.. LET YOUR FOOT OFF THE GAS

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Do you all remember your first experience with driving on snow, ice or any other very slippery surface. I love watching guys try to get their rig out of a mud hole. They punch it, the car rocks, mud flies everywhere and the engine screams with frustration. It doesn’t work! The same thing occurs on snow and ice. If you slam the gas all you do is spin the tires, and if you jam the breaks all you do is slide.

I remember a few years ago my son Braden was working hard to finally hit home runs. Of which I might boast he broke the city league record at. He was swinging harder and harder trying to hit it over the seemingly impossible fence. Then his coach yelled to stop swinging hard and told him to swing quick and with the next few swings of the bat he went on a rampage hitting the ball all over the park.

It is these kind of new paradigms I want to walk you through in this series of blogs. Working harder is not always the answer! Learning how to be efficient with your actions is a huge key to peacefully achieving your dreams. I can remember hearing speakers yell from stage “suck it up and work harder” time after time. While there is no replacement for hard work, harder work isn’t always the next answer. I want to encourage you to think about what you do and what are the real keys to being successful in what you do.

We live in a relationship driven economy now and you just can’t rush a friendship or trust. I find the harder I work the more it shows up on my face! If you are in a people oriented business clearly your ability to develop buy-in is a very high priority. I want to encourage you all to ask yourself if your face, posture, body language and internal spirit is radiating energy that is attractive or is it saying nothing at all, let alone draining energy from people. More important than your level of effort is what kind of effort you are putting out. You need to be sure you are communicating life, love, happiness, confidence and hope! We have all heard “its not what you say but how you say what you say” but do you understand how it applies to you. It is so easy to get caught up in our own habits and just say well this is the way that I am and this is how I have always do things.

Make a change in your life that will bring peace and love to your life. Radiate the epic spirit that God put in all of us. Celebrate every moment and share your love for life with everyone you know. Learning to love every moment and transmit that energy is going to be key to your success and learning how to work less hard but get much greater success.

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Relax, tranquillo, hakuna matata, shaka bra, all mean love what you do in service of people that you love who in return love you for what you do for them. Replenish and emit this energy and I guarantee a significant increase in your business and life.

Who’s the teacher?

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All of us live in a world of rules and rulings. We need most of these things to keep order in our world but I think we all know that at one the time there were only a few rules. Love God and do unto others as you would have do unto you! Since these rules have not been honored man has stepped in for thousands of years in an attempt to control people. Most of these rules have been good for us but unfortunately man doesn’t stop until they feel like they have complete control over everything. The reality is that the more you try to control or think that you actually do have control, the less you really have. I really believe if we would learn to embrace the quote “let go and let God” instead of trying to take control and play God, we would be a lot better off.

As time has rolled along for all of us these rules tend to build into us a sense of fear of failure. How do you feel when you drive by that police officer or look in your rear view mirror and a few hundred yards back you see the blue lights? Aren’t they public servants? Well then why do we feel that way when we see them? It is because they can cause us grief at any particular time that often times seem unwarranted or unfair. The fear of judgment or failure can truly hamstring our lives and erode our happiness if we allow it to.

I would like to encourage you to seek failure! I don’t mean to hurt people or break laws on purpose. I am referring to learning to test your limits and learn from every experience. We celebrate on the mountaintops and learn in the valleys. Get busy living and embrace the lessons we gain from failure. If you don’t get busy living you might find yourself consumed by trying to survive. There is magic in our mistakes. It humbles us and teaches us at the same time. We develop deep compassion and empathy for people. The past 90 days have been the most painful season of my life but it has also been the most humbling, educational, galvanizing and self realization era of my life thus far. I truly have had everything ripped from me and I am left here naked with God, my children and a handful of incredible friends. Nothing but my heart and faith. This rebuilding stage I am going through will someday be remembered as the greatest season of my life because it will mark the transformation of my soul.

So who is the teacher? Well, I say life and our failures are the greatest teachers of all. Nothing happens if we don’t work to move forward. Most failures wont be as devastating as a divorce, they will simply be an opportunity to exercise humility and learn some valuable lessons. Take some chances and test your limits. Push yourself on your board or skis. Learn a new language and practice with people who will point out your mistakes. Exercise to a point of failure so you rebuild a stronger and healthier life. Mistakes and failure are good for you! They help identify what to do and what not to do. I know for a fact that I am going to be a better teacher because of my failures, lessons and corrections than I ever could have been if it were not for my personal experiences.

The world teaches us to fear failure. I don’t want you to fear anything! You should respect all things but fear nothing! Push yourself, set an outrageous goal and go for it. You might just be surprised how far you can go if you don’t set limits on yourself.

Got a Minute?

Several years ago, when I had a job, I was constantly under the gun to make performance quota deadlines. Every month it would come down to the last few days and we would have to get an extraordinary amount of work done. We would always promise ourselves after these deadlines that we would plan ahead and not get caught in this situation again. But, unfortunately we would find ourselves stuck in the exact same situation month after month. One day I asked myself why don’t I work as hard as I do at the end of the month at least 2 times a month. So I decided to cut the month in half and had deadlines every two weeks. This was so effective that I did it every week and then often times several times a week. It wasn’t long before I was breaking company performance records and promoted up the corporate ladder.

