When I first started out on my journey to become an entrepreneuer things were great but there were times when I was unsure and did not know whether or not I should continue down the path of the unknown. One day though I was reading a blog post by Craig Ballaytane, one of the first people who inspired me to create Working Mom Workouts, and in the post he talked about how he would write a thank you journal ever day, so when he started feeling sorry for himself he would look back to this journal and it would change his mindset. That inspired me to start writing down things I was grateful for and today I want to share a few that I believe have been instrumental for my success.
1.) I am grateful for the unique talents and skills my creator gave me. Each and every one us have our own unique skills and talents that were given to us. Once I began to understand and hone in on my unique skills and talents I started to realize what I was called to do.What are your talents and have you begun to fully use them?
2.) I am grateful for the fact I saw the sun rise this morning and that I am able to get out of bed and conquer the day ahead of me. Every day we are presented with the choice of being great and making a difference in this world or just being part of this world.Are you going to make a difference today?
3.) My wonderful family and friends. Any entrepreneur will tell you that their ultimate success lies within the support of their family and friends. Sure people can and have succeeded on their own but you need a support system and I can’t thank my family and friends enough for being behind me and having faith in me!
4.) Mistakes that I make today. It may sound crazy but I am thankful for the mistakes that I know I am going to make each and everyday. I have the best intentions to be more productive, contact more leads, write better blog posts, but no matter how hard I try I am going to make mistakes and I am okay with that because it allows me to get better and grow as an entrepreneur.
5.) I am also grateful for my flaws. Having areas of weakness helps me to get better and develop my skills, plus it allows me to seek out others that can help me balance my weaknesses.
6.) My will to become more. Since I was a kid I always wanted to be great and although I believe I may be above average in certain areas I still have a will to become and do more with my life!
7.) As crazy as this may sound I am grateful for the people who have stabbed me in the back. Whenever I have had situations like this occur I learn who my real friends are and whom I can trust no matter what.
8.) I am grateful for the problems I encounter daily. Having problems and being able to work through them makes you stronger and develops your skills.
9.) I am grateful for the people reading this post and following me. Without having people to help educate and teach them what I have learned would leave a void in my life!
9.5) I am grateful for the ability for me to click send.
P.S. I would love to hear what you are grateful for and if you liked this post pleas “Like” it, Google + it and share with your friends!
This past weekend I had an amazing life experience. A good friend of mine put together a back country skiing expedition that involved climbing to 11,200 feet and staying in a Yurt for 2 days on NY Mountain in Colorado. The purpose of the trip was to set the stage for future expeditions for a company called, The Third Drive. More on that later but today I want to tell you about my experience. I am also going to make this a three part series, so today will be about my experience, tomorrow will be my takeaway and finally the last post will be about information on retreat company The Third Base.
Okay, so let me tell you about my journey to the top of NY Mountain. We started out at the bottom of the mountain around 1:30 in the afternoon. It was 8 guys and our guide Michael, which by the way Michael is an amazing mountain guide. Anyway, we started skinning up the old mining road and planned on getting to the Yurt in about 5 to 6 hours. That right there should have been my first indication that this could be disastrous for me. For one, the last time I did cardio for six hours it was a six hour cycling class. the second thing that was not working in my favor was as we got closer to the top there was less oxygen and I had come from Dallas just the other day with no real acclimatization. Oh, and for those of you who do not know what “skinnning” is let me explain real quick. The easiest way to describe it is you put this grip or ‘skin” like material on the bottom of your skis to give you traction. Once you have the skin on the skis you shuffle your feet and perform a slow walking motion on the snow.
Alright, so we are moving along and we get to the half way point. Now at this stage in the trip I am a little tired but doing okay. The climb to this point has been gradual and steady and my bod is feeling good. Also, at this point I have a decision to make. We had a snowmobile to take our big stuff to the top of the Yurt and the guide on the snowmobile was at the half way point asking if anyone needed a ride to the top. I so wanted to jump on the snowmobile but I also wanted to reach my goal of skinning all the way to the top so I did not say anything and moved on.
