MusKels

Sitting here, trying to find inspiration for this next post, I decided to do some pushups to get the blood flowing.

This reminded me of my experiences over the past year or so at the gym.

I've somehow always had it in my mind that it would be nice to somehow have a Jacob Black-esque bulging biceps/rippling abs type body. So over the past six or seven years of my life, I've tried various methods of weight training and exercise.

Frustrated with only moderate success, I decided about a year ago to invest in a personal trainer.

Having a trainer has been great. It's given me the accountability I need to keep going to the gym, and it's been helpful to have an "expert" guiding you through the process and making sure you don't get hurt.

While my body is not quite a perfect picturesque Michelangelo's David . . . yet, I have learned a few things in the process.

One of the most significant lessons, I've learned is that while doing your weight training, if your body is not in the correct alignment then you will never reach your intended goal.

Let's say for example, your goal is to build up your chest muscles and you decide that the bench press is the way to go. You load up your weights, lie down on the bench, or sit in one of those bench-press machines, and you start your exercise. Up and down go your arms, up and down go the weights. After about 10 reps, you rest. Only there's a problem. You feel nothing in your chest. Your chest feels like it hasn't been worked out at all. Your arms however are exhausted. What happened?

Your focus was off. You were doing the motion, but you were using the wrong muscles to do it.

I did this for years. I spent hours at the gym lifting weights, expecting to develop a nicely shaped chest. But the problem was, I didn't work my chest out at all. The result, beautifully sculpted arms, and a flat chest.

My point?

As we strive for success are we concentrating our efforts in the right areas? When we put in time, money and effort in result-producing activities? Or are we doing things either in the wrong way or with the wrong focus so that we get no results or the wrong results?

Continuing with the gym analogy, you can pedal as fast as you can on a stationary bike, but you're never going to get anywhere. It's stationery.

Translating this into the outside world, you can all of your best efforts into networking, or gaining knowledge, or practicing a craft, but in the end are you networking with the right people? Are you gaining the right knowledge? Are you gaining skills that are useful?

Are you being productive?

The best way to figure this out? Get an outside opinion. I only learned that I was doing the exercises the wrong way AFTER I hired a trainer. Because my trainer was able to see me in a way that I could not, he was able to help me make adjustments and tweak different things. Making my efforts more efficient and effective.

So it's time to evaluate, for all of your efforts are you getting the results that you hoped and worked for? If not, perhaps it's time to make some adjustments. Think about it.

OK. Time for more pushups.

Time

Have you ever said, "I don't have time for that," or "I'm just really busy right now."

Excuse me for being blunt, but "WHATEVER!"

I've been thinking a lot about these two excuses for a few weeks now because I've heard them over and over again from various people.

But, come on, friends, if we're truly honest is it that we "don't have the time?" Or is it more that we "don't want to MAKE time?"

To be frank, I think if you are truly, truly honest, nine out of 10 times the situation is more of the latter.

Think about it.

I mean, yes, granted in today's society, people are busy. They have work, they have school, they have children, and elderly parents to take care of, they have church obligations and social obligations, we commute, we travel, we network. We ARE busy.

However, what happens when, say, your good friend is in town for a few short days and they really want to see you? Are you too busy then?

Your stomach is growling and you're about to faint from hunger, are you too busy to eat?

Most of us wouldn't skip showering because we were "too busy." Would we?

For some of us, we're so busy that we have time to NEVER miss an episode of Heroes or 24 or (fill in name of show).

Now, my point isn't that we should ignore our friends, and not eat and not shower. No. My point is simply that we always seem to find time for things that we want to do and things that are important.

I mean I'll give you a perfectly good example.

Recently, I invited an acquaintance of mine to join me in a venture that I've been working on.

This person showed some interest at first. However, a few weeks later, I get an e-mail. "Sorry, what you're doing sounds really great. But I just don't have the time for that right now." Like I said earlier, WHATEVER. A few days later, I see photos on Facebook of this person partying it up with their friends, with captions like, "so and so's third to last night clubbing in Taiwan." Really, so you're so busy, you have time to go clubbing?

My point is, friends, get your priorities in line.

There will always be time for the things that we WANT to have time for.

You want success? You want to get somewhere in life? You want to do something great? You have to make time for it. These things aren't just going to fall in your lap.

And please, please, stop using the excuse, "I don't have time." Be honest with yourself and with your friends, say, "I'm sorry. But that's just not a priority in my life right now."

Walk on, friends, walk on.

Diamond, Pearls, and Butterflies

I've been feeling the heat.

The pressure of making your dreams come true certainly can be nearly unbearable at times. During a recent bout with frustration, I was reminded of some of the world's most beautiful things that come out of pain, pressure and perturbations.

Diamonds. Some people love them. Some people think they're overrated. Whatever your opinion, you can't deny that they are one of the most precious and most beautiful stones. Do you know how diamonds are created? Pressure and heat. Without these two things in the right combination, diamonds would simply be carbon. Black, dirty, cheap, a pollutant.

Pearls. Have you ever gotten something in your eye? An eyelash, a speck of dust? Irritating isn't it? Well, as most of us know, pearls are born of similar irritations. Sand, dirt, or another foreign-type object enters the oyster. The oyster in order to protect itself begins to secrete a substance to cover over the irritation. Eventually, what we get is yet another example of something precious that comes from something uncomfortable.

