Fail Intelligently

Failure. It’s happened before and it will happen again. It is something that we generally avoid at all costs because we are taught throughout life that it is a character flaw. There's no doubt that it can be upsetting and even embarrassing but it’s imperative if we are to grow. Unfortunately the larger your ambitions the more dependent you will be on your ability to overcome and learn from your mistakes. The sense of shame combined with inevitability of set backs when attempting difficult things explains why many people fall short when reaching for their goals or fail to establish them in the first place.

Sometimes failure is our own fault and occasionally it’s not but this doesn’t really make a difference. The key is to always internalize the scenario and ask yourself what you could have done differently. If you externalize the blame and accept that the failure wasn’t your fault you are missing out on an invaluable opportunity to learn. As author James Dale puts it,

“Every failure is an MBA on how to do it better next time. Failure doesn’t lead to success. It leads to knowledge which leads to success”.

But remember, you can only learn from a mistake after you have admitted that you’ve made it. Own it 100%. Then it’s possible to move the focus away from blame assignment and towards understanding.

Famous Mistakes:

Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.
Albert Einstein’s parents were told that he was likely mentally handicapped.
Napoleon finished near the bottom of his military school class.
The Beatles were turned down for a recording contract by Decca Records.
John Grisham’s first novel was rejected by 16 agents and 12 publishers.
Elvis Presley didn’t make the glee club.

I’d wager a bet that nobody has ever heard of Jordan’s old coach or any of the others responsible for mistakes in the list above. Most likely because they didn’t learn from their oversight and redeem themselves. Conversely we all know Donald Trump's story: rock bottom bankruptcy to the status that we see today.

The learning from mistakes checklist:

Accepting responsibility makes learning possible.
Don’t equate making mistakes with being a mistake.
You can’t change mistakes, but you can choose how to respond to them.
Growth starts when you can see room for improvement.
Work to understand why it happened and what the factors were.
What information could have avoided the mistake?
What small mistakes, in sequence, contributed to the bigger mistake?
Are there alternatives you should have considered but did not?
What kinds of changes are required to avoid making this mistake again? What kinds of change are difficult for you?
How do you think your behavior should/would change in you were in a similar situation again?
Work to understand the mistake until you can make fun of it (or not want to kill others that make fun).

Don’t over-compensate: the next situation won’t be the same as the last.

Leading the Pack

I've had the pleasure of riding with a wide variety of different skill levels over the last three years, and recently realized what a difference it makes having the person leading the pack having a good grasp not only of riding, but how to direct the pack. They point out dangers, confidently and carefully lead us around them if they are across our path, and lead us on an appropriate route - whether it is meant to be challenging, reassuring, comfortable or instructional.

What I've also noticed is what it's like to ride in an entire pack of riders who are all capable of leading the pack... because when it's your turn directing them, you don't have to keep turning around to see how they're doing. You know that when you change lanes, point out potential problems or climb a major hill, they are either going to keep up or, at worst, catch up at the next stop light. When everyone is capable of leading, when you are designated to lead you can have faith that all will be with you...

Essentially, the goal is to bring everyone up to your level of riding (or better), because when this is the case the entire group will move towards the finish line that much faster....

~Guy

..Step by Step..

Overdoing it is a risk we all face in our profession. Especially surrounded by a younger team each year that push us to be young again…We each push the limits of our bodies and we each may even push past our limits and jeopardize an injury. No matter how many times we tell our customers not to over-train or over commit, sometimes we even fall victim to this reality.

In two weeks I am going into a private medical center and having my right knee worked on. For around $4500 + change I am having my meniscus trimmed and any excess material cleaned out of that knee…

I have always felt my knees after years of skiing hard and general abuse to my body in my younger years of manual labor and chronic tightness! Getting on Team IF had me taking care of my body in ways I had never thought possible…but it also had me using my body in ways I never thought possible…

The pinnacle of my physical ended up being last summer when we were racing a 7day mountain bike race, a half ironman and racing through the west coast trail…along with our local fun events and finishing the year with a handful of 10km’s and half marathons the issue was right around the corner. The winter was full on with spin classes and by mid January, the pain became very intense and too much to handle. Even lying in bed or driving my car became agonizing. The thought of something broken in my body was very new to me. I was used to being down for a week or two but then everything working out by itself was the norm…

There was no choice. Luckily, we train an MRI tech and they had me scanned within a week of asking + when I need a CT scan I was in that weekend. Wow, I was happy to have saved over a year right there…next was to talk to someone about my results. I made an appointment with a sports Dr. forty days away…whoa, that’s a long time away I thought…again, I asked the team and before I knew it I had an in with one of the best knee doctors in the city.

