Am I going to be changed by this?

The best adventures have you coming back a different person.

When my son and I decided to race the longest off-road race in the world, we entered a daunting challenge, not knowing what we were doing.  Little did I know it would change everything for me. I learned about myself and my body.  I learned about preparation and confidence like never before. I met new people in new places and saw new things. It turned into an 11-year (so far) multi-part adventure that took me around the world.

The best adventures don’t merely give you photographs – they change you.  They stretch your resources and perspectives.

It doesn’t have to be climbing Mt. Everest.  It could be going to a Chamber of Commerce meeting, finding a company leader, and asking four prepared, intelligent questions.  It could change you.

It could be going to a climbing gym and getting out of your comfort zone.  (I did that, and ended up building my own climbing gym myself and introducing many, many people to climbing for the first time.)

It could be volunteering at a place you’d never have thought of before.

There is no shortage of exciting adventures you can take to get out of your groove and change your life.

What’s next? 

Eat for how you want to feel in two hours

If you eat for what tastes good and is satisfying right now, you won’t perform well in two hours.

If it’s all about feeling good right now, then you eat sugar, other junk, and don’t move much at all.

Healthy living becomes practical when we connect today’s choice with how we want to feel a few hours later.

Choose food, movement, and rest that produce energy – not merely momentary pleasure.

As the years go by, your habits will accumulate in your body and manifest long-term results too.

Raise Your Floor

Ambitious goals raise our ceiling, but dependable minimum standards raise our floor.

Your life is shaped less by what you do on your best days than by what you do on your worst days.

Decide what you will do even when you are tired and are “not feeling it today”.

Like how Floor 18 holds up the celebrated top floor of a 100-story building, your worst days hold up your best ones.

Build a life filled with habits that don’t collapse when things aren’t perfect.

The best rewards

The best rewards are reserved for those who don’t fear.

It will take courage to be the exception.

It will take courage to stick your head up.

It will take courage to take the lead.

What are you fighting?

What if you just let it go?

Socialism and Think Daily

There seem to be some (who have not studied history) who are thinking socialism might be better.

That has been tried and proven over and over, and it does not work. Ask Argentinians.

I do not make political statements on Think Daily.

But I will say this: Think Daily conversation is for a free society where your life is your own.

If socialism ever took over my country, many past Think Daily posts are either null and void, or would have to be altered.

I would not write them anymore, because my framework of freedom is gone, and so are our incentives to do better.

We’d be in trouble.

How many years do you have left?

I stumbled across this guy giving seniors advice about how to make the most of their Social Security income. Now that I think of it, it probably came up on YouTube since I just turned 62, and at 62 you can start getting Social Security.  

(OMG!  I’m not ‘old’.  But maybe I’ll ride my dirt bike down there and pick up my check.)

Well, this guy was asking the viewer to guess how long they will live. I thought how sad it would be if I, or anyone else, gave an answer like 70 or 75. Maybe some don’t think about it, and others may think they will live about as long as their parents…I don’t know.

But this is an important topic for everyone, even if you are 20.  Having a great life, and what could be more important to a person than that, requires some planning.  It can’t happen by accident. What we really want is a great healthspan. For the last chapter, we want to feel good and be able to do stuff, not simply be conscious in a chair or bed.  Right?  (If I die suddenly, thank goodness!)

So we have to plan.  For me, as most of you know, I have this giant jar of marbles on my vanity.  I have one marble for each week I will live to be 100.  Each weekend, I take a marble out.  I think my brain and body get it.  They know the road ahead and are planning accordingly.

62 years down, 38 left to go.  62% – the math is easy.

I have to do my part.  I have to eat well, move well, sleep well, and use medical technology to the fullest to avoid or fix early what might get me before 100.

They say that because of AI breakthroughs, for every year you live, you will live even longer because of these discoveries.  (Let’s hope regulation does not get in the way.)

So, if I asked you, how long do you think you will live?  What would you say?

And what are you doing to ensure that happens with a closely matching healthspan?

(OMG) What have I become?

“You can’t see the label when you are inside the jar” – Clay Hebert

I think it is a good question to ask every once in a while to get a perspective.

The only tough part about this question is answering it honestly.

You have your reasons, and you have your excuses, so it’s hard to see who you are, or are becoming, from any other perspective than inside your own head.

But if you could try to see yourself from 10 feet away, and who you are to others, it can be encouraging, or sobering, and at least instructive about what course adjustments you may want to make. Because maybe who you have become is not exactly what you intended or want. You may want to make some thinking adjustments to be who you want before it’s all over – because after all, from the inner, comes the outer.

Who have you become?

Who are you becoming? 

Peaked in a webinar?

Did you peak in 8th-grade science class?  Did you do you best thinking in the first half of a webinar?

If you want to get somewhere really great you’ll have to focus and work down one road for a long time.

You can make an amazing career or accomplish extraordinary things with discipline and perseverance to a simple but worthy goal.

You have to carry enthusiasm for long-term goals long after the sugar high of creating the goal leaves you.

