Is honesty the best policy?

A truism of the human condition is that everyone lies, even if it is unintentional. Now, even the most honest person will know that telling the whole truth all the time is not a wise practice - people are not made to accept blunt truth.

A wise person thus knows that it is possible to put too high a premium on complete honesty. Sometimes, the truth must not be stated bluntly, it must be packaged. This, of course, begs the question: ‘If it is all right to conceal the truth, then when does concealment end and lying begin?’

In moral terms, honesty is without doubt a virtue, and dishonesty is a vice. But in social terms, absolute honesty can lead to trouble, risking causing offense to others who may not want or need to hear the complete truth. You have to weigh the benefits achieved by being honest with those achieved by being dishonest. To withhold the truth is sometimes a wise act, however, to present a falsehood, as truth is always wrong.

‘Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.’ Plato

What Should I Eat?

Such a simple question has become so complicated. In the words of Michael Pollan, author of the New York Times best-selling novel, Omnivore’s Dilemma:

“As a culture we have arrived at a place where whatever wisdom we may once have possessed about eating has been replaced by confusion and anxiety”.

As IF training coaches we are repeatedly asked the question stated above by customers. It is the reason why we push food logs and hold nutrition challenges. Customers have lofty weight loss goals and want to find the mystical diet that is conducive to reaching success as quickly as possible. Too often people are looking for the proximal explanation when it comes to eating, or in other words the immediate answer that’s quick and easy. “Tell me what to eat and tell me how much” may sound familiar. This requires tedious work on our part such as examining food pyramids, glycemic indices and RDA charts. In my opinion the distal explanation is far more important. The reason being that it addresses why the individual’s current diet simply isn’t working. Carrying out an extreme diet may help you lose weight but we all know that it won’t stay off in the long run. It’s impossible to maintain the unrealistic caloric, food group, food item and behavioral requirements for the rest of your life. A diet is simply a band-aid solution in that it is a temporary patch up for a much more complex problem.

A couple weeks ago I had dinner at an Italian restaurant in Kitsilano and the place mats on the table featured a map of Italy illustrating the country’s wine and pasta regions. Italy is a country with traditions dating back to the Romans and the claim to fame for foods such as risotto from Venice and pizza from Naples; wines such as Chianti from Tuscany and Brunello from Lombardy. What would the map for Canada look like? Nanaimo bars, wild salmon, poutine and fast food? I’m being facetious but it’s a reality that we don’t have traditional food staples like most other countries in the world. This is due to our mosaic society and our relatively new status as a nation state.

It is my opinion that this puts us even further behind the proverbial 8-ball in our world of convenience and constitutes the ‘distal’ explanation that I speak of. Everyone leads an extremely busy life and there’s not much time for anything, including eating. When we do manage to find 5 minutes to inhale our meal it’s often fast food, refined or unhealthy comfort food.

What should we eat? Somehow the most fundamental of activities has come to require an incredible amount of expert help from dietitians, nutritionists, doctors and training coaches. Not to mention the help of investigative journalists who find out where our food actually comes from and how it’s processed. When it comes to providing nutritional advice to customers I encourage you to dig beneath the simple advice such as pointing out RDA’s and portion sizes and stimulate their intellectual sphere of health. Challenge them to examine why it’s so difficult in our environment to eat well and discuss solutions. This is obviously a daunting task so if you'd like a great starting point, check out the novel Omnivore's Dilemma when you get a chance.

Perspective

There was an article sent out a few years ago that really resonated for me. It was all about our perspectives, the way we viewed our lives... and how, for all the conveniences that exist now and are supposedly meant to make things easier for us, they are actually making things tougher. I wish there was some way to actually compare "then" to "now". For example - how many of you, when you were, say, 8 years old, would say "bye mom - I'm heading to John's up the street" and then head off for day, coming home in time for dinner and relaxing with a little bit of Mattel hand-held football before bed? Now, some of you are parents - how many of you would let your kids do that in this day and age, and how many are afraid that someone would grab them off the street if you did? And is it actually more dangerous out there, or does it just seem like it because of the never-ending media reports?

