We are almost halfway through 2018 and 241,920 minutes have passed us by. What has this year been like for you? Have you been on a few adventures, overcome a few mental challenges, learned something new about yourself or your family? The truth is time passes by at the same pace every day, but the way we experience this time is 100% up to our choices and our actions. Life is truly the most precious thing we have and all of these momentary experiences form our beliefs, consequences, challenges, achievements, relationships, goals and endeavors. We have the option to either take some of this time and use it to discover what it takes to build a dream life or we choose to struggle through each day continuously wondering what a good life would be like.

You may be asking yourself “Where does fitness play a role in this plan of building your dream life?” Let me tell you that it has everything to do with it. If you are unhealthy, tired, worn down and in pain you are going to start to believe that these difficulties are just normal and you aren’t capable of achieving much more, but this is a complete lie and it will limit your potential if you let it. So, don’t let it!

Every time you exercise, you increase your blood flow, your oxygen consumption, your healthy hormone production, your confidence, your sense of accomplishment, your abilities and your potential! By completing a challenging training program you start to build the understanding that you are capable of achieving great things and start to believe in yourself. This belief in yourself spills over into every aspect of your life and when harnessed will help you build your dream life.

In the photo above I am at the base of a waterfall after hiking 10 miles into the Grand Canyon to the majestic Havasupai Indian Reservation with all of the gear and food I would need for 2 nights and 3 days. Do you think I would have ever been able to experience this amazing place without a good level of fitness or good health? No, I wouldn’t have been able to deal with the hiking, heat or climbing required. The way we experience this life is shaped by our daily choices and I choose every day to prepare my mind and body for life’s adventures and challenges!

We all know it is hard to maintain a physical fitness routine and also keep up with all of the other pieces of this health puzzle so, I am going to break it down into 7 different principles that are easy to understand and easy to apply in your every day life.

1. Invest in a fitness coaching program that takes a holistic mind, body and soul approach. Find a coach that will help motivate you based off of your deeper internal drivers with realistic and sustainable education, coaching and tools.
2. Focus on a lifelong health journey and try to learn as much as possible about the benefits and impacts a healthy approach to living will have on your quality of life for years to come. Sign up for our newsletter here to easily gain some of this knowledge!
3. Don’t chase someone else’s goals or images of what healthy is. Create and modify your own goals as needed.
4. Believe in the process and subscribe to at least 3-4 days a week of moderate to higher intensity physical challenges.
5. Love yourself and strive for balance. Even if you make 1 or 2 unhealthy choices occasionally. You can still win the long race!
6. Do exercises that will enhance the way you experience life’s adventures and move throughout the world = Functional Fitness!
7. TAKE OWNERSHIP of your actions and OWN YOUR OWN HEALTH. No Fitness Coach, Doctor, Dietitian, Psychiatrist or quick fix will ever help you if you aren’t willing to help yourself.

As always my friends Stay active, Stay healthy and Stay happy!

As a typical type A entrepreneur who tends to find himself mentally strung out and wanting everything to happen now and continuously, peace and patience are both very elusive traits for me. Because of this I have searched for a long time to find a way to overcome their absence. This is where I cultivated the term Peatience, which is the act of developing a sense of overall inner peace while remaining patient when you are anxious and overwhelmed. Being driven and curious can sometimes be a downfall because you start to over research, analyze and think things consistently, but this is where the work of developing Peatience can help you win each day!

Where are you today compared to Yesterday?

You are most likely moving forward in some form or fashion with your goals and ambitions even though it may not feel like it and you need to remind yourself of this by creating a to do list and marking things off as you go. You can use digital tools to make your to-do lists but, I like to put pen to paper at least weekly and then check my 1-year digital planner monthly to see how my overall progress is going? This will offer you sense of relief to see that you are moving forward!

Time Moves at The Same Pace Each Day!

There is no reason to worry about time if you are creating a solid task list and getting things done. Your 12 hour day will always be a 12 hour day, but your tasks will only get done if you create the plan and prioritize. Instead of saying well I have to get this done in the next few hours or days. Only focus on the most important task from your to do list and complete it. This will help you to manage your energy more efficiently instead of clock watching and getting stressed all the time about the lack or hours in your day.

Believe in Your Mission and Your Self!

