Persevere!

We all encounter “setbacks” as we work toward our goals.
Here is a timeline of Abraham Lincoln’s life to keep things in perspective:
1809: Lincoln born into poverty
1816: Lincoln’s family forced out of their home and he is forced to go to work to support them
1818: His mother dies
1831: He failed in business
1832: He ran for Illinois House and lost
1832: He lost his job and was rejected from law school
1833: Borrowed money from a friend to start a business, but was bankrupt by the end of the year.  It took 17 years to repay this debt.

1834: He ran for state legislature again… and lost…again

1835: He was engaged to be married but his fiancee died and he had a nervous breakdown that left him confined to bed for months

1838: He sought to become Speaker of legislature and was defeated
1840: Sought to become elector and was defeated
1843: Ran for Congress and lost
1846: Ran for Congress and won!
1848: Ran for re-election to Congress and lost
1849: Sought the job of land officer but was rejected
1854: Ran for U.S. Senate and lost
1856: Sought nomination to Vice President but lost
1858: Ran for U.S. Senate and lost
Then in 1860 he ran for President and the rest is history.

WHY would he run for President with a track record like that?  Because he knew his purpose in life.

“I do the very best I know how- the best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end.  If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won’t amount to anything.  If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.”  Abraham Lincoln

As Winston Churchill said,  “Never, never, never, never give up.”

Perservere!

We all encounter “setbacks” as we work toward our goals.
Here is a timeline of Abraham Lincoln’s life to keep things in perspective:
1809: Lincoln born into poverty
1816: Lincoln’s family forced out of their home and he is forced to go to work to support them
1818: His mother dies
1831: He failed in business
1832: He ran for Illinois House and lost
1832: He lost his job and was rejected from law school
1833: Borrowed money from a friend to start a business, but was bankrupt by the end of the year.  It took 17 years to repay this debt.

1834: He ran for state legislature again… and lost…again

1835: He was engaged to be married but his fiancee died and he had a nervous breakdown that left him confined to bed for months

1838: He sought to become Speaker of legislature and was defeated
1840: Sought to become elector and was defeated
1843: Ran for Congress and lost
1846: Ran for Congress and won!
1848: Ran for re-election to Congress and lost
1849: Sought the job of land officer but was rejected
1854: Ran for U.S. Senate and lost
1856: Sought nomination to Vice President but lost
1858: Ran for U.S. Senate and lost
Then in 1860 he ran for President and the rest is history.

WHY would he run for President with a track record like that?  Because he knew his purpose in life.

“I do the very best I know how- the best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end.  If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won’t amount to anything.  If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.”  Abraham Lincoln

As Winston Churchill said,  ”Never, never, never, never give up.”

Develop Your Purpose

Where does being a Hero of Tomorrow start? In the gym? On the training ground? In the heat of battle?

The answer is “None of the above”.

Being a HOT starts in your mind and on a piece of paper, because the first step to becoming a hero is to determine your purpose in life and write it down. Without this well-thought, and explicitly-stated, purpose how can you move forward in the virtuous, disciplined manner it takes to be HOT? From where else will you derive the values and cardinal points that will determine your behavior?

Once you’ve figured out, and explicitly stated, your purpose, you can move on to creating a vision for your life, followed by missions, goals and objectives that all lead to the place where the rubber meets the road…. action!

My purpose?  It’s simple… to know, love and serve God.  This purpose informs my life’s vision, values and virtues.

Finding your defining purpose is where HOT starts. Anybody else got a purpose they will share?

Check out this great effort to help the American Red Cross

The American Red Cross does a lot of great, volunteer work for uniformed personnel. When I was an officer on a Navy destroyer the Red Cross frequently provided assistance to service members while we were on deployment. Furthermore, as a firefighter, I can say that the Red Cross is available at EVERY fire in Charlotte when displaced occupants need help with lodging, clothing, etc. They also provide food and snacks for firefighters at larger incidents. Please check out this great web-site and fund-raising effort at http://poletopolerun.com/.   

Pole to Pole Run

WasSUP With you?!

Summer is here and I am once again enjoying frequent visits to the lake for stand-up paddleboarding (SUP).  If you want to strengthen your core and burn mega calories, all while having a great time, you CANNOT beat SUP!  It has all the fitness benefits of running and core training without the stale air conditioning of the gym or the monotony of stomping hot asphalt.

“The average male can burn between 800 and 1,000 calories per hour, with the average female burning about 500 to 700 calories per hour,” he said. “Compare this to running on a treadmill or an elliptical machine, where an average male burns between 600 to 700 calories and the average female burns between 300 to 400 calories.”  (http://www.tampabay.com/features/fitness/article1015279.ece)

There is plenty of opportunity to SUP in the Charlotte area.  If you are interested, check out the website for My Aloha Paddlesports and Fitness, the Charlotte area’s first business devoted to SUP owned and operated by my friend Rob Bennett.