Some of the points that were listed in the aforementioned article (and perhaps someone can let us know what it is, because I tried to find it but couldn't... so my apologies for referencing something without direct credit):
How many of you rode a bike without a helmet?
Sat in the back seat without a seat belt?
Watched your mom cut and prepare the chicken on the same cutting board that she prepped the vegetables on - without washing it in between?
Failed a test, and weren't told that it was someone else's fault?
Got absolutely hammered in a team sport, losing so badly that the sting lasted for a week?

The thing is, many of us (even if we remember these things) forget what life was like before cell phones, Blackberries, DVD players, digital recorders, computers... hell, even the internet.

With that in mind - please, watch this clip and think about what we have, and where we're going... it's only 4 minutes, and I think (if you haven't seen it already) you'll enjoy it quite a bit.

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/louis-ck-everythings-amazing-and-nobody/1349328242

Have a great week!

~Guy

Inevitable

Impossible to avoid or to prevent from happening

Line ups, we are certain to experience our fair share. Was recently waiting for 90min for a referral…yikes! Good thing I had my day timer and black berry. We will constantly experience line ups of life…

To bring this back to us, in our profession we will inevitably be given resistance from a customer or just plainly hear, ‘no, I don’t want to do that’

I don’t profile
I don’t go outside
I don’t do group work
I don’t do events

We can’t back down and be submissive in this situation. Post up and stop this action in its tracks. Period.

The root reaction should always be the same. Why don’t you xx? Uncover all the excuses and label them accordingly. Be confident and educate using explanations of our systems as your guide, the what/why/how principals and the challenge/adversity/victory model. Always relate everything back to the benefits.

The x-factor would be our own confidence.

We can’t expect to challenge/understand someone until will first challenge/understand ourselves…

8 Oscars Later…

Last night at the 81st Academy Awards, Slumdog Millionaire won 8 Oscars, Best Picture, Directing, Song, Score, Film Editing, Sound Mixing, Cinematography, Writing (Adapted Screenplay).

For those that have not seen this movie, it is about a young Indian boy from the Mumbai slums who gets a chance to be on the Indian Version of “Who wants to be a Millionaire”. This young boy, by chance, by being a genius, by cheating or by it being staged, manages to answers nearly all the question and looks set to win the 20 million dollar prize. As always, the show ends without the young boy answering the question, who is then arrested on suspicion on cheating. How could a boy from the slum answer all these questions? The movie portrays how this young slumdog was able to answer these questions through his experiences living in the slums of Mumbai.

What is so unexpected about this film was that it was not your typical Hollywood spectacle. In fact, the film was made for 13million dollars, a tenth of the production cost of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It had no recognizable stars like Brad Pitt, Sean Pen, Merrill Streep, and Angelina Jolie. They had unknown leads, Dev Patel who was from the “Indian-Inhabited London Suburb of Harror” and the stunning actress Frieda Pinto in her first movie role ever.

The movie was close to not going to the theaters due to a fold up with the distribution company “Distributors of Warner Independent” in May 2008. The film and its producers would have to consider making this movie go straight to DVD. Luckily, Fox Searchlight came to the rescue to take it to distribution. As Christian Colson, the producer of 'Slumdog Millionaire’ said in his acceptance speech: "When we started out, we had no stars, we had no power or muscle. We did not have enough money, really, to do what we wanted to do. But what we had was a script that inspired mad love in everyone who read it”

For this low-budget movie to win 8 Oscars it quite unbelievable. I personally believe that it is a wake up call to Hollywood, that this 8 Oscar winning movie was not due to the technology of making movies (i.e. special effects) but it was the raw talent of every single person involved. It is a movie involving ordinary people, in ordinary setting about the common man. It portrays the struggles of ordinary Indians who fight for their survival in one of the biggest and poorest countries in the world. You cannot help but be drawn to this tale and understand their day-to-day struggles, their joy and their pain.

Success

In his runaway bestseller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell showed how ideas and products catch fire; in Blink, he explained why gut decisions are often better than well-thought-out responses. In his new book, Outliers: The Story of Success, Gladwell probes what separates the highly successful from everyone else.

