Ninja Camp day 4-5

Ninja Camp Days 4-5

So day 4 at Ninja camp by Chosun was a rest day and so we obviously started at 6:30am with a grueling beach workout designed by one of the fittest women on the planet.

It was actually a pleasure... before and after...  The clouds over the ocean were stunning. We threw my ultimate disc (essentially a frisbee) around and generally loved life for a minute before a series of warmups that had me thinking that I was the person they were talking about in those CrossFit t-shirts that say “Our workout is your warm-up”.

By the time the warmups were done I seriously considered pulling out of the workout.

The only reason for me to have pulled out would be ego.

It’s tough to be the least fit person around. I’ve led many beach workouts in the past but generally it hasn’t been with a group of CrossFit coaches, action movie-stars, and ex professional cyclists.

In the ‘real world’, I’m in ok shape but here...

At that point I started asking myself “why AM I here?”

The answer is that this is the life I want.

I want to surround myself with people who make me better. I want to live full out and I want to sacrifice the comfort of my ego for the satisfaction of my soul.

That all sounds lovely and like it could be on a greeting card, but it’s true.

It’s true but I didn’t come up with it right away. My ego took a few more hits at the hands and steel-toed boots of my inner critic first.

The rest of the “rest day” was pretty cool. I did some work, I hung out by the pool. I had a private session with Talayna Fortunato and we did a yin yoga class before feasting on lamb and other delicacies created by Josh Davies.

During the private session I was able to ask Talayna to teach me anything but I opted to see where she wanted to go with the session. I’m really happy that I did.

It’s super cool that she’s been on the podium at the Crossfit Games BUT it’s her day job as a physiotherapist that served me the best. As previously stated, I’m an ok athlete but not at the level where I need someone of her caliber tweaking my game slightly to put me over the top.

What I DID need was for her to look at my ankle.

I injured myself playing ultimate frisbee over a year ago and I’ve blamed all of my travels, and the inherent difficulty of communicating with doctors in other countries, for my having mostly ignored it.

Immediately after injuring it I played in a beach ultimate tournament and then a couple of months later, I ran a Spartan Race before realizing that it wasn’t just hurt... it was injured. I was injured

It turns out that Talayna’s never seen anyone tear the ligament that I’ve torn and not get surgery. My foot is starting to shift position as there’s nothing holding it in place and my calf on my left leg is starting to atrophy, something I’d noticed last week for the first time, as a result.

That ego that I was talking about before. It’ll wreck me if I let it as it thinks that I just have to tough things out.

It was a reminder that while focussing on big things can be great, the devil is in the details. I wanted to go in and work on handstands, or dead lifts, or muscle-ups but none of those would make as big a difference in my life as having my ankle working properly again.

In the evening I introduced the Ninjas to a game I fell in love with while living in Korea.

The group took to it like a pack of wild werewolves... which is appropriate as the game is called “One night Ultimate Werewolf”.

I LOVED that the group took to Werewolf (as I call it) so passionately as I love the game but have tried to introduce it to a couple of groups in Bali but they opted out quickly, saying that they didn’t get it. There’s a slight barrier to entry as it seems confusing at first but the Ninjas got it FAST.

We had a blast playing and there was SO MUCH LAUGHTER!

Day 5 A.K.A. today was full of two yoga sessions, one yin in the morning and one stand up paddle boarding in the evening, sandwiching a gym workout with Talayna that absolutely crushed me.

Earlier int this post when I said that I loved everyone at Ninja Camp because they were making me better. That’s an attitude arrived at after some reflection. While I was slogging through the three workouts I just wanted to melt into the wall.

I was mortified at how relatively bad I am at the movements we were challenged to do.

Old patterns came in and I started pulling away from the group. Both emotionally, feeling alone, and physically, by setting myself up to work apart from the rest.

I even started one of the workouts prematurely with the nice sounding excuse that I knew I was going to take longer than everyone else and since we weren’t doing it for time, I figured I’d start first to not hold up the group.

When Ninja Camp co-founder, Robin, saw me doing that she said “uh uh... we start workouts together”.

For a moment I felt resentful that I had to do the 9 overhead squats and 6 wall climbs to handstand that I had just struggled through again, BUT then it landed that I was part of a WE.