All and all I saved major time and red tape…I’m not one to spend big bucks on things, but I will spend more to get something of high quality or will spend more to have something done right. But $4500 bucks! That’s a lot of cake…so I fired off an email to accounts payable. Well it turns out that over the past three and half years with Innovative, I have acquired over $4600 dollars in vacation pay! Well well, I would rather fly to the beach and pay for all day massages…but paying to get myself back on my bike will bring me far more enjoyment than a sunburn and hangover!

Look out van city, give me a couple weeks after surgery and we’ll be riding again – get ready!

Moral of the story, if you want something, makes it happen and don’t let money stand in your way…

Affirmations

There has been some speculation as to whether using affirmations is helpful in pursuing personal development and setting goals.

In a word, yes.

Affirmations are repeated positive statements designed to bring about a desired result. The repetitious aspect is meant to influence and trigger the subconscious mind into positive action.

It's no surprise that on a daily basis we often unconsciously repeat negative statements to ourselves about different situations in our lives. In doing so we often bring about the undesirable circumstance itself.

We might say to ourselves "I can't do this", "I'm not good enough for that" or "this will never work".

Needless to say, our proclamations become self-fulfilling prophesies.

The reverse can also be true.

If we were to turn the negative statements we frequently utter into positive ones, we would bring about more favorable outcomes.

Take Muhammad Alil as an example. Who hasn't heard his famous declaration?

"I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was." Muhammad Ali

Is there any question in anyone's mind that Ali's repetition of that phrase helped him achieve the status of being "the greatest"?

Another interesting illustration for the effectiveness of affirmations comes from the auto suggestion work of Emile Coue, the French psychologist and pharmacist who introduced the now famous phrase:

"Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better".

As a tool for self-improvement, he recommended that we begin each day by stating it firmly and convincingly.
Coué felt that, as stated in his "Law of Concentrated Attention", whenever attention is concentrated on an idea over and over again, it spontaneously tends to realize itself. In working with his patients he utilized this law to help them build their self-image.

Since then affirmations have also been used in cognitive therapy and found to work quite well. Needless to say there's no magic to it and there are limitations. Certainly you wouldn't make an affirmation that is unrealistic or makes no sense. Ultimately they're meant to serve as another helpful tool in furthering your personal development.

Do You Feel Lucky?

Last week an old friend of mine began training at White Rock IF as a customer. We played Metro soccer together in high school and I remember him as a naturally gifted athlete. He was a year younger but played up in my division because he was highly skilled, stronger and faster than everyone else. Fast forward 7 years or so and he is now 24 years old and borderline obese.

During his first training session we had the opportunity to briefly catch up while he was on the bike. Over the past few years he has experienced his fair share of turmoil. In his words, it’s been a spell of bad luck: adversity such as being seriously electrocuted at work and experiencing a foot fracture amongst many other unfortunate occurrences. After reflecting upon the conversation I asked myself, what exactly is luck and why do some people seem to stand out as either very lucky or terribly unlucky? Consider the millionaire who wins the lottery or the poor chap who is struck by lightning twice. My intent in posing this question is not to cast judgment on his character or place blame but I wanted to dig deeper.

Luck can be described as the force that seems to operate for good or ill in a person's life, as in shaping circumstances, events, or opportunities. It seems that most research on the concept suggests that we always have the opportunity to make choices which influence what happens, be it good or bad. Even in the case of freak accidents we make choices to put ourselves in vulnerable situations. For example, a cyclist who was struck by a car could have likely reduced the risk of an accident by choosing a road with a larger shoulder, wearing bright attire or avoiding streets with traffic altogether.

Professor Richard Wiseman, 37, is head of the psychology research department at the University of Hertfordshire in England. For the past eight years, he and his colleagues have studied what makes some people lucky and others not. After conducting thousands of interviews and hundreds of experiments, Wiseman now claims that he's cracked the code. Luck isn't due to karma or coincidence, he says. Instead, lucky folks - without even knowing it - think and behave in ways that create good fortune in their lives.

According to Wiseman, these four principles can create good fortune in your life and career.

1. Maximize Chance Opportunities

Lucky people are skilled at creating, noticing, and acting upon chance opportunities. They do this in various ways, which include building and maintaining a strong network, adopting a relaxed attitude to life, and being open to new experiences. How will you win the lottery if you don’t play? How will you receive the promotion at work if you don’t apply for the position?

2. Listen to Your Lucky Hunches

Lucky people make effective decisions by listening to their intuition and gut feelings. They also take steps to actively boost their intuitive abilities -- for example, by relaxing and clearing their mind of other thoughts.

3. Expect Good Fortune

Lucky people are certain that the future will be bright. Over time, that expectation becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because it helps lucky people persist in the face of failure and positively shapes their interactions with other people.

4. Turn Bad Luck Into Good

Lucky people employ various techniques to cope with, and even thrive upon, the ill fortune that comes their way. For example, they spontaneously imagine how things could have been worse, they don't dwell on the ill fortune, and they take control of the situation.