I am sure that you all have had times of extreme pressure and performance. Whether it was during finals in college, or navigating an airport when you are late or emergency clean ups when you find out people are coming over to your home. I find it quite amazing how much we can really do when we totally focus for short periods of time. In fact I am convinced we can all reinvent our lives on just a few minutes a day. I would like to challenge you all to do a little experiment with me. It might just change your life!!

First of all I would like you write down how you would like to live. I think our outside results are a manifestation of how we feel on the inside. I would like you describe what kind of outside life you would like to have, ie home, car, time, travel etc… Then I would like to describe what kind of person you would like to be. Describe your personality, character, sense of humor, confidence etc… Most of us fall short of these things but that’s why we are here; to grow, change, love, forgive, heal etc. Next I would like you to commit to a daily exercise with me. I want you to take 2 or 3 minutes a day and visualize yourself being this person, when you are done I want you to go attack your day with this trait exploding out of you for the next 12 minutes. It is truly incredible to see what 15 minutes can do for you. Just like the test or airport or studies you are incredible and have more capacity than you could possibly imagine. Walk around as the happiest most outgoing person in town, greet everyone in a saturated state of Gods glory, encourage 30 people in 15 minutes. Trust me on this guys it will change your life in only a few short minutes a day. You will notice the change and results immediately. Do it for a week and you will be noticed, do it for a month and you will never be the same. Eventually you will do it twice a day then 4 times then every 3o minutes. It won’t be long then until it is who you are and how you roll.

Each time you jam for 12 minutes I want you to take the time to celebrate what you just did. Encourage yourself, reward yourself and recognize what step you just took to becoming a better person. I guarantee that this simple exercise will totally reinvent how you go through life and the level of your performance in everything else you do.

Its only 15 minutes! Visualize it, do it and then celebrate it! Your life is worth it, your dreams demand it and your testimony will pay it forward forever.

Any testimonies of change would be welcome here if you feel so inclined. Thanks and God bless you.

Write it down

...A life worth living is a life worth recording! One of the most impact full things I have done over the past few years is to journal about my life. I was at first quite intimidated to start writing because of my dyslexia and the fact that I barely got out of high school. But I soon realized that the key is to express my thoughts for empowerment not to impress others. As soon as I made the switch from impress to empower I was able to freely express my thoughts and feelings.

I really want to encourage you to start journalizing and or blogging. First of all it’s a great release! Being able to get some things off your chest is a true blessing for those of you that run very hard in life. I have also been inspired to put my thoughts on paper so my kids could someday read them and get some answers to their own lives. I also have found great hope by going back and reading my old journals and realizing how far I have come! Sometimes we don’t know if we are really improving, but by writing things down you can then look back and clearly see how far you have come and how much you have learned from your experiences. Learning to be generous with your time, talent and testimony are keys to living a servant leadership life. By writing your thoughts you will be able to inspire and educate so many more lives.

I would like to share with you a couple of thoughts on what I call “power journaling”. First of all I would suggest you to write down whatever is on your mind. They could be thoughts, feelings, events, fears, challenges, insights or anything you have experienced. The keys are to record your life, become more in touch with your life and to eventually add value to others. There is no medicine for the soul like helping others. By writing these things down I have found it much easier to manage them in my mind and then visualize the new future that I want to build. As you learn to see your future before it happens you will then harness the power of the spoken word. Learning how to daily speak into existence the life that you want to live is one of the most life changing decisions we can make . Gods word says that the power of life and death are in the tongue. Our body automatically goes to work in making our thoughts and words come to life.

As we write it then see it and speak about our lives it becomes virtually impossible to resist taking action and creating daily habits that bring them all to life. You will soon begin to move quickly in the direction of these powerful thoughts and words. The next challenge you should take on is how to measure your results. The best advice I can give you with respect to this is try and focus your measurements to the efforts of your heart as compared to the results of your hand. If you continue to sew goodness into the universe there is no way you will fail. Measuring the efforts of your heart keeps your humility and patience in the healthiest proportions.

Lastly I want to really encourage you to celebrate every gift of your heart and effort of your hand. You are doing a great thing! Please take the time to celebrate and praise your efforts. Claim your new future and know that you are presently building your testimony that will inspire people forever. Write it down and listen to the gentle whisper in your ear. “You are loved, you are worthy and we need you” God is speaking to you all day long!

Get out of the box.

"You really don't know you are in a box until they finally close the lid".

... I have spent most of my life trying to conform to a set of

rules that were primarily created to give the illusion of a control

that will keep you safe and comfortable. When we are in the box

everything feels pretty warm and safe and no real issues to deal with

daily. The problem is that with this comfort also comes a bridling of

your ability and creative nature. If you think about a job or even a

union job you can see how it really robs you of your ambition and

desire to chart your own course. In most controlled employment

environments the harder you work the more trouble you seem to cause.

