Believe you can do more

I’m sure we pick it up as kids, but the idea that we can do more and better than we currently are, is critical to us making continuous progress in our lives.

You have to believe that while you are doing ok, good or excellent, that you can be even better, and do greater things. 

This keeps you striving and reaching.  And when you try like that, you’ll find a way, and discover you really can.

What do you believe about yourself?

Do you expect to win?

People that do well, expect to do well.

You can never outperform your own expectations.

Do you expect to win?

I said "yes", and then it all happened…

I feel like I am an unlikely person to have done all this, but in my fifties a most extraordinary adventure of my life took place.  I was never an extraordinary athlete.  Ambition and perseverance were my superpowers, traits I passed onto my son Tanner.

One day I received a harmless little invitation, which I accepted.  I learned of a huge challenge, and I decided to participate.  Being successful in that initial adventure, I learned of and accepted a towering and near impossible challenge. 

It’s been 6 years now, and it’s hard to believe what has come of these simple decisions. The “Into the Dust” movie series chronicling these adventures has become a sensation worldwide.  Perhaps because the stories of the Baja 1000, and especially the Ironman class, had never been told to the world in such an intimate way.  Perhaps because the average person can connect with what was really going on.  

Now, “Into the Dust 4” is out on YouTube.  This is the final chapter in the series and is its long-time-coming dramatic conclusion.

I know that I could have missed out on such a meaningful chapter of my life by saying “no”, when there wasn;t much on the line and I didn’t know what it would mean either way.  There are such slender connections to new worlds in one’s life, that you wonder what you missed already.

I wonder what the future holds for me along these lines.  What will I say yes to that will open whole worlds to me…

What will you say yes to, that will do that for you? 

Ignorance is the parent of fear

This is a quote by Hermann Melville, the author of Moby Dick.  

Today, think about the things you fear, and how a lack of full information and understanding of the issue feeds your fear about it.  

The solution is to learn more about what we fear, and not just from the places that want to feed our fear about it.

What do you need to learn more about?

Youth is a marvelous garment

“Youth is a marvelous garment” – Iris Murdoch

Take care of yourself.  You’ll either wish you did or be glad you did!

What is causing your personal problems?

Recently my lower back has been hurting and I have not been sleeping well.  I could go to the chiropractor (as I will) and not change anything.  I am a side sleeper.  I roll from left to right many times a night.  Where my hips hit the mattress it makes a dent; a crater in the mattress.  When my hips rotate into it, it makes a kink in my lower back.  Sleep all night that way and you don’t sleep well and wake up needing to go to the chiropractor.  So I rotated the mattress and slept out of the crater, and had a MUCH better sleep and my back didn’t hurt.

We have to look at what is causing our problems.  Chances are it’s our habits – both physical and mental.

What are you eating?  How are you moving (exercising) or not?  Sleeping?  Watching?  Reading?  Actions repeated daily add up and cause both good and bad things to happen.

What have you been doing that is causing your current condition?

We are getting richer

In human history, there have been millennia when nothing changed.  We live at a subsistence level, scratching for food and resources, and we didn’t live long. 

Today, the average American is much richer and working fewer hours with a higher standard of living than even 20 years ago.  This includes people at the “bottom”.  It’s a more comfortable, interesting, safer, and easier world.

This is certainly good news.  Living in the new world, given how we are designed, creates perils and opportunities.

Thankfulness

“All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the lack of thankfulness for what we have.” – Daniel Defoe, 1719

What are you thankful for?  I am sure there is a lot.  Think about it some each day.  When you see my box below saying who or what I am grateful for, make it a reminder for you to think about who or what you are thankful for.

When you are thankful, you will wind up with more to be thankful for.

“Let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find in every hour, some heavenly blessing. – Henry Ward Beecher

What are you doing with what you have?

We all have talents and we all have some assets.  These talents may not be the same as what others have, and they aren’t supposed to be.  Your combination of talents makes you unique.

The question is – are you using what you have to get better, to develop and hone specific skills, and to ultimately make a contribution to others that they value?

If you are doing something that you struggle to find meaning in, that you are not good at, and have little interest to get better at, then you are not in the right spot or activity that matches your talent.  When you are, time passes quickly, you like what you’re doing and are interested in getting better at it.

What are you doing with what you have?

Borrowing happiness from tomorrow

Drinking alcohol.