that because there’s so many people in this world that can’t see past what they don’t understand. They don’t understand that that’s all things that they should be grateful for because they’re growing up in an entitled society that we live in in North America and around the world where we have all these expectations, expectations that we deserve all this stuff. So be grateful. That’s more powerful than anything. And just it doesn’t take long. I spend a couple minutes, get up, get ready, get on with my day, and you can do the same thing. Some people do other good morning routines besides just having gratitude and gratefulness for their lives. They do walks, they do journaling, they do breathing, they do meditation, they do Tai chi, they do so many different things. What’s in your wheelhouse to help you? And if you don’t have anything, do you need direction and focus as to what some of the things are that you could do that could help your life? There’s so many experts out there that can help you. Obviously you can have a conversation with me about it. I know in my practice, my clients do so many different things to help them between their six inches in their morning routine. And it helps them, it grounds them, it stabilizes them. Some people, it’s first thing in the morning, they’re going jogging or they’re going to the gym. They’re not going to the local donut shop and getting, you know, expensive fancy drink with a ton of sugar in it and eating a donut, they’re doing other things that know that’s going to feed their machine. They’re going to feed their mental mindset. They’re going to feed their physical body with good things that create positive endorphins, that create them to continue to move forward. And if you’re thinking to yourself, well, I’m one of those people that does what you just said that you shouldn’t do, you can change. I used to be that person a long, long time ago. I haven’t been that way in years. I don’t eat stuff like that. I don’t eat garbage in the morning. Most I have is a cup of coffee. And it ain’t no fancy coffee with all these syrups and sugars. It is something basic that I enjoy and I keep on with my day. And drink lots of water. That’s another thing you should do in your daily routine. Wake up in the morning, start out with drinking lots of water. We lose a lot of, of water content in our body while we sleep. People don’t realize that. So start off your day with drinking lots of water to hydrate yourself. It wakes us up because a lot of times when we’re tired, it isn’t just because we haven’t had a lot of sleep. It’s because we’re dehydrated. Did you know that? There’s so many more things I can share with you again, just reach out. Let’s book a call and have a conversation. So you know, number three in mindset and lifestyle control, when you’re clear on your values, you’re harder to shake. What does that mean? Well, if you understand your six inches between your ears, you know what your morals and your values and you have that compass, that internal compass, and you’re confident about your knowledge, you’re confident about what you stand for your can be, pardon me, you can be a person that’s completely unshakable. It’s really hard to knock you off your, you know, stability that you have in your life. You’re also a person, though, that when, you know, when people are challenging and you feel it against your moral compass, you become somebody with purpose and intent and personal development. You can develop a critical mindset, a critical thinking process so that when, you know people are trying to shake you, those keyboard warriors talking to you again on social media or texting or whatever, they don’t shake your resolve. Somebody face to face with you can challenge you. And, you know, which is even better. I prefer that because when we read things, we read it based on what’s going on at that moment in our six inches. And then we, we automatically think we know what that person was offering up or talking about and what their, you know, presence of mind was, which really, at the end of the day, it’s your presence of mind and what you’re going through that you’re reading. When you read stuff, some of it’s blatant. Obviously it is. It’s blatant as to what we’re being thrown at us. And, and you know, you don’t have to really think about what your mindset is because it’s so blatant what they’re saying. But when you’re face to face with somebody, you can be somebody like me that I’ve worked on my tonality, I’ve worked on observing other people’s tonality. Like part of me listening to it, I list, I watch for their body language. I literally want to understand where they’re coming from. Now, if they’re Already all tense and they’re telling you something that they, that they don’t like about you or like about society and you don’t even brought up that topic and it’s something that, you know, irritates you or you don’t agree with. Guess what? You don’t always have to respond. You can move forward. You can just go, well, whatever. This isn’t a time or place for us to get into a conversation. That person is irate, they’re upset. I know that. So we’re not going to talk about