Why I race.

On June 25th,  I entered a 300-mile race on a dirt bike called the Silver State 300 in Nevada.  It was in the middle of nowhere.  It’s dangerous.  I’m 55 years old.  It’s expensive to get there.  I never raced in this part of the country before and I am unfamiliar with the terrain.  It takes days to get there, prepare, race, recover, and get back.

Why would anyone do such a thing when you can just stay home, drink coffee in the morning, beer at night, and make it easy on yourself?  It’s a good question and one that anyone who wants to make the most of their life should ask about the little voices and desires inside them.

The questions and answers are different for everyone, but here’s what I got out of it – 

• It gives me a reason to train in the gym and to eat well.  (I will live longer this way).
• It gave me something to look forward to in the months and weeks before.
• I discovered really beautiful places in Nevada I had never seen.
• I had a lot of fun and unique experience with friends.
• I am an experienced desert racer, but I learned more and got better.
• It took 6 hours and 15 minutes, and I was 30 minutes behind the leader, despite the dust I had to battle.
• I am not bored, and when summer is over, I’ll look back and say this is one of the ways I made the most of it.
• I finished third out of 14 in my class, and it gave me more confidence.
• Now, I look at what I did and ask “What can I do now!?” with excitement and confidence.

When we step out of our comfort zone and stop being reasonable, we grow and expand. 

How are you doing it?

Do you have an environment for growth?

In my life, I set up the rooms in my home and my office for growth.  I make places and spaces that I can not only work easily in, but that inspire me.  In other words, I set myself up for the projects I may want to work on, before I even know what they are.

Different spaces can be used for different projects.  Different spaces inspire different thoughts and different work.  I try to have quiet spaces, because noises other than my own thoughts are someone else’s agenda.  I keep visual noise down too.  Reduce clutter, or keep it behind me where I can’t see it.

When I go on a trip and I’m in a different environment for a while, I often say to myself “I can’t think here”, or 
“I can’t think for myself here”.  I have to get back to my environment – the one I chose and set up to work and live in to be the best me I can be.

How have you set up your environment to be the best you?

Do you need to make some changes?

Happy Independence Day!

Tomorrow is America’s birthday!  Let’s not forget the principles this country was founded on.  Principles that have created such freedom and prosperity that we all enjoy today.  

And let’s not forget we must protect the ideas that got us here.  Limited government for example; we don’t want a government with a myriad of regulation, laws, and rules that makes it constrictive for us to do things freely.

Groups of people we elect are supposed to make the laws.  But with alarming speed, two trends in government have run amuck.

1) Presidents and Governors have issued so many “executive orders” that are not voted on by anyone.  That’s not president or governor – that’s king.  Our founding documents don’t say that one man can make laws by himself.

2) Agencies run by people who are appointed or hired make a tremendous quantity of rules and regulations.  Whether it be the environment, labor, transportation, commerce, you name it – unelected people are making regulations.  And the nature of any department is to grow their influence and expand their budgets and footprints in our lives.

We must notice what is going on, and speak up.

America wasn’t created by accident or by letting the human nature of benevolent leaders go unchecked.  In fact, it was the opposite.  The government must be checked by the people. 

Every age in America has had its challenges.  Our forefathers have largely done the right thing (eventually), and for that we are grateful.  Now it’s our turn to protect it for our posterity.

When to shake your snow globe – and when to stop

Pretend we have a snow globe in our minds.  

For some of us, we’re in such a habit of mediocrity and comfort, all the snow has long settled, and not a lot is happening.  That group needs to shake the snow globe.  Go to different places, meet new people, change your habits, and try new things.

For some of us, the snow never settles.  We’re chasing shiny objects, (some worthy of course), maxing out every day, and were exhausted and feeling like we can’t catch up.  We need to stop shaking the snow globe for a while.  Don’t start any new projects, take time off, catch up, and finish what we started.

What advice do you give yourself; which group are you in?  Tell me with the orange button!

A great day begins the night before.

Set yourself up for a great day tomorrow.

Go to bed early.

When the mind studies the mind.

When you study the human mind and how it works, you can understand why you think the way you do.

You can observe yourself thinking and make corrections.

If you learn about it, you can be your own therapist, avoid suffering, and optimize your own experience.

Get rid of junk mail

Stop your junk mail. 

Send your address and a request to be removed from all mailing lists to –

Mail Preference Service
Direct Marketing Association
P.O. Box 9008
Farmingdale, NY 11735-9008

(I hope this works!)

Time will tell

We can heavily influence the outcome of any situation.  

Yet you never know the consequences of bad fortune when it happens.  Wait. 

You never know all the consequences of good fortune either.  

Time will tell. 

Think, and keep doing your best each day.

What do you believe is possible for you?

You’re thinking about a challenge or a difficult task, and you think it’s not possible.

Do you get started and attempt it in earnest?

No.  We don’t try/do things we think are impossible for us, right?

What we believe about ourselves has a lot to do with what we attempt and accomplish. 

What do you believe is possible?

Take a chance, yet again.

Nothing good comes without a risk.

“Where there is a chance of gain, there is a chance of loss.

Whenever one courts great happiness, one also risks malaise.” – Walker Percy

If it didn’t work out, you have to learn from it and be smarter, but don’t stop taking chances.