There literally are 1000 ways to do most anything and just because the way you thought it should be done at the pace you had prescribed isn’t reality doesn’t mean you are failing. You started working toward this goal and have put in a lot of effort to accomplish it, now trust that it will pay off in the long run. Are you seriously going to throw out years of effort and sacrifice and give up? No, you aren’t so take a deep breath, sit back down, and get to work enjoying the journey to success!

Internal Peace Found in the Natural World Around You

I consider it vitally important to be alone with your thoughts in nature on a consistent basis to center your emotions and to get a gauge of your internal rythms and desires. Getting caught up in the competition of the digital world or the corporate rat race will always leave you looking at others and their progress instead of your own progress and accomplishments. This is the #1 killer of peace and patience. Slowing down to gain an understanding of your current mental state and your long-term intentions will help you to remain at peace and apply your energy where it’s needed most. I usually do this with a daily walk, hike, meditation or prayer.

By focusing on your daily effort, executing on the small manageable tasks and remaining aware of your progress you will have no choice, but to forget about your overanalyzing and anxiousness and discover this highly elusive made up attribute I call Peatience!

How do you show your spouse, children, and friends that you are grateful for their support and love? Feed them unhealthy foods, waste their time, stress them out consistently for no reason, and take their health for granted? If you wouldn’t do that to them, why do you so often do this to yourself? By being concerned for your own health and well-being you add value to every aspect of your life. Without your own health it will be impossible to enjoy life with those around you and the unfortunate truth is that you may even become a burden to them.

Suppose your family really wants to take a vacation together. Will you have the stamina and strength to travel with them? Will you be concerned about your ability to go on long walks or even hiking? How about enjoying the outdoors? Are you so out of shape that the heat or cold puts a strain on your body? This is the future you may face if you neglect your health and adopt unhealthy habits.

Your age doesn’t have to determine your physical abilities and health, but your habits will!

Two completely healthy people born the same year can have very different outcomes in their health and abilities as they age. For example: From the Age of 23, You and your best friend (let’s call her Jane) had completely different habits. Jane, over the years maintained an active lifestyle exercising most days. She followed an organic and un processed food diet, and maintained her happiness by being thankful for the small gifts in her life each day.

At 53 Jane may have some general aches and pains as would be normal with the wear and tear of years of exercise, but nothing debilitating. Jane’s blood pressure is within the healthy range. Her bone density and muscle mass is well above the average for her age. Her weight is within a healthy range. Her blood sugar levels are normal. Her coordination and balance has not gotten any worse and she isn’t taking any medications and has no immediate medical concerns.

You on the other hand, exercised sporadically, ate out consistently, and let the small stuff stress you out from the Age of 23. What state is your health and your body in now, 30 years down the road?

You face a very different reality at 53. Your joints, especially your knees cause you discomfort and pain most days. Your blood pressure is borderline-hypertension, your bone density is at the borderline of osteopenia. Your muscle mass is average for your age or perhaps even at the beginning stages of sarcopenia. You are 30-40 lbs overweight with pre-diabetes. And you haven’t done anything to test your balance and coordination in years due to fear of falling or injury. Your Dr. has prescribed blood pressure and diabetic medicine as well as recommended cortisone shots and knee surgery to relieve your knee pain.

Ok, I have put myself into this Predicament. How do I get out?

If you have come to the point where you are prepared to make the necessary changes and are ready to love yourself again, congratulations! This journey is lifelong so start to settle into the idea of a healthier, happier, and more vibrant you. The first thing you need to understand is failure while putting forth effort is expected, but failure due to lack of effort is disastrous.

Identify the things that you love most about your life. Specifically, your everyday experiences. Once you have identified these things you can start to identify what habits are tied to them. Are these habits healthy or are they unhealthy? I believe most all habits can be categorized as either healthy or unhealthy and to build a healthy life you need to build healthy habits. Tying healthy habits to the things that you love most and do daily will automate the habit development process and speed things up!

Review Your Progress and Habits Regularly

Without a gauge of your progress there is no way to know how you are doing. We can all expect to fall off the trail occasionally, but with regular check-ins we can catch ourselves quickly and get back on track. Over the years you need to remain aware of how your goals and intentions have changed and a regular review is the best way to reset and adjust. It’s ok to want to learn and work on something different or to have a new desire to understand more. I believe this is a true sign of you “growing wiser” instead of the cliché “growing older”.

With these new goals and intentions, you will need to review the habits that will be tied to them. So, once again ask the unhealthy or healthy habit question. As you do this over the years it is crucial to understand what long-term effects these consistent habits will have on your health. Even some good habits done in excess or without an educated approach can cause harm with flawed repetition.

