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jasondorland5441

Dad to a butterfly child & 2 rescues. Husband to an inspiration. Author. Olympian. High performance coach. Keynote presenter. Workshop facilitator.

I needed this Thanksgiving—maybe we all did. Th

I needed this Thanksgiving—maybe we all did.

Thanksgiving is one of my favourite holidays; there's just so much to savour. The bright autumn colours, the smells in the kitchen, and the coziness of gathering around a festive dinner table.

As a teenager, I remember Thanksgiving as our first holiday break from school. I anticipated with excitement our four-day reprieve from teachers, homework and long days in a classroom—it meant we had time to breathe!

It was also a weekend of birthdays in our home. My dad's and my oldest brother’s birthdays both land on this weekend. So naturally, they shared a cake and the singing that came with it. In fact, our dad would’ve been 100 years old this past weekend. Whoa—the passage of time!

Katie, or Lady Katherine, as we sometimes referred to her, was also born on Thanksgiving weekend. Talk about foreshadowing; that beautiful lab-cross would spend the next sixteen years filling our hearts and home with love, joy and laughter—all of which we’re thankful for.

On this past Sunday, we returned from a work week in Calgary to be greeted by dogs four and five, who, with wagging bodies, cried and cooed as we met them in the front hall. Many of you have experienced the same and appreciate that there are very few creatures that welcome us like our pets—it’s something Robyn and I will never tire of.

Continued in my Substack—link in bio! Enjoy...

Digital Overload: How to reclaim your attention in

Digital Overload: How to reclaim your attention in an age of constant connectivity.

I've had more conversations with friends, family, and colleagues regarding this one topic than anything else in the last few weeks. And, no wonder, people are feeling the effects in multiple ways.

Richard Bach was bang on when he penned this gem, “We teach best what we most need to learn.” Personally speaking, this is alive and well in me at the moment, for sure. The result of a perfect storm—shit storm, if I’m honest.

First, we had the election here in Canada a few months ago. Given that I don’t watch or listen to mainstream news sources like CBC, CTV, and Global—I learned my lesson during COVID—I now rely on podcasts, independent media, and articles from various voices on Substack. I go looking for information; I’m no longer spoonfed.

Trouble is that it requires commitment and time, sometimes lots of it!

With Canada’s economy in the crapper, I’ve been paying close attention to the US tariffs and the subsequent back-and-forth between the two countries. If you haven’t noticed, there’s a small army of educated, articulate, and fairly opinionated pundits only too happy to describe how they feel about the whole mess. Digesting all of it has taken time, too.

Continued in my Substack—link in bio! Enjoy...

Because it's not fair nor is it safe—it's as sim

Because it's not fair nor is it safe—it's as simple as that.

For a number of years now, I've been asked more than a few times what my thoughts are on the whole transgender athlete thing—up until now, I've declined to share anything publicly.

It all stems back to a conversation a few years ago where I was asked, “If you were still coaching rowing, and there was a transgender athlete (biological male) who wanted to row in the girls’ program, would you let them?”

It was a reminder of how much things have changed. When I began coaching in 1988, if someone had told me that one day I would be asked a question like the one I’ve just shared, I’m not sure I would’ve even known how to respond.

From that first crew almost 40 years ago, there’s been an evolution in my coaching style to be sure. Goodness, I’d like to think that’s true for every coach. We grow and learn, and our perspectives change. I’m no different. However, what has evolved are my thoughts on training, motivation, technique, racing strategies, rigging, and essentially anything related to the sport itself. What hasn’t evolved, because it’s never had to, until now, are my thoughts on who can row in what category and why. Honestly, I’ve never been pushed to reflect on that one.

After a moment's thought, my answer was easy, “No, of course not—that’s not fair.”

Continued in my Substack—link in bio! Enjoy...

Facing Fear Head-On: Strategies to overcome self-i

Facing Fear Head-On: Strategies to overcome self-imposed limits.

Oooh, this one's a zinger! It's one of the prickliest topics we come across when working with clients. Why? We're hard-wired to avoid things that threaten our well-being—it's a physiological response.

In many ways, it’s a good thing, too. In fact, we should be grateful for this response—it means our self-protective mechanisms are working overtime to keep us alive. Technically, it’s referred to as our negativity bias, which is a fundamental characteristic of the human brain: our tendency to give more attention to negative experiences, information, or stimuli than to positive or neutral ones of equal intensity. It's not just that we notice the “bad stuff” more—it's that it registers faster, we dwell on it longer, learn from it more deeply, and let it shape our emotions, decisions, and memories disproportionately. Man, ain’t that the truth!

There are some standard analogies of our negativity bias you may be familiar with; it’s like an overzealous smoke detector that responds the exact same way to a fire that could burn your home down and burnt toast that stinks up your house. Or it’s better to mistake a stick for a snake than a snake for a stick. Our hyper-alert defensive tendencies keep us on our toes, that’s for sure.

However, in today’s world that doesn’t have sabertooth tigers wandering through our neighbourhood parks, that same part of us that’s evolved over time is still looking day and night for threats. That’s why purposefully facing fear can be so triggering for some people. And yet, when we do, we open up possibilities that may not have been there prior.

Easier said than done—I hear ya! I’m not a fan of heights. And, I don’t often go looking for ways to face that head-on! But, in many instances, that’s precisely what needs doing.