No one at Ninja Camp has made me feel less than because relative to the group I have the physique of a mortal.

Every Ninja has been supportive, accepting, inclusive, and just generally awesome.

I’m one of the group, I bring a lot and even though I’m not the best at the workouts, no one else has looked down on me for it. This might not be as profound to others as it seems to be to me.

I mean, I wouldn’t look down on someone else for being at whatever fitness level they happen to be at. Workouts like this are meant to be scaled anyway and I’ve always been very encouraging of people who are willing to train to their level.

At the same time, I think I’ve generally fallen into the trap of being needlessly hard on myself and it was lovely to go through that today and realize that that was all me. If I wanted to let that old story go, I could... and so I did.

Anyway, the point is that I worked out harder today than I have in a long time but I only realized that once I stopped comparing myself to others.

These people make me better and that’s one of the takeaways from this whole experience. Being the worst one in a group at something is a marvelous opportunity to improve and level up if the rest of the group is excellent at that activity. I’m going to do more of this across many areas of life.

We’re up at dawn again tomorrow for another beach workout and so I’m going to put this down for now and get some sleep. I’d love to hear you tell me of a time when you dared to be the worst at something and how it helped you grow.

Ninja Camp - Day 3

I was told today that “Chōsen”, as in “Ninja Camp by: Chōsen”, means “challenge”.  Today Ninja Camp certainly lived up to that. If yesterday, in the canyon, the experience was about experiencing my growth today was about embracing the suck.

The day started out with a trim to “Bounce” an indoor trampoline wonderland. I was not in my element. Immediately my body and mind started to freeze up and even the simplest moves were daunting to me.

What was wild was that some of the people who froze up the most yesterday in the canyon were super stars here.

Megan Mileham (@shadesofjoy on instagram) was one of these people. She had refused to do any jumps yesterday and now was doing ridiculously impressive things on the trampoline. While I cheered her on yesterday, today she came to my aid and with an abundance of calm, generosity, and skill she talked me through some of the basics and I was able to leave with that accomplished at least.

I did make the play that won the last game of trampoline dodgeball for our team as well... still... I was not even a competent trampolinist.

Things didn’t get much better later in the day when we were taken to Canggu Fitness to experience a training session by Crossfit powerhouse, Talayna Fortunato.

The session started with lots of handstand work... I was the only person in the group that has never done a handstand.

Later we did a partner workout and I did not do great. Derek Loudermilk was my partner, he’s never done Crossfit before in his life and yet his experience as a professional cyclist shone through, on the day. He embraced the pain and discomfort in an admirable way. We made it through but I certainly didn’t impress.

What was great about the day is that none of that mattered. Not one person looked at me as ‘less than’ for my relative weaknesses in these areas and neither did I.

This was actually my intention for the day. I knew that I was outclassed when it came to the activities on the itinerary and I chose to just let it be.  The point of the day for me was to experience being bad at stuff but not making that mean that I was bad in any way. I tried my best, I like who I was through the day and that’s what matters in the end.

I think that there’s something powerful in letting myself be okay while being bad at things. The group I’m with here at Ninja Camp are ridiculously supportive and were lovely the whole time but in the past even that might not have mattered. I likely would have gone into a space where poor performance would have shaken me to my core even in an area where I have no reason to expect a good performance.

Forgiving myself for being bad at stuff today wasn’t easy, nor was keeping my head up through the day but it was so worth it. I had a wonderful time, I made great memories and I improved, even just a little bit, in areas of weakness. If that’s not a win of a day, I don’t know what is.

 

Ninja Camp: Day 2

Day 2 of Ninja Camp by Chosen

Sometimes the toughest part of leveling up is noticing that you have. I find it easy to get swept away by focusing on where I want to be going and to forgetting  to stop and take stock of the distance I’ve already travelled.

Before I came to Bali, I visited my friend Dylan in the U.S. and we did a 4 State road trip where he set out to give me a growth experience. He set up progressively more challenging experiences to train the fear of heights out of me.

We sat atop the Cedar Mesa and he coached me to allow my body to realize that I was safe atop this giant wall of rock. To allow myself to calm down and be okay in situations that had previously terrified me.

By the end of the week he had taught be how to abseil and had prepared me for my longest climb ever, a tower of rock called ‘Weaver’s Needle’ in Arizona.

