Inspiration vs Motivation

I wanted to write about inspiration vs motivation because in my line of work as a coach, I often have people come to me and tell me, “Hey Chris, I need you to motivate me to start working out!”  When I hear that, my usual reply is to say that I can’t motivate you, you have to do that yourself.  I might be able to help you find your motivation or inspire you to take action, but motivation has to come from within you.  That’s not typically met with enthusiasm but in my mind, it’s the honest truth.  Let me explain the difference to you as I see it and how you can put these two words to powerful effect in your life and in all of your pursuits.

Inspiration vs Motivation: The Definitions

Before we go any further, let’s look at the definitions of inspiration vs motivation and start there.  Many people consider them to be the same so thinking about inspiration vs motivation doesn’t always trigger the kind of response you may be looking for.

Inspiration: The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something.
Motivation: The reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a certain way.

There’s no doubt that the two words are closely related.  Understanding how they work, their effect on you and your behavior, and how you can leverage them to serve you, can take you leaps and bounds forward in the pursuit of your goals.  So. with those definitions in place, let’s talk about what makes them different.

Inspiration vs Motivation: Motivation

Let’s start off with motivation since it’s the word that I hear most often when people are looking for help and support.  It’s true that motivation is what you need when you’re trying to accomplish something or produce a change in your life.  However, looking externally for that motivation is more likely to leave you frustrated and confused rather than motivated and ready for action.  Here’s why.

Motivation, as the definition states, is the reason or the reasons why a person acts or behaves in a certain way.  This means that motivation is a force that comes from within you.  It is derived from the internal reasons that you have within you and those reasons come from your values and priorities.  No one else can define your priorities and values for you because they are unique to you, your life, and your situation.  Someone like a coach can possibly help you find your motivation, the thing that moves you from within, but even a coach wouldn’t be able implant motivation that isn’t there.  Motivation isn’t given or bestowed, it comes from you and it is discovered within you.  Let’s look at some common examples.

The carrot-on-a-stick metaphor is often used as an example of motivation.  I would argue that the carrot itself is not the motivation but the carrot triggers the motivation within the person chasing the carrot.  You’re not motivated to chase the carrot simple because it’s a carrot, you chase the carrot because it would satisfy a need that you have and that is what motivates you.  The desire to have the carrot for whatever reason is your motivation, not the carrot itself.  So, if someone knew and understood you enough to know what you value and what’s important to you, they could dangle the right carrot in front of you to help you find your motivation, but they can’t make the carrot important to you if it isn’t already important.  Could they convince you that it should be important to you?  Potentially yes.  But, even then, the motivation comes from within you when you decide that the carrot is important enough to chase.

Here’s another brief example before we go on to discuss inspiration vs motivation.  If your house was burning down and all that was inside it were some electronics and some books, you’re not going back into that house to save anything.  But, if your wife, or husband, or children, someone you love, was trapped inside, there’s no force on earth that’s going to keep you from running into the house to save that person.  The difference is that when someone you love is in danger, you have  powerful and compelling reason to take action, you have a strong motivational force that is pushing you to act.

Inspiration vs Motivation: Inspiration

The difference between inspiration and motivation is an important one to understand so that you know how to find what you’re looking for.  Inspiration, by definition, is a stimulus.  A stimulus is something external to you that incites you to action.  Right off the bat you can see that inspiration is an external force while motivation is an internal force.  I personally like to consider motivation to be a pushing type of force while inspiration is more of a pulling force.

Many things inspire us to action such as role models, music, art, books, speakers, stories, etc.  Practically anything could serve as inspiration for someone because what is inspiring to you is completely subjective.  What you find inspiring may not have any impact on me.  The critical aspect of inspiration is that it connects with you on some level and the deeper that level the more powerful the inspiration.  For example, if you found a role model that had achieved what you want to achieve, came from a similar place in life, AND went through some of the struggles that you’re currently enduring, you would connect with that person right away.  That role model’s success, their story, their victory would most likely be very inspirational to you because you can connect with it in a deep and profound way.

Inspiration vs Motivation: How to apply them

When someone comes to me asking for motivation, they’ve usually come to me because something that I’ve done or am doing is inspiring them to take action but they have yet to find a compelling reason to take the first step or to continue with the process.  They are indeed looking for motivation, but they’re looking in the wrong place.

Through the coaching process I can help you find what will motivate you to take the actions necessary to successfully produce the changes that you want in life.  But, as I said before, I cannot make the process important to you if it isn’t already in line with your values and priorities.  It’s possible that you need to shift your values and priorities, and I can help with that as well.  In the end however, what motivates you will be driven by what’s important to you and if that reason is powerful enough, you won’t need any help staying the course.

Self motivation and inspiration go hand in hand and if you can effectively apply both, you’ll have an extremely powerful combination of forces moving you in a positive direction.  So, here’s my advice to you to help you use these tools more effectively.