it. Well, then the next time they’re talking about stuff, you know, well, this kind of bothers me. And they’re really relaxed and calm and they’re obviously just wanting a conversation. Talk to them. Then things start getting heated. You can’t get to a level where it’s just level again and it’s heated. You just say, you know what, maybe this isn’t the greatest time for us to discuss this. Right. And walk away from that conversation, change the conversation, or physically get up and walk away and say, this just isn’t working for me. Protect you first and foremost in any form of conversation. But I do like face to face conversation because I have the ability to monitor and watch people. And at the end of the day, that is so important for us to be stable in our mindset so we’re harder to shake off our belief systems and what we stand for. So one of the things I know people do as well, they write down, they’ll spend 15 minutes, 10, 15 minutes in the day, first thing, or might be after they get their coffee and they sit down and they’ll write down, what are some of my three to five top values? What are my three to five top things I want to accomplish today? What are my three to five top things I want to accomplish this week, this month, this year? You don’t have to do that all at once either. You can just sit down and say, well, here’s three to five of my values that I believe in that I will not be swayed from. Or you know what? It’s okay to write down three to five things that you think you need to learn more about, be more open about, be more educated about. Right? And keep them visual. It could be a sticky note beside, you can be stuck to your. I’ve done it for years. I don’t do it as often as I used to. Stick them around the house where I’m going to see it and move them so that I don’t get vision deaf or vision blind. Pardon Me, not deaf. Where you don’t see things, how many of you have pictures around you? That’s what, that’s what vision blindness is. And you don’t see them anymore because they’re there, right? Same thing as a sticky note that you can have your values down there. You can write down things that you want to accomplish. This all involves goal setting too. Goal setting, so important for us to do in our lives. I have a chapter in my book just about that and using the smart principles. But I digress. We’re going to get back to this. And number four of mindset and lifestyle control. Set your 30 to 90 day personal wins. Right? Well, the country debates all these big changes in Canada or countries are debating all the big changes with tariffs and all that. How about you talk about your little personal wins? Maybe you’ve been struggling the last few days and you woke up today with a smile and gratefulness came, you know, really easy to you and you have a spring in your step. That is something to celebrate. Our society goes through so much of lack of celebration of success. They, they something good happens, whether it’s just small and they jump to the next thing and they don’t even, they acknowledge it in a, in a fleeting moment what they just experienced, what good went on within their own life, their family life, their work, their business, whatever the case may be, their career, something changed. They don’t celebrate because we’re a society that’s taught to go, go, go. You know what, like they say, stop, smell the roses. Celebrate those small little wins in your life no matter what’s going on around you in our world. Celebrate the things that you are in control of within your life. Right? Went to bed early, maybe didn’t watch as much tv, maybe went for your first, first walk, you hadn’t walked in a long time and went outside. Maybe it’s jogging, maybe it’s going to the gym, maybe it’s reading a book or listening to a book. Those little small things are all wins and I encourage you to celebrate them. So you know, at the end of the day, one of the things that I know myself I need to utilize and I talked a little bit about that, you know, the celebration of wind up walking. I don’t care who we are or what’s going on. If you have the ability to go for a walk every day, whether it’s outside, which is great, especially if the weather’s night, get some of the nature in, some fresh air, you can get a treadmill, buy one used if you own one, is it A clothing hanger. Like many of us, it is people dry clothing on it or jackets, sit on it, collects dust, never gets used. Get on it, walk for 15 minutes, walk for 30 minutes, walk for an hour. You don’t have to run. You can just do normal walking pace. You know, sometimes I’ll go on there and I’ll listen to podcasts, I’ll watch part of Me, I’ll listen to an audio book or I’ll have my tablet and I’ll put on something I like to watch and just keep on walking. Get a little bit of exercise, get a little bit of energy going in your life. And again, positive endorphins. Helps you think differently. And again, I’m not perfect. I’m just saying we need to do the basic, easiest things if we want to stay physically healthy, which helps our mental health, which is just walking. So at the end of the day as well, look at the, the things of, you know, patting yourself