A New "Sub-blog"

We run, bike, swim, walk, lift weights and all other forms of exercise and yet...

We treat our bodies like they're a $200 beater car ready for the junk-yard!

What did you eat today? Do you even know? How many carbs, fats and protein? How often did you eat today? Once? Twice? Three times? Four? Five?

Why do we have more excuses for not eating right than for just about anything else in our lives?


Get the info you need to get it right on my new page

Sometimes a lousy run...

Ever have one of those runs?

You know the one where maybe you didn't feel like it or maybe you got going and just felt like garbage?

Maybe after only a mile or even less, you found yourself with an urge to walk or even turn around and just head back home?

I just had one of those runs. About half way through, I just wasn't feeling it and I started to walk. At first I was frustrated by my inability to motivate my performance and then I began to think about how I would feel when I finished. Knowing full well that even if I just walked the rest of the way, I had gone out and trained.

I thought about how great I always feel after I get done training. It hit me that even if this wasn't the most stellar performance of my life, it was still movement and that is key.

I am a student of human behavior and I have learned most of the ways to get the most out of yourself and surely if I'd dug deep enough I could have found a way to keep myself running instead of slowing to a walk and yet sometimes that's not the point at all.

Sometimes it is just moving. If you exercise; walk, jog, run, weight train, yoga, Pilate's, whatever it is you do; you are doing something for your health that not a huge percentage of Americans do at least not on a regular basis. To have great health doesn't require huge blocks of training, it requires consistency. It requires movement!

It doesn't always have to require great effort in order for it to be a great workout.

Just a thought!

Stop Saying You Don't Have Time!

The more I talk to people about what they want out of life the more I hear the same thing coming up over and over again... "I don't have any time!"

All I can say is STOP IT!

We all have the same number of hours in each day, so why is it that some people consistently do what they want and others don't? It's simple... they stop the excuses.

Think about it.

What did you do last night?

Maybe you had plans to get home and work on something you wanted to accomplish, but then everything just kind of got in the way. You walked in the door and you needed to unwind from a stressful day so you decided to just sit and watch a little television and then you'd get right to it. Next thing you know its two hours later and now you're surfing around on myspace and im'ing with your friends and you still haven't started whatever it was you planned on doing when you got home. Now your friends call and they want to go for a couple of drinks and who are you to stand in the way of a good gathering so it's out the door and several hours later when you return home exhausted it's really too late to start anything new so you head off to bed... but you'll get started tomorrow after work.

Don't you get it?

We all have time; it's just what we decide to do with it.

No matter what you say you want out of life, if you are doing anything but exactly that, you're lying to yourself. Doing something else or doing nothing at all is the same as saying that your goals and dreams are not really your goals and dreams... they're just fantasies.

You have got to decide what it is you really want out of life and go for it like there is no tomorrow and you can't stand another minute of your life without it! That my friend is the only way you are going to get more time for the things you want in life.

You won't get more time because you quit school, quit your job, get a different job, or end a relationship. You will get more time by doing the things you want to be doing instead of avoiding them. You will get more time by getting up a little earlier and taking time for yourself. You will get more time by going for it with all of the passion you can muster and not accepting anything less from yourself than you know you are capable of.

That is how you get more time for the things you want in life.

Stop Saying You Don't Have Any Time!

Easy As 1-2-3!

Imagine you're watching one of those TV infomercials. You know the ones. They talk about how you can have anything you want. The perfect body, the perfect life, the dream relationship.

And it's all as easy as 1-2-3!

Let's be frank here. It doesn't work that way!

If you're like most of us, you have probably even tried some of those things and now you have a collection of DVDs and strange contraptions piling up under your bed or in a closet out of sight.

I am a positive person but, the truth is anything worth having in life takes some effort. Anyone who tells you otherwise is probably looking to sell you something!

I mean think about it... "5 minute abs", "3 steps to financial freedom", "start earning huge $$ in 24 hours", "get fit in 10 minutes a day". These aren't actual product names, so if you offer these things don't get offended.

However, if we look at all of these things I listed above, they do actually carry a redeeming quality that is hidden behind the misleading headline.

"5 minutes abs" is designed to reel you in and take action. Gosh, you mean I can have abs in just 5 minutes of my time? Well, not exactly but, if you think about it; anything that gets you moving instead of sitting on the couch watching infomercials is going to have some impact on your health. And... the reality is no one is going to actually spend only 5 minutes doing exercises once they get started.