If you think outside the box you are taunted because your ambition is

exposing there apathy. The more you do the more they try to control

you! The odd thing about it is that most people seem to prefer these

controlling environments because they can hide here and never have to

really perform at a very high level. Before you know it the lid

begins to shut on you and your greatest assets can begin to die.

Dreams, ambition, creativity, thinking for yourself, ingenuity and

most leadership skills fade when the lid comes down. Look around

yourself in all the environments that you are in and ask yourself are

truly free or are you clinging to the safe confines of the box?

In order to make an extraordinary jump in life you are going to have

to ignore conventional behaviors. You are going to have to do and

think in way that you have never done before. Think about it, if what

you knew and were doing was going to get the job done don't you think

it would have worked by now! Our natural tendency is to turn to what

we know and what we are familiar with. The problem is that you have

already been down this road and your soul is craving something that

allows you to freely express yourself and achieve your highest

calling. We all want to do out best but then we rely on what we know

and we have always done and then get the same results. This is a new

era folks and the rules of the game have changed! Customizing, mobile

flexible, unique and non conforming are the model of the next 10

years. Your old styles and approaches will cripple your efforts at

making a massive breakthrough.

You are so close and I believe have been prepared your entire life for

this time right now to break out and make a radical leap in life. You

must learn to try and avoid the trap of faith in the familiar.

Building new habits is the key to breaking free. Our strengths become

our weaknesses if we rely on them too heavily. If you have ever rock

climbed you have probably found yourself relying too much on your

hands instead of your feet and legs. Before you know it you have

nothing left in your hands. We are all familiar with using our hands

to pull ourselves up and so that's what we do. But any good rock

climber will tell you its all in the legs and you have to ignore the

temptation of doing what you know and embrace the new unfamiliar

strength that is just waiting to be used. This change will bring

about an awareness that you never new existed and new tools begin to

show up in your life. "if your only tool is a hammer, you approach

every problem like it is a nail".

Being aware of the box is the first step. Please take a look around

and ask yourself if you are being encouraged to be creative and

instinctive or to just "follow" or just "do your job"? Our

authorities can cloak this with being nice and friendly but you have

to understand that if you keep doing the same thing you will keep

having the same thing. We are in an era where everything is

reinventing; are you?? If you want change then be the change! The

world needs you to start thinking and creating!

The safe, comfortable confines of the box are actually a trap and

eventually the lid will close. Either you will lose hope or control.

Its funny how the box feels good with the lid off. We can still look

up and have the illusion of being free because we can still see out.

But, when they close the lid all of that goes away and now its too

late to get out and do something about it.

Is the "frog boiling"? Many of you have heard the story about the frog

in a pan of cold water that could have easily jumped out but as the

water was getting hotter and hotter the frog did not make the jump

because the change was so subtle day by day that it didn't even notice

it. The water eventually boils on the stove and the frog dies, all

along it could have jumped out and changed its destiny. Are you in a

"pan" I bet you are and don't even know it! Just look around and see

what you are comparing yourself too. Is it all a bunch of people in

the same hot water, is that your standard? Well then please jump out

and embrace change and harness your God given creative abilities. We

have plenty of followers, be a leader and lead change by being change.

Break free by thinking freely!!

Find comfort in the discomfort

How many times does life come down to a precious moment?

I have always encouraged everyone to live every moment like its our last and to celebrate everything in our lives but, lets be honest, there are always a few moments that stand out from all the others and seem to be the defining moments in our lives. When I was just out of High School I decided to make a run at being a professional tennis player. It had been my dream for as long as I could remember. I trained for hours every day with the deep passionate dream of playing in Wimbledon stadium. However the one area of the game that I neglected was the mental aspect of competing at the highest level in front of large crowds or media. As I climbed through the rankings I found myself in front of bigger crowds and sometimes in front of reporters that were looking for a snap shot or story. It was at these times that I would always play my worst and fold under the pressure. It would irritate me so deeply that I nearly quit the game as a result of my constant failures. In fact, it was this failure that led too my game ending car crash that put me in the hospital and ultimately prematurely ended my career.

Later in life I found myself speaking in front of tens of thousands of people all over the world and once again consumed by great fear and discomfort. I knew I had to find a way to get this under control in order to be effective. So I decided to find a way to reverse the polarity of this effect. I worked to convince myself that instead of thinking that this feeling I had in my gut and my elevated heartbeat were a result of fear, that in fact it was a result of hundreds of people and God himself encouraging me throughout the universe. I made a decision in my mind that all of these feelings, that I used to call “choking”, were in actually the effects of all these life forces sending positive energy and love my way, that they were praying and encouraging me to be calm, confident and bold. Suddenly I would feel a great calmness and confidence come over me. I could feel what we would call “home field advantage” take over my presence. I would stand taller, speak clearer and convey much more passion because I could feel all these beautiful people saying “go for it” “you are awesome” “we are with you” “set them free” “help them heal”. It was truly a beautiful thing to experience.

