health – Page 95 – Disney Employee Engagement Speaker

Keep Your Goals Very Small

What the? Keep my goals very small? Didn’t you say to dream big?

Didn’t you say, “If your goal isn’t impossible, you’re not reaching high enough.”

Exactly.

And maybe the challenge for many people, including you, is that your definition of impossible is inaccurate.

When I started running 11 years ago, my impossible goal wasn’t to run in the Master’s Track & Field World Championships.

It also wasn’t to run one mailbox a day for a week, and then two mailboxes a day the second week and so on.

It was to get started and never stop.

One day at a time. Get started and never quit. Never quit, one day at a time – this is what I mean by very small goals.

Do you see the difference?

Merry Christmas from Lane 8

And on this day was born a child. In a manger, at the stable. No room at the Inn. And they called him Emmanuel.

Impossible?

Perhaps nothing is impossible. Perhaps impossible is nothing.

Lane 8 is a simple website and blog. Even the first Lane 8 business card was handmade, in five minutes. And 5,000 were printed and taken to Finland.

August, 2009, in Lahti, Finland, the Master’s Track & Field World Championships drew 5,300 athletes from 80 Countries, with the same Olympic spirit as the official Olympic Games.

Many of the Master’s athletes celebrate Christmas, and that little boy everyone calls Emmanuel.

Lane 8 is simply a humble beginning. Not at all unlike a child born in a stable.

Merry Christmas from Lane 8.

Peace on Earth, good will toward men.

Lane 8 Optimism

What can we learn from defeat, loss, failure?

Many things to be sure. But only if we try hard to learn from setback. And only if we listen. And only if we then try again.

Are you listening? And I don’t mean, “Sleigh bells ring, are you listening”.

I mean, are you the kind of person that will pick yourself up after you fall?

Are you the type of person that finds a million ways to stay motivated?

You see, getting motivated is one thing. What makes winners is staying motivated.

Oh wait, you want to tell me something, right?

Okay, go ahead.

“Jeff, you don’t understand, my life is hard. It’s very difficult.”

Here’s a Christmas gift for you, and it is given with the most hopeful and sincere intent – “No one has it easy. Period. End of story.”

This may scare some people off, and I would hate to see that happen, but I can’t allow myself to make excuses.

How can I teach our son (9), that it’s okay to make excuses?

Lane 8 Hypocrite

Maybe. Maybe not.

On January 5, 2009 my Family Physician wrote a script for a routine colonoscopy, since this is the year I turned 50.

Well, here we are, almost January, 2010 – a year later. No colonoscopy. Not even scheduled yet.

How in the hell can that happen?

Simple. You already know, don’t you? We get busy. Distracted. Paralyzed – with the fear of making a commitment.

So, please know I ain’t perfect. Big dreamer? Absolutely. Perfect? No way.

But if you look at the batting average, it represents a decent overall “practice what you preach” reality.

How’s your batting average?

Masters Track?

Yes, Masters Track.

What do you do to stay motivated to reach and maintain your health goals?

Master’s athletes are defined as people over 30 years old.

There are other sports that have Masters competitions too. The thought of trying something completely out of my comfort zone actually seems possible – at a future time, of course.

Why?

Because the whole point of the competition, to me, is simply to find ways to stay motivated. When things get boring, I get less motivated.

This is a deadly place to be, literally.

Someday. maybe swimming. Or perhaps I’ll try Filed events, like the Discus, Shot Put, or, heaven forbid, the Pole Vault.

Whatever it takes. That’s one of the secrets to staying healthier. I figure everybody knows this, but it never hurts to say important things over and over.

Does it?