Therein lies the redeeming quality.

No matter where you are in life. No matter how high or how low, if you want to change your life you have got to get your self to do something.

Think about it. If you're at point "A" and you want to get to point "B", what's the best way to get there? Isn't to start moving in that direction? Isn't it to get off your butt and take action?

It's great to have all kinds of ideas and plans in life, but they are absolutely worthless without action! Without taking action all you have is a great list of dreams. Your first steps don't have to be fancy or earth-shattering but, they do have to be forward and in the direction you want to go.

We all get caught up in the idea that if the first step we take isn't perfect and doesn't get us instantaneous results then it's either the wrong one or just not worth it. Nothing could be further from the truth!

If you're struggling in life right now, simply completing one simple step can be one of the most rewarding and empowering experiences you'll ever have. There is power in knowing that in spite of it all, you are taking control of your life to make a positive change! Believe me I know. Even if you take one step forward and end up sliding three steps back, when you took the first step, you were now finally facing in the right direction!

If you can see where it is you want to go at least you have one thing most people don't: a clear vision of what you want. And that, my friend will give you tremendous power. There is incredible strength in knowing no matter how difficult the journey may be, you have begun!

There will be setbacks along the road. That you can count on, but the power you gain from taking action will help you get through those times and keep you focused on the outcome.

I've been on the bench of life, not taking action and it doesn't feel real good. I've let one day turn into ten years and it happens so fast it seems like all you did was blink. I am happy to say that I am now moving in the direction I want to go and it is incredible! Every day is not perfect and there have already been setbacks and disappointments and still, I am moving forward.

As easy as 1-2-3?

Not a chance!

Worth it?

Absolutely!

See you along the road moving forward!

Do You Really Believe That?

(I originally posted this back in June 2008 and it bares repeating.)

Why did you get up this morning and go to work or go for a run or whatever else you might have done?

I bet you answered something along the lines of; because I have to or maybe ; because I get to or maybe; because it's what I've always done.

And if you did, you just confirmed one of the universal truths in our lives. Most of what we do in life is based on our beliefs!

What if you could completely change what everything in your life thus far means?

What if you could take any situation, event or even a thought and turn it into something completely different?

Imagine if you could take an event... let's say, getting fired from your job (normally a negative) and turn it into the best thing that ever happened to you!

How would this change your life?

Would it open new possibilities?

What if you could really believe deep down inside that what ever you wanted in life you could have?

What if you could take a $135,000 debt and turn it into the springboard that launches a whole new opportunity in your life? An opportunity so empowering that you became almost unstoppable in your thinking and beliefs!

The Good News is that the way you experience everything in your life is based completely and wholly on your beliefs. And... you can change any experience in your life by changing your beliefs.

The only bad news here is that until you and I change that one belief; that everything we believe is in our control, we won't be able to use this powerful tool to our benefit.

So, if you're willing... let's begin!

Let's start by exploring where our beliefs come from. Virtually from our very earliest days in this life or as soon as we begin to be aware of the world around us, we begin to assign meaning to the things in our environment. Early on it may be as simple as; that heartbeat is where I came from or that voice is where I get my food from.

A little later it may be; if I cry I get attention (some of us never lose that one even in adulthood).

Why do we formulate beliefs?

Every second there is so much information being thrown our way that the only possible thing we can do other than being totally confused is to begin to organize our world. By generalizing what different types of input mean, our brain can quickly decide what needs to be received and processed and what can be filtered out and ignored. An example is when we learn that touching a hot burner on the stove causes pain, we need to take action to avoid it. We create a belief that says something like; hot burner equals pain.

If you think about being able to change what you believe, this is a great place to begin. Did you know that the mind is so powerful that it can actually manifest physical affects on the body?

In one test they were able to convince a person that a piece of ice would cause a burn and that individual actually experienced blistering where they came in contact with the ice. Simply by changing the meaning of a sensation, they got a whole new set of physical manifestations.

If this is really possible and it is, imagine the wealth of potential you have for changing meanings in your life! The opportunities are absolutely endless.

How does this all work?

Why does one person have a terrible day just because they didn't get bacon on their breakfast sandwich at the drive thru while another suffers a serious life altering accident and comes out with all kinds of possibilities and opportunities?

Its all in the meaning you assign to events in your life. So let's look at one event in my life and see if I can help you understand what I'm talking about.