I referred to this feeling as the “pull”. I could feel them all pulling and praying for the best to happen. The pull is something that we can all embrace when we feel the elevated pulse and nervous energy. Something beautiful and special is about to happen. You are stretching your comfort zone and reaching for new levels of impact in your life. The Universe wants to see you succeed! Embrace this feeling as a gift from God. Doctors would call it adrenalin; I call it special juice to take us to a new level of impact. Don’t fear it, embrace the uncomfortable and call upon the love of the world that needs a new hero.

Look for opportunities to harness this special life force and you will learn to find great comfort in the uncomfortable. You are awesome and the world wants to see you overcome.

Doubt your doubt

Doubt isn’t always a bad thing. Most of us have spent a season or two doubting our abilities, our dreams or ourselves. I would like for you to consider making this emotion work for you. Why don’t you choose to doubt your doubt? They only thing you should doubt is the limits that we have allowed into our lives. If doubt is something that has placed limits on your dreams or commitments then make it work for you by doubting that there is something you cant do.

Nobody has the ability to absolutely see the future right? Then why don’t we cut lose on any limiting thoughts and really just go for it. Doubt is just misplaced faith. You believe more in your obstacles and inabilities than you do your gifts. If we can see the future, lets just place faith in what is possible and doubt on those that say its impossible.

then nothing would ever have been invented. Others say that they have to have overwhelming evidence to really believe but I would ask you has anyone ever provided overwhelming evidence that you cant. My guess is that they have not so lets just believe and see what might happen.

Belief or doubt are kinda like love and trust. You can’t make it happen or force it to be, but we can act like we do. We may not have the capacity to love and trust everyone but do have the capacity to act like we do! Our actions and our beliefs can be different if it serves our intentions. Over time both of these will align as our actions give root to deeper love and trust or in this case suspending doubt and instilling belief.

We make a choice every day how we are going to act. Let your conscious mind dictate the decisions that will honor your intentions. Speak and act every day like you know whom you are, what you do and where you are going. These choices will be the wellspring of great confidence and belief.

You’re never ready!

Perfect timing means that the visionaries have already started! Many people feel like they need to be fully organized and prepared for every possible option. I am a proponent of being organized and prepared for whatever endeavor you are about to embark on, but I am very concerned about analysis paralysis. Taking too much time to plan and organize every detail can take away from the stimulation of spontaneous energy. There is just something special about launching into a project with a wild heart and adventurous spirit. I am not suggesting you take life threatening chances or making moral decisions that could have life long prices. However, being in the creative, first to market position can activate some passions that can propel you into the next generation of your industry.

There are four basic guidelines I suggest when attempting to break free and radically change your life. First, be in the present moment and act! Try to avoid saying “some day” or “we are going to” and replace them with “now” and “we are”. The other day I was discussing some ideas with a friend of mine, Luke, and I said “ we are going to have so much fun” and he politely added “we ARE having so much fun!” It was a friendly reminder to honor my own rules of staying in the present, acting now and enjoying the beauty of what was going on right then. Secondly you must add passion to your thoughts, words and actions. People learn more from observing you than any other method. Passion is the multiplier of everything we do. You get an exponential boost in your results and your team gets the example that they can quickly feed off of. My third guideline is to make sure that you have a coach/mentor that has been down the road a bit and can guide you through some difficult situations. But, I want you to be aware of “over coaching” or the possibility of “lazy mind” that can destroy your intuitive and creative mind. Be your own person but use the discernment and wisdom of those that have deep experience. Lastly be willing to change on the fly. The only real teacher out there is life itself! If you are unwilling to fail then you will certainly never move ahead.

Don’t confuse being ready with feeling ready! Don’t wait for the feeling to convince you. BE ready by taking the first step and accept failure as the great teacher. If you wait for the feeling you may never start, let alone finish. Act without fear! Fear is the unwillingness to accept temporary failure! If you know you will get up then take a few falls and learn that it doesn’t hurt that bad and you have just uncovered proof that it wont work that way! Repetition is the mother of all skill and the only mistake is not learning from our mistakes.

The time is now! I hope you’re not ready! Attack, learn, live with passion, take counsel and keep on changing! There is nothing that you cant do!!

What are you expecting?

...One of the most important keys to breaking free is to change your level of expectation. You will never rise above your lever of expectations nor will you ever rise above your level of confession. What you expect and what you speak will always determine your level of accomplishment. These have become huge barriers on our society today. It has been drilled into our heads that it is better to lower your expecWhat does it mean to respect something? I believe it means to pay attention to it, to realize its capacity and be aware of its potential. Well then how much potential is in your potential? I would have to say that the answer to this would be infinite. There really is no limit to the potential of your potential. It feeds itself and builds on itself perpetually with every growth and learning experience.

Several years ago I coached a 12 year old baseball team that started off losing several of its first 10 games. I could tell that this team was either going to succeed or fold based on how they handled these early days. We discussed potential over reality. We discussed that we may not be winning many games now but that if we worked hard and were willing to persevere our potential would kick in and things would turn around. The boys all decided to stick together and get to work. We practiced for hours and hours every day, up to 8 and 9 hours on the weekends. There attitude and work habit became infectious and they began to win some games. We decided to enter a tournament in Las Vegas and match our skills up against some the best team on the West coast. We scraped by our first game and knocked off some of the doubt that had crept in as a result of listening to the rumors of how good everyone else was. We won our second game by a big margin and the confidence began to rise even hire. Our potential was building even more potential. Two days later we found ourselves in the finals against what was believed to be the best team in California. We pulled a meeting before the first pitch and discussed all of our hard work and all of the barriers we had overcome in the past few months. We talked about how far we had come and how this is just one more of those breakthrough moments for us. Two hours later we were lying in a huge dog pile, the champions of the Las Vegas Fall Classic! Truly one of the great memories of my coaching career.

