world championships – Page 2 – Disney Employee Engagement Speaker

Do Your Best (Always)

If you looked back exactly one year ago, do you remember what you where doing and why?

Lane 8 archive from exactly one year ago today, while in Lahti, Finland representing the United States at the 2009 Masters World Championships:

Do your best. How can anyone complain if they’ve done their best?

While it is quite tempting to want to be the best, for many, simply doing your best is gold-medal worthy.

What could be a sad thing for many dreams, is that people sell themselves short because they think winning a medal is the only measure of greatness.

Twice yesterday, I witnessed two athletes finish dreadfully last in their preliminary heats. They received more applause than the winners.

Why?

You tell me.

Perhaps, because deep down inside of each of us, is a desire to try as hard as that person, but we don’t have the courage to risk that kind of “embarrassment”.

When people aren’t concerned about what others think, they can do extraordinary things.

For an adult who’s never been able to read, and they work desperately hard to try to – then one day they are able to read a kindergarten book.

Gold medal.

Ya with me? Please don’t sell yourself short. Do your best, no matter what others think. This is what I tell myself everyday.

Carpe diem, jeff noel 🙂

Scroll down for today’s part II (Gold Medal)

World Championship Type of Day?

Short and sweet, year ago today, in Lahti, Finland, I was pursuing a childhood dream to represent the United States at the Olympic Games.

Here’s what it felt like.

These stories are meant to trigger your memory of your childhood dreams and to summon your vivid imagination to see if there’s still hope.

Next blog

Predictions?

Do you have a big goal you want to accomplish by this time next year?

What’s it going to take?

We contemplate what we believe we can do. You know, we take what we’ve done and think about what we’ll be able to do when we get the next chance to try again.

It’s kind of like being an armchair quarterback.

Sitting in the comfort of our living room, watching the game, or World Cup, we comment like we know what we’re talking about.

Nothing will ever replace the preparation, wisdom, courage and guts of “game day”.

There is one prediction. July 2011. Masters Track & Field World Championships in Sacramento.

(next blog)

Eventually This Is Possible

Feeling overwhelmed? We all are.

There is hope. It’s free. But it’s not easy.

You must do the five simple steps from Lane 8’s blog post two days ago, if you intend to transform yourself.

You can (repeat, CAN) become conditioned to work on two or three impossible goals simultaneously.

But not until you’ve had some success doing it one at a time.

Look, you won’t find easy answers here. You’ll find simple answers, but nothing here is going to be “easy”.

Will I ever make it to Lane 8? No, but that won’t stop me from trying. And in the process of never giving up, perhaps I’ll stay healthy for the rest of my life.

And maybe, just maybe, if the best runners in the world have their worst day, and I have the absolute best day of my life, maybe the finals in the worst lane, Lane 8, isn’t impossible after all.

And maybe reaching your impossible goal isn’t impossible either.

Find Your Excuse

You know it and I know it. Don’t we? It’s no secret.

The hardest thing to do when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle, is to continue our motivation for an entire lifetime.

So, here’s our number one excuse: Life is insanely busy and difficult.

Use this “blinding flash of the obvious” to your advantage. This is extraordinarily powerful. But only if you are willing to admit it and use it to overcome what most never do.

One of the best ways to overcome excuses is to find an “excuse” to get involved. And your “excuse” may change throughout your lifetime. Changing is not failure. Quitting is failure.

Track and Field is what’s doing it for me. Track and Field is the number one participatory sport in the United States public school systems. Monkeys were made to climb. Fish to swim. Birds to fly. Humans to walk and run.

Today through March 6, in Kamloops, British Columbia, the world’s best Master’s Track and Field Athletes will gather to represent their Countries in the “Senior” Olympics.

It was a goal to be there this year. Injuries have prevented that from happening. But indomitable will has kept me running and hoping for the USATF Master’s Track and Field National Championships this summer.

And you?