What matters: Talent, yes. Timing and opportunity—crucial. And not surprisingly, good old-fashioned hard work and discipline. "What surprised me most were the ordinary methods successful people use to achieve all they achieve," he says. Success is the steady accumulation of advantages.

Gladwell himself is intimate with hard work and discipline. He grew up in rural Elmira, Canada, a place best known for its maple syrup festival. When his dad, a civil engineering professor, refused to drive young Malcolm 20 miles each morning to swim practice, the boy turned to running and became a high school champion. "Sometimes constraints actually create success," Gladwell says. "Not being able to swim made me run. And running taught me the discipline I needed as a writer."

Gladwell's Five Steps to Success

1. Find meaning and inspiration in your work.


2. Work hard.


3. Discover the relationship between effort and reward.


4. Seek out complex work to avoid boredom and repetition.


5. Be autonomous and control your own destiny as much as possible.

Prestige Runaway

Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist (1849-1936), is credited as being the first to describe the idea of classical conditioning. In the 1890's Pavlov investigated the gastric function of dogs by externalizing a salivary gland so that he could measure and analyze the saliva and the response it had to food in different situations. He noticed that dogs tended to salivate before food was actually delivered to their mouths and went on to research to investigate the phenomenon. In his experiments he manipulated the stimuli occuring before the presentation of food and established the basic laws for 'conditional reflexes' and learned behaviour.

Allow me to relate learned behaviour to our everyday lives. Our society is quite homogenous in terms of what is popular to wear, what slang to use and how to style your hair. We are obsessed with showy displays of wealth. There are very few leaders and innovators because established trends are well established and trigger the stimulus -> reaction response in all of us. For instance, when you see a woman wearing a very expensive dress and a shiny necklace at a cocktail party you immediately have an impression of her. Thoughts such as "she must have money" or "she must be important" may come to mind.

We are all guilty of this 'prestige runaway' to some extent. We get caught up in brand buy-in and focus far too much on materialism and the shallow things in life. Consider these two examples:

• Rex is on steroids, has a nice fake tan, blonde streaks in his hair, a bunch of tatoos, drives a Hummer and wears a $300 Ed Hardy t-shirt that cost $3 to manufacture.
• Stacey wears tons of make up, has hair extensions, fake breasts, wears hair extensions and 6 inch heels every single day.

How on earth could these attributes ever become popular? They are expensive, can cause health problems and may be very uncomfortable. In my opinion people perceive that having a certain image will somehow make them successful. They pick cues from others' images and adopt them as their own, in turn creating a feedback loop that increases the importance of the cue. We need to understand that it's not the cue (such as big breasts or muscles) that create success for an individual. True leaders understand this and have the ability to blend in while being very different from the rest. On the surface they may look like everyone else but it's the intangibles that you should pay attention to. Look at the things that they do which others aren't doing. Today, I challenge you to examine a great leader and identify what truly makes them successful.

Change? Not so easy...

Ah, Obama...I actually feel badly for him.

Not because I think, in the long run, history won't smile on him... I mean, let's be honest, he can't really make anything worse. He took over a country that was losing in every way - if he accomplishes 1/10th of what he wants, it's still going to be an improvement.

But I feel more for him in regards to the expectations that were laid out - partly on his campaign, and partly because of what people wanted to hear. If anyone paid any attention to people as a whole, or society in general, they'd know that IF change comes, it comes slowly... and the fact that he took office and wasn't able to wave his magic wand, only to see the economy turn around as well as having Republicans and Democrats agreeing (on anything) - well, suddenly people are joining the line-up for departure from the band wagon.

I can only assume Obama knew this was coming, and is soldiering through it with his goal in mind... for this, I admire him, and it's a lesson to us all to think long term, not letting emotions or popularity sway us from our course. Nevertheless, even if you're prepared for it... it can't feel good. Having people saying things like "reality bites" or, "you promised me x and haven't delivered" must weigh heavily on your shoulders.

I just hope that he continues to show the qualities that his campaign showed - dedication, commitment and passion. After all - he still has at least 3.92 years in office to make the difference he promised... how many people are given that much time and latitude?