Flash forward to today, my second day at Ninja camp. We woke up at 5:30 to be on the road for 6 with a day of canyoning on the agenda.

On the way there I once again meditated on the idea of living a life that I chose and today I decided to choose my experience of myself. I openly set the intention of experiencing myself as someone capable of doing all of the challenges placed in front of me, with minimal hesitation and from a place of joy.

I’ve been focussing a lot lately on the question of what winning is inside of a system where we’re all playing our own games. One thing I’ve been starting to believe is that the more aware I am of what a win is, the more satisfaction I make available to myself because I just might hit the target. I’ve lived through more than enough situations where wonderful things have happened to me and I’ve barely noticed because I hadn’t clarified in my mind that it was something that I’d wanted.

So, being in a place where I’m surrounded by people who live intentionally, I decided to set that intention.

I met it and more. 

I had a blast today. I not only was the only participant to do EVERY SINGLE obstacle but I also was almost always the first one to go. We leapt, we climbed, we abseiled, we laughed. It was awesome.

There were moments where I had no idea what I was volunteering to go first for but I did it any way and was so grateful that I did. One part specifically was an abseil into a zip line but I didn’t know that... a quarter of the way down the wall I was instructed to let go... I saw that I was clipped in and trusted. It was ridiculously fun. 

There was one jump that I was the only participant to do that I might regret tomorrow as I left it joking that it felt like I’d been spanked by the hulk. It was a 23 meter drop where I had to jump sideways along the side of the rock face at some bushes that were sticking out if I wanted to hit the deep area. I hit the right spot but I hit it hard. My rear hurts... I think I bruised my ass.

It was worth it though.

The experience before Bali, clearly prepared me for this one and it was clear to me that I’ve come a long way in the last few months. 

I think it’s important to give myself those experiences. Those opportunities to notice that the work is paying off. Because of that clear confirmation of up-leveling, I’m eager for more. 

The hours that we spent in that canyon today were a blast and gave me an opportunity to build evidence that what I’ve been doing to grow myself as a man have paid off. It wasn’t just the lack of hesitation at the face of things that used to scare me... it’s the joy I felt through the day doing it. The presence of mind. The support I was able to give to the rest of the team, many of whom were still in a scared state.

I’m present that I would have missed so much today had I not given myself this intention . I invite you all to spend this day getting present to your growth, to your expanded self. I want to hear all about it! Also, if you feel like you haven’t grown lately, this could show you that you have made progress or it might show you where you want to work.

Day 3 will involve trampolines... a new gear to challenge!

Ninja Camp Day 1

Sometimes you just have to leap and build your wings on the way down. 


That’s an excerpt from one of my favourite quotations. It’s from Ray Bradbury and the whole thing goes like this:

“If we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business, because we'd be cynical. Well, that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.”

I read it as a call to action to live the life you want. A life on the other side of the fears that can easily keep us small.

Two or three years ago I met Robin Conely and John Stanton. We met at the Crossfit regionals where I went to soak in the awesomeness and to hopefully do some interviews. John and I hit it off tossing a disc around and he talked about a project the two of them were putting forward. They were calling it Ninja Camp, and I was instantly hooked.

Who doesn’t want to be a ninja?!


Ninja’s were always the epitome of awesome to me growing up and so the name hooked me. I wanted to go immediately and right behind that desire was that fear I spoke of earlier. Who am I to go to something like that. “You’re not cool enough”, the voice said. “You’re not fit enough”, it continued. Who doesn’t want to be a ninja? Someone too scared to just let themselves be.

Flash forward to the present day and I’m sitting at Ninja Camp about to go to sleep on the first night and I’m reflecting on the journey. What’s shifted from then to now that’s allowed me to be here? 

Well, it’s right in line with both Life Athletics and Ninja Camp. Which is now under a broader umbrella called “Chosen”. The entire concept is built around having a curated, cultivated, quality life. To fill it with the things you want and the people who inspire you, make you laugh, and make you feel welcome.

I’ve trained up over the years and those fears still exist but I have them, they don’t have me. I dare greatly and so I’m here living a dream that represents a lot because it represents growth.

Today I landed after a hectic -but fun- scooter ride from Ubud to Canggu Bali and was welcomed with open arms, warm smiles and a glass of excellent kambucha.

