And so it is that The High Performance Life Blog (THPL) is launched today (see below), and with its launch we have proven yet once again that progress, achievements, and successes are made and not given nor granted. It is truly from humble and modest beginnings that most of what we accomplish in our lives comes to be. There are so many lessons to glean from this most recent journey that started with one challenge (thanks Kimba), one pushup, and one email - - growing in small increments day by day more words, more messages and more participants and before I knew it the emails had turned into a treatise on how to think about a high performance life…. So, leveraging the power of the social media context that we all live in and with a great deal of creative help (from my team at Pennfoster - especially Anna) I take the formal step into being a blogger. And as I reflect on the activities of the past few months from that single challenge, to the writings I have shared, I realize that indeed this journey to a Blog has become a real life metaphor for the essence of THPL – for each of you who have come along to this point I do hope you continue to “ride” along with me on this next leg of the journey. Yes, I have the inner drive to keep pressing forward as a blogger but I am even more driven to write and post knowing you are there with me. I feel accountable to the readers and my fellow High Performance lifers – you inspire me to do more every day. I commit to staying the course and trust you will do the same. And so it is – I stand ready to write and think and challenge again and again. What could be better?
A few thoughts for us to ponder as we venture forward towards the High Performance Life
- When you try something new or do something different or change how you do something, you need not know exactly what the end point will be. Start the journey with the unknown as the target and then be willing to be surprised by what you find along the way. And when you find it do something about it. (yup that applies to this Blog – for sure)
- Be patient and diligent – give yourself time to succeed. Nothing breeds success like patience and diligence – the combination is unstoppable – you get better every day, which has a compound effect and before you know it you can do more than you thought possible.
- Set modest goals for the near term and big goals for the longer term. For example – near term; run four miles a day, three days a week. Longer term; run 600 miles in a year. Your body and mind will adapt with the short term goals and your interest level will remain high and held together by the longer term goal
- Make it social – we are much more likely to stick to commitments if it involves others. You will show up to the weekly concert at the Symphony if your best buddy has purchased the tickets for the two of you.
- Treat your activities and goals as something fun to do – sort of like playing. Seems kids have figured this out- they never tire of digging in the sand at the beach – they never consider it work. But if you give someone a shovel and tell them to get back “on the back of the job” and it all of a sudden becomes work – the same task – looked at differently – one person thinks it Is work – the other thinks it is fun. The activity is the same – it is just perspectives that change; and,
- Lastly, (for tonight) – take a few risks – put yourself out there – be willing to be “embarrassed” by your less than perfect first attempt. What you will find is there really is no embarrassment when sincere effort is put to a task. You will feel better for it and you might even decide to try again and again getting better each time realizing that our effort is what rules the day – put in the effort and the outcomes take care of themselves.
Here is the link to the Blog – please do get in there and follow the Blog – the more followers the better and please DO share it with your friends and family. To quote our kid president – “this is our time” – let’s do something with it!
Sally, oh Sally, what you do to me – yes, yes, I made it to the end – I do not care how many times I get there – I find this challenge - wicked, simply wicked
On 4:17 minutes – 183 pushups tonight – 80 in the first set. Maybe the new baseline is 180? I think that is a bit bold. Need to get stronger…. Where is that spinach when you need it, Popeye!
Loving life, that’s all
joe