Inspiration vs motivation tips

• Evaluate your values and priorities to ensure that they are in line with your current primary needs in life
• Identify how your goals meet your needs and how they are associated with your values and priorities
• Define what is motivating you to change.  Why do you want to change?  What’s the purpose?  How does it serve you?  How does it impact what’s most important to you?
• Associate that motivation to every action you take that moves you forward and you’ll stop running on willpower and will instead be using “why-power”
• Find someone or something that inspires you to take action
• Feed yourself that inspiration regularly to stimulate your desire to take action
• Connect your inspiration to your motivation and you will have an unstoppable force driving you towards success
• Always be on the lookout for additional sources of inspiration to reinforce your decision to act
• Do not rely on inspiration to carry you to the finish line, your internal motivation is the only thing that can do that for you

Inspiration pulls, motivation pushes.  But in the end, when you’re in the dark of the morning and no one or nothing is there to inspire you, you motivation to press on is all you have to rely on.  Know and understand your motivation and you will never question whether or not you should continue.  If you still question it, I would argue that your motivation isn’t powerful enough and you’re headed down the path to eventual failure.  Inspiration vs motivation isn’t a contest, they actually work hand-in-hand to drive you to success if you know how to use them.

Personal Growth Coaching

I spent a few years coaching people in their health and fitness as a Beachbody coach; however, it wasn’t until I began to practice personal growth coaching as a John Maxwell Team Member that I really began to witness significant transformation in people’s lives.  Granted, there were many people that were able to begin their journey through health and fitness and perhaps lose some extra weight that they had been carrying around and that’s fantastic.  But, I have observed that real change, real life transformation and the achievement of long term success lies in the realm of personal development and personal growth coaching.  Allow me to explain.

Personal Growth Coaching: What is it?

Before I go on, let me tell you a bit about what I mean when I say personal growth coaching.  The term coaching, as I understand and employ it, is largely misunderstood and misused .  My initial thought when someone says “coaching” to me is that of a sports team and a sports team’s coach.  In fact, I’ve seen some very successful and renowned coaching businesses and organizations use this same analogy.  For me, and  I have the phenomenal John Maxwell Team to thank for this, coaching is a completely different practice and experience and I believe that it is far and away the most powerful way that you can impact another person’s life.

Without going into the details of how it works, the essence of the kind of coaching that I provide and encourage is to increase an individual’s awareness of themselves and the potential that they have within them so that they can then explore and exercise options that will help them achieve their desired result.  I know, sounds really vague and simplistic.  It’s actually a fairly simple process, but a good coaching session with a good coach can be deeply profound and can potentially change your whole perception and direction in life.  It’s powerful, extremely powerful, if the process is allowed to serve its purpose, if the coach is performing his duties well, and if the participant is open and willing to explore their inner depths and unearth things that hold them back and also things that will empower them.

Personal Growth Coaching: Why is it so Important?

I believe that personal growth coaching is critical to achieve long-term, sustainable success and transformation in your life for one major reason.  As I have worked with and observed many different people over the years, I have concluded that there is one thing that always ends up holding back a person’s growth and development and therefore their achievement of success.  People will often point to the following reasons as explanations for why they have not achieved success, but I believe that none of these are the real reason for most people’s failures:

• Lack of resources and information
• Lack of adequate support and encouragement
• Lack of time
• Lack of motivation
• Inability to break old habits
• Inability to create new habits
• Lack of focus and attention
• Too many distractions
• Lack of guidance

Have any of these excuses ever come to mind when you had to explain why you failed at something?  I’m willing to bet that they have, I know that I have used many of them myself.  Here’s the thing about that list, ALL of those items can be changed.  Each bullet on that list can be addressed and I have witness situations where one of these excuses were given and a solution was promptly provided or the situation was addressed and still no results, no success was produced.  Why is that?  If you lacked time but we found a way for you to make more available time in your day, why didn’t you succeed afterwards?  If I provided the guidance that you felt you’d been lacking, why are you still stuck?

You didn’t fail because of these excuses or excuses like these.  You failed because of your mindset.  You failed because of the way you perceived your life and your circumstances.  You failed because your mental process did not support the pursuit of success.  You failed because you were not thinking in a way that would drive you and lead you to the achievement of your dreams.  How do I know this?  I know this because if you had a better mindset, these excuses would not stop you from doing anything.

• If you feel you lack resources, be proactive and find some.  Google is your friend.  Find people that can help you, teach you, mentor you, guide you.  A person with the right attitude does not think that he’s lacking resources and waits for them to arrive on his doorstep.  He thinks, how can I get the resources that I need and sets out to find them.
• If you feel like you have a poor support system, find a group of people that will support and encourage you and stick to them like glue.  Is it easy?  Perhaps not.  Can it be done?  Absolutely.
• If you feel that you lack time, be sure that you’re making the best use of your available time and are dedicating your time in worthwhile ways.  We all wake up with 24 hours to use, if some people can achieve a great many things in those 24 hours, so can you.
• If you’re lacking motivation, the first hint is to stop asking for it from other people an stop expecting it to come from someone else.  The motivation that is going to drive you to success is going to come from within you, not from without.  Internal motivation is the only kind of motivation that cannot be touched by external influences.  Internal motivation will only die if you allow it to, it is yours to control, yours to wield, and yours to find.