There were gifts waiting on the gorgeous four poster bed. There were two meals that would rival any top restaurant on the planet via chef extraordinaire, Josh Davies (who will be on the podcast soon!).

There was a yin yoga class, catch with a football in the pool, and the great Talayna Fortunato (3rd at the crossfit games in 2012, 5th in 2013) asking me what specific coaching I wanted in a private training session later in the week.

I’m almost forgetting the most thorough Balinese blessing I’ve experienced in my 6 months on the island, a group of participants who are funny, fit, playful and eager to have a great experience.

I AM leaving things out because I need to get some sleep as we’re leaving here at 6am to go canyoning tomorrow. Today was about landing. About belonging. About choosing a life that inspires and feeling worthy of it. Checking all of those things off the list, we’re going to get the blood pumping tomorrow with what’s been promised to be a day of adrenaline-filled adventure.

I’ll be writing more through the week... time for sleep and to dream about how to take this dream fulfillment to the next level.

I’d love to hear about dreams that you’ve had. Places that you’d love to go and things you’d like to participate in.

I’d especially love to hear about your thoughts on a chosen life. It’s a concept that’s in my head at the moment, being here at Ninja Camp by Chosen and so I’d love to hear what you would add or subtract from your life inside of a paradigm where you bring clear choice to your life.

Jump!

Level up!

Relationships Phase 1 Day 7: What are you a clearing for?

We’ve looked generally at the state of your relationships so far and now we’re going to look at.... you.

...or, more accurately, you are going to look at you. 

It’s surprising how often people seem to be surprised when it’s pointed out that the common factor in all of their relationships is them. You are the common factor in all of your relationships... even the non-existent ones. 

What kind of relationships are you prepared to have? One clue, it’s the kind you currently have. 

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We get what we’re a clearing for. That might sound metaphysical and squishy but ultimately it’s true. 

We can’t lift weight that we’re not strong enough to lift, and we can’t have relationships that we’re not prepared or willing to have. 

This is a bit of a touchy subject for those in bad relationships. This kind of talk can land as blame, but it’s not. 

What we’re talking about is claiming responsibility for the relationships in your life. Again, this is not blame, this is a place of power.

Once you embrace your responsibility for how you are socially and what you have in terms of relationships, you can do something about it. 

If you are where you want to be, you can keep doing what you’re doing and know that you’re driving forward the life you want. 

If you’re not where you want to be, relationship-wise then now’s a chance to figure out why. 

So, what kind of relationships ARE you prepared to have? What are you open to? What are you closed to? What terrifies you? What fulfills you? What inspires you? What do you want but think you can’t have? What do you settle for? 

What kind of relationships are you a clearing for?

 Challenge: 

Ask yourself what kind of relationships you’re open to and what kind of relationships you’re a clearing for in the various kinds of relationship groups you’ve identified in your life. 

Phase 1 Day 4,5,6: What's working, what's not and what's success anyway?

We’re going to be merging a few parts for this post. These parts go together and doing one without the other is a little ... complicated. Which to choose first and how to do one without the other just seemed like a pointless exercise and so, we’re going to look at them together. 

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Part A: Which of your relationships, and relationship groupings, are working? 

Part A I: Which of your relationships, and relationship groupings, are NOT working?

Part A II: How do you measure success in your relationships? 

Relationships can be tricky and can be seemingly working one day and not the next. Still we tend to be able to tell the difference when we stop and ask ourselves these questions directly. 

You can go into this as in-depth as you you’d like. Some relationships might simply not be working as well as you’d like. 

If something is “not working”, that doesn’t mean that it’s wrong, broken forever or in need of being ejected. All it means is that it doesn’t fit your current standards. 

When looking at how you measure what a working, successful, relationship is to you,  you will get a sense of what you want in each relationship or group. If you’re not where you want to be... well that’s coming.

Challenge:

Answer the following questions: 

-Which of your relationships, and relationship groupings, are working?

-Which of your relationships, and relationship groupings, are NOT working?

-How do you measure success in your relationships? 

Relationships Phase 1 Day 3- Inner Circle

You’ve looked at the relationships you have and the ones you’d like to have. The next step is to rank them a little. Let’s identify the most important ones to you. You can look at the top groups, the top people inside of those groups. We’re looking for the people with whom you most definitely want to maintain and cultivate a relationship. 

