Public Declaration

When we want to accomplish a goal, declaring it publicly is one way to keep ourselves on track. If we quit, we know others will know that we said one thing, and we didn’t do it. So we stay with it.

Today, I am riding in the desert. I may be somewhere around Valle Trinidad or Bahia Los Angeles on the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. All my life I’ve seen a map of North America and Mexico, and being from the east coast I never thought much about that little stick of land on the Pacific side of Mexico. It is beautiful varied desert landscapes with picturesque oceanscapes along the west, and the Sea of Cortez to the east.

I’ll be riding alongside the Sea of Cortez and then race over to the Pacific side and see the ocean there – back and forth several times.  

I have to trust myself. I’m an expert rider – that’s not an issue. I have to read the terrain and judge carefully how fast I can go at any one stretch. There are surprise washouts, switchbacks straight up on one side and straight down on the other, rocks of all sizes strewn everywhere. I can handle all this with a sharp mind. 

I must watch out wherever there are people along the race course – and over the 1134 miles there will be 400,000 of them. This race is a big deal down there. But where they congregate in the middle of nowhere spells trouble. They are watching the tough spots and waiting with their cameras. Sometimes the tough spots are man-made booby traps – a dirt jump followed by a pit or rocks usually. I have to pay attention carefully.

I must ensure not to get hurt. Sometimes just sticking a foot out to save yourself can twist a knee or foot, as happened to Tanner when we pre-ran the course two weeks ago. At mile ten, he injured his foot and could not walk that night and had to ride in the truck for four days as I finished riding the course.

I have to feed my energy out slowly. Adrenaline is not your friend when you have to ride 40+ hours. I must relax on the bike, and twist that throttle while not winding myself up any more than required.

I must not get dehydrated, and I must not run out of water (with electrolytes). I must eat correctly. Relying on energy drinks and gels for 46 hours is a mistake.

I must talk positively to myself – even if I have to lie. I must face reality at the same time, not taking wild chances. I must watch the average speed and the clock. I must not miss a single gas pit stop – a small trailer set up every 50 miles or so, often in the middle of nowhere. If I do, I’m out.  

I must not break the bike. At times I will approach 100 miles per hour. I must be vigilant. Other times I will be working hard in a tight winding river wash filled with rocks to make 18 miles per hour. If I drop the bike in the rocks, it may poke a hole in the engine case. If I drop it in the silt, it will vacuum it in and blow up the engine. The bike and I are inseparable partners. We are one.

I must not get lost. 1134 miles is a long way. I must watch my tiny GPS screen as there are thousands of wrong turns to potentially make. Taking your eyes off the course to look at the GPS can be dangerous. The timing of my looks will be important.

I must see Tanner to the finish. There is absolutely nothing more I can do for him, other than be his wingman and see him at the finish.

And I must finish.

Today, I'm trying to sleep.

I’m in the San Nicolas Hotel in Ensenada, Mexico. I rested yesterday and slept as much as I could last night. I’m trying to sleep more. At midnight, I will have a helmet and riding boots on. I’ll have carbon fiber neck and knee braces on. I’ll have a hydration pack on with tools, wire, zip ties, a satellite tracker and satellite phone. I’ll be sitting on a 2009 Honda 450X motorcycle customized for desert racing – a truly badass machine. Next to me will be my son, Tanner, similarly outfitted on his own race machine.

We will be on the starting line of the longest non-stop cross country race in the world – the Baja 1000. This year we will be facing 1134.4 miles of hostile desert and a 46 1/2 hour time limit. We will endure cold (last year below freezing at night), heat (last week 104F during the day), blinding dust, a billion rocks, millions of cacti, 100,000 miles of barbed wire, thousands of large hooved animals, booby traps built by locals (I was taken out by one last year) and perhaps as dangerous as anything – the other race vehicles.

When we begin, it will be dark and cold. We will race through that night. Then we will race all day long. Then we will race all night long. Then we will race all day long. Then we will race to the finish in the night. There is a 46 1/2 hour time limit.

The other race teams in custom race trucks and buggies of all kinds and motorcycles have teams of drivers and riders. They will ride a few hours, maybe three or four, and turn the vehicle over to a teammate. Not us. We are solo. It’s the “Ironman” class (nothing to do with swim, bike, run) where you do it all yourself.

We have teams supporting us. Each of us has a driver, a mechanic, a video guy, and some friends following the chase truck in another vehicle to help anyway they can.

I’m trying to sleep. In 24 hours sleep, and even lying prone as I am now, will be a highly prized activity, but unavailable. I’ll see my chase truck sometimes just 90 minutes after I saw them last, and other times not for 6 hours. When I see them, I’ll get a chance to eat, refill my hydration pack, get the bike checked over and fixed if necessary, and rest my riding muscles.