Personal growth coaching will help you develop the mindset, perspective, and attitude that will put you on the side of successful people.  You will develop yourself in ways that will change the way that you view yourself, your life, your circumstances, and your options and you will discover that the capability to succeed and achieve greatness is already within you, you just haven’t learned how to exercise it and utilize it.

Personal Growth Coaching: How to Get Started

One on one personal growth coaching is what I absolutely love to do.  I love to get involved with and learn about people’s lives and I love discovering ways that I can help them live to their fullest potential.  There is nothing more rewarding than being able to watch the development of someone that you love and care about into the person that you always believed that they could be.  I take great pride in my ability to assist people like you through personal growth coaching and I want to offer you the opportunity to experience how it can help you change your life for the better.

Contact me and let me know that you would like to set up a free coaching session with me.  Personal growth coaching from the John Maxwell Team and from my coaching partners has been instrumental in my own development and I know that it can be of tremendous value to you if you are seeking a change in your life and are open to the process.  One on one coaching for development is a powerful way to intentionally put yourself in an environment where you are encouraged and challenged to stretch and to grow, but not in the way that a sports coach would yell at you and hard drive you.  I encourage you to accept my invitation, you have nothing to lose and much to gain.  Contact me now and we’ll set up a free personal growth coaching session for you right away, you will be glad that you did!

Humble Leader

I haven’t posted in a while because I have been under the weather but during that time I experienced a wonderful lesson in regards to being a humble leader that I wanted to share with you.  It all started with how I was feeling when I saw a friend post the image above.

Humble Leader: Where my mind and heart was

For a few days I was in one of those personal ruts.  The thoughts of doubt were starting to grow in the garden of my mind and I was sinking into a bad place very quickly.  I was beginning to question myself and my capabilities as a leader and that obviously has a massive impact on everything else that I dedicate my time to.  As someone who wants to work with other people to help them develop their leadership skills, it’s hard to write on the topic when you feel like you’re not being a good leader.

I want to say that leaders shouldn’t lose faith in their ability to lead but to be honest, I think it’s part of being a humble leader.  Sitting back and reflecting and analyzing yourself and what you’re doing.  Asking yourself the tough questions like, “just how good are you?”  ”Do you really have things of value to share with others?”  Perhaps you don’t need to go as far down the hole as I was during this particular time, but I think it’s important for leaders to be humble for a few specific reasons.

Should a Leader be Humble?

I believe absolutely they should be and let me explain why.  You’ve probably seen humble leadership quotes such as the one that says, “humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less.”  I want to touch on that particular part about how we think about ourselves.  I’m not suggesting that we think less of ourselves, but I am encouraging you to be realistic and honest with yourself in your assessment.

When you’re in a position of leadership, there’s a tendency to think that we need to always be strong and not allow people to see weakness in us.  While we should certainly be models and examples that inspire and encourage others to be better, I believe that there is a special place for vulnerability in a leader’s life.  As Thomas Merton says in his quote about, humility makes us real.  Being humble and admitting that we’re not perfect, that we don’t have all the answers, that we make mistakes and bad decisions, makes us real.  If we hold on to our pride and try to project that nothing phases us and that we’re always right and perfect, we just seem artificial.  No one is that good, period.

My recent experience of the important of being a humble leader was that my confidence was in the gutter.  I felt like everything I had done up to this point was fruitless and wrong because things have changed around me and on my team.  Did I do something wrong?  How could I not have kept people engaged?  What more could I have done?  Where did I fail?  Am I a leader at all?

It was a dark and difficult time for me personally.  It practically put my direction in life into question.  I didn’t pronounce my feelings and thoughts or go out and whine about how life sucked and was coming down around me.  I expressed myself to someone I trusted and love and that I knew would help me find my way back again.  Little did I know, the message was passed on to one other person in my circle.

Humble Leader

At that moment I could have been angry about my weakness being shared with someone else, especially someone that looked to me as a leader.  I could have put up my walls and tried to deny the fact that I had doubts about myself.  I could have been prideful and tried to cover it all up and say that it wasn’t true.  But, I knew that my condition was shared out of concern and love and I recognized that if there was something I needed in that moment, it was a loving, helping hand.  I needed help.  That can be a difficult thing for a leader to say or recognize. We like to be the ones that are helping others but it’s true.  Leaders need help too and a humble leader is willing and able to recognize and accept that, ask for help, and take it when it’s given.

The Humble Leader’s Heart Revealed

Being a humble leader allows people to see where your heart truly is.  If you hide behind a wall of pride and an attitude that you can’t be phased or touched, then people will know right away that you are more concerned with how you are perceived than with how you are of service to those around you.  It’s immediately obvious that your focus is inward and selfish.  Being a humble leader and showing humility allows you to be of best service to those that follow you.  Sometimes, you have to recognize that you might not be the best solution for a person’s goals.  A prideful leader would never accept that.  A humble leader would let that person go to be where they will learn and grow the most.