Do You Live a Balanced Life?

Life is meant to be lived to the fullest and we are genetically engineered to enjoy almost anything, even unhealthy things with a balanced approach. Evaluating each habit will help you balance things out and avoid any long-term negative health effects. Take into consideration habits or things that you know are bad for you, but you are not going to give up completely. Instead, try to counteract them in some way. If you are going to drink alcohol, counteract this with drinking a lot of water, spreading your drinks out and avoiding drinking in excess. This process of counteracting can be applied to any unhealthy habit.

The bottom line is you are either going to help your body heal and grow or you are going to harm your body and speed up the process of breaking it down. Neglecting your health is like giving away your most prized possessions with no way to retrieve them. So, start loving your body, mind, and soul today with a healthier approach to your habits!

I am going to take a different approach with this post by writing from a pessimistic perspective, then provide ways to counter that perspective with practical and usable advice. I am currently on vacation in the Central American paradise that is Belize and we have been experiencing tropical storm strength winds and rain for almost 24 hours.

“I can’t believe I paid thousands of dollars to come this far trying to escape the 30’ weather to deal with rain and wind imprisoning me in my beachfront cabana! How can I possibly find some positive in this miserable situation?” Does that sound like something you would say? Let’s take a deeper look.

Challenge 1: Small spaces for a long time with people (Stir-Crazy)

When you’re rained-in with someone, it’s easy to drive each other crazy. We often turn to the conveniences of modern technology like TV or computers (the internet). I am with my girlfriend on this vacation and we had to figure out some way to deal with the weather-induced solitude. We could have just sat on our phones ignoring each other, complaining about the weather, the spotty internet service and how it is really dampening our vacation. But that would have been like paying money to complain and do what we can do anywhere in the world for free. We chose the optimist approach and sought out unique ways to enjoy our time together!

What do You Really Know About Your Spouse?

We decided to use the intimate quality time together to get to know ourselves and one another a little better. With the mindset muscle manual as our guide we began to explore the questions and answer them on our own. We then discussed them together. This was really fun and enlightening as it gave us a chance to see the questions from each other’s point of view and opened up new ways of communicating as a couple. The introspective questioning process also gave each of us a chance to look deeper into what we really want and need in our lives to be content.

Challenge 2: The Rain Makes It Difficult to Enjoy the Beach and Sea

“The rain is so cold, it hurts, and it weighs you down. I just want to get under the covers and hide until the sun comes out. I can’t deal with this sad weather on a beach. This is just so annoying.”

Where does this perspective leave you? Being upset about something you cannot change no matter how hard you try is simply the act of giving away your most precious commodities, your time and energy!

Dancing in The Rain

I brought my GoPro and set it up to video the storm as it rolls in to capture the beautiful imagery from the rain, lighting and clouds. That storm will never be seen again but we will have the video and pictures of it and this vacation forever. Thunderstorms can be more powerful and energizing than a sunny day in many ways if you capture and acknowledge its beauty. Yesterday before dinner we went walking/running on the beach in the rain. It wasn’t 100% planned the first time, but it turned out to be fun and we created a memory to hold onto as we chased each other back up to our cabana.

Challenge 3: This was my Vacation to Explore Belize and Relax in the Sun

“There is nothing to do in this rain. I can’t wait to just sit on the beach with my Pina Colada and be waited on while I bask in the sun. Uhhh, thinking about it just upsets me even more. When will the rain stop?”

You are not the only person who is being affected by the rain. To gain some perspective, get out of your own head and take into consideration how it affects everyone around you as well.

It’s not all about you!

Belize is a popular tourist destination and we are here in the peak season which means most of the local residents are working in or supporting tourism. How do you think they are being affected? Their lively hoods are based off people enjoying the beautiful beaches and weather here. We decided to bring school supplies for the local school and are planning to take a trip to give it to the local children to give back. The resort Beaches and Dreams has been gracious enough to coordinate and help us do this. It is important to remember how blessed we really are and how we affect those around us with our actions and attitudes.

In times of discomfort and challenges you have two basic options. To be positive and push through looking for possibilities or to be negative, shut down and focus on the obstacles. This one decision will determine what your life looks like as the years go on. So, take it upon yourself to cultivate sunshine in your heart and your energy will always be brighten the day!