These are the people who can help grow you and who you can help to grow. 

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This does not mean that the people not on the short list are unimportant. It’s important to identify the people that matter the most though and to know where your time and energy must first be focussed. 

It’s eye opening to see that we sometimes don’t spend the time on the people we say are important that would verify that they are indeed so.  I believe that while the success of  our relationships are a function of how much we “relate”, it’s also important for us to put energy in various forms into those we say are important to us. 

This goes double for those categories that are not currently peopled. If we want to have a mastermind group full of dynamic, driven and awesome people... What’re you waiting for? 

There are factors that limit us in relationships, things in us that might be sabotaging what we say that we want. We’ll look at some of that later but right now, look at who and what is most important to you. 

Challenge: 

-Identify the top relationship areas and the top people in your life. 

Relationships Phase 1 Day 2: What kind of relationships do you have?

As with anything we do at Life Athletics, all movement starts with looking at where we are currently. Knowing our starting point impacts our next step and the more we can just accept that what is, is... the more powerfully we can transform. 

As far as relationships go, we’re going to start simply... I’m asking these questions: 

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-“What kind of relationships do you have now?” 

and

-”What kind of relationships do you wish you had that you don’t have currently”

What I mean is not related to the quality (ie. good or bad) but rather the type (Friends, close friends, Family, romantic, Siblings... etc.).

How you group your interpersonal relationships in your mind is unique to you and says a lot about how you sort people. 

We may have rules for one group (ie. family or friends) that we don’t have for another (ie. local shopkeeper or a co-worker on another floor) and there are some groups we may be avoiding. 

Do you have lots of acquaintances but no close friends? Do you avoid intimacy? Do you  avoid any interactions that aren’t intimate?

Do you only spend time with people who are better than you at the things you want to do? Do you avoid those people? 

Do you avoid all people? 

Do you have a mastermind group? 

Do you have a team? 

Who are you as a social being? 

Marking down the groups that exist as you see them allows you to get a glimpse into how you manage yourself socially.  Again, we’ll be looking at which are working and which aren’t later. 

For now look at what exists and what doesn’t relationship wise for you. Where are you now? 

Challenge:

Answer these questions: 

-“What kind of relationships do you have now?” 

and

-”What kind of relationships do you wish you had that you don’t have currently”

Relationships Phase 1 Day 1: Being with other human beings.

This month we’ll be looking at relationships. 

Yes... February, the month with the holiday that makes lots of people stressed out about their romantic relationships... or their lack of one. 

We’re not just looking at romantic relationships however. That’s just one part of this Training Area. 

For the purpose of this month let’s define what we mean when talking about “Relationships” in Life Athletics. 

We’re calling any interaction you have with another person a relationship. 

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You obviously have some that are more important to you than others. You have some that can be grouped together or fit into categories and we will look at as many as you want. 

How you are with other people and the response you get is what we’re looking at this month. 

Where are you now in your relationships with others? 

Where do you want to be? 

How can you get there? What do you need to do? 

We are social creatures. Language is the tool we developed to relate to each other and it’s how we interpret the world. 

How we relate to others says a lot about us and as Life Athletes this is kind of a big deal. 

This month we will be looking at how to make our relationships better, faster, stronger. 

Challenge: 
-Commit to looking at how you interact with others and creating the relationships you want in your life. 

Phase 3 Day 7: That's all folks! Help us help you!

And here we are Life Athletes, reaching the end of Phase 3 and of the programming for the month. 

If you’ve gone through all of the steps you have everything you need to launch yourself at the life you want. 

Remember to keep track of the tools, resources and daily clicks as you go. Also, routinely note any blocks that come up as if they were hitches in a jump shot or an improper running gait. They don’t make you bad, they just don’t get you what you want. 

Use whatever will motivate you to move away from where you are and whatever will pull you forward.  

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Keep everything in front of you and rely on your team. Have your team go through all through phases to make sure that they’re moving forward powerfully as well. 

Life Athletics is working on developing the website to be a powerful “System of Existence” tool that will assist you in programming your life. 

Another project in the pipeline is the Life Athletics podcast. We will be talking to people who excel in some area of life or are experts in at least one area to find out how they do what they do and how you can too. It will be about getting the most out of being a human being. 

