Are you free?

Freedom is not the absence of commitments, but the ability to chose and commit yourself to what is best for you.

Have you chosen your path voluntarily?

Do something scary

Things scare us because we tell ourselves they do, and we retract and live inside those self-imposed boundaries. If we limit ourselves, we live small.

To live bigger, do the things that scare you.  Soon enough, they won’t scare you so much, and maybe not at all.

You’ll get your blood flowing, feel the exhilaration life can offer, sleep better, and fear less.

What are you going to do that you wouldn’t normally because it’s “scary”?

A Vision for Your Life

Ten years from now, what does your life look like? What are you doing? Who and what kind of people are around you? How do you spend your day? What do you contribute?  Where do you live? How do you live?

You go around once. Get clear, and get going.

Commitment

You said you would. But that was a different day, and now you don’t feel like it so much. But you said it. They heard it. You heard it. You knew it’s what you should do… but other things came up today.  

They expect you to. Your credibility is on the line. The credibility you have with yourself is too. Any number of excuses could be understood by many.  You could negotiate your way out of it with yourself…

But you said you would.

Do it.  Get it done.  You don’t feel like it right at this moment, but once you put yourself in motion, you will before long. And in the end, you’ll be glad you did.

Preserve your commitment. Get going.

Desire and Urgency

Everybody wants something, and they know they will have to do something, or a lot of somethings to get it.  But they put it off.  And they put it off some more. 

Do they still want it?  Sure.

Desire without a sense of urgency is wasted.  You have to get clear, get started, and keep going.

What do you want?  Do you have a sense of urgency enough to get started right now?

Be influenced – on purpose.

We can’t help but be influenced by the people around us.  

Who has qualities, thinking, vision, knowledge, character or ambitions that you’d like to have more of?  

Get around them.  

Be influenced.

Doing what we don't feel like doing

My son Tanner and I did our fifth Spartan Race of the year last weekend. It’s an extreme running/obstacle course race.  

I got up at 4 am. I didn’t want to, but I did.  We drove 2 1/2 hours, starting in the dark. I didn’t want to, but we did. We got in the gate for our 7:30 start in the Elite class – the first group out on the course. I had pulled a hamstring sprinting two days earlier. Would my legs work today? Self-talk…

Go!  “See ya’ son, go get em!”  Short straight and then left up the first hill in the woods. Ughhh, this sucks.  I don’t feel like it. Top of the hill, hayfield, 100 yard crawl under barbed wire. Hating it half way through, finished it, loving it now. Downhill now, I earned it. I knew the “Twister” was coming up. It’s a new obstacle that most people don’t make it through. Would I?  If not I’d have to do 30 burpees, and that is significant punishment and would wind me for the next uphill. Self-talk.

I had prepared.  Here it is. The Twister. I wish I didn’t have to do this. One rung at a time. Ring the bell! Yes! Pass all those guys suffering through their burpees! Uphill. Ughhh. More obstacles. Bucket Carry coming somewhere up here. I hate it. Self-talk… Dump the rocks out of the bucket back where they came from when you get back down the hill…whew – lovin’ how that’s over with.

The Spear Throw is up here somewhere. One shot. 90% miss it – 30 burpees. While I usually hit mine, I missed it last week. Check the self-talk. “I got this.” Visualize it going right into the hay bale 30 feet away.  The trail opens up to a small field.  There it is – along with all the guys doing burpees.  Bullseye!  See ya!  This is fun. 

Another mile or so. What’s this now?  A huge tire to flip?  That’s new. OMG this thing is heavy! Argghh. I hate this. Flip it back now? Arghhh. I hate this. Over it goes. I love this. Next….

Rope climb, mud pits, dunk wall, slip wall, fire jump…Finish line!

I’m wet, I’m cold, I’m muddy, something stung me…but I feel great!

The whole event is an exercise in doing what you don’t want to do, what you don’t feel like doing, and what is uncomfortable or much worse. You override those feelings and do it anyway so that you may feel the satisfaction and exhilaration of knowing you did it.

Spartan Race or weekly/daily life.  Should it be any different?

How attached are you to you?

The reason why most people won’t become who they want, is that their attachment to who they have been is stronger than their desire to be something else.

How attached are you to the person you are now?

Get yourself ready

What is higher education? Getting yourself ready for a career or to increase your earning ability.

What is working out? Getting yourself ready to compete or to feel better.

What is becoming expert on a specific subject or developing your good reputation? Getting yourself ready for opportunity.

Opportunities don’t come along for just anyone – they come along to the people who are ready for them.

Get yourself ready, and they will come.

And they ignored the popular media…

…and lived happily ever after.

Stay out of the trash can of “information” – the “news.”  

You’ll be a happier person.