About Me — Jason Chenard
Why triathletes make better pharmacists
Imagine if I asked you to put something very special into an empty box for safe keeping. It would be something you love thinking about, that takes your mind off the daily grind of life and brings you endless opportunity to unplug.
In other words, it would be an obsession of yours. Then imagine if you could remove it from the box on demand, allowing you to harness it as a super power.
Jason graduated from the University of Toronto in 2008 and practices as a pharmacist/pharmacy owner in Northern Ontario, where he lives with his wife and two children. While being a pharmacist is Jason’s day job, there is something else he has in his super power obsession box and it is not a mainstream choice.
Inside his box is triathlon. Tri-what? Are you crazy, Jason? Isn’t that a marathon? How does that even fit into a box and why would you enjoy that!
Restore your jaw to the non-flabbergast position and stay with this a moment.
Jason stays mentally balanced by structuring his life in seasons, based on his extracurriculars, that take him healthily away from work. Winter is a time to coach his kids’ hockey teams and fit in the occasional men’s league game. Summer is triathlon (swim, bike, run) season. Each year, well in advance he signs up for three races in Northern Ontario and drafts up a spring/summer training plan that involves a transition from the winter pool swimming to the open water with a wetsuit. Once the roads are free of snow he mounts the bike for a variety of workouts that include hill repeats and longer distance training. He runs outdoors throughout most of the winter and looks forward to the warmer weather runs.
Jason has written about how triathlon is a lifelong journey than offers more than fitness. It forces him to dig deep and push boundaries of resiliency while balancing rest, sleep, nutrition, stress management, stretching and yoga.
Triathlon has given him the badass part of his identity that hibernates during the workweek. Opening the box and finding triathlon proved an amplification of who he is.
Where does writing fit in?
Writing has always proved a pathway for problem solving and years ago he decided to start putting his words out into the world. In journaling about the anecdotes and lessons of hockey, triathlon and pharmacy, seven themes appeared recurrently in the writing.
Those seven themes coin the 7 ideal leader characteristics described by his anagram LAYERED and serve as the foundation of Jason’s leadership and wellness platform at layeredleadership.ca. Since it’s launch in 2021 he has provided digital tools and coaching for pharmacy leaders as they better themselves at work and at home. He has given live talks at pharmacy conferences and served as keynote speaker at pharmacy continuing education sessions.
Go ahead, open your box
Drop a comment to share what’s in yours, why it’s your obsession and why is gives you super powers.
Jason’s favourite podcasts
Real Kyper and Bourne (Sportnet’s Nick Kypreos & Jason Bourne on The Toronto Maple Leafs, NHL Hockey)
Lifespan (Dr. David Sinclair on longevity)
Jason’s favourite books
Good to Great by Jim Collins
Outliers by Malcom Gladwell
A few of Jason’s Medium articles as a jump start:
How to connect deeper:
3. Subscribe here to the free weekly (non-lame) newsletter about pharmacy leadership and wellness, coming to your inbox each Thursday
4. Subscribe to get an email each time he publishes a new article on Medium here
5. Take his 1-hour leadership accelerator course here
6. Listen to this two part podcast where he explains the 7 characteristics of ideal pharmacy leaders that make up the LAYERED philosophy here & here