So I made the decision to “go for it” and boy that is when things started to get ugly. The second part of the climb was much steeper and harder. Not too far into the second phase I started to feel my ‘hip flexor’ and ‘quad’ tighten up. Also, I was now working that much harder and my heart rate was started to climb. Being that I have been working with clients and heart rate monitors I know full well that the body just can’t maintain an elevated HR for too long. That being said, I decided I needed to stop and rest for awhile. Also, I decided it was best to just climb without the skis and use my poles to help me. That worked for awhile but I knew if I was going to make it to the top I had to put my skis back on and slug through the rest of the climb. So I put my skis back on and continued.
As I continued to climb I started to think about whether or not I was going to make it. Not a good thing, especially since there was no other option for me but to make it to the top. Just as I was thinking these thoughts we came to the sign that said, “1 mile to the Yurt.” You would have thought I was relieved but actually I was in despair. I had one more mile to go. No way! What in the world did I get myself into was what I was thinking. My thoughts were slowly turning into negative thoughts and I was not sure I was going to make it, but something clicked in me.
Over the past 14 years I have been teaching indoor cycling classes and I started to visualize me teaching my class and telling them to climb the hill and reach their goal. I was saying to them, “You have to believe, I believe in you but you need to believe in yourself.” And you know what, I started to get a pace that got me going again and gave me a second wind.
Finally, night is approaching and I just was thinking one foot in front of the other until I hear Michael, our guide, start hootin and hollerin that we made it. A deep sigh of relief came over me as I slugged the last few hundred yards up to the Yurt, which by the way is a Mongolian term for hut. I was so relieved to get there but the story does not end there.
After 6 hours of climbing I was covered in sweat and completely exhausted. Now anyone who has ever put on ski boots knows that getting those things off after a day of skiing is challenging but I had hardly any strength left in me to get changed but somehow managed to get into dry clothes. That felt wonderful and I sat down drinking water and trying to recover from the 6 hours of climbing that I just did but for some reason I just could not cool down. I started to feel really hot and my heart rate started to climb. I knew this was not good and possibly could and I was going to need to tell Michael. Obviously at 11,200 feet the first thought comes to mind is altitude sickness, but I really did not have classics signs that are associated with altitude sickness. So, Michael recommend that I lay down on my bed and put my feet up. He took my heart rate and it was elevated. The first thing that started to come to my mind was my brother had passed away because of Heat Stroke and was I going to go down that same path? Once again I knew that I needed to change my mind set but this time I had kept saying one thing over and over in my head. “I have to get back to my girls, they need me.” Now, after about an hour and a half of me lying still and just focusing in on my breathing I started to cool down and bring my heart rate down. I tell you, it was not a near death experience and I don’t know if it was heat exhaustion but it sure was close enough to a near death experience that I have a better appreciation for everything I have in life and am thankful to be writing this to you today.
That night I struggled to sleepand just laid there trying to focus in on recovery. When morning came I felt okay and decided to push to the top of the mountain with the rest of the group. This time the 45 minute climb was not as bad as the previous day for me, and let me tell you that it was all worth it when you get to the top and see how beautiful it is.
Now the top of the mountain was beautiful but I had another problem and that was getting down the mountain. You see, I am used to skiing at Vail or Breckenrdige, CO, not the back country. Skiing the back country involves going through open areas and tight areas that are surrounded by tress with tons of powder snow. Trees are not good for those of us who need to make wide turns.
Well the story of getting back to the Yurt involved me walking a little ways down and also being guided by Michael again through the tress and back to the trail head. I tell you what, if it wasn’t for Michael being a patient and great guide I don’t know what I would have done. So, I finally make it back to the Yurt and was thankful. The rest of the trip I knew was going to be hanging out in the hut and being okay with that.
I know I have gone on for awhile with the story but wanted to share with you my struggles. You may be wondering how I made it back to the bottom and I will tell you I have absoulutely no shame in letting you know that I rode down on the snowmobile. It actually was a cool experience in itself, since I have not been on a snowmobile since I was a little kid. Anyway, I made it down and was safe and sound and that is the conclusion of the first part of this series.