Less than 20 people have ever even finished this Ironman class in the Baja 1000. Most don’t due to injury, exhaustion, or mechanical failure (crash). I’m trying to sleep.

This year, friends Todd Lutinski (MA), Franz and Trevor Froelich (CA), Bobby Miles (OH), Ralph Carpinella and John Sayour (CT) will be following the chase trucks in secondary vehicles. They’ll drive down paved roads and meet me as the course snakes out of the desert to meet paved roads.

You can follow the race live at score-international.com. My race number is 714x and Tanner’s is 775x. The 7 at the beginning means Ironman class and the x at the end means motorcycle. We should get off the starting line somewhere between 1-2am PST (4-5am EST).

This will be the biggest mental and physical challenge of my life.

I must finish.

Borrowing against your savings

I hear about people who have 401K plans to save for retirement, and then borrow against their account. This makes no sense at all.

We must learn to live on a fraction of our take home pay. In the book “The Richest Man in Babylon,” a personal finance classic, it says “a part of what you earn is yours to keep.” “A part of what I earn”? Don’t I keep all I earn, you ask?

Well, no. First you pay taxes. Then you pay all the bills you precommitted to – mortgage, credit cards, utilities, insurance, etc. Then you pay the grocer, the retail stores, the pizza place, and Starbucks. Pretty soon you have spent all you made and have nothing left. So, none of what you made is yours to keep.

No matter how much we make, we must learn to live on less, so we can save some money. Some people who make lots of money are broke because they spent it all as fast or faster than they made it.  

Is that you?

The Black Magic of Compound Interest

When you borrow, compound interest is working against you. Credit cards can be 10% to 25% interest! Once you borrow at those high rates, the credit card company says you only have to make a minimum interest payment, because they don’t want you to pay the money back. Why? The magic of compound interest is working for them, and against you.

Give your financial life a chance. Do what you have to do to get out of credit card debt as quickly as possible and don’t go back.

The Magic of Compound Interest

If you saved $1000 one time, and got 5% interest each year, in 40 years you’d have $7,039. At 10% interest, in 40 years, you’d have $45,259.  

Can you save money?  If not, by definition, you will always be broke.

If you can save money, and invest it to get a good rate of return, you can make compound interest work for you.

Making an Impact

Today I’d like to send you a link to a speech I presented at our company’s annual convention in September. I wanted to show how we have an Impact in the world in an unexpected way.

The talk is 72 minutes long so check it out when you have time.  I hope you are Impacted by it as much as the people who saw it live.

Here’s the link: Convention Keynote 2017

Golden Books

Are you an adult learner? What that means is you read at least a couple books a month, and you listen to podcasts and audiobooks about things that will help you accomplish your major goals that you have written down and keep in front of you (you do have major goals written down, don’t you?).

Ok, well, if you are a learner, as you must be to improve your earning ability and skills, then you have to write down the important ideas you learn. If you don’t write them down, you’ll forget these ideas. Why learn them if you are just going to forget them?

So get yourself a hardcover journal and keep colored pens at the ready when you are learning, and write! Make it a habit and soon you’ll have a collection of books that are very valuable to you. Reading your own journals will be exposing yourself to a “great idea concentrate”, and stimulate, motivate and inspire you like no other book you own!  

Capture the ideas for yourself!

Take control of your body language

What you do with your body affects how you feel, the results you get, and how others respond to you. 

It sounds so simple, but smile, stand up straight, and put a spring in your step. Yes, even if you don’t feel like it – and that’s the point. When you take control of your body, it sends electric and chemical signals to your brain about how happy you are, how much energy you should have right now, and what state of mind should match what you are doing.

Act like the person you need to be to accomplish your goals, and you will become that person, and attract what you want.

The Trifecta – Sleep, Diet and Exercise

Eat, move, sleep.  One affects the other.  When I don’t get enough sleep, I am lifting my energy with more food, junk food, and coffee. Then I don’t feel like exercising.  It’s a downward spiral. When I get enough sleep, it’s easier to eat right and by eating right, I have more energy to exercise. Spiral up.

Sleep, diet and exercise. Spiral up or spiral down.  

Stoicism 101

Stoicism is an ancient Greek philosophy that teaches the development of self-control and fortitude as a means of overcoming destructive emotions. A stoic accepts what is out of his control, and controls what he can – his own actions. He/she seeks to act with virtue at all times.

It is embodied in the serenity prayer, which was written in 1937 by theologian Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr.  The original version was “Father, give us courage to change what must be altered, serenity to accept what cannot be helped, and the insight to know one from the other.”

If you were to live this today, would you do or think about anything differently?