We had embraced our potential more than our abilities. “Hard work beats talent because talent often times wont work hard”. Your potential deserves more respect than your abilities. If you are willing to out-work the field you will often out-perform the field! Most people won’t work hard because they believe their limits instead of embracing their potential. Unfortunately this then hamstrings your work habit and the passion behind your efforts. The only way to insure that you will never miss a goal is to never set one. We have to be willing to set goals that are beyond our current beliefs! By the very definition of a goal we are required to set it beyond what we think we can do. They need to be something that has multiple obstacles to overcome in order to achieve the goal. How thrilling would it be to watch a sporting event if there was no defense? The greater the challenge the greater the thrill, thus calling up your supernatural abilities that lay dormant until passion, hope and adrenalin put them into action.

After all who really risks more? The person who sets huge goals and goes for it or the one who sets no goals and hits every one of them? Those that are willing to risk and then pursue with all their heart at least have a chance! They may just hit them or find something even greater along the way! But the one who risks nothing is guaranteed to get exactly what he strives for, NOTHING! Your only limits are based upon your own beliefs and what you are willing to attempt. Never forget that omission and commission are a decision. Commission gets the juices going and gives you a chance. Omission only fuels doubt and fear which will eventually kill all hope and terminate any actions.

So I would suggest that if you are someone who likes to avoid risks, to get going! If you do nothing you risk everything. If you set some goals and get going you reduce your risks and give yourself a chance to unlock the massive potential that is inside of you. We all have it but we must decide to step up, reach out and throw our hearts at our dreams. I cant wait to hear your stories. Please feel free to post hear and let me know of your personal breakthroughs. You will empower many and might just set someone free!tations to avoid the pain of failure than it is to expect great things and let the energy of that hope fuel your efforts. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

The first thing you have to do is break free from limiting thoughts. Ask yourself now what beliefs do you carry around that are preventing you from really achieving great results. Do you think you are too old or too young? Does your level of education hinder you? Do you think you are shy or not confident enough to do certain things? Do you feel you are unworthy or unable? All of us carry around a few beliefs that we need to blow up and reinvent our thought processes. We will never, all of the sudden, surprise ourselves and blow through a belief level. We must believe we can before we ever will! That fact of the matter is that you can do anything you can conceive in your mind and believe in your heart!

Almost everything we have in this world today was at one time impossible. Laser surgery on eyes, heart transplants, computers, cars, telephones, air and space travel etc etc. what do we consider impossible today that will be common place many years from now. Somewhere out there someone is working away knowing in their heart that there is a way and they will find it. Is that you? What will you break through? Who would have ever thought that a phone would be a camera, gps system, music player, light, game station, computer, guitar tuner, shopping device, recorder, video camera, traffic monitor, surf and snow update and thousands of other applications. All we have to do is imagine it and get to work to make it so.

What company do you want to build? What habit do you want to build or break? What characteristic do you want to strengthen? Set an expectation well beyond what you want. Set it at a level that can impact the world. Be part of the great contribution in making this world more in love, in peace and in harmony. I would rather aim for Mars and hit the Moon than aim for a mud puddle and hit it! I cant wait for your breakthroughs and contributions. I am proud to be your friend not lets go for it!

START!

When my oldest boy Braden turned 10 years old he told me that he wanted to play professional baseball. I think most every young boy dreams of being a professional athlete at one time or another but there was just something different about how he said it to me. We were blessed to have a chunk of land out behind our house that appeared to be flat enough to build a baseball field so I thought I would give it a go. After all, how tough could it be to put grass down on a flat spot and through some bases down and call it good? I guess I never thought about the 50 trees in its way, the fact that the ground was not level, it was actually a glacial dump so it was full of rocks and I had no idea what I was doing. I can guarantee you that if I had taken all the time to plan, budget, measure and really think it through, I would never have built this field. Analysis paralysis would have stopped me dead in my tracks.

After 100 hours on a dozer 200 hours picking up rocks, 100 pallets of retaining wall bricks, 50 loads of top soil, 25 bags of seed a mile of irrigation pipe and a thousand hours of back breaking labor we introduced the finest private little league field in the state! We called it Duncan yards after my dear friend Brad Duncan who had mentored me for over 10 years. Since that opening ceremony we have held concerts, charity benefits, hundreds of games and impacted thousands of lives in our community. There is no doubt that all of these blessings were well worth all of the struggle.

The key to all of this is that we started and never looked back. There were many days that I asked myself “what in the heck am I doing” but I always went back to the dream of kids laughing and running all over this field. This vision carried me through all the hard days and streamed down my face as tears when I saw the first home run hit out of the park by my son.