on the back, right, for those little things. Save some money, right? You avoided this confrontation because you thought differently. You read a book, right? Just build confidence through, through the little small actions and, and pat yourself on the back. Celebrate. Maybe just look at yourself in the mirror and say, I’m a winner. Look what I did today. Do this that night, or maybe it’s middle of the day. I’m a winner. Look what I accomplished this morning, this afternoon, this evening. I believe in you. Trust me. I’ve been this person where all these things I talk about, where I’ve been at the lowest low, the highest high, been in between, been in the valley to spare, climb my way out. It’s just a matter of what do you want out of life? How hard are you willing to work for it? So, you know, number five to mindset and lifestyle control, talk to real people. I already talked about this, didn’t I? Get into real conversations with people. I much prefer that having real conversations with people. I prefer, even with phone calls now to do video calls. I don’t like just hearing the person’s voice. I like seeing their face. It makes a better conversation again, I can hear their tonality. I can see. See it on their face, what their energy level is. Makes the conversation that much better. Makes me be able to be interjecting in the conversation better too. Maybe I can see that tension, that anger. No, it’s not time to answer what they just ask. Just say, you know what, Let me think about it. I’ll get back to you. Because even though you may have an answer, it’s not the Time to say it, right? It’s not time to stir up the hornet’s nest or stir up the pot of crap, right? It just isn’t worth it. And in, you know, face based conversations help that get into real conversations with people. Don’t always hide behind your social media feed and that keyboard warrior mentality and the responding based on ignorance, not knowing and just keeping away from it, being opinion based if possible. So again, talk to real people. You got something going on and it’s really weighing on you. Do you have good friends or a mentor or somebody that you can reach out to instead of incessantly climbing into that rabbit hole of scrolling on social media for a few hours, watching YouTube video after YouTube video that are non constructive YouTube videos that really don’t change your life, don’t really elevate you, don’t help you climb, to help you stay camped in your mentality. I know I’ve got people I can reach out to have a 20 minute call, 10 minute call. Maybe they can just help calm your, your mindset down. Maybe they’ll be that person. You can just say I need you to listen today, the next time I need you to listen. Plus give me some advice, right, because you don’t want just yes people in your life. That’s not, that’s not good either. You want people that love and care for you, that are willing to challenge your mindset, that are willing to help you evolve and continue to grow. Guess what? If you’re a good friend, you’re going to be that person to them when they need it. So the next thing talking about is your, you know, final thoughts, right? When it comes to what I originally talked about, this being an election checklist, how to lecture, proof your life really at the end of the day, this is for any time in life. I don’t care if you like, you know, Mark Carney or you didn’t like Trudeau or you like Trudeau or you like Poliev or you don’t like Poliev. I apologize if I’m saying anybody’s name wrong as well, you know, or you like the NDP in Canada. I don’t care who you like, right? Whoever’s at the podium. What matters is you standing in control of your life. And that’s what this all been about, being in control. Like my book Give a Heck how to Live Life on purpose, not by accident. We need to start to own our origin of our lives, own what we’ve been through, what we’ve gone through, what we’ve heard, what we’ve had as learned behavior from family, from friends, from schools, from society, and find out our own truth between our own six inches of our ears, right? What matters to you? Where do you want to go? Where are you at? Are you financially, you know, dying? Do you? Are you tired of it? Are you, Are you the willing, do you want to take that baby step to move your life forward, to take control of your own life, to just lock out all the election garbage that’s going on? Except, you know, obviously you want to be educated enough to make a decision on who you’re going to vote to be in power as a party. Again, we don’t vote the leader, even though that leadership is first and foremost and prevalent because that’s the person that will lead the party if they become prime minister in our country. You know, at the end of the day, just realize that your life is more important than all that. So don’t get so engulfed in it and get angry about it and stay focused on conversations about that. You know, what matters again is controlling your life. Living a life of intent and purposefulness so that you can be happy more often than not. You can be on the climb more than you’re ever camped. Right? It is possible. I’m here to tell you it is. It’s