Holy Trinity Fitness

When I go to Mass each week I try to take the ideas I learn and apply them to my week.  This week was Holy Trinity Sunday.  We can find some inspiration for our physical improvement by considering the Holy Trinity.

The Holy Trinity is the name for the three, inseparable persons of God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

There is also a fitness “trinity”… strength, stamina and stretching.

Many of us struggle to get out there each day and do something to improve our strength, stamina and stretching.  Maybe it will help if you make a decision to “offer up” you efforts to the Holy Trinity.

Offer your strength training up to God, the all-powerful source of all strength and love.

Offer up your stamina training to the Holy Spirit, who never tires and never stops.

Offer up your stretching for the Son, who died for our sins stretched upon a wooden cross.

Help for Self-Help

I like to read.  Consequently, I spend a fair amount of time in libraries and bookstores.  Over the years I’ve observed the “self help” section growning ever larger.

The “self help” section undoubtedly fills a need.  Many of today’s best-sellers are in the “self-help” category.

If you thumb through the books in the self-help section you will find that many of them are focused on what you need to do TO YOURSELF to fix any number of problems.  No surprise there.

The truth of the matter is that the best way to help YOURSELF–to be the person God created you to be–is to turn your attention outward… to help others.  This outward focus is where your strength to overcome adversity is to be found.   The paradoxical fact is that finding yourself requires that turn away from yourself.

This truth has been documented time and time again, sometimes in books in the “self help” section, but also in other sections of the bookstore.  Read books by Victor Frankl, Ghandi, Jim Stockdale, Mother Teresa,  and others who are familiar with very tough circumstances, and you will see that selflessness is a pillar of their self-help.  Selflessness, focusing on God and their fellow man, became their strength during the hardest times.

We were created to love and be loved.  Need moral courage and resilience? Then shift your focus outward, to those who are counting on you to make good, loving decisions.

We should do the best we can with the body we have.  If you are facing tough physical challenges of illness, poor fitness, etc,  don’t look for strength within, instead focus on those who count on you to strive physically for your “best self”.

A consistent outward focus on your mission to love and serve others provides a bottomless well of resilience for self-help.

Here is a proposal for libraries and bookstores:  In the aisle just adjacent to the “Self-help” section place a “Help Others” section.  Maybe it will create a whole new genre of best-sellers.

Best Fitness Version of Yourself

I’ve been in the leadership development business for nearly a quarter of a century now (it was 24 years ago that I put on my youngster stripe at the Naval Academy and assumed a leadership role in developing the incoming class of Plebes).

By the time I put on that rank of Midshipman 3/C  I was well-indoctrinated with Academy’s mantra that we are all called to become the “best version” of ourselves in all aspects of our life… morally, mentally and physically.

This, of course, begs an obvious question.  What is the “best version” of yourself?

In my leadership development business with Academy Leadership, I’ve assisted many leaders as they evaluate themselves and conclude “I’d like to get in better physical condition”.

That’s a good starting point, but it’s not really clear on what “better physical condition” means.  I encourage leaders to envision the “best physical version” of themselves, and then to define specifics about how they can achieve this vision.

The “best version” of yourself is different for everyone.  God made each of us different for a reason, and we each have a unique calling that will define your “best”.  Though Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II were leaders in the same faith, they were very different people, and each had different way of achieving their “best self” in each dimension of life.

Once you’ve established a vision of your own best version, you can develop a philosophy on how you will live to achieve that vision.  From this vision and philosophy, you can derive SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, trackable) that will guide your decisions.

To say you want to “get in shape” is a nice start.  Now take it to the next step… what is your vision of “best self” from a physical fitness perspective?  What is your fitness philosophy?

Know thyself

Every day each of us make hundreds of decisions that impact our moral, mental and physical fitness.  In every case these decisions are a result of our personal philosophy.

Your philosophy is a set of beliefs by which you choose to live.  If you don’t have a personal philosophy, I suggest you develop one right now.

When  I say develop, I mean listen to others, read extensively, think, and then write the thing down!  In 500 words or less, write down your personal philosophy for your moral, mental and physical fitness.  This is the first step toward setting appropriate goals.  Here is what to include:

«Who you are

«What you value

«What your priorities are

«What you will stand for

«What you will not stand for

Here are the benefits you will realize from writing down your personal philosophy:

«Greater Self-Knowledge

«Greater Self-Confidence

  Greater Personal Energy

Friday Challenge

Here is a challenge for you:

This Friday, starting at 0700, do one set up push-ups on the hour from 0700-1900 hours.  If you have a watch you can set your chime to go off each hour.

Your set may be one push-up, or it may be fifty… do whatever you can.  At the end of the day let us know how many you got.  Anybody in?