“Quitters never win, winners never quit.” Vince Lombardi That’s a terrible quote, I love some Lombardi stuff but that one I do not. It’s entirely unrealistic. If you can’t quit you’ll struggle to win. Quitting is often one of the best ways to reach success. “Being able to quit things that don’t work is integral to being a winner” Tim Ferriss I’ve quit a lot in my life, wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t. Relate this to all aspects of your life, if something isn’t working you need to quit, switch it up, and make it work. Re-evaluating your path ongoing is the way to get where you want to go. I signed up for the marathon and figured out my plan of how I was going to get there in 11 weeks. I quit or changed workout routines, shoes, food, pre-run routine, etc...I changed basically everything at one point and quit these, among many other things, numerous times. If I hadn’t been willing to quit those things quickly, I would not have had the time to ride them out ...
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Amor Fati - Not merely to bear what is necessary...but love it. Look, I talk a lot about success, often about past failures, about lessons learned, and try to put the positive mind in front of all else. As much as you spin life, try to over-positive it, or self-talk, it doesn’t make bad days, weeks, months, years, or moments disappear nor does it make them any less existent or relevant. We all have stuff. Stuff that tries to hold you back, drive you down, put a mountain in front of where you want to go, or make you want to quit to take the easy route. I have stuff, I’d say I probably have a couple days a week I question “why go for the run or to yoga”, “why get off the couch”, “How am I going to make this work”. Some days I do it and others I don’t. It doesn’t mean I’m done for, tomorrow is the start of a new day and hopefully a refresh/restart of the mind. It’s tough though, I get it. Everyone has something. There is always something you are fi...
It’s about how you feel. I’ve written this blog a few times before this one and kept deleting it. Rambled into clothing, equipment, and a variation of those including digging into DadBods. I’ll save you from those as here is what I was hoping to say without ranting. Forget everyone else. Short version....that’s it. If you really want to get better, stronger, healthier, grow both mentally and physically, and maximize your time to really drive balance in your entire life....you need to forget about everyone else. If you’re going to train, forget everyone else. You’re out there to sweat, so get it out. I’m a big sweater, always have been. 5 minutes or less into yoga and I’m drenched. But I can’t let that hold me back and never have. If I did I wouldn’t do it. If you’re going to run, forget everyone else. There will always be those faster, shorter, taller, fatter, skinnier, and those in all those shapes who make it look easier than you. It doesn’t matter, you re...
Success - Finding My ‘Why’ I talked a lot about failure last week, I will likely touch on it more as I go since it is so relevant to success. Let’s talk success for a moment, because I’ve also managed to have lots of that amongst all that failure. The basis for my blog stems largely from what I accomplished in May, the reactions that ensued afterwards and conversations had prior all made me realize I needed to explain myself. I ran a full marathon, 42.2kms, without dying...although there was little chance that would have happened (the dying that is). I sporadically have crazy ideas and this was one of them, so I decide to sign up in March largely to raise funds for charity but also to accomplish this feat that I put on a “List of things to do before I die” when I was around 19 years old. I made this list half of my life ago and still remember many of the crazy things on it while I continue to check them off. See, I had much more time, possibly more drive, energy, and l...
The most important step to success is failure. Photo by: @MidwinterPhoto Let’s talk failure . I know you’re thinking “we can fail on our own, what do we need you for?”. Well I’ve failed too, lots! So many lessons to be learned from failing, let you heed mine and hopefully minimize the failing yourself. We can’t talk success without first talking failure, then talking failure some more. Seriously though I’m 38 years old, 6 feet 4 inches tall, and weigh 220 pounds, with my height, size, great hands, and love of sports I should have been a professional athlete or something. I failed at it, I have many stories about how I failed at those dreams. We talk lots about setting SMART goals, well I’ve set many STUPID goals over the the years ( S pent T ime U naccomplishing P riority I tems in my D ay) I’ll go back to the beginning of last year, that’s where it all began for my smarter or re-imaged focus on healthy living as a “dad”. I learned so many lessons from tha...
Be good. Anyone who has been coached by me in the past couple years has heard me talk about BeIng Good. The idea is something I’ve practiced for some time but was put more into context in a talk by John Herdman, Canadian Men’s National Soccer Coach, who previously managed to turn a distraught Canadian Women’s National team into world class competitors. Take some time to listen to his Ted Talk, it’s both light and enlightening. ( https://youtu.be/yO57_nx0weQ ) It is something I preach but also something I practice. Strive for 80% effort in everything you do, every day, on every play, in every meeting, at every turn, even in practice, with your career, family life, education, health, and challenges you face, and you shall have success in life. His philosophy, if everyone on his team lived above that 80% line in effort, at all times, it wouldn’t matter what star athletes were out there as they’d be successful or at a minimum be satisfied with their achievements. In his words...
Photo by MarathonFoto Welcome back! You’ve survived the first blog and now you’re back for another. If you’re here for the first time, check out the first entry “Welcome!” as it’ll help explain a lot. Step one in the journey, get uncomplicated! Let me explain. For me, balance and success in many aspects of life is fairly straight forward, it doesn’t need to be complicated and complicated will help push you to quit. You’ll hear me talk lots about simplifying and not over-complicating things. Generally, that’s where we fail ourselves and each other, we over-complicate everything to the point of thinking and believing “what’s the point, I can’t do that”. We quit easily because we set ourselves up for failure by being unrealistic with our expectations. Fully cutting out food you enjoy, changing your lifestyle, or trying to compare your progress to that individual on instagram whose career is CEO of Exercising, these are all ways to lose your interest in going any fu...