On the other hand... how many people are running one of the most powerful countries in the world...

~Guy

.Spin it.

Last year the school filled up – the energy actually remained high throughout the night – by the time the 24hrs were up, the place was electric and everyone was so proud of what they accomplished. Over $50thousand raised and everyone is going for over $100thousand this year! West Van IF is currently assembling a team and we are happy to be participating again. We will relay over night with everyone else and enjoy all the creative entertainment throughout the event.
It’s this easy;

Cyclebetes 2009

What:
· Teams of 1 -12 will ride for 24 hours relay style to raise money for JDRF
· EACH TEAM IS ENCOURAGED TO RAISE AT LEAST $1000.00

Website:
· http://www.cyclebetes.com/ Blog http://cyclebetes.blogspot.com/

Date & Time:
· Friday, April 3rd – Saturday, April 4th
· Starts: Friday 4:00 pm
· Ends: Saturday 4:00 pm

Location:
· Rockridge Secondary School Gymnasium, West Vancouver map

Registration:
· To donate to the WVan team click here
· To create your own team click here
· To join a team click here

Waiver
Download &print to fax or drop-off these medical and release forms
Drop off at John Henry Bikes and Rockridge School or fax 604.981.1301

Equipment Needed:
Bike, spinner, towel, water bottle (there’s water and fuel there!)
Sleeping bag, pillow, earplugs (if you are planning to catch a couple zzz)

Intensities:
Super light to super hard!
Anyone can spin – but how long can you spin for?


This 24hr relay style spin is just the tip of the iceberg for Cyclebetes and creating awareness for Juvenile Diabetes…

2007 Ride across Canada2008 Cylebetes 24hr Spin2009 Cylebetes 24hr Spin, lemonade and hot coco stands, Ride across Canada, USA and Australia

http://www.potentialpictures.com/Cyclebetes_2009.html

Get Outside

This past weekend I hope we all were able to get outside and enjoy the beautiful sunshine. I know personally, after months of being inside for the winter it is now time to get outside. Yes it is a little chilly, but once you start moving and your body starts to warm up, you will love that fresh air environment.

We forget how important the Sun and fresh air is towards our bodies.

The sun is one of many stars in our galaxy, which the earth orbits. It is the “mid point” of our solar system and the only known foundation of energy to all living things on Earth. The sun is a prime source of energy and photosynthesis allows the plants to grow. That energy that the plants receive from the sun is then transformed to us when we eat the plants.

We have all heard that exposure to the right amount of sun helps us maintain healthy Vitamin D levels. Vitamin D is made in the skin when it is exposed to the ultraviolet B (UVB) rays in sunshine. This is critical in the formation and maintenance of normal bones. This results in preventing auto-immune diseases, for example, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, and osteoporosis. We only need to get a few minutes a day outside to maintain healthy Vitamin D levels.

Being outside produces the feel good substance such as beta-endorphins and serotonin, which creates that well being after being in the sun. After being outside yesterday I felt much more relaxed and energized to start the work week. We often spend too much time inside on the computer, watching TV and training inside. Now that the weather is better, we need to make a conscious effort to go outside with ourselves and our customers. It not only brightens you day but the customer’s day as well.

Rocky VI

One of, actually, my favourite quote is from Rocky VI. For those of you that have not watched this movie, and I can’t blame you if you have, Rocky decides that he will come out of retirement and fight again, no surprise. However, in this movie his son, all grown up, is opposed. He confronts Rocky, tells him how he feels and it’s what Rocky says to him that resonates the most with me.

Rocky Jr: You cast a big shadow.

Rocky Balboa: You ain't gonna believe this, but you used to fit right here. [taps on the inside of his hand]

Rocky Balboa: I'd hold you up to say to your mother, "this kid's gonna be the best kid in the world. This kid's gonna be somebody better than anybody I ever knew." And you grew up good and wonderful. It was great just watching you, every day was like a privilege. Then the time comes for you to be your own man and take on the world, and you did. But somewhere along the line, you changed. You stopped being you. You let people stick a finger in your face and tell you you're no good. And when things got hard, you started looking for something to blame, like a big shadow. Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done! Now if you know what you're worth then go out and get what you're worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain't you! You're better than that! I'm always gonna love you no matter what. No matter what happens. You're my son and you're my blood. You're the best thing in my life. But until you start believing in yourself, ya ain't gonna have a life.

