1. Jack Comeau on Taking Time to Rest and Reflect
One of the things I really love about the holiday season and the start of a new year is that, once all the
stress and bustle of the holiday shopping is over, people have a realchance to rest and relax. Companies
close their doors; the pace of life slows for several days; and Canadians have, at long last, a chance to
spend time with their family and with themselves, free from the burdens and hectic schedules that are
all too common in this day and age. Of course, then comes New Year’s, which provides one more
opportunity to rest and reflect before the start of a new yearsignals the return of the status quo hustleand-bustle of daily life.
My family is fortunate enough to have a cabin in the Saskatchewan area and one of my favorite things to
do during the holiday season is take my family to the cabin and spend several days there, enjoying the
company of my loved ones and taking stock of my career and life amongst the calm and peace of the
Canadian wilderness. Though its importance is sometimes overlooked, I think this second part – the
opportunity to stop and self-reflect – is truly invaluable, both personally and professionally, and I know
that over the years it’shelped the success and forward momentum of my career tremendously.
I don’t think I’m alone in feeling that the pace of life is only getting quicker and quicker as time passes.
This is the online era, the decade of social media and Web 2.0, and I think it’s a sound argument to say
that the advances in technology that we’ve seen in the past ten years or so have fundamentally changed
the way we live our lives. Start with the internet and consider how the introduction of such other
innovations like cell phones, WIFI, smart phones and the introduction of social media platforms like
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have changed our lives.I’ve been a financial planner for twenty years
and I can’t begin to describe how advances like the internet and email and smart phones, all ofwhich
have made networking and information sharing between professionals easier and quicker, have changed
my business. And I think it’s safe to say that the rate at which people will be able to share information
will only increase in the future as well.
It’s a pretty exciting time we’re in right now and I’ll be the first to support the next round of
technological breakthroughs that make information sharing that much easier and that much faster. But,
at the same time, I think there’s a flipside to all this innovation that may not be quite as positive. More
specifically, I think there’s a hiddendanger that, as the speed and busyness with which we live our lives
today increases and as thestream of media distractions that bombard us every day increases too, our
skill of stopping to self-reflect and to take a time out as it were will be lost on us. And, truly, taking time
to self-reflect is a skill and it truly is invaluable, especially in one’s professional life.
Speaking professionally, the risk is that as we get so caught up in our busy schedules of accomplishing
tasks and meeting clients and making last minute decisions, we’ll forget to take periodic time-outs,
moments where we can quietly reflect on the professional decisions we’ve made and reflect how these
decisions have truly affected our colleagues and our clients. Why is this so important? Because I think
it’s a necessary part ofgainingand maintaining the proper perspective in our professional lives and, more
importantly, in learning from the mistakes and missteps we’ve made in the past. I know that, besides
my holiday time at the cabin, I make a point to take periodic moments to reflect on my career and the

2. professional choices I’ve made, and I know how much these moments have helped me throughout my
time as a financial planner.
Like any professional, I’ve had to make decisions on complicated and delicate business topics over the
years, and without this skill of self-reflection, coming up with solutions to these matters would have
been much more difficult and I think much less successful. It’s for this reason why I value the skill of
introspection and why, in any sort of mentoring position, it’s aquality thatI stress to those who are just
beginning their professional careers or those who are looking to enter into the financial planning
business.