I bet if I asked you to turn off your I-Phone or BlackBerry 99% of you could not do it. Why is that? Well, my thoughts on this matter is we have become too programed and too addicted to being connected to our network. We have to see what next is coming in or see what is going on in the world every few minutes or some of us every few seconds. The sad part about this is we neglect what we are immediately surrounded by. We neglect the beauty of nature and the wonderful sights and sounds of the “real wold.” Hey, I am going to be the first to admit that I am guilty of this as well, but my trip to Colorado and experience on NY Mountain made me realize how much I am addicted to my I-CRACK and my laptop. It was so refreshing to spend 3 days disconnected from technology and re-connect with the beauty of nature. So, will you do yourself a favor and do the same? If you are interested I have the perfect group of people to take you on your own expedition. Let me introduce you to The Third Drive.
First of all I am going to tell you that the people who run the Third Drive are friends of mine. Well, at least after this past weekend we have become good friends. Actually, an old client of mine and now he is one of my best friends it is his wife and his wife’s business partner who have started up this expedition company. They are fabulous people and they have a passion for helping people become healthy and change whatever it is that is holding you back in life.
Dave and Michael at the bottom of NY Mountain
There are approach has three main components to it:
Immersion in Nature
Healthful Living
Exploration
You can read more about their approach and the retreats here.
I can tell you that my retreat did wonders for me and I know that as time goes on it is easy to slip back into the old routine, so that is why I plan on taking another trip next year. I hope you will join me and take a “break” from your Smart Phone and all the other technology noise that surrounds you and re-connect with who you are and the beautiful nature that surrounds you!
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.
Yesterday I brought you a post about creating a fixed term membership site and I wanted to follow it up with another post to get you to seriously consider creating your own memebership site.
Let me ask you this, “What would it mean to your business if you had 1,000 customers sending you MONTHLY payments for your own membership site?”
When I hear those kinds of numbers being thrown around on salesletters, I’m always skeptical. I can’t help it, it just sounds “too good to be true”.
Well, someone has made a believer out of me. He’s not only broken the 1,000 paying member barrier once … but he’s done it TWICE! (Update: He’s now done it THREE times!)
And, get this: all three times it took less than two weeks without any “product launch” or “guru partners” lined up to pull this off.
What’s more, he’s prepared a video that teaches exactly how he did it … and I’ve got you a FREE pass to watch it with absolutely no strings attached.
** Don’t have a membership site? Don’t worry! He’s also gonna show you how to have your own original membership site up and running within 48 hours!
Block off some time today or tomorrow to watch “Rapid Fire Residual” from Jimmy D. Brown.
— How to get 1,000 cash-in-hand, paying subscribers for your membership site even if you don’t have “guru” friends to help you with a “product launch”.
— How to setup your own membership site in just 2 days if you don’t already have one of your own. (His wife, who has absolutely ZERO experience setup one by following this simple plan … he’ll show you how.)
Again, you can grab all of the details and begin watching the video immediately at:
P.S. Jimmy has also prepared a downloadable PDF guide for you. It’s a “fill-in-the-blanks” guide to help you make the most of the video. Get it at the site.
Happy Friday everyone! It is just awesome here today in Dallas. We have had highs in 70’s all week. Who would have thought that, considering some 18 days ago we encountered the worst ice storm in 75 years and temps did not make it above 20 degrees. I guess they are right when they say, ‘If you live in Dallas, if you don’t like the weather, just wait a little bit because it will change.” Well, I am not here talk about the groundhog’s predication of an earlier Spring being correct, but what I am here to talk to you today is something that I am very passionate about, which is financial education.
For years, I have been studying and learning about money. I am not sure why that is the case, but I have always had a passion for business and money. So, as I read in one of Ken Blanchard’s books, “If you want to truly understand what you have read and learned you must go teach it to someone”, and that is what I intend on doing going forward. I know this is not for everyone or at least some people will think that, but you see, it does not mater what profession you are in or your financial status in life, if you do not have a strong financial education, you are going to be in trouble moving ahead in today’s economy. Shoot, I know some highly paid professionals, who yes, make a lot of money, but are uneducated when it comes to financial education. When the recession hit, they took a big hit in their savings. With just a little financial education that could have been prevented. So, the time is now to learn financial education if you want to succeed. Don’t let lack of knowledge keep you from being successful.
So, what am I referring to when I talk about financial education? It is the knowledge about how money works and how to leverage it to work for you. Some people have told me that they took economics and accounting in school, which is great but that is not going to help you be financially secure in this new economy. You need to understand how money works and how to make your money work for you. I hear all the time that the rich are getting richer and the middle class is getting squeezed out. You know what, they are right, the middle class is getting squeezed out and the rich are getting richer. Why? Well, they know how the rules of the game are played and they know how to use it in their favor.
Well, why should you care? Because I want to see you live the dream. I want to see you have everything that you want out of life. Money can’t buy happiness but it can help give you opportunities and freedom to do the things you want to do in life. I know there will be some people who will disagree with what I am going to be saying in these posts and that is fine but what I hope to do is give you just enough knowledge and education to stay competitive in this new world.
Here is what you can expect in some future posts:
What is your financial IQ?
History of money and how the decisions your leaders make affect your financial success.
Assets vs. Liabilities – why most people are wrong to think their house is an assesst
Should you stop contributing to your 401K?
Should you live below your means?
These are just some of the ideas I plan on sharing with you. If you have anything that you would like to talk about in regards to financial eduction please feel free to leave a comment. Also, I would love to hear your feedback good or bad on anything we talk about here.
Well, I have my daughter’s first soccer game this weekend. I don’t know who is more excited her or me :)!!
Yesterday, a true fitness icon passed away at the age of 96. He will be missed dearly! Now, most of us know him as a fitness icon but he was also a philosopher and great motivator. The video below is from one of his TV shows. Take a look and his message applies just as much today as it did back then.
Jack Lalanne, thanks for paving the way and being a great role model for fitness professionals as well as all the people you inspired to become healthier.
