In my post earlier this week, I spoke about three inspiring people, including swimmer Diana Nyad. Last Sunday evening, Nyad began a swim that was scheduled to take her from the shores of Cuba to Key West, Florida, a journey of more than 100 miles, taking 60 hours and an estimated 200,000 swim strokes. I [...]
Why do people choose to do some of the crazy things they do? It’s a good question, but for me, the even better question is, why don’t more people do crazy things? I’m in the process of planning a 1,000 mile hike across Wisconsin on the Ice Age Trail. Why would anyone do that? I’m not [...]
Earlier this year, I set several goals for myself that I want to accomplish before the year is out. Previously, I would routinely set goals and then hope to accomplish them. Sometimes I did and sometimes I didn’t. But what I didn’t do is follow up periodically to see if I was making any progress. That changes this [...]
Attitude — You have two choices when something bad happens to you. You can either wallow in self-pity and let the bad experience drag you down or you can grieve for a short time and then move forward with a renewed sense of purpose. The choice is yours. Awareness — We live in an [...]
My friend Randy drives me crazy. He’s very particular about what he eats. Actually, it’s more than that. He’s a vegan, but even by vegan standards he’s a picky eater. It’s not that he doesn’t like other food. He does, but he has made a conscious decision to only eat a very limited number of [...]
Does a simple life equal a happy life? In part 1 of this post, I talked about Henry David Thoreau’s philosophy on a simple life filled with spirituality, self-fulfillment, and happiness. I also contrasted the way I have lived most of my life with how my friend Adam Baker has designed his life. Today, I [...]
We live in a fast-paced world full of complicated, and often conflicting choices. Every day we make decision that may appear to be unimportant, but which can impact our lives long-term. Believe it or not, this is nothing new. For instance, in 1845, author Henry David Thoreau became disenchanted with the life he felt society expected him to [...]
Earlier this week I posted a video of the commencement address Steve Jobs gave at Stanford University in 2005. In the address, Jobs spoke about having cancer and how it looked like he was going to die at a fairly young age. As it turned out, Jobs survived the cancer, but he used the realization [...]
“I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love, and that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way [...]
I was thinking about Jim Valvano today. In case you don’t know the name, Valvano was the basketball coach at North Carolina State University from 1980 – 1990. Valvano is known primarily for two things; two moments in time. The first occured in the 1983 NCAA Basketball Tournament. That year, NC State was not a great [...]