Butterflies. A man was walking in a park one day and happened upon a butterfly in a cocoon. The butterfly was struggling and having a hard time breaking free of the cocoon. After a few minutes of watching, the kind man decided to help the little butterfly out. He took out a pair of scissors and snipped the sides of the cocoon to make the opening a bit wider for the butterfly so he could escape easier. Unfortunately, the man discovered too late that not only did he not help the butterfly, but he also left it deformed and unable to fly. You see, God designed the butterfly to struggle out of the cocoon. It's only in that struggle that blood is forced into its wings, strengthening it and making it strong enough to fly.

So my dear friend, are you struggling? Are you feeling the pressure and burden of getting something off the ground? Is the kitchen getting hot? Well, maybe instead of getting out, hang in there. Push through. Fight on. Persist to the end.

Do and the reward will be something beautiful, rare and very, very precious.

Comfort and Mistakes

Recently on a cold night here in Taipei, my wife and I were bundled up in our winter coats and scarves when we ran into an acquaintance. This man was dressed in a T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops. Incredulous, I had to ask if he was crazy. He said that he wasn't. But that in fact, he has trained his body. The human body, he stated, is designed to self-adjust. Our bodies work to maintain a certain body temperature. So when we are hot, it cools us down, when we are cold, it warms us up.

Now, I'm not sure how much I buy into this. I definitely do believe that our bodies are self-adjusting. How else do you explain sweat? But, at the same time, I like my warm winter clothes and accessories.

The point to the story is that humans have this incredible ability to adapt. And when put into unfamiliar, uncomfortable situations, what I've found is that we as humans tend to default to comfort. So when things are uncomfortable we adjust. We make changes, we learn, we embrace, and eventually we're comfortable again.

In the process of building our dreams, it takes getting uncomfortable. As we challenge ourselves and push ourselves beyond our comfort zones. It's often a struggle. We feel out of place, unbalanced or incapacitated. Given time, we gain new insight and knowledge or learn new skills, and before you know it, we've adjusted.

However, are we willing to risk jumping into an unfamiliar situation knowing that we will be the better for it?

For many of us the answer is no. We don't like the unfamiliar. Unfamiliar is risky. We might make mistakes.

The thing with mistakes, however, is that again we are self-correcting. Mistakes I've found are the building stones for progress and success.

During his process of inventing the light-bulb, Thomas Edison tried hundreds of different things to find something that would glow and give off light. When asked if he felt these experiments were failures, he answered no. These things were not mistakes or failures. Now he knows hundreds of things that won't work.

Same with us. We make mistakes. But we learn what NOT to do. And sometimes these lessons are often even more valuable than the lessons where we learn what to do.

Now, I'm not saying that mistakes are fun, or that mistakes don't hurt sometimes. But, only, that mistakes are some of the best teachers. And as we make our mistakes and grow and learn from them. Only then do we get the knowledge and skills to become hopeless successes.

So pardon my mixed metaphors and get your hands dirty, jump in the cold pool, risk a little. You'll be the better for it.

Waking Up

Turning dreams into reality is never a walk in the park.

Bringing dreams from the realm of fantasy into the realm of actuality is never as easy as we imagine or hope for.

I liken it to waking out of a deep sleep in a warm bed on a cold winter's day. The transition can often be jolting, shocking and even uncomfortable. However, the shift must be made if we are to be productive and successful.

I believe the problem that most people have are twofold.

First, who wants to leave something warm, comfortable and soft? Staying in bed is easy. Staying in bed feels good. Staying in bed is familiar.

Second, some of us have decided that we need to get out of bed, but we get stuck. Our minds are a fog and we can't figure out what to we do once we get out of bed. Do we get dressed, do we brush our teeth, do we find our glasses?

So with the combination of these two, many of us end up in situations that are familiar and easy, rather than find the motivation to get up and out.

Just like getting out of bed, however, while the transition might be jolting at first, eventually we adjust, and we get used to it. We move on and now being out of bed is just as comfortable as being in bed, it's just as familiar, and doesn't take as much effort as we might have thought it would have while we were still in bed.

But the key is making the decision to change.

Many of us want to figure all of this out before we leave the comfort of the familiar. But the reality is that these things can be figured out once we are there.

So what's the moral? Get out of bed. We humans are amazingly great at adapting. We will adjust.
Second, stay out of bed, and do what you have to do until you succeed.

Never let discomfort, lack of direction or confusion keep you tied down.

You have a life to live and dreams to fulfill. So get out of bed!

Dreaming

Why are so many of us afraid to dream?

Zig Ziglar told a story of fleas in a jar. You put fleas in a jar and put a lid on it. The fleas instinctively begin to jump, repeatedly hitting the lid in their attempt to escape. After about 20 minutes of constantly bashing their heads against the lid, they learn that they cannot escape and stop jumping as high as they originally did in order to avoid smacking their heads.

At this point you can remove the lid and the fleas will continue to jump at the same height, never escaping the jar. They conditioned themselves to BELIEVE that they can never escape the jar, so they just stop trying.

So many of us are like these fleas. We have bought the lie. From a young age we are taught that the path to success is to study hard, so we can get into good schools. Then we can get a degree and find a good job. Work hard at the job for 45 years and then we can retire.

We have conditioned ourselves to believe that this is the only way and that we can only get so far. Maybe you tried to go for your dreams, but were just met with pain and disappointment. So you have stopped dreaming of bigger things outside of this. You traded your dreams for security.

But what if there is another way? What if the "lid" isn't there? What if you can really accomplish and have everything that you've ever wanted and wished for?

What would you do if you had all the money in the world and time to do whatever you wanted?

Have you ever even thought about it?

Or have you taught yourself to only go as high as it doesn't hurt.

Friends! The LID is only there if we choose to put it there.

Working 45 years for retirement is NOT the only way. Dreams can and DO come true.

Problem is do you dare to dream?