The 4 Minute Mile
AUGUST 29, 2012
Countless people have seriously important goals and dreams in life. The hell of it is that either what we’re doing is getting us to our dreams or it’s not. That’s a tough talk to have looking in the mirror but one that’s insanely necessary.
You’ll hear me talk about how so many people’s dreams have shrunk to match their present income. How sad is that?
Where do you want to go? What do you want to do? How’s it going to feel when you’ve arrived? I’d love to know what it’s going to feel like when you cross the finish line to that race and what it will feel like when you are taking a leisurely run down the beach. That’s what you want to be thinking about. Your goals are the most important thing to this and the feelings tied with them. I literally want to know what it’s going to feel like when you’re walking down the Seine River in Paris, holding your spouses hand, the auburn light illuminates the sky as the sun is setting, the lights come on the Eiffel Tower, & you’re just lost in the moment….you find yourselves passionately kissing each other and one of the great memories of your life is created. How will that feel?
Those are some pretty important goals!
A couple great books written on my next point but I’ll sum them up pretty easy. No one can gain or lose 100 pounds tomorrow, get ripped buff tomorrow, make a million bucks tomorrow, climb Mt. Everest tomorrow. Over time, it comes down to the smart decisions you make on a day to day basis, which add up to whatever you want. Eat well, take care of your body, focus on happy healthy relationships, i.e. be balanced, and the rest will follow. You can do anything you want. A blind guy has climbed Mt. Everest. (beautiful story in it and of itself).
Ponder this (and this one will be a lasting thought for you):
Only the knowledge of your own limitations is what limits you.
As humans, we are capable of things that we’ve sometimes never thought of. If you were an animal, you’d have no choice but to go with instincts rather than intelligence; but we have a choice! Just like Roger Bannister did in 1954 when he broke the 4 minute mile. He said in order to do this, to break this record that had never been broken in the human history, I’ll need to prepare myself mentally as much as, if not more than physically. That day in 1954, with sub par weather conditions, Roger Banister broke this unbreakable record.
The same year he did this, others did the same.
That’s the power of believing. Knowing that something can and will be done is every bit as important as anything else in the equation if not the most important.
For you, it’s your choice to decide what you are going to do. Then realize the path to your goals is right in front of you, and it has little to do with your past. Picture this like you’re standing on a sidewalk. Turn around and visualize that your past is there. The sidewalk of your past is full to the brim with markings/stories/defeats/successes/love/life. The hell of it is that it’s literally etched in stone and will never be changed and can not be whatsoever.
Then turn around and look forward to the blank sidewalk in front of you. That’s your future. It has yet to be written. It’s up to you to create what you want, what you want to achieve, to feel, to live, how much you want to laugh & love.
This is an extremely fun process to partake. Enjoy the time to yourself to reflect on what you want in life, what trip you want to take, what that time will be like with your kids, with your loved ones, put this all on paper. Yes, old fashion paper. Thoughts manifest, so why not think about the things that will fuel your perpetually great attitude rather that the things that can bring a person down? These dreams are what you want to think about as you’re falling asleep, the things that wake you up in the night. That’s a beautiful scenario!
Understand that without your rooted beliefs in what you want, ie the dreams on paper and with siugnificant detail, those dreams are abstract. Put them down on paper. If not now…when?
Ask yourself “why not me?”
Now then: either what you’re doing today is getting you to these goals or not. This is an honest moment you need to have with yourself. If your current day job isn’t getting you there, then you need another route, call it plan B, a supplemental income stream, etc. Most people don’t have the option to make more income at their current job/career. Let’s say for sake of conversation that you have done something like the “War on Debt” class from Dani Johnson or Dave Ramsey’s total money makeover. You’ve figured out how to reduce the debts, event pay them off, but you aren’t happy with living so meager that you don’t get the time to enjoy with your kids or loved ones, you don’t have the time to write that book, to read that book, or play golf or ride your bike, whatever your version of that story is for you.
How then? What will you do? For me, real estate caved in like an avalanche. The night that Lehman Bros tanked threw me into survival mode and I fought hard to make something happen. For someone in the rut described above, it’s like watching a tree grow. Believe me, I sold everything I owned with value, refiled my taxes, and still needed the opportunity to make something happen. As you may know from following my blog, Kelley and I got involved with Team BeachBody and never looked back. It made me realize that I wasn’t limited to doing only one thing in life. I had options as do you now. For some it’s car payment money or mortgage pay down money or time freedom or health or a want to help others or accountability to your own health & fitness. If any of those things are important to you, then it’s well worth your time to get a glimpse of what we have seen. I don’t know if it’s for you, I just know it’s worth checking out! This my friend, is called an exit strategy. Have a plan, and exit plan if you will, for all the things you want out of your life. You want to be healthier? Physically? Financially? Of course you do. We all do. We also have a responsibility to teach our kids these things in life. Or else what? Or else the sad stats on our nation continue to rise. That’s the debt ceiling, the obesity rates, type II Diabetes rates amongst adults as well as children. I’m sorry, but if a child finds themselves with Type II Diabetes, it’s the parents damn fault. Not easy to swallow, but that’s the reality. My grandmother passed away from Type II Diabetes and I always thought it was hereditary and I stood a good chance to get that. Sorry, that’s not the case. Poor food choices and a sedentary lifestyle, over time (remember Compound Effect) add up to these results. Did you know that Type II is a vascular disease that scars the inside of all your veins & arteries? You’re then 14 times as likely to have a heart attack or stroke. Holy cow if that’s not a wake up call, then start shopping for plots and headstones now. The irony that they sell those at Costco.
I digress. Bottom line is we have three shots to change a person’s life: World Class Fitness, Nutrition, and/or the business. One or all of those will make a massive difference in someone’s quality of life.
Then we need to move past the stigma of network marketing because this business is more profitable than most traditional businesses (I know, I’ve owned a few and studied countless). With virtually no overhead, we help people, make income based on how many we help (so it’s in the right order), and we end up with more free time. When I’m asked about this type of business, my response is,”The net result of what we do is a tremendous amount of people are more fit & healthy, both physically and financially. You could run a Presidential campaign on what we do: Job Creation and Health Care!
One thing I found was that as I wrote my goals out, asked myself daily “What did I do to reach my goals of….?”, these things came to fruition. Before they did, as they did, and as they still do, I got & get resistance from people. It’s only from the people who have no parade of their own so they want to rain on mine, and will want to do the same to you. No more. Enough already. You stand tall & firm in your convictions, and enjoy the peace and solitude of knowing where you’re going….
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