How Do You Move A Mountain ?

The answer to the above question is one stone at a time. That is an ancient proverb I read somewhere and I wanted to talk about it further in relation to our goals because I think it is interesting to know how this truly looks in our lives today. I will speak from my personal experience in setting goals and achieving them.

The first step is you have to have something you want as simple as that sounds defining it for some is a separate article all by itself. In my case that was doing an Ironman Triathlon which I have posted about numerous times and the experiences that it has taught me which is an unwritten but often a side effect of following thru on a goal you will ultimately learn things about yourself that you never knew.

Now this is where I start to differ from the normal conventional thought process surrounding goal setting with it's different formats and deciding if it is too much for you, and are you being realistic. Since being realistic is just a thought pattern you as an individual determine if it is real for you not a format of any kind.

For me the next steps are simple break your goal down into daily action steps a little something you can strive towards daily,weekly,and monthly.

Make sure you can track it for measurement purposes because there is nothing more frustrating than doing a bunch of work and having now idea what your results are.

Then go to work and on it, detach yourself from outcome, surrender to the process, never look back, never criticize yourself and review the goal in 90 days. The point I am trying to make is to get started and make it a part of life to do it and let the outcome find you there is no need to chase it because you have set it up so that all you have to do is move your stones on a daily basis the mountain will come to you. Below you can see this in action. I have been training for my triathlon for the last year and like most I started my goal with all these expectations and had it planned the way I wanted it to be however as things progressed I learned the tips I previously gained and let my attention focus there. i bought a new tracking device for my data a Garmin 405 for all the hardcore biker/runners it is the cadillac of training devices and I swear by it below is the data it collected on my in the last month and half since having it.

Count: 22 Activities

Distance: 289.06

Time: 28:21:52

Elevation Gain; 22,117 ft

Avg Speed: 10.2 mph

Avg Hr: 149 bpm

Avg Bike Cadence: 221 rpm

Calories: 20,766

When I looked back on those numbers I could not believe that I would have ever done anything like that but apparently I did. You don't feel or notice your present moment until it becomes your past but the truth is little actions and steps add up on such a grand scale I mean think what would happen if everyone committed to a simple act of kindness daily what the result would be on a global scale ? Goals and daily action are a great way to help you work on your present moment focus and work to improve the overall quality of your life because ultimately that is what it is all about.

How do you move a mountain? One stone at a time.

How do you hit your goal? One step at a time.

How do you improve your life? One present moment at a time.

Until my next posting

Namaste & God Bless

Ironman Update# 13

Where is the time going it is hard to believe I have been at this for the last 13 weeks and some. I have to say that it has been one of the single most life changing events that I have ever had and it has become a way of life for me. But it didn't start out that way. It started out as most things in my life have been in the past and that is in an addiction. Yes I said addiction that is such a strong word but i think it is appropriate and I think that most people deal with it more than they know.

See it is the nature of our ego that it attaches itself to worldly things,things that mean something only to the form in a means to protect itself from extinction because it is scared and as I rode my bike for 30 miles this week or ran my 20 miles I realized that even that originally when I started this whole Ironman it was to feed my ego but it has transmuted into something much greater.

See in training this week I have learned that I don't need to train for my ego I don't need to be addicted to anything other than the love of my spirit our spirit. Like many before me I truly never new there was anything more than the ego I have protected for many years. I was blessed with a strong understanding of myself and have felt conflict for many years between my form and spirit and my understanding of how to marry those two. My whole life I have worked to protect my ego from destruction from the world because I felt that if I lost it I would lose myself. See I knew that if I ran a triathlon that would satisfy my egos need to be special that it would be large enough. If I did this or that I would satisfy a need but on my journey to living an enlightened life I have learned that feeding my ego is a meal that will never end a bill in which I can never truly pay the cost.

I learned that by being attached to things of only just this world of just my form I had lost touch with knowing the things that equal true satisfaction I longed so desperately for the things that make up my soul,my humanity, me and once I truly was able to grasp this concept it was only then I could shift from a nature of addictiveness to one that is choosing to use my works for greater purposes like becoming further grounded in the present moment or as examples to the world around me of the limitless possibilities that are presented when you start to connect and work with the world versus forcing the world to work with you.

I walk away from this week of training physically better as well as mentally better.

My suggestion from this is simple look at your life and find your addiction and be honest about it, remember it may not be what you want to hear at first, and know that you are not whatever it is that you may find and use it as indicator that maybe you have lost connection with the part of you that connects you to the oneness of it all and allow yourself to break free of the mental hold it has if you do the simple act of being aware it will help to start the healing process towards release of the addictions that slightly stop us from being great.

Until my next post

Namaste & God Bless

Ironman#12

I have been away from posting my weekly findings and I could give a million excuses on why I have but the reality of the situation is I have not had much to write. I have been learning as I train that life can be understood by sports training and things as such this is nothing new. Metaphors and statements have been used for years in the same vain.