You don’t have to know everything before you get started. I would admit that a plan is always a good idea but please don’t get so tied up in the planning and details that you don’t do the most important thing and that is get to work! Being in movement educates you. I would get on the web every night and learn more about what I needed to do the next days and weeks. I would stop every day at Home Depot and pick up the supplies for that days project. Day by day, hour-by-hour we chipped away at our dream. I surrounded myself with people that believed in the dream and we encouraged each other when the days got long and hot. Tom Gollatz, Kiley Floor and Glen Uekawa were instrumental in bringing this dream to fruition.

Every day we would learn a few more things. Mistake after mistake we learned our lessons. You see, if you are not in motion you can not collect enough data to learn what works and doesn’t work. We have to be in motion and recognize that there are no failures, there are only lessons. With lessons we can make adjustments and with adjustments and persistence we will always accomplish our goals.

I know that you want to break free so get started, be willing to make mistakes and never give up. I cant wait to see what you are going to do next!! Join me, lets go change the world!

Change things up

A few years ago I had the dream of becoming a professional golfer. I wasn’t really sure if I wanted the lifestyle of a golf pro but I knew that I wanted to be able to shoot under par golf. A few years earlier I had been introduced to the Player family on a trip to South Africa. I met Gary Player and his son Wayne and we quickly became friends. I asked Wayne if he would be willing to mentor me and coach me to my dream. He agreed and we launched into a friendship that I am sure will last a lifetime.

Wayne proceeded to break me down take me from shooting around 82 to 102 in about 3 months. I was out of my mind and incredible frustrated with our results to say the least. He told me to keep working on it and keep trusting him and that eventually things would sink in and the results would come fast and furious.

One day we were down in Phoenix Arizona working on my game and watching Gary play in the US Senior Open. We were warming up on the driving range and suddenly I noticed a man out of periphery. I looked up and was amazed to see the greatest golfer of all time, Jack Nicklaus. Gary stopped what he was doing and chatted a bit with his old friend and then asked Jack a question. He said “Jackie, my friend Brad here is working to be a professional golfer what would you say is the single most important key to being a great professional.” Jack said that hard work and trusting yourself are the keys to doing what you need to do when you need to do it! Being in complete awe I let this experience settle deep into my memory banks and those words ring through my head to this day.

A few days later I was on my way to the airport and those words kept ringing through me head. Suddenly an epiphany hit me and I drove straight to the driving range. I grabbed my clubs and ran straight to the tee box. I thought about all the hard work I had put in, I settled down and decided to trust what I had been taught and freely swing like I had never before. Right down the middle again and again as my confidence grew with every strike of the ball. It wasn’t much later that I was shooting in the 60s, in fact I had 6 rounds in a row in the 60s at one point.

I learned some incredible lessons through this process that have reshaped nearly every aspect of my life. First of all if you want to get better you may have to get worse first. Secondly, hard work always pays off, as long as you have good coaching that is helping you make adjustments. Thirdly, if I am willing to change things up and trust the process of my mentors I can accomplish anything I set my mind to.

What do you need to change? Is there a process that you have been doing for a long time that is not working? Maybe you need to change it up a bit? Have you hit a wall? Change your routine and mix things up. Be creative and find ways to do things differently and see what happens. If you lift weights and are stuck, change your routine and then come back to it. If your stuck at an athletic level, change who you train with. Find someone way better than you and let their excellence drive you. If you are a distance runner, do some speed work. If you are in a marketing industry, change your approach completely. Use multi media or a unique presentation tactic. If you play an instrument, try blind folding yourself for 3o minutes and see what you can do. Hang in there with it and trust that a breakthrough is coming. Change of your routines and turbo charge your passion into a whole new level of velocity.

Don’t settle for gradual progress! Look for an explosion and pursue your dreams with everything you’ve got! Change it up, you might find a way that changes the world!

Shake the box

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When I was a kid it seemed like the only thing I ate was box serial. I know it was different but that is how I remember it. We all had our favorites and took full ownership of them. I can remember making my choices based on the little prizes inside the serial box. Sometimes we would dig all the way through the box to find it first or we would wait till the very end and shake it out with the final bowl full. Every time we would go to a ball game we would get one box of cracker jacks and we could hardly wait to see what the prize was. The treats were good but it was the hidden surprise that we all anticipated the most.

I think that we are all like this, except the hidden treasure is in you! I think you would be surprised, if you shook things up a little bit, what you might find. If you have the courage, I would like you to challenge yourself to make uncomfortable demands on yourself and see what surfaces. A friend of mine took me up a steep incline the other day that eventually turned into a rock-climbing scramble. Suddenly I found myself in a position that going up or down was a very scary move. I was paralyzed on the side of this mountain but knew I had to find a way. I watched them as they went through this area with so much ease I soon found myself in motion. Needless to say I made it through and the fear was actually completely in my head and unnecessary. If you will take the plunge and shake things up a bit you will find talents and traits that you have never believed in before.