"I am not a role model"

Former pro basketball player Charles Barkley made this infamous and polarizing comment in a Nike commercial in 1993. Throughout his career Chuck argued that athletes should not have to be concerned about how their actions influence children. He also posed the question, "A million guys can dunk a basketball in jail; should they be role models"? I disagree with his simplistic opinion but I do respect his transparency and admittance to not being a model citizen. His message has never been so resonant.

I was flipping through the sports page in the newspaper yesterday and was disturbed by all of the negative press surrounding professional athletes. For instance:

• New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez busted for taking steroids


• Baltimore Oriole Miguel Tejada facing charges for lying to Congressional investigators


• Olympic sensation Michael Phelps hitting a bong at a frat party at the University of South Carolina


• This headline is a bit older but it's my all-time favourite... New York Giant Plaxico Burress accidently shooting himself in the leg with the gun that he snuck into a night club

I am not going to cast judgement on these athletes for their actions. I feel that if you want to take a risk, you understand the consequences and still feel that your actions are prudent then go right ahead. But I do have a problem with them making millions from endorsements through companies such as Nike, Gatorade and Speedo. If athletes are going to cash these cheques they are accepting a duty as a role model. Whether they like it or not there are millions of young children who emulate them.

Professional athletes are not heroes or soldiers (let's reserve these terms for Nobel Peace Prize winners, war veterans, brain surgeons and benevolent volunteers). They are human beings who are exceptionally gifted at their craft and have worked hard to get to where they are. In our society we unnecessarily put this group on a pedestal. They look good and have the money to do what everyone else wishes they had the opportunity to do. But we must remember that they are in the limelight for one reason only: their talent. There are some professional athletes who do all of the right things by giving back to the community and acting appropriately but they are few and far between. We must hype up these individuals who 'get it' so that they are recognized and rewarded for their good deeds. Hopefully over time there will be pressure on others to do the same. Take home message = instead of idolizing someone who hits a baseball 500 feet, has big biceps or a 50 inch vertical jump pay attention to those that truly make the world a better place.

* Update on Charles Barkley.

The Bell Chimes

You can see it coming - it is almost at an end.

It's an interesting parallel, actually, if you consider the similarities between hockey fighting and smoking. Both were wildly popular in the past, and both had the inherent risks and dangers brought forward over time. In the case of hockey fighting, I believe that the fact that we are in an age of immediate information relay means that the process has sped up but both are going the same way.

Legislation in both cases isn't (in the case of smoking) or won't (in the case of hockey fighting) make(ing) a difference. No, what's fascinating about it all is the fact that what is ultimately going to do them both in... is societal disfavor. You can charge $5, $10, even $20 for a package of cigarettes, and people are going to smoke... but once it becomes unpopular - well, then it's days are numbered. Right now, there's constant debates and discussions about hockey fighting, and there are the traditionalists who are fighting a passive fight - essentially saying "just let well enough alone". Nevertheless, I'm going to make a prediction: it will not happen during this season, but over the next few you're going to see hockey fighting gradually flame out, until finally it just disappears.

Let's hope we see the same with smoking - don't try to make it illegal, because you'll just create another revenue generating option for organized crime. Nope - just continue the campaign of unpopularity, and believe me... it's going to vanish as well.

The power of society is an extraordinary thing.

By the way, for what it's worth - I enjoy a good hockey fight.

~Guy

Injuries

Specifically the ones that interrupt your training are not fun.

It we participate in regular activity we run the risk of injury. If we regularly train and take part in a variety of sports, the inevitability of incurring some damage becomes exponential.

Rehab is most likely a weekly discipline but we mustn’t forget to Prehab ‘fix it before it breaks’

We really must train ourselves to listen to our bodies; it will tell us when things are going south. This will help us remain healthy and doing what we love to do.

It’s important to understand that even if a customer is dealing with an injury that is conflicting with their training, there is still a large amount of work that can be done in the gym.