Continued in my Substack—link below. Enjoy!

Ken Dryden will be remembered not just for his exc

Ken Dryden will be remembered not just for his exceptional goaltending but also for how he made us feel.

If you think about it, he's a shining example of the expression, people don't always remember what you do or say, but they sure as hell remember how you make them feel.

Maya Angelou was speaking the truth when she shared this little bit of wisdom, and I would agree with her. When I reflect on the people in my life whom I remember most prominently, invariably it’s for the way they made me feel, good and bad.

Having said that, Ken Dryden certainly did some remarkable things. He achieved incredible heights in many different aspects of his life that we certainly can and do recall, but more so through thoughtful memory than a felt sense.

For example, he helped the Montreal Canadiens win six Stanley Cups. While doing so, he won the Vezina Trophy (best goalie as voted on by NHL General Managers), the Conn Smythe Trophy (most valuable player during the playoffs), and the Calder Memorial Trophy (the NHL’s Rookie of the Year)—just to name a few!

Along with all of those stellar accomplishments, it’s his role in the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union that most Canadians who follow hockey and are old enough remember. He and the Russian goaltender, Vladislav Tretiak, battled from opposite ends of the ice while both teams put on a clinic of exceptional and exciting hockey.

Continued in my Substack—link in bio! Enjoy...

A Coaching Opportunity for Teens and Young Adults.

A Coaching Opportunity for Teens and Young Adults.

A couple of years ago, my alma mater reached out to its Alumni with a request for individuals engaged in a specific sector of the workforce. The School was looking for Alumni to coach current students in this field. It sounded like an interesting opportunity for graduates to give back to the School and support its young students.

I thought to myself, Nice ask—I hope they get a large response.

A week goes by, and I’m still thinking about this venture—I want to help, but I’m not sure how. Eventually, I arrive at this conclusion—I don’t know anything about that business sector, but I know how to coach. So, I reach out to the School and offer to coach a student in the realm of performance, pro bono. A short while after, I had my first “client.”

Wow, after our first session, I thought to myself, Man, who’s coaching who, here? This student is a rockstar—outstanding grades, articulate, thoughtful, involved in every aspect of school life, friendly, polite—I’m blown away. But the part that stands out is that despite their many achievements, they want better grades because there’s a particular university they’re desperate to get into. A classic case of chasing an outcome—for this young student, everything was about being admitted to this one school.

Continued in my Substack—link in bio. Enjoy!

#coaching #performance #athlete #sports #performingarts #academics #support

Redefining Success on Your Terms: Aligning goals w

Redefining Success on Your Terms: Aligning goals with personal values.

No, this isn't some flaky "everyone gets a trophy" perspective that dials down ambition so that no one feels they've underachieved and missed out on life. Quite the opposite, in fact.

When I look back on the goals I deemed worthy of my time—my pursuit, if I’m honest, all of them registered as worthy because of the value that others put on those goals, not just me. Sure, most of us would consider my goals as a younger man, especially my rowing ones, admirable and, most importantly, goals worth going after. But I can’t recall anyone ever telling me why. Or, for that matter, ever asking me why.

“Jase, going to the Olympics, that’s pretty ambitious—can you tell me why you want to do that?”

Hello, that would’ve been a good question for me to entertain!!! It would’ve very likely flexed some self-awareness that was frankly dormant at the time. An important conversation and some worthwhile self-reflection would’ve followed. Because if I could go back to that young teenager and crawl inside his fragile heart and awkwardly developing mind, my guess is his answer wouldn’t have been very convincing, for lack of a better term. Uhhh, cause I wanna win a gold medal?

Ya, but why?

That’s it! That’s the one question we don’t ask ourselves enough. Why does this matter to me? What will it do for me? Is this goal important to me or someone else? How will it change me for the better? What if things don’t work out? What if they do? The questions are potentially endless, and yet we’re rarely encouraged to ask them. It would take, what, 30-40 minutes of either writing down our responses or answering them to a trusted individual amidst an honest conversation.

Continued in my Substack—link in bio! Enjoy...

"… they're playing for each other. They love eac

"... they're playing for each other. They love each other. This is a team!"

That's it! I've now heard every kind of major professional sports team in North America—football, basketball, hockey, and, now, baseball—describe their team culture using the word LOVE!

I came across this video last week. It’s a keeper, for sure! Simply click on it to watch, and you might agree…

To give you some context, the Texas Rangers were in town playing the Toronto Blue Jays, and the colour commentator for the Rangers, Mike Bacsik, went off with an extended description of the current culture in Toronto. He was telling David Murphy, the play-by-play analyst, that every time the Jays scored five runs in a game, they were 52 and 3—unheard of in Major League Baseball! And these weren’t platitudes. His comments were genuine and heartfelt. He was reflecting on teams that he’d played on during his career, and that what the Jays had captured was pure magic!

I remember back to a coaching conference in Ontario in 2012, where I was presenting. It was the first time I used the term LOVE. I tried to convince those in the room that building a high-performing team culture required a foundation where the players truly loved one another. Oh my—you’d think I had just shared an off-colour joke!

To say that my comment was received with a few raised eyebrows would be an understatement. In fact, during the lunch break, an attendee came up to me and said, “That’s sure some interesting stuff—especially your perspective on love. No offence, but I think you may be a little ahead of your time on that one!”

Continued in my Substack—link in bio! Enjoy...

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