A month ago, I had a heart attack while out for an extended bike ride. Most people would agree that this could be considered a life-altering event. It would have been very easy for me to have a nice little pity party after such a traumatic thing like this and I had to act quickly or it could have gone that way in a hurry.

Thoughts flooded my brain as I tried my best to make sense of this whole situation. To add to the complexity of things, I had been in the process of changing career paths and as a consequence not only was I not working, I did not have any insurance.

If this happened to you how would you evaluate things?

Being totally honest, my very first reactions were not what I would describe as stellar. I believe in full disclosure whenever possible so I'd like to share some of those initial thoughts with you.

What would people think of the guy who was supposed to be a runner having a heart attack? I was honestly concerned about my credibility as a fitness trainer and personal trainer.

What would this do for my dreams of running an ultra marathon?

Should I just go back to my old career path and forget my dreams? At this point, I was closer to my previous career of 25 years than I was to my new venture. It wouldn't be giving up it would be acting responsibly.

How could I ever talk about life improvement or success or empowerment with this hanging over my head? Again the credibility issue was looming big time!

How on earth was I ever going to handle the $135,000 bill I had just been presented with? This one will get most people's attention, I think.

How could this happen to me? Why me? How am I ever going to get back on my feet again? I'm trapped! There is no visible way to overcome this, I'm just going to spend the rest of my life in a job I hate paying off a huge bill.

Not very empowering thoughts for a guy who is arguably one of the most positive people you will ever meet! I wrestled with this for a couple of weeks maybe a little more. It was tough, I mean really tough!

Little by little, I began to come out of my haze. Instead of turning on the TV, I listened to Cd's by people like Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar and James Ray. If I was going down, it was going to be a spectacular, full blaze of glory!

And then the questions began to flow!

What else could this situation mean?

I know everything's not perfect right now, but what can I be happy about with this situation?

How can I use this experience to never ever let it happen to anyone else again?

What can I create so that when other people are faced with a similar event they have a road map out?

What do I really want?

What's pretty cool about everything that's gone on in the last three weeks?

As I began to ask these questions and dozens more, I began to get different answers. The meanings I had given my heart attack just a few weeks earlier changed and they changed dramatically!

I began to realize that I could use this in an incredibly empowering way. My feeling of doubt about credibility went flying out the window when I began to realize that there is probably no better person in this world to talk about how important your health and fitness are than the guy who has had a heart attack. I mean, if anybody understands the importance if good health, it's probably that guy wouldn't you think?

I had been working on some writing projects on and off over the last five years. Suddenly my fingers began to fly as the words flowed from my brain like an erupting volcano. Don't tell my cardiologist this, but there were several sleepless nights where it was just me and the keyboard all night long producing page after page of quality writing.

Ultimately what happened is I changed what things meant to me. I went from believing that I was trapped by an event that I didn't have any control over in the first place to; this heart attack that I brought on myself (nobody sat there and forced me to eat poorly and smoke cigarettes) was going to be the springboard for my new and empowering future. I was finally going to lose the weight, get in the best shape and even more importantly use all of the lessons from this experience to powerfully impact the world that I live in.

This was a dramatic change in my beliefs and the Good News is that anyone faced with the same situation could make the same belief changes to get different results.

Let's look at one more, simple example that you can do yourself which can make a huge difference in your life.

If you ask, in fact I did, what most people want in life invariably between 8 and 9 out of 10 will say something along the lines of; to be happy. Are you in that group?

What has to happen in your life in order for you to be happy? Does something need to happen in order for you to have happiness?

Asked these questions most of us will come up with at least a small list, for some it's a monster list of things that must happen before they can be happy.

Bull!

Happiness is a state of mind which means that at any time you can decide to be in that place and you can go there. Happiness is not an event and yet we treat it like it will only happen if X,Y and Z all occur simultaneously and then only in the presence of a full moon!

Think about how you feel when you're happy. How do you stand or what's your posture like? What are you thinking about? If you can describe those things to me, then why couldn't you at anytime think about what makes you happy, put yourself into that same posture and be happy?

Try it! You'll like it! If you were successful, you just changed your beliefs about what it takes to be happy. And even more importantly you now know how to be happy at anytime. So who's fault is it if you're not happy?

That's right, it's yours and that my friend is a very empowering belief! Knowing that other people or events don't have control over you gives you incredible power in your life!

So, if you really believe something and it doesn't empower you... change what it means.

Change your beliefs and you will change your life!