· Isolate non-injured body parts
· Cardiovascular training
· Swimming
· Hiking
· Posture
· Core
· Flexibility
· Nutrition Education
· Re&Pre-Hab

Don’t let injuries become the excuse.

Big Brother

Most of us have read the literary masterpiece, 1984 by George Orwells. The book was published in 1949 and “focused on a repressive, totalitarian regime”. The novel symbolizes the way in which governments surveillance's and encroaches on the rights of individuals. The term ‘Big Brother” was where this ideology was first heard, “Big Brother is watching you.” In the story, these words dominated the lives of the characters, as well as two-way television (the telescreen) encroached on the private and public spaces of the city.

This past week, I visited the infamous Las Vegas. This city is a draw dropping spectacle in every shape and form. The hotels are humongous with mini cities inside each hotel, thousands of restaurants, amazing performing acrobatics shows, concerts, and money being spent at every hour of the day.

Las Vegas is a place that everyone should see at least once, however, I honestly had the feeling that I was under the “Big Brother” ideology like the 1984 novel. There are no clocks anywhere, making us not realize the idea of time so we would spend more time in the casinos. There are no seats besides the ones in the restaurant, by a slot machine or gambling table. At the end of the trip when I had seen pretty much all of the main spots on the Vegas a strip, I truly just wanted to sit outside in the sunshine and read a book, but there was not a place to sit outside and only one or two restaurants that I saw that had seating outside. It felt like I was forced to go inside and spend money, either sitting in a restaurant buying a drink or in the casino. Another example is that they were hardly any windows, the hotels are so big with much to see inside the hotel that if you did not wonder outside you might never know what type of day it was.

The Big Brother ideology behind Vegas is to spend money and they do that by not giving anything away for free. Personally there were two big things that got to me. Firstly, the lack of a coffee machines in the room. I love to have a cup of tea in the morning and I had specifically brought tea bags to boil water and have a cup of tea. However, I had to wonder down through the casino to a coffee shop to get a cup of tea. Secondly, the hotel we were staying at did not have an exercise gym, you had to go and pay $25-$40 to use the spa’s exercise room. In other places around the world, hotels you stay out which are half the price of the Las Vegas rooms will have an equipment room. These little things that we take for granted at other hotels in the world were not available in these hotels.

I was truly amazed on how influenced Las Vegas is. I enjoyed the whole spectacle behind the different themed hotels, the amazing shows, the different restaurants and the numerous amount of shops. However if you are not careful you will be influenced by the Big Brother to spend more money than you perhaps bargain for.

Negative Self-Talk

Researchers estimate that it’s necessary for the ratio of positive-to-negative comments to be at least five to one for a relationship to be healthy and survive long-term. For these reasons, we’re taught not to let others put us down, but sometimes the person eroding our sense of self-worth and limiting our potential is us! That’s right, our self talk, or the words our inner dialogue uses when we think, can increase our stress levels, limit our potential, and color our experience with a negative pen.

Self-Limitation: If you say "I can’t handle this", you more likely can’t. This is because your subconscious mind tends to believe the thoughts it hears. You can limit your abilities by telling yourself you "can’t", that "this is too hard" or that you ‘shouldn’t even try’.

Limited Thinking: When you tell yourself you can’t handle something (or some other self-limiting thought), you tend to stop looking for solutions. For example, notice the difference between telling yourself you can’t handle something and asking yourself how you will handle something. Doesn’t the second thought feel more hopeful and produce more creativity? Negative self talk tends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy!

Change Self-Limiting Statements to Questions: Self-limiting statements like “I can’t handle this!” or “This is impossible!” are particularly damaging because they increase your stress in a given situation and they stop you from searching for solutions. The next time you find yourself thinking something that limits the possibilities of a given situation, turn it into a question. Doesn’t “How can I handle this?” or “How is this possible?” sound more hopeful and open up your imagination to new possibilities?