Here are some more videos of the trip that I wanted to share with you.
Last weekend the Florida Gators beat LSU in what most people are calling an ugly win for the University of Florida. According to most of the pundits and my friends the game was boring to watch and the common phrase I heard was all Florida di was manage the game. Here is the point I want to make, regardless of how exciting or flashy the Gators were on Sat night they won the game and in the end accomplished their goal. As for managing the game that is the key to success in business and life. Reflecting back on my life and career I would have to say that I have “managed the game” because the success I have had has come from being conservative with calculated risk. I am no flashy celebrity trainer like Bob and Gillian from the “Biggest Loser” but I am a disciplined hard worker that has managed to be successful in business in life. Okay, so here is what you need to do to manage your “game” or carreer as a fitness professional.
I. Understand that your life and career is a journey, not a race! Steady, daily improvement will add up to numerous success stories and accomplishments throughout your career
II. Continue learning! I have said this so many times I am beating it to death but in order to manage the game properly you need to keep improving your skills and learning new ones. Times are changing and you need to be poised to capitalize on new technologies and new information.
III. Build trust! If you are going to be a leader or person off influence, which every fitness professional is, then you need to have those people that follow you have trust in what you say and do!
IV. Learn to adapt! You need to be like a chameleon. Adapt to your current surroundings. If the economy is sagging you need to figure out how to adapt to lower consumer spending. Learning to adapt to your surroundings is one of the biggest keys to managing your career.
These four tips are just a few ways that you can manage your career and life. Remember, there will be times that day to day activities seem boring but the steady, conservative, calculated risk approach will get you the success you deserve and want. On a final note, I can tell you that if the Florida Gators win the rest of their games by being boring and “managing the game” I know that I will be extremely happy Gator fan with another National Championship to our trophy case.
Do you believe that luck plays a major role in your success? Well, if you think that only lucky people are successful, you need to start thinking differently. People who are successful put themselves into situations to reap opportunities that arise, and once presented with an opportunity their knowledge and skills allow them to make good decisions. In a previous post “Learning Never Ends” I tell new trainers and interns, the best piece of advice I received early in my career, was to never stop learning. I believe that the success I have achieved to this point has been attributed to that discipline. Another key to creating your own luck is to have a great attitude. I recently read a quote by Joe Cirulli, Gainesville Health and Fitness CEO, about what his thoughts on the economy were and how it is going to affect his business. He said, in their company values they preach this quote, ” We are the creators of our own future.” I could not have said it any better and if you want to be successful then you need to create your own luck.
Here are some other approaches to make luck work for you:
Create a mind map
Have a plan
Learn from your past and your failures
Always believe in yourself and your abilities
Network, Network, Network – I have had three jobs in my career and they have all been because I knew someone that knew the person who was looking to hire a trainer.
Finish – The journey is never over. The biggest mistake people make is that they give up too soon. As I mention in my book “Anatomy of Sales” I almost gave up on the fitness industry but hanging on has now led me to where I am today.
Do you love the feeling of accomplishing something? Well, today I am stoked. My new website is finally ready and my new venture will be launched. Now, I have no clue what the results are going to be but one thing I am certain of and that is I have taken the first step. For a long time now I have talked about having an online business that involves fitness. Well, I am now combining two of my passions, fitness and business into one site. So, in the days,weeks,months, and years ahead I plan on doing my best to providing you a site that will help you reach your potential. I would love to hear your story and look forward to our journey together.
When I first started out on my journey to become an entrepreneuer things were great but there were times when I was unsure and did not know whether or not I should continue down the path of the unknown. One day though I was reading a blog post by Craig Ballaytane, one of the first people who inspired me to create Working Mom Workouts, and in the post he talked about how he would write a thank you journal ever day, so when he started feeling sorry for himself he would look back to this journal and it would change his mindset. That inspired me to start writing down things I was grateful for and today I want to share a few that I believe have been instrumental for my success.