I recently took a trip to Costa Rica where I realized that the only language spoken was Spanish. 20 years ago I studied Spanish in high school, but I was shocked at how much I could recall when I really needed to. Last week I was with my mom and she was having some computer issues. I was able to diagnose it and fix it all for her. I had no idea I knew anything about debugging computers but I guess I do.

We all have many hidden talents in us but perhaps we get stuck in doing what we know instead of digging for new ways. Most people get stuck in the familiar. Are you? Do you need to reinvent a few areas in order to break free? If you are a strong list maker why don’t you become an initiator and start doing instead of planning? If you are a very intellectual person why don’t you play dumb and work to accomplish things by connecting deeply with people instead? If you are a very serious person why don’t you focus on being really fun or if you are the life of the party why don’t you try being the serious one and see what happens? If you are dependent of others why don’t you try to be totally independent for a bit or if you are totally independent why don’t you switch it up and evaluate what gifts you might find?

There’s more in there folks, I guarantee it! Shake the box a little, get uncomfortable and develop new strengths. Snow board with your other foot forward, eat with your other hand, learn other forms of communication like signing or brail. Say hi to people you would otherwise walk by. Hug instead of shaking hands. Switch it up and see how alive you feel. Just the increase in your heartbeat and brain waves is worth the exercise in itself.

I am proud of you, expand your gifts, break free and lets go heal the world.

OUT IN OUT!

Nearly 20 years ago I was encouraged to start my own business and break out of the corporate rat race. I was good at the corporate game and had quickly ascended to management and was in position to be a partner in a few more years. There was no guarantee this would happen since it was based upon the decisions of other people. I learned that the best way to predict your future was to invent it. I took the chance and I am glad I did! My business became a multi-national success that has helped people all over the world. The co-workers that I was competing with for partnership are still waiting their turn.

I decided it was time to make my own identity and pursue life at the pace and style that best suited my dreams instead of letting someone else determine that path. I also decided to build the kind of man that I wanted to be. I had a good idea of the person I wanted to be and decided to invent those traits in my mind. I decided to shape my own mind in a way that would eventually dictate what I was on the outside.

We are all living a manifestation of what has been going on in our minds for quite some time. That is a fortunate or unfortunate reality for all of us! Our life really is an inside job that starts on the outside and eventually ends on the outside but must pass through our hearts and minds first.

I would like to encourage you to take some time to write down exactly the kind of person you want to be in 5 years. Be very specific with these answers. Think about your health, finances, relationships, faith, self-image and contributions. Once you have taken the time to write down 3 or 4 things in each of these categories I would like you to post them somewhere that you will look at every day. In doing so you will automatically and subconsciously go to work to make them a reality.

Our life is truly very predictable if you really think about it. The information we put into our minds dictates what we think about all day long. What we think about becomes the conversations we have with our friends and family. Typically the things we talk about become the actions we take throughout the ensuing weeks. Actions repeated over long enough time are called habits and our habits become our character. Character is defined by the things and thoughts that consume us all day long. Whatever this happens to be will ultimately determine the fruit of our tree. We move and gravitate in the direction of our most dominant thoughts.

So we start off with a dream on the outside, it then moves to the inside as we meditate on it and collect information that supports that vision. Our work eventually kicks in and sooner than later we begin to see on the outside what we have always dreamed. Out-in–out! Amazing but true! Put it to work my friends and I will guarantee you will see changes you once thought were impossible.

Move from smart to heart

Growing up I was blessed to have a Mom and Dad that loved me very much! They worked very hard to make sure we had an amazing childhood. My dad worked very hard to give us more than most could ever dream of. The only sad thing about all this success is that my Dad paid the greatest price. He was unable to enjoy most of our childhoods with us because he worked so many hours in order to bless all of us. As I became an adult this left a strong and passionate impression on me. I decided that I would do whatever I could to bless my kids with the same life but add to it he element of my involvement. I feel really bad that my Dad had to miss so much. He truly paid a great price but due to the work ethic that he embedded in me I was able to retire and be a full-time parent by the time of the birth of our first child.

I would like to ask you to go deep for a minute and ask yourself what you are truly passionate about! What stirs you deep enough that you would be willing to overcome the frustrations of making it happen. It is going to be up to your heart if you are going to make your dreams come true. Unfortunately this requires you to risk greatly. If you want to love deeply you have to risk greatly! When you deeply love someone or something you set free intense emotions that super charge your abilities. Your creative energies will explode and your endurance will push to a level reserved for super humans.

What has touched your soul? I have found that what you do is only half of the equation, who you do it with is the other part. Surround yourself with people you love. Do what you love, with people you love, for people you love who in return love you for who you are. If you are not in love with your dream it is very unlikely that you will ever see it come to be.

There was a time in my life that I guarded all of my emotions. I was afraid to truly let go for the fear of losing control or being deeply hurt. The sad reality is that without passion there will be very little purposeful action. The world often tries to steal of us our passions but we must resist this force. Hurting people hurt people! Remember this the next time someone hurts you. Answer with love and commit to stopping the cycle of revenge. Move from smart to heart and love everyone no matter what. Peace is our key. Love is the answer.