If you’re in a leadership position, as yourself the tough questions and ask those around you the same tough questions.  Prepare yourself to accept the answers you get back and fight the desire to protect and defend yourself.  Be humble, stay in a mindset of service, and don’t be afraid to admit that sometimes, you’re weak and human too just like everyone else.  It’s a fallacy to think that leaders are always strong, that they never stumble or never need help.  It’s a fallacy and a potentially painful one too, which the first image captures rather well.  People tend to think leaders don’t need help.  I will tell you plain and simple that leaders need as much help as they can get.  If you’re following a prideful leader, you won’t see or hear that message.  If you’re following a humble leader, you’ll see it and hear it if you’re paying close enough attention.

Healthy Lunch Ideas for Work

Looking for some healthy lunch ideas for work?  Let’s dive into the physical side of personal development because I personally feel that the state of our physical health has a direct impact on the development of our leadership.  At least for someone like me who is conscious about my health and fitness, it is an important factor that I look for in the leaders that I follow.  We’ll explore some quick and easy options that will help you make the most of your lunch time at work so that you can get into a groove of improving your health and wellness every day, one lunch at a time.

Healthy Lunch Ideas for Work: Shakeology

Shakeology is a given for me and it tops my list because it helped me get a serious foothold in turning around my health and fitness.  When I was first starting out on my journey, my usual lunch time meal was a trip to the pizza buffet across the street or a $4 “cheap chinese” lunch, which happened to be extremely delicious.  Needless to say, those options, among others, fattened me up quite a bit.  When Shakeology was released, I got on the bandwagon right away to give it a try and I replaced my lunch with it because I struggled with my lunch options at work.  I hadn’t developed the discipline to make my own lunch yet so this was the best solution for me at the time.  It’s supremely high in nutritional content, it tastes fantastic and if you don’t like the flavor you can change the flavor in so many ways, and lastly, it’s very low in calories so it gave me a huge leg up on my weightloss efforts.

I still faithfully use it every day though it’s no longer a lunch for me but more of a recovery drink after my workouts.  But, if we’re talking about great options for healthy lunch ideas for work, you’d be hard pressed to find something better than Shakeology.

Healthy Lunch Ideas for Work: Brown Bag It

If you have the opportunity to make and bring your own lunch to work, I would recommend that as a close second to using Shakeology.  I prefer making my own meal because I own the whole process.  I know what ingredients go into my meal, I can control the portion that I eat, and I have complete control over my options.  As an added bonus, it’s cheaper!  Even if you only have basic skills in the kitchen, you can whip up something quick and easy that’s healthier than what you would probably pick up at a nearby restaurant or down at the office cafeteria.  Some healthy lunch ideas for work could be:

• sauteed vegetables with brown rice
• baked chicken breast with steamed vegetables
• steak with vegetables
• turkey sandwich on whole grain bread, avoid cheese if you can, try substituting avocado where you would use cheese
• salads of all varieties (no croutons), homemade salad dressing as simple as olive oil and balsamic vinegar
• chicken sausage with steamed vegetables
• grilled chicken breast, or other lean meat or fish, with mixed vegetables

Healthy Lunch Ideas for Work: At Work Lunch Ideas

What do you do if you’re not able to prepare your lunch ahead of time and bring it with you?  What if the pizza buffet is your only option or the fast food restaurant around the corner?  What do you do?  Here’s what I recommend if you’re stuck at work and you’re only option is to go out to forage for something healthy to eat.  Oh and don’t forget, these tips also work for healthy snacks while you’re on the job!

Many restaurants these days are trying to provide healthier eating options so keep an eye out for those.  They might be called “skinny,” “slim,” “health conscious,” or some other kind of healthy name.  Low fat doesn’t always mean healthier for you so be wary of following those signs, they could be misleading.  Also, gluten free is not a magic word for healthy.  You can eat healthy things and still gain weight if you’re not careful with your portion sizes.  Low carb options can be good so check those out and look for restaurants that offer all natural or even organic options.  Chemicals and processed foods are terrible for our bodies and impact us in ways that we won’t be able to recognize for some time to come but believe me, there’s an impact when you ingest them and you don’t want that happening in your body.

Order lean meats like white meat chicken and pork or fish.  If you have the option to select sides, get the fruit or the salad and avoid extra bread, high starch goods like mashed potatoes, french fries, chips, etc.  Substitute or remove cheese when you can.  DO NOT get soda or sweetened teas.  Stick with water or an herbal, unsweetened tea.  Drinking your calories is just as bad as eating them.  Lastly, don’t be afraid to personalize your order and ask for what you want.  If your healthy lunch ideas for work are limited, make the best of what you have available to you.

Healthy Lunch Ideas for Work: Your Weapon Against Steady Weight Gain

In the end, I would still recommend giving Shakeology a try and see if it works well for your needs.  You can get it in a pouch so it’s easy to bring with you or you can bring the bag around with you if you like.  You can blend it as a smoothie or just shake it up.  Don’t heat it and don’t stir it.  Heating it changes the nutritional value and stirring it is generally not a nice experience when you drink it.  Having healthy lunch ideas for work is a great way to kick start your health and fitness journey so find some that work for you and get started!

What are good leadership traits? Integrity

How do I succeed in life

Someone recently asked me “how do I succeed in life?”, not to find out about my own personal method of success but to hopefully gain some insight into how he could succeed in what he desired.  I wanted to share my thoughts on this question and a bit of my own story because I feel like there is one universal truth that we can all apply that would help us to be successful in our lives.