My latest update of what I learned is that you can only push so hard see in training you can do everything your supposed to and be as strong as you possibly can and still only go so far. See in life you can do all the right things and say all the right things and no matter how how you try still be wrong.

So what do you do ?

Learn to be better and more efficient with what you have work smarter instead of harder my trainer told me he could not make me faster even if I was to build more strength but that he could teach me how to use my body better and that would equate to me being a more efficient runner,swimmer, and biker.

Thats when I realized I have all the tools in life I need and so do you. It is not a matter of looking for the next tool that will help you or the next big thing that will come and rescue you. You are the only thing that is going to help you. What you feel you need or desire is already within it it is just a matter of time before you learn how to find what you need from within.

The answer is that you learn to generate and get every feeling you think you need from someone else from yourself and then choose who you want to share that with it sounds simple but it as we know it is complicated.

Ironman Update #11

It has been 11 weeks since I started training for my triathlon and they have been a blur when I look back at them I would not have imagined that I would be where I am. This weeks lessons that I have learned are really simple.

I need to reward myself during the process of things so that I can enjoy the process more instead of just waiting till the end of the event.

You one day wake up and realize that you are stronger than when you started or your better than you thought you could be.

The first point was pointed out to me by neighbor who I met. During a cool 3 hr conversation that we had she pointed out to me that it would be wise to reward myself sooner in my process for example like right now because I made it to week 11. So I will take her advice and as I go thru my process I will make sure to include a reward process I mean why not. I think that we don't reward ourselves enough. If you think of the principles of motivation one of the things that is a key staple is making sure to dangle a carrot that is going to make completing the task more enjoyable.

Well what would happen if you dangled a carrot for yourself what kind of pleasure would u get internally ?

You could get use to and like completing things which makes you much more productive.

The last thing I learned this week is how the rate of change works and why so many people lose all they work for when striving forward on a goal. They quit right before they can feel their break through occur. See in the prior two weeks I have been bored and not motivated when training while continued to train it was feeling more like a process than a experience. Then this week happened and I saw how much I have grown because my power out has increased and my distance to run has gotten stronger. Now had I quit when I felt overwhelmed this would have been missed. So my advice to everyone is simple keep going and don't stop when setting your goals till you have reached them.

Until my next post God Bless and Good Luck

Ironman Update#7

This week was a good week training has increased dramatically I am putting in 13 hours a week of training. Which overall is good. Even in the face of all the challenges during the week. My mothers surgery being one of them it has been a week since that and she is doing amazing thank God. He blessed me to be able to still train and meet my requirements. Which is awesome This week was really a blur I don't have any huge insights other than the following.

Have faith in whatever your doing or whatever is happening to you. Know that God or what ever you choose to call him has a meaning to your life and the crazy situations you feel you are associated with at any given moment. We as people are not advanced enough to see this meaning to long after the fact. This is ok just know there is a meaning and once you discover it becomes a pearl of wisdom to add to your life. If you lack faith thats ok to we all do I know I sure did at one point. God will restore it when he is ready and he thinks you are just like he did for me. It never leaves your focus just changes.

Next week is a recovery week which I need

Until My Next Post God Bless and Good Luck.

Ironman Update# 6

6 weeks later it is hard for me to believe that I have gotten this far in the process but I have and here I am. There were a few lessons I learned this week. Frustration should never stop your goals although sometimes we still let that happen. Here is my example of such a case the day I received my lodging information for my full Ironman in Utah I also found that open registration was closed and I would have to enter on a charity basis which is 1100 dollar entry fee. Needless to say I don't have that so I started thinking about my backup plan. There are no more full state side and I don't want to travel half way around world. I opted to do a half ironman also known as an Ironman 70.3 disheartened I received perspective about why doing a half is just as rewarding as a full. In reveiwing the details of the 70.3 I found out a bit of information that was rather encouraging and that information was that the race I am entering is a qualifing race for Ironman Kona (championship). Not only that my entire training program has been for a full Ironman so in continuing I am overtraining for the actually event leaving me better odds of winning. So I registered for my event and I learned that I can go further than I thought I could and even though it is not what I pictured the outcome is what I want.

So when things suck, get hard, you get tired, and you feel that you have no more left then your breakthrough is right in front of you. Give yourself 5 more minutes you might be amazed at how much momentum that can generate. That simple action forces you into a place of working a little harder and if you continue it will restart your momentum and that is what is needed to get you to complete your goals.