Day after day, making progress, adjusting, getting closer without getting distracted or turning to go in a totally different direction.

Is that you?

Leave some unplanned time

A life scheduled down to the minute may be efficient, but it leaves no room for discovery and spontaneity.

I do not like days with a “Full Schedule”, meeting after task after meeting…  I never know how long things will really take.  I hate being late and rushed, and I hate not being able to finish something if I am into it.  

Sometimes you have to plan, sure.  But for me, days with my hours claimed before they come are no fun.

Adventure requires uncertainty.  When you get “invited” to do something different, having whitespace in your schedule allows you to take the invitation without knowing how it will turn out.  

The most memorable part of a trip is rarely the airport, the hotel, or scheduled dinner.  It’s the wrong turn, the unexpected person, the hidden trail, or unplanned challenge.

Unplanned time doesn’t mean I will be doing nothing.  It means I can do anything without looking at my watch.

Karma compounds

“Good and evil both increase at compound interest.  That is why the little decisions you and I make everyday are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of.” – C. S. Lewis

Tolerant of others, strict on yourself

“In others, look for virtue.  In thyself, look for vice” – Ben Franklin

When it comes to others, you cannot expect them to live, act, or behave to your standards.  It’s not possible since everyone has different standards and ways to live, so nobody could possibly please everyone else. Same with you.

But when it comes to yourself, set high standards and have the self-discipline to adhere to them.

When you are your own high standards maker and disciplinarian, you don’t have to be corrected by others, have the most freedom, and are set up for progress and success.

There is no “easy button”

There is no easy button.  There is no get-rich-quick.  There is no avoiding problems.

Work hard and smart, or have the problems from not working hard and smart.

Face reality or get smacked by it.

Be nice or get treated poorly.

Be strong or feel like you’re not.

You’re going to pay for something.

It may as well be fare to get somewhere, instead of nowhere.

Chicken or egg?

Did the fact cause the belief,  or the belief cause the fact?

If you don’t believe something is possible for you, it simply isn’t.  You won’t try.  If you do try, you won’t give it your all.  You will quit easily.

“See, I was right” you’ll say.

But if you believe strongly you can and you WILL do a thing, there’s a high probability it will come true. 

You’ll give it everything you’ve got for as long as it takes.

“See, I was right, you’ll say.”

Indeed.

Embrace reality

If you run from it or deny it, it is yours.

But if you can embrace reality, you can do something about it.

Take responsibility.

Then you can make it better.

What do you need to accept now?

Develop your capabilities

How can you become more valuable?  Improve your capabilities.  Learn more.  

When you can solve more problems, help more people, have more skills, become more useful, and make yourself harder to replace, you will earn more money.

Read.  Practice.  Learn from other experts.

What other capacities can you develop now?

No energy? Get moving!

I went to start a motorcycle that had been sitting there for a long time, and the battery was dead.  If I had run it more often, the battery would be fine.

The same is often true of us.  If you are feeling lazy and have no energy, you need to get up and move.  The body PRODUCES usable energy when it is challenged.  A brisk walk, workout, stretch, or diving into a project that requires you to move your body can energize you.

You can’t be lazy, and wait for energy to come.

Use energy to get it.

Legacy Tax

I heard this term lately and it is worth talking about.  

A Legacy Tax is you paying the price for decisions you made in the past.

There are bad decisions you are paying for.  You bought something you don’t need and are making payments on it.  You bought a new car and made payments for two years, and it’s still not worth what you owe (a used car would have been a better choice).  But it’s not just about money. 

You decided to live in this place.  You chose this mate.  You joined this board and now have to go to meetings all the time.  You joined this country club and feel you have to go all the time to justify the dues.  You got this dog and now you can’t go away for long.  You formed this bad habit because it feels good but you are paying for it now.

Here’s the thing.  You don’t have to stick with your decisions.  You can reinvent yourself.  Just because you started, if you don’t want to stay with it because it is not serving you or is taking up all your time, then don’t.

We tend to make decisions early in life and they become who we are.  We stick with them even though we don’t like the results (anymore), or we are over it and could use the time back to do other things.

Now that you are here and knowing what you now know, what would you undo?

What Legacy Taxes are you paying?  

What do you want to change?

Nobody can do your push ups for you

Even with all the support in the world, the work is still yours.

You can’t sub it out, hire an assistant, or schedule it for later.

Stop whining. You’re tough.

Get it!

BELIEF in what you can and will do

Notes from the book “Above the Line” by Urban Meyer – 

“Belief creates strength of will.  Because they believe, elite performers have enormous competitive drive, and that’s what makes them relentless.  Most say “I can’t”; some say “I hope”; but players who believe say “I will” (do whatever it takes for as long as it takes).  Their belief empowers them with unshakable resolve and determination.  It’s what animates their ability to respond to any situation with toughness and tenacity.  They have a never-quit and never-give-in mindset.  They are the top 10%ers.”

If you do not BELIEVE you can accomplish _______________ , you will probably not start or you will give up easily.

If you believe – you know for certain you will get there- you will start and not give up until you are successful.

What do you believe about yourself?