I shared a bit of my own life experience in this video and I’ll continue to elaborate more below:

My personal experience

There was a point in my life where I began to feel like I wasn’t living to my fullest potential.  Despite earlier warning signs of this truth which I chose to ignore, it took me a while to allow that feeling to sink in and have an impact on me.  It wasn’t until I started on my own health and fitness journey that I started to wonder “how do I succeed in life?”  Firstly, I had to understand what success actually meant to me and that was a process itself, one that is still continuing to this day.  But, today I have a better understand of what I consider to be success in life and what I will have to achieve to feel like I am a success.

How do I succeed in life: Know what success means

After spending a few years getting into being a Beachbody Coach, which became a passion of mine, I was still left feeling a bit unfulfilled.  As much as I loved what I do as a Beachbody Coach and helping people with their health and fitness, I still had this nagging feeling that there was more to the picture that I had not unveiled yet.  Then one day, my thoughts went back to an earlier time in my life when I was seriously considering becoming a priest.  What I liked about the idea of becoming a priest was that I would have the opportunity to help people with their spiritual growth and development by speaking with them, to them, teaching them, and training them on various spiritual things.  I would later decide that being a man of the cloth was not my calling, but I never let go of that desire to be a teacher or sorts.

When I became a John Maxwell Certified Coach, then the pieces started to fall into place and the answer became more clear.  Success in my life became a quest for building up my own value so that I could give it back out to the people that I know and love.  If I could positively impact and change the lives of the people around me, I would consider myself successful and I trusted that my financial needs would be met in that process.  Financial success was no longer the main indicator of success, it was the amount of value I could add to others that would allow them to make significant transformations in their own personal lives.  How do I succeed in life?  Step 1, know what your meaning of success is so that you know the objective you will be busting your butt for.

How do I succeed in life: the secret sauce

In my video I talk briefly about the secret to success in life and I believe this to be universally true.  When you have a good idea of what success means in your life, sometimes even before that part of the process takes place, the key thing that you HAVE to do to be successful is to take responsibility and control of your thoughts.

Your thoughts are the most powerful things you possess.  As Lao Tzu stated above, your thoughts will determine your destiny.  How do I succeed in life?  I direct my thoughts towards the destiny that I desire to achieve.  When I was younger and I knew nothing about this concept, I allowed my thoughts to be directed into negativity and doubt.  I thought that if I was having those thoughts, that’s just who I was.  I didn’t realize that I could exercise control of what and how I was thinking so I just simply allowed them to be what they were.  Unfortunately for me at the time, my thoughts weren’t in a positive place.  When I thought those things, that was the destiny that I produced for myself because my actions, which were based on my thoughts, lead me in the direction of doing nothing significant with my life.

My question to you is, where are your thoughts leading you?

How do I succeed in life? I don’t allow my thoughts to be my excuses

Many of us allow our thoughts to be our excuses and this holds us back in so many ways.  We believe that the impulses and initial reactions we have our our nature so we let them have their way with our minds, beliefs, actions, and character.  We cast the blame on other people because their actions created thoughts in our minds, thoughts that we didn’t make an effort to control or sort out or filter through.  No one can force you to think anything you don’t want to think.  People can certainly do things to prompt certain thoughts or lead you to think specific things, but in the end, the choice is yours.  It’s a humbling and empowering truth.  It’s humbling because you have to accept the fact that the majority of your failures and complications in life are quite possibly your own doing.  The struggles that I had when I was growing up were entirely my own doing.  I’m not naive enough to say that external forces can’t have any impact on us if we don’t allow them to, but the great majority of things that we complain about or use for excuses are things that we can overcome and deal with if we can just learn to be responsible for our thoughts.

How do I succeed in life? I choose what I think

I found this graphic that captures this concept nicely but I wanted to add a bit of clarification to what it’s saying.

I like the idea that achieving happiness in life is simple, of course the practice of it is difficult.  If things are going well and you’re happy with your life, keep going.  Easy enough.  If you’re not happy, the graphic recommends that you change something and then reevaluate if you’re happy.  I wanted to add a bit of clarification on “change something.”

How do I succeed in life? I make changes to myself first

It’s easy to lose perspective of our lives and the situations that we’re living in.  I recall one quote that said if we were all in a room and threw our troubles out on the floor for everyone to see, we would each want to grab up our own problems as quickly as possible because we would see how difficult everyone else’s lives are compared to ours.  The answer to the question, “how do I succeed in life?” is to be responsible for and take control of your thoughts.  This means that you have to be open to and intentional about making changes to yourself and your own thinking before trying to change your environment in order to produce your happiness.  Let’s face it, if you’re not appreciative or grateful for what you have in life, you can change everything external to you but you’ll never find happiness.  So, I wanted to clarify the “change something” in the graphic above by saying we should look to see if there is something within ourselves that we should change before we cast the blame and the responsibility on something or someone else.

