You can't make a new beginning

So why try to change the past?   

You can, however, make a new ending…

It's amazing what you can do.

Sunday at 1:30 am I became the oldest person to finish the Baja 500 off-road desert race in the Ironman (it means solo, no teammates riding) class. My son and I also became the first ever father-and-son to finish the race in that class. That will probably never happen again.

It was 541 miles (21 hours for me) of tough riding. Knee-deep silt, steep rocky uphills, dust so thick you can’t see, and pain and fatigue that gets worse by the hour. Half of the 340 race vehicles (trucks, buggies, UTVs, etc.) did not finish.  

I’m a veteran of this kind of racing now. As I reflect back to just four years ago, it’s amazing how I could not have done it then. We all have things we think we can’t do. And maybe we are right, we can’t – until we make up our minds to. Once we make a firm decision, we find ourselves learning, trying, training, making mistakes we learn from, preparing, and getting better.  

Keep at it like that, and one day you’re an expert at something you were one day a novice at. 

People ask me about my business – “When you started, did you ever think it would come to all this?” The answer is no. I didn’t know I could, until I tried for 30 years, and got better and better all the time since I never quit.

It’s amazing what you can do, if you only make a firm decision.

What can you do? There’s only one way to find out.

Popular is average

By definition, if most are doing it, it’s average.

If we don’t want to be less than average and don’t want to do much thinking, we can just do what is average. 

But we can’t be exceptional that way. Right?

Livestream your life

Pretend your every move was broadcast live to the world.

You’d probably do a few things differently. Right?

The insanity of the normal

Here are a few related quotes from different people to think about today.

“What we call ‘normal’, is really a psycho-pathology of the average. It’s so widespread we don’t even notice it.” – Abraham Maslow

“It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

In my personal experience, ‘normal’ is no way to take advantage of our potential. I have not thought or behaved in a ‘normal’ way in many areas of my life.

Think about what is possible for you rather than what is.

Excellence in everything

“The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because philosophy is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor philosophy will hold water.” – John Gardner

We need excellence in what you do.  

Bring it!

Decide and Act

Humans have the power to choose. If we don’t make choices for ourselves, choices will be made for us. 

Choose the direction of your change and act on that choice.  

Be self-actualized. We become fully human by our day to day decisions and commitment to them.

What choice have you made and followed through on in the past that got you here? Do you need to make any more choices now? 

Therapy

Abraham Maslow says that most psycho “therapy” is “a search for one’s own values.” When we don’t make decisions from our values, we feel conflicted, lost or make bad decisions.

Sometimes we get caught up in someone else’s values or the expectations of a group or other individuals and forget to be true to ourselves.

Live your values, not someone else’s.

Arguing with reality

When you argue with reality you lose, but only 100% of the time.

The sooner you accept what is, the sooner the futile fight to deny it is over and the sooner you can work to change it (if you wanted to).

What do you need to stop arguing with?

Styrofoam Weights

Would you go to the gym and work out with styrofoam weights? The heavy stuff makes you stronger.

Life is a gym. Do you wish you did not have challenges? They make you stronger.