Ironman Update# 5

Where did the week go ? Quickly by would be my first guess. This week was the most challenging of all the weeks with the exception of the first week and I will tell you the biggest challenge was pushing thru the pain (recovery) which is key because the faster you recover the more you can take ( that is the general idea) and the more you grow. I think that is a good example of how resilience works right ? I mean if you apply this to your daily life the more trials and tribulations that you encounter and overcome the easier things become I mean honestly that is the reason for challenges they force us to stretch and become better than we were before. That is the reason I am training for IRONMAN because if I can handle that my day to day life should be a little easier. I also call this changing your threshold because once you have gone past a certain point then it is easier to get there next time. Well that is what I learned from this week of training. I also learned the importance of rest cycles because my body was tasked more than it was use to and I needed more sleep to make sure that my life activities did not suffer.

Ironman Update# 4

So I finished a full month of training and let me tell you it that it has been an interesting and surprising month. When I reflect back on what I have realized one thing and it remains at the fore front this week.

We do not notice or realize the progress that we have made when we are involved in the process.

I say this because even though I am tracking my data and doing this everyday I could not feel my progress until my training schedule required me to redo Week One's training this week . Talk about a large difference I barely even felt last week it went by in such a blur. Which is the lesson I want to pass on to you when your in the middle of any project, or goal you may be trying to accomplish make sure you find a way to measure your success that positively motivates you. I mean how good do you think it felt for me when I could literally feel the changes my body has under gone ? Answer very good it was enough to fuel me for this week which is my hardest to date. So my question to you is this

When was the last time you had this and why not ?

Don't you owe it to yourself to get this feeling in someway? I would have to say yes I mean why not what else are you doing right now other than what you were doing yesterday getting the same thing you have gotten for days, weeks, months on end. Change comes in the small things we do daily that equal something really large when you look back on it in a week, month, or year. Today is your day get up get out and make something different today. This is also phrased in a simple statement (which i have tattooed on my right arm)

Carpe Diem which translates to Seize The Day

Your life is a series of days added up and it is hard to notice the things happening today are gonna one day add up to all that you are it is your personal responsibility to make sure you give yourself the best version of you that there is.

So that is what I learned last week and in training over the course of the last month. As for training I am into day 3 of week 5 and the intensity just went up a notch.

Until my next post

God Bless and Good Luck

Ironman Update #3

So I am three weeks into this and this is the hardest of the 3 for me and not because of the training. See it does not feel new anymore so the routine is starting to get boring. Now I know right out the gate this is bad so I started to change my state by asking better questions till my frame about the situation is back on track where it needs to be. Afterwards I was not satisfied with just refocusing I wanted to know why the feeling even occurred in the first place and the answer I found was simple I am physically getting use to the training this week,because it was a repeat of week one and knowing that made me lose some interest because I had already done what was being asked of me before and it was not knew. Well I took that a step further and instead of getting excited by the challenge of a new week (by the way week four may have me reconsidering this) I decided to make the situation that I saw as boring interesting by making it more challenging. I pushed myself to go further faster & just a little harder than I needed to. The result was a much more empowering experience I also had to remember not to go to hard as the program was designed allow some recovery. So it was this real time adjustments that I made this week that truly made all the difference this week and helped me learn more about my training and myself.

Until next post God Bless Amen

Ironman Update #2

So I have come to the end of week two and man I will tell you I am proud or myself. I am in pain and recovery seems to be slow with my legs hurting to the point of not being able walk without pain. I logged close to 55 miles this week between running and biking. I learned why the the run is the equalizer of the event and I have one simple thing that I am going to help improve my odds of finishing my goal I am committing to and that is. Simply running during the entire marathon. If I can do that it will give me a competitive advantage. This little distinction can make a big difference. Why because my research shows that most people walk more of the marathon than anticipated and most Ironman newbies almost never run the full thing. It is basic and simple but that is a part of success doing the simple things well. Training Lesson-Winning is determined by the fundamentals. It is the little things we do that make all the biggest differences. Doing the basics over and over until your disgusted then doing them again is one of the greatest keys to success and I had always heard this yesterday I experienced just how much it works. So if your at a place where your looking to be greater than you are now just look at the fundamentals and focus there you will be very amazed by the results you can get by getting better at the basics. One parting thought remember the Leborn James game winning shot from the playoffs recently ? While every one was wowed did you notice he really wasn't I believe it was because of this principle for him that was probably the 5000th time that he has made such a shot.Only this time everyone was watching. Repetition is the Mother of Perfection. God Bless Amen

Ironman Update #1

So I am a week into my training for next years Ironman triathlon and in all honesty I am not as nearly as exhausted so that was not a surprise. I will tell you that I burned a ton of calories (4040 to be exact).I will also tell you that this race really is not for the faint of heart I looked at this weeks training and I think that it has increased dramatically which is good. I love the challenge of the whole event. I think that is key to anything you do with passion and excitement. I mean look at your own life and think of the times when you felt most alive and some form of passion will be linked to that. I read the best quote I have read in a long time today and I want to share it with you all. "Live as if u were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." Gandhi That is how I try to live my life give it a shot you might find yourself surprisingly satasfied. God Bless Amen