How do I succeed in life? Ownership of my thoughts

How do I succeed in life?  I take ownership of my thoughts.  I understand that I control my thoughts, they don’t control me and they are not a part of my nature.  My nature and my character is what I chose to make it.  I do my best to flex that responsibility every single day with every decision that I make, with every thought that I allow to become words, actions, and habits.  I believe that you should do the same.

Don’t be a victim of your own thinking.

Exercise your right and your responsibility to control your thoughts, that’s the secret to success in life and the answer to the question, “how do I succeed in life?”

Ways to Increase Focus

I remember when I was young and my friends and I were studying martial arts and it brought me to thinking about the power of focus and ways to increase focus.  If I recall correctly, we were studying Aikido and we got into learning about Chi and how to use it and focus it during your practice.  We were showed this one exercise where you stand at one end of a room, or out on a field, any place really, and you focus on an object at the other end of the field.  You then imagine attaching your Chi to that object at the other end of the field and treat it like a rope that binds you to the object.  Then, you proceed to walk directly towards the object.  While doing so , other students would attempt to stop you but if your Chi was focused correctly, it would be extremely difficult to stop your progress.  Whereas if someone made an attempt to stop you and you broke your focus by looking down at the person’s arm that’s holding you back, you progress stops because your focus has shifted to being immediately in front of you.

I thought that this exercise illustrated the power that having focus can have on our ability to overcome obstacles and achieve what we desire.  Then, I began to think about ways to increase focus so that we can all be intentional about setting our focus and keeping it actively engaged as much as possible to prevent set backs and obstacles from keeping us from our goals and dreams.

Why Implement These Ways to Increase Focus?

Focus helps you ensure that all of the activity that you do is purposefully moving you towards a specific end.  Having a solid focus on your end goal also helps you maintain perspective whenever things go wrong, and believe me, they will go wrong and times will get hard.  But, if you’re focused on your goal, a little setback, or even a major setback, won’t be enough to keep you from getting back in the game and pressing onward.  Being focused helps you be more efficient and productive with your time because you will be a lot less likely to waste it and much more intentional about how you utilize your time.  Not only that, but you will also learn to appreciate what’s happening in that moment and the purpose that the moment serves.

Below I have listed some ways to help you focus so that you can improve your productivity and efficiency.

Simple Ways to Increase Focus

• Remove distractions – Distractions are a personal thing and you know what types of things distract you and break your focus.  Do your best to remove those things when you’re getting ready to really focus on something.  Your environment plays a big role in your ability to focus.  Having an environment that encourages you to focus is one of the most powerful ways to increase focus.
• Block out time – Give yourself the opportunity to focus the way you want to.  Set aside some dedicated time to work on things or focus on things that are important to you.  Share this time with the important people in your life so that they know where your focus is during that time and that you should be allowed to have that time.  This is an important one for friends and loved ones that like to be engaged with you a lot.  Sometimes you just need that time alone to do what you have to do.
• Clarify your vision – Have a clear definition of the goals you are focusing on.  Some people use vision boards or vision statements to do this.  You want something that can instantly remind you of where your focus needs to be and the more vivid and engaging it is the more powerful the influence it will have on your focus.  It’s very easy to get sidetracked and derailed in our work but if you have something that redirects your focus back to your goals and dreams, you have a better chance at success.  Having a vision that you can live and experience with all of your senses is one of the greatest ways to increase focus and stay on course.
• Stop trying to multitask - Multitasking is a myth.  There are many articles around the idea that a person’s ability to multitask isn’t real.  We are just very capable of changing focus from one thing to another at blinding speed.  But, our brains are only actively focused on one thing at a time.  Subconscious activities don’t count, even ones that we’ve so ingrained in ourselves through practice.  Multitasking is not one of the recommended ways to increase focus.
• Be well rested – This one is pretty self explanatory.  I’m sure you’ve experienced what it’s like to try and stay focused when your exhausted and all you can really focus on is getting into your bed, under the warm covers, and sleeping for 12 hours straight.
•  Know your priorities –  It’s easier to focus on what you need to be doing if you know what’s actually a priority in that moment.  One of the great ways to increase focus is to know what activities are related to your highest priorities so that you know that your actions are serving what’s important to you.  It’s also more meaningful for your if you are focused on something that is a high level priority.
• Take occasional breaks – There is such a thing as too much focus and taking the occasional break is one of many great ways to maintain focus.  Sometimes, especially these days when many of us spend a lot of time looking at screens for hours on hours during the day, we can get a little too focused on a task.  Take a quick break to give your brain some time off and then get back into your activity refreshed and re-energized.

Those are a handful of simple ways to increase focus.  There are tons of ideas and methods you can find but I wanted to leave you with some to work with that have worked for me.  ”What you focus on determines your reality,” a great quote and a true statement.  Where we direct our minds and, our energy, and our attention will determine the path and perspective of our lives so if we can employ some of these ways to increase focus, they can go a long way in helping us achieve our goals.

Emerging Leader Club Lesson: Start at the Finish

I’ve just wrapped up the 4th lesson for the Emerging Leader Club that focuses on how to begin your personal and leadership development journey.  So many of us want to be different and do different things in our lives.  In fact, if you’re reading this now then I believe there is a part of you that desires change and growth.  But, we often struggle with just getting started.  As much as we desire to change, we have a difficult time getting on the path to growth and development.