an ever evolving life in an ever evolving world. We’ll continue to develop and change till we take our last breath. You just have to decide, are you going to continue to develop and change in the good or is it always going to be the negative? I chose and still continue to choose life and living with intent and purposefulness. And again, I hope you do the same. I’m here. Reach out. I hope you’ve enjoyed this podcast. Listen to it again. Feel free to reach out to me. I love having conversations with about with people. If you reach out to me, I’ll jump on a video call with you. We can just talk about what I’ve talked about, right? Again, no cost, no obligation. Let’s just have a conversation. So the world again is uncertain. Canada is evolving, changing. The world’s evolving and changings. But your values, your discipline and your focus, again, are they changing? I’m going to keep on asking you that. Are they changing your values, your discipline and your focus, from how you wake up to how you react in your day, to how you serve and help others. First and foremost, are you serving and helping yourself grow because you can help others if you’re a complete wreck or partial wreck or any form of a wreck until you get some stability and consistency and elevation in your life, in your mindset, right? One day at a time. But you have to take that first baby step. So this is your invitation to stop reacting to life and start responding and moving and let’s move forward. So again, going to wrap this up and if you’re ready to go deeper, let’s talk again. I’m going to remind you that book a free clarity call at Give a heck dot com, no cost. Right? Let’s just book it. Let’s get on. Let’s talk. I don’t care where you are in the world. We can have a fantastic conversation. Let’s build a strategy that keeps you thriving regardless of what happens next. In our global world, in our country, in our local community, our local cities, we can control what happens within our home, within our lives, within our families. Not all of it, but a good majority of it. So we can live a purposeful life. And one of the things I always wrap my podcast up with and ask guests, and I do it myself, is if I was to give you one last closing message about how to give a heck about your life, what would it be? Be kind. Be a person. That is kind. Kindness kills. It really does. It kills negativity. It kills anxiety. It kills depression. I look at people in stores. I look at people in different environments. Whether I’m at a hockey game or I’m at a function or I’m at a local store grocery shopping or getting clothes or whatever. Just being kind to people. Thank you. Appreciate you being here. Have a fantastic day. Right. Be genuine in your conversation. Oh, I really like what you’re wearing. That is sharp. Good job. I like your smile. Thank you so much for being kind. Walk away. Leaving people better than they were prior a minute ago. Always leave people on a high, not a low. Be kind. Be kind to yourself too. And just the world is our oyster. It’s just a matter of continuing to do what we need to do to move forward. I appreciate your time on Pardon me on for listening or watching this podcast on Give a Heck and you know, subscribe and share. Most importantly, take action in and around and for your life. Take action. Take that baby step. Because your life doesn’t wait for elections to come or go. Your life is waiting for you to take charge. And I look forward to talking to you again. Just go to giveaheck.com to reach out to me. I appreciate you subscribing to the show. It helps those silly algorithms. Share my show with more people in more countries and I appreciate any comments you want to leave on the show and again, have a fantastic rest of your week. This is coming up to Easter weekend and again next. We have the Canadian election coming up shortly. And I wish the best for you and for those that are wondering, is it possible? It’s all possible. If you’re still at that point of wondering, is any of this possible? It’s all possible. It just takes effort. It takes something I considered a superpower tenacity. And if you don’t have it, I and many others can help you build your tenacious attitude to succeed and want to win in a caring, compassionate, humble, Christian way for myself, for whatever way it is for you. We can help. I can help. God bless you all. Have a great Easter coming up. And for those that are Canadian, please put some thought process into who you vote for. Don’t vote on it based on what has happened even a year ago. Vote on what’s going on right now. Who can help out the best? Who do you think is the least slimiest and might do more of what they promise than less, which is what most politicians do do anyway. They’re all in it for themselves. They say they’re for the people, but really, honestly, they’re for their corporations for themselves. And their life is isn’t really intentfully there to, you know, lift you up. So I look forward to talking to you again. Are you listening to me? Again and again. Have a fantastic rest of your day and I look forward to talking to you soon. And remember, it’s never too late to give a heck.