*** Please watch this 10 minute video when you have a chance. It reveals Wiseman's research and explains how we all can dictate our luck. Luck Video. ***

Another Post on the Sun Run

Okay, so probably everyone has something they want to share about the Sun Run - and that is a huge testament to the event, when so many stories can come from the same singular happening. Some are inspiring - such as Monday's post - and I truly enjoy reading those.

Now, in keeping with the positive vibe, I'm going to be temper my usual, poorly hidden irritation and try a different approach. I'm going to gently ask.

What, Guy? you question. What are you going to ask?

Just a few, simple things. Firstly - please, sign up for the speed you are actually able to do. While I think it's great for you to challenge yourself - if you put yourself down for a sub-40minute time and wind up walking in the first kilometer, you've significantly overestimated your ability. And you are one of the people that slow down the run for the rest of us. NOT, mind you, that I'm going for a personal best - this is all in fun. But it's not fun when I have to keep dodging you in the first kilometer.

My second request is that you actually start at the gate that you're supposed to. If you're wearing a race number that implies you're going to be walking... again, how do I wind up behind you within that first kilometer? I'm not fast... but I'm not that slow. Please, start with the group you're supposed to - don't push your way to the front because you want to get on the course more quickly. Again - you wind up creating a traffic jam behind you.

Finally, if you're going to walk (and let me be clear: there's nothing wrong with that!!), please, please do so off to the side... and single file. Don't force me to push through a solid wall of walkers... I feel rude about it, and quite frankly, not everyone will be as gentle or courteous about it, which raises a safety issue.

Bottom line, this is a great event that can be enjoyed by many, many people - but it takes some consideration on each of our parts for the other 55, 245 people running with you.

See you next year.

~Guy

Our Vancouver walk in the sun…

Since March, Linda and I have been focused on walking the sun run. She worked her way through her walk program by following it to a tee in the gym and on her own time.
The day was approaching and we made plans to ensure success. We planned for her to drive to my place and then for both of us to cab to the start line.At 9:30am she arrived at my place and in quick order we hopped into the waiting blacktop cab. Within minutes we ended up on Seymour (along with what seemed to be the world)
We made our way to the entrance of the event. Our bibs were pink which seeded us in the walker’s field which placed us in the last wave of over 55thousand participants.

We had to wait for a little bit but sure enough we began our journey. It did take a while to get to the actual start line, but once we heard the buzz from our timing chips on our shoes we knew we were on our way.

The start of the event sends you downhill to the west end – we headed over to the right hand side thinking that we would be slow but ended up using the open space to pass and stay on a really good pace.
The day was overcast and cool – perfect for our afternoon adventure!

We made our way around the back side of the west end on the packed road of walkers and runners. As we came through to the English bay side we saw the first water station. A quick stop and we were back on it. As the walkers started on Pacific Ave, we cut right again and headed down to the seawall. This route took us beside the walkers, but with way less traffic, we were able to chat and enjoy the water and beach. As we approached the Burrard Bridge, we cut back to Pacific Ave and joined the participants at another water station (perfect timing!)

The hardest hill of the day took us up and around the corner onto the Burrard Street Bridge. As we made onto the bridge we passed the halfway mark. 5km down and 5km to go!

There were lots of runner and walkers around us - lots of chatting with the passers by. We made our way down the backside of the bridge and turned left on 2nd Ave. from past experience, I knew this was great because we were close to seeing one of the final straight shots towards the finish.

We ended up stopping for a moment to stretch our calves and had a couple more sips of water.

As we made our way along 4th, the route turns into 2nd Ave again and one can really see all the way to the Cambie Street Bridge. Now Cambia Bridge is where you turn back towards the city and can see BC place – the finish of the event.

That last stretch of road was great. Linda powered along. There were lots of people around us. The bands were playing strong and the kids passing out water were in mid water fight!

We were consistent and we made our way onto the Cambia Street Bridge. Here was our last hill…the last long stretch of road which takes you down a soft right hand turn to BC Place.

There it was, the finish line...I felt goose bumps on my arms and down my neck. We could hear the announcer in the near distance. There was a big group on our left hand side and they all let out a big cheer and clapped as we made our way towards the line. With less than 50meters to go, I pulled out my camera and set it up. As we walked over the timing mat we could hear the loud buzz which could only mean one thing, this adventure was complete! We turned to each other and shared a big hug. I extended my arm and held the camera out (snap) the moment was captured and we made our way out of the finish area (now where’s a chair for us to rest!)

Congratulations Linda, you did a fabulous job and I am so very proud of you ;)

Remember our deal; now that you have one race bib, we are going to exchange it for another one from another event soon - Looking forward to it!

Sincerely,
Richard