I wrote this lesson to help you do just that.  I want you to have a great starting point that will energize you on your journey and make every day new and exciting!

If you’re already a member of the Emerging Leader Club or are currently in a Mastermind Group with me, you can access the new lesson in the Lesson Library after you’ve logged in.  If you’re in a Mastermind Group but haven’t taken advantage of your access to the Emerging Leader Club yet, refer back to your welcome email and you’ll find instructions on how to get that set up.

If you aren’t a member or in a Mastermind Group, I encourage you to check out the Emerging Leader Club and see if you feel like it is something that could be of value to you.  I believe that it is and I would love the opportunity to add value to your life.

Combat Cardio

This isn’t your mother’s cardio workout, this is some real deal, martial arts style, combat cardio!  So what’s the difference?  Perhaps it’s just me and my personal experience, but there’s something about doing a martial arts inspired program that draws something out of me.  Today, as I was wrapping up my bout with Combat 60 Live, the Ultimate Warrior’s Workout, it dawned on my that I connect deeply with the combination of the mind, body, and spirit in movement.  This is probably why I love dancing so much.  I talk about it a bit at the end of my YouTube video, Les Mills Combat Cardio Day 38, which I’ve included below.  I also appreciate yoga immensely, and other movements such as Tai Chi and Qi Gong, though I’m not doing as much of the latter ones as I should be.

I’ve done plenty of other cardio based programs such as Insanity, TurboFire/Turbo Kick, Insanity: the Asylum, STRIDE, bootcamp workouts, etc.  But, as much as  appreciate each one for what it is and what it has to offer, and I would rate some of those more difficult than Combat in an overall comparison, I don’t get the same kind of connection as I do with Combat and the combat cardio style workouts.  I can definitely get into the music with workouts like TurboFire and STRIDE, even with the rocking songs of Asylum which really get me going, but it’s more like I just turn my mind off and let my body go into autopilot while it flows with the music.  Don’t get me wrong though, these are ALL great workouts and I love each one.  But, like I said, I don’t get the same kind of whole person experience as I do with Combat.

What is “Combat Cardio?”

What do I mean when I say combat cardio?  Have you ever tried going five five minute rounds with a punching bag?  It’s exhausting.  Have you ever wrestled with your friends for 10 minutes and felt completely drained afterwards?  Being in combat is physically extremely difficult.  You utilize so much of your body that you quickly start to run out of gas if your body isn’t trained and fueled the right way.  Combatants such as boxers, MMA fighters, kickboxers, they’re in such great shape because what they do places such a high demand on their bodies.  Punching, kicking, moving, evading, dodging, getting hit, delivering hits, countering attacks, defending attacks, so much happens in the span of a few short minutes when you’re in combat.  What I love about training this way with this program is that it makes me feel like I would be ready if someone did happen to attack me.  Would I be?  Well, that might depend more on the attacker hahaha.  I wouldn’t consider myself a pushover but then again I’ve never truly fought anyone.  Everyone’s a pro and got a plan until they get punched in the face right?  But, I do feel confident that if I had to, I could deliver a serious punch to someone and maybe pull off a half decent kick.  At the very least, I could possibly evade an attack enough to find safety or escape.  That’s just how it makes me feel.  Combat feels like it’s actually preparing me for combat, not just using martial arts moves to crazy fun music to get me moving.  One example is that they encourage you to punch like you’re doing a real uppercut and there is a danger of punching yourself in the face.  What do they say?  ”It’s ok, it happens.”  Other cardio formats would tell you to uppercut away from your face to protect it.  I understand that, but then that’s not really an uppercut anymore and I would never use it in a combat situation.  Combat cardio to me is doing combative style training in a cardiovascular way.  This would fit the Combat program and other programs such as RushFit and Tapout XT and of course you’ve got training in boxing and MMA gyms.

My Les Mills Combat Review: The Halfway Mark

Ok, so you might think I’m a little biased in my review because I’m such a fanboy for this program, but let me give you my honest opinion, it rocks!  Seriously though, it is a very nice, well rounded program.  The cardio workouts in it are great and you can really get some serious intensity going in them and modify them easily for your own level and speed.  It’s also very easy to take the impact out of the cardio workouts and as long as your careful about your pivots and arm extensions, your joints are going to stay pretty safe.

There are a few workouts, especially if you get the Ultimate Warrio package, that include resistance training.  Now, you won’t get away with using really heavy weights for these days because all of the moves are functional compound movements.  So, you aren’t likely to pack on tons of muscle, but you do enough resistance training to maintain your muscle at a bare minimum.  If you’re a big bulky kind of person, you’re likely to lose some mass because the program is combat cardio heavy most of the week.

I do think that the stretching portions of the workouts could be better.  I would have really enjoyed some foam roller action built into the program but understand that that’s probably not something that would be done during a Bodycombat class.  The Inner Warrior Stretch and Strength DVD is good, but for me personally it’s not enough to work the kinks out that I’m developing during the program.  Again though, this might be  a result of the program being based on Bodycombat, I’m not entirely sure.  Either way though, I would encourage you to take some additional time for stretching or foam rolling if you do Combat.

Les Mills Combat Review: Nutrition

Compared to other Beachbody programs, the nutrition guide that comes with Combat leaves a little something to be desired in my opinion.  It’s a nice overview, but I feel like more in depth detail could have been provided.  I’ve been spending most of my time with the program using the 7 day metabolism kickstarter and it’s been great so far but I feel like it leaves just a little bit too much guesswork for the Combater.

Les Mills Combat Review: Schedule

I’ve only been doing the Ultimate Warrior calendar which is the one that includes the additional supplemental workouts but I’m enjoying the pattern for far.  I do think that only having one rest day a week could potentially give people problems if they start experiencing tightness and loss of range of motion.  But, as I mentioned earlier, taking some extra time to stretch and foam roll should help with this quite a bit.

All in all, my Les Mills Combat results have been fantastic!  If you’re up for the challenge, grab your own copy and join the fight with me!  Click on the link in this paragraph or the pics in the post to learn how.  My experience with Les Mills Combat and the combat cardio approach has been extremely positive and I highly recommend and encourage you to give it a try!

Leadership Development Plan: Your Path to Unlocked Potential

I believe that the path to your unlocked potential is in your leadership development plan.  My goal, with this website, with the Emerging Leader Club, with my work as a John Maxwell Team Member and Beachbody Coach, is to help people become aware of their potential and to help them live out that potential.  Why is that my goal?  Well,  since pursuing the the depth of my own potential, my own life has become infinitely more fulfilling and exciting and I want you to experience your own version of that transformation.  Why do I include these three main categories: physical, personal, and professional?  I feel that these three categories encompass the primary components of your development.  If you can transform yourself in these key areas,  believe that you can experience the awesomeness of your unlocked potential.  To do all of these things, to transform yourself in these primary areas, I believe that they key lies in your leadership development plan.  Not because you have to lead other people to realize your true potential, but because you must be able to lead yourself if you ever hope to be able to achieve success.

How to Start Your Leadership Development Plan

First and foremost, don’t worry about anyone else.  I know the word leadership implies that you’re influencing others and leading them, but let’s stay focused on what you can do to better lead yourself first.  If you can successfully lead yourself, your ability to influence and lead others will follow suit.

There are a lot of things to consider when you start putting together your leadership development plan.  As I pointed out, you have three main areas that I believe you need to focus on and of course, each of those areas includes many different subordinate areas that need to be addressed.  So where do you start?

Personally, I would say to start in the area that is of the highest priority in your life at the moment.  I recorded  a lesson regarding the seasons of your life and I would recommend taking a listen to that and then deciding what season you are currently in.  That might give you some insight into where you need to begin putting together your plan.

For me, I started my journey by trying to improve myself physically.  I wasn’t happy with where I was headed physically and the history of illness in my family didn’t make things any more comfortable for me.  I made the decision to turn my health around and to live a healthier lifestyle.  That’s where my journey began.  As I delved into that process and later became a Beachbody Coach, I discovered the need that I had for personal development so I dove into that area of my life and began to see and experience even more change and transformation.

Later, as I learned more about personal development and soon leadership, I discovered my passion in life and I knew that I wanted to successfully provide for myself and my future family by doing what I wanted and loved to do.  This demanded that I learn and grow professionally, and that is the season of life that I am currently in.  My leadership development plan contains a lot of training and studying to develop my professional skills and capabilities but I have not let up on transforming myself physically through daily exercise and personally through continued personal growth, mentoring, and coaching.  Now that I am filling in the final component of those three major areas, I finally feel like I have reached a good stride and that success is an inevitability.

The Path to Your Potential

I want you to be able to experience a journey similar to mine, but one that is filled with your own unique perspective, skills, passions, goals, challenges, obstacles, and victories.  I would love to be a part of that journey with you and to help you by pouring my experiences into you so that you can grow and develop more quickly than I did.  Below I’ve listed some ideas and bullet points to help you get things started and on your way to finding your unlocked potential.  Keep in mind that this is an ongoing process but if you can learn to love the process of growth and development and be excited by the future and what you will become, you will learn to embrace every single day for the chance to move closer to achieving what you desire.

I included the quote below from Johann Goethe but I want you to focus the quote on yourself instead of others.  If you treat yourself as the person you should be, you will begin to start becoming that person one day at a time.

• Identify the area, or areas, that are your current highest priority of the three I mentioned at the beginning of this blog
• Establish a clear and concise goal for your leadership develop plan.  Be bold, be clear, make it challenging, a little scary, and be sure that it requires you to stretch and grow.
• Find a coach or a mentor that can help you grow in that particular area, someone that can provide wisdom, experience, perspective, and guidance when necessary
• Surround yourself with people that will encourage you, challenge you, and support you in your journey
• Start, don’t delay in starting into action on your plan
• Believe in yourself and have a clear, compelling vision of who you want to be and what you want to be doing

Personally, I think he should have said “level” yourself up, but that’s just the geek in me talking.