Work like a kid

I am not really sure what I am going to do when my kids grow up and move out of the house. Virtually everything we buy today comes with a 50 page manual in three different languages. If I didn’t have kids I don’t think I would know how to turn on my TV,Tivo, cellphone or latest computer gadget. I am one of those guys who love to buy every piece of new technology that hits the market but unfortunately if it takes longer than an hour to figure it out I usually shelf it and it never ends up being used.

Thank God I have kids who don’t ever read a manual and also don’t know that they don’t know how to use it. They just jump right in and start pushing buttons until they figure it out and then they train me. If we could all just learn to work like a kid we would be so much farther ahead. It is actually their willingness to fail that allows them to succeed. They are focused on the end result and look at failure as just part of the process required in order to achieve their desired goal.

I have watched my kids learn to snow board in one day while it took me nearly two years. They just knew they could and I operated from the mindset that I knew I couldn’t. How different is that! Kids just love the feeling of being in movement and are fascinated with the journey of learning while most adults are more worried about how dumb they look as the crash every 10 feet.

Most of us need to evaluate all the options and the “worst case scenario” before we will launch into something. We have to do research, measure our skills and see if we have what it takes in order to go any farther. We become completely consumed by our abilities or lack thereof, but children will just ask themselves one question. Do they want to learn this skill or achieve this objective?

I have watched my kids for years build what they call “experiments” in almost every restaurant we have been in. They start with a simple glass of unfinished beverage and add everything they can find on the table. It turns into some form or toxic waste I am sure! But this does not impede their desires to find the next solution to global warming or life threatening disease.

I would like you to consider taking off the governor that limits your explorations and free spirit. Common sense and logical precaution are always a good idea but I think most take that way too far. Live a little, break free and go do something way out of character. You may just find a new passion that unleashes greatness in you. Start pushing buttons and learn that failure, falling down and looking silly are some of the real treasures in life. Learn to laugh with yourself and allow others to share in these precious moments. Your transparency and childlike qualities are very endearing to all.

This world needs more children in it so lets all become childlike again! Laugh, love, dance and sing. It these things that help us heal and break free.

Respect your Potential

What does it mean to respect something? I believe it means to pay attention to it, to realize its capacity and be aware of its potential. Well then how much potential is in your potential? I would have to say that the answer to this would be infinite. There really is no limit to the potential of your potential. It feeds itself and builds on itself perpetually with every growth and learning experience.

Several years ago I coached a 12 year old baseball team that started off losing several of its first 10 games. I could tell that this team was either going to succeed or fold based on how they handled these early days. We discussed potential over reality. We discussed that we may not be winning many games now but that if we worked hard and were willing to persevere our potential would kick in and things would turn around. The boys all decided to stick together and get to work. We practiced for hours and hours every day, up to 8 and 9 hours on the weekends. There attitude and work habit became infectious and they began to win some games. We decided to enter a tournament in Las Vegas and match our skills up against some the best team on the West coast. We scraped by our first game and knocked off some of the doubt that had crept in as a result of listening to the rumors of how good everyone else was. We won our second game by a big margin and the confidence began to rise even hire. Our potential was building even more potential. Two days later we found ourselves in the finals against what was believed to be the best team in California. We pulled a meeting before the first pitch and discussed all of our hard work and all of the barriers we had overcome in the past few months. We talked about how far we had come and how this is just one more of those breakthrough moments for us. Two hours later we were lying in a huge dog pile, the champions of the Las Vegas Fall Classic! Truly one of the great memories of my coaching career.

We had embraced our potential more than our abilities. “Hard work beats talent because talent often times wont work hard”. Your potential deserves more respect than your abilities. If you are willing to out-work the field you will often out-perform the field! Most people won’t work hard because they believe their limits instead of embracing their potential. Unfortunately this then hamstrings your work habit and the passion behind your efforts. The only way to insure that you will never miss a goal is to never set one. We have to be willing to set goals that are beyond our current beliefs! By the very definition of a goal we are required to set it beyond what we think we can do. They need to be something that has multiple obstacles to overcome in order to achieve the goal. How thrilling would it be to watch a sporting event if there was no defense? The greater the challenge the greater the thrill, thus calling up your supernatural abilities that lay dormant until passion, hope and adrenalin put them into action.

After all who really risks more? The person who sets huge goals and goes for it or the one who sets no goals and hits every one of them? Those that are willing to risk and then pursue with all their heart at least have a chance! They may just hit them or find something even greater along the way! But the one who risks nothing is guaranteed to get exactly what he strives for, NOTHING! Your only limits are based upon your own beliefs and what you are willing to attempt. Never forget that omission and commission are a decision. Commission gets the juices going and gives you a chance. Omission only fuels doubt and fear which will eventually kill all hope and terminate any actions.

So I would suggest that if you are someone who likes to avoid risks, to get going! If you do nothing you risk everything. If you set some goals and get going you reduce your risks and give yourself a chance to unlock the massive potential that is inside of you. We all have it but we must decide to step up, reach out and throw our hearts at our dreams. I cant wait to hear your stories. Please feel free to post hear and let me know of your personal breakthroughs. You will empower many and might just set someone free!