Ignorance Isn't Bliss

Everyone has the impression that they're relatively well informed. You would be very hard pressed to find somebody who would openly admit to being flat out ignorant when it comes to any issue. But let's face it... there are many ignorant people out there and there are situations in which we're all guilty. With the state of the world economy it is no secret that we should all be more cautious when it comes to spending and that we should all have a safety net for volatile times. It is also becoming ever more important to be well informed, to pay attention to your money and to continually ask yourself: "In this particular situation, do I really know what's going on"?

Upton Sinclair once proclaimed,

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it".

Allow me to put this into context and explain why I feel that we should all establish this as a mantra. Businesses survive by making money which requires spending on the part of consumers. Now I am by no means insinuating that the majority of people have greedy and malicious intentions. But I do feel that there are situations where the consumer is persuaded into believing that they need a product or service when it is in fact superfluous. In this case the consumer would have to be considered uninformed (or ignorant). Consider the following examples:

• Dentist appointment: "You need your wisdom teeth out for precautionary reasons".
• Visit with the mechanic: "While under the hood you should get the water pump replaced as well".
• Buying a new house: "Opt for the mortgage plan with 0% down. What a great opportunity".
• Meeting with the stock broker: "This is the investment you're looking for. Move in all your chips".
• Doctor appointment: "We should put you on this prescription, just in case".

It is imperative to scrutinize each and every situation that requires you to spend money and ask "Why am I being told to do this"? The answer likely falls in one of the following categories:

• It is 0% for your well-being and 100% for their pocket.
• It is 50% for your well-being and 50% for their pocket.
• It is 100% for your well-being and you truly need the commodity. It is worth spending your hard earned money.

Clearly it is ideal to maximize the number of decisions reflecting the latter. Unfortunately it is unrealistic to be informed on all fronts; we can't be experts on everything. But we need to be able to identify situations where we are ignorant, do some research and become informed so we can critically examine the way in which we spend our money. Heed this advice and you may be able to prevent that one mistake that causes real financial hardship.

The Art of Delegation

Do you feel stressed and overloaded? If so, then you may need to brush up your delegation skills! A very productive manager or leader is great at delegating tasks to fellow teammates. Furthermore, it is important for the fellow teammates to see how the task which they are being delegated will help both them and the team.

If you work on your own, there’s only a limited amount that you can do, no matter how hard you work. We have all been there and delegating is something that I would love to improve on. You can only work so many hours in a day and there are only so many tasks you can complete in these hours. If there is only a limited number people on your team who understand the art of delegation, then your success is limited.
However, if you’re good at your job, people will want much more than this from you.
This can lead to a real sense of pressure and work overload: You can’t do everything that everyone wants, and this can leave you stressed, unhappy, and feeling that you’re letting people down.
On the positive side, however, you’re being given a tremendous opportunity if you can find a way around this limitation. If you can realize this opportunity, you can be genuinely successful!
One of the most common ways of overcoming this limitation is to learn how to delegate your work to other people. If you do this well, you can quickly build a strong and successful team of people, well able to meet the demands that others place.
This is why delegation is such an important skill, and is one that you absolutely have to learn.

Why People Don’t Delegate:

To figure out how to delegate properly, it’s important to understand why people avoid it. Quite simply, people don’t delegate because it takes a lot of up-front effort.
After all, which is easier: designing and writing content for a brochure that promotes a new service you helped spearhead, or having other members of your team do it?
You know the content inside and out. You can spew benefit statements in your sleep. It would be relatively straightforward for you to sit down and write it. It would even be fun! The question is, “Would it be a good use of your time?”

When to Delegate:

Delegation is a win-win when done appropriately, however that does not mean that you can delegate just anything. To determine when delegation is most appropriate there are five key questions you need to ask yourself:

1.) Is there someone else who has (or can be given) the necessary information or expertise to complete the task? Essentially is this a task that someone else can do, or is it critical that you do it yourself?
2.) Does the task provide an opportunity to grow and develop another person’s skills?
3.) Is this a task that will recur, in a similar form, in the future?
4.) Do you have enough time to delegate the job effectively? Time must be available for adequate training, for questions and answers, for opportunities to check progress, and for rework if that is necessary.
5.) Is this a task that I should delegate? Tasks critical for long-term success (for example, recruiting the right people for your team) genuinely do need your attention.

If you can answer “yes” to at least some of the above questions, then it could well be worth delegating this job.

Problem and Solution

I was re-reading sections of "Question Behind the Question" the other day, and something occurred to me.

You ever notice, the people who complain the most and the loudest... are often the ones who are doing the very things that they're complaining about?

"I work too many hours without getting paid..."

"Why should I submit that form? I know the details..."

"People here are just asked to do far too much..."

The other irony of this? Due to the people who are complaining, others have to come in and pick up their slack... and suddenly, little things that would have been handled/maintained easily by a large group of people, are being heaped on the small group of people who DON'T complain... which means that the people who are doing the most work are also the ones who don't bitch about it.

Moral of the story can be summed up in one word: TEAM. And believe me, if I ever decide to have kids, they WILL play a team sport... not just for the physical health and benefit, but because of the real-world lessons that can be learned by participating.

Go team.

~Guy

Rules, who needs em?

We do – we need guidelines to keep us in check. We need structure to keep ourselves heading in the right direction…or at least the best direction for overall.
What kind or rules are important? Rules for driving, cooking – yes. We even have rules for health and fitness. We know them, or at least we know the ones we say on a daily basis. It’s important to streamline some of these rules and keep the message consistent.
Simple rules to life – weekly, we need…
A half day of light cardio
A vigorous workout
A core stability class like yoga or Pilates
Berries, nuts, fruits, grains, vegetables, clean meats and water
To laugh out loud
To be challenged to be better than the day before..
Now we could go on for ever about all the different rules (and we do) but the last rule seems to stand out.
I was talking with a friend last night. She had text me the day before ‘rich, I need a meal plan that I can follow’
When I got home I emailed her, attached a copy of our 30day cleanse and simply wrote ‘when you read this thoroughly, you will be able to make an educated decision on what you can follow’
A couple hours later I received a call from her and she was pumped. She hadn’t read the attachment yet, but she was loving the underlying tone of the challenge being placed upon her. I told her that I would hold her accountable to what she decided to do – but that I didn’t want to waste my time if she couldn’t commit to a proper challenge.
We began to talk about some simple rules to go by and it was then that I told her about some simple rules for ones week. It was like something clicked – she was hooked.
‘oh, ya – no problem, I really appreciate this’, she replied.
We said goodbye and set a time to talk mid week after she would had thoroughly read the nutrition document.
He last words that night - ‘thanks for the challenge’

Importance of group training!

What makes group training so affected? Why do people skip workouts if there are by themselves yet when meeting a group they will be the first ones there.

The concepts of group training are simple.

1) It holds you accountable.

If you did not show up to your group training, you would be letting someone down, you would get behind in the training and you would feel guilty for not showing up. With group training, you specifically put aside time to meet up with the group to go for a bike ride or swim.
For example, this past Saturday I met up with a customer at 7am to go swimming. I know that if we had not made this arrangement, I probably would of gone later, instead of just getting it done earlier. We both held each other accountable and we both did not want to let each other down.

2) Group training provides you with support.

We all love to be supported and most of us are lucky to be supported in some shape or form.
I believe that when a big group is training for an event it becomes contagious and more people want to be involved. If you look at the Oliver Half Iron Man event this year, we have over 20 customers and coaches taking part. It felt that as soon as one person decided to sign up, everyone else followed. That is the prime reason I am participating in it this year. I love the aspect of having numerous training partners, having that group camaraderie both during the training and on race day, and having the support from everyone.

The Oliver Half Iron Man is just one scenario that I have mentioned. There are many other events with this sort of concept, Sun Run, riding across Canada/Australia, and West Coast Trail, just to name a few.

The training that you do together creates special bonds between the group, with memories, laughter and conversations that you have during the long rides and runs. During the race you know that you will finish because at the finish line there will be someone there to congratulate you, hug you and say 'Yes we did it'.

When you reflect on the event you probably will not remember how many miles you ran or kilometers you biked. But you will remember the fun times you had with the group and how at your darkest moments in your training, you had a team there 100% supporting and motivating you to finish. The beauty of group training!