Let us know who you’d like to hear from in the podcast and what kind of tools would serve you in the web site. Help us help you

Thanks and we’ll see you on the field!  Enjoy your life, enjoy the game! 

Phase 3 Day 6: Tools

The whole point of this series is to have you on track and totally empowered to get the most out of being a human being. 

You have goals, you have a team and many other pieces that you’ll need in order to pull this off. 

Beyond this, you’re going to need tools. 

A tool is defined as a device or implement used to carry out a particular function. Let’s expand this definition to include behaviours, strategies and whatever else you need to use in order to get the job done. 

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In order to build and maintain my mental and emotional fitness I sleep a certain number of hours a day and have an elaborate morning ritual designed to fit my needs. 

This is a tool that I use to train this aspect of myself.  Another tool I use is the concept that physiology triggers psychology. When you smile, it tells your body that you’re happy. When you walk around like a superhero, you start to feel like a super hero. It’s hard to feel down when you hold your body a certain way. Conversely if you want to feel down, slump your shoulders, frown and stare at your feet for a while. Ok, stop doing that, you’re a Life Athlete!

Your system of existence might is a tool and should be treated with care.  

In fact, all of your tools should be given the respect that you’d expect a surgeon to give to theirs. 

Being aware of what you use to get the results you desire is important as it will make things duplicatable. If there’s any mystery to how you get the results you want, what you did that worked... you’ll be playing a game of hit or miss. 

Many of us like to over complicate things by trying to find new ways to do the same things we’ve done successfully before. While most things can be improved in some way,  there’s something to be said for sticking with what works. The classics get to be called that for a reason. 

So, take a look at your tool kit, mark down what you use for what task and take note of any areas where you are missing tools... chances are, this is a weak spot for you. 

Also, it is a poor carpenter that blames his tools BUT it’s an even worse one who doesn’t see that the tools are there for the taking. Find the tools that work best for you and lost the rest. 

Challenge: 

-Look at the 7 training areas and identify key tools that you use in each. 

-Note any areas where you don’t have an effective tool and find one. 

Phase 3 Day 5: Team

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” – Jim Rohn

Not only is life a sport, it’s a team sport. You have to focus on your own personal performance for sure, but you also have to recognize that you’re not in it alone. 

Lots of people seem desperate to prove that they’re on their own and that they don’t need anyone but that’s not how we’re built. We process the world through language, the very tool that we use to connect to others. 

We are creatures that can’t survive for the first number of years without direct nurturing and support. We need others and it’s easier to admit it than to fight it. 

Once we admit that we need people and then looked at how shaped we are by them, it follows that we should be picky about who we surround ourselves with. 

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Negative, emotionally upset / upsetting, and destructive people are obvious candidates for demotions. 

While this might sound cruel, it is necessary that you and your team are strong. There’s not a lot you can do from a place of weakness. Also, I’m not saying to eject people from your life, just to limit your exposure as much as possible to preserve your health and happiness. 

Many, many, many of us think that we’re doing people good by sticking around and trying to “fix” them but really, it just tends to make things worse. It is entirely possible that the people who seem negative, emotionally upset / upsetting and destructive are fantastic in another setting. If they’re hurting you, chances are they’re in the wrong place. Setting yourself free also sets them free. 

Eben Pagan makes a fantastic suggestion for the people who you can not let go of, but who might not be the healthiest to have around... interact with them where and when they’re at their best.

As far as your team goes... What kind of team would you like to have? Think about it, if this metaphor carries through and Life is a team Athletics event then who do you want on your side? Who are the top 5 people that will make up your inner circle? 

Remember that you get to choose these people... if you love your parents but they’re not the right people to have on your team... don’t have them on your team. Love them, hang out and make sure that you enjoy the relationships you have with them to the max! ... and then surround yourself with people who make you strong and the best version of you. 

One other concept I love that fits is the idea that when two people get together to solve a problem, it’s not two brains that are working together, it’s three. The theory states that a “third brain” is formed in the space... that combining people amplifies as opposed to simply adding. 

Your team is your inner circle, your mastermind group and ... when it comes down to it... they are you. 

Challenge:

• Identify the characteristics that you want in your team. 
• Make sure that you fit. 
• Identify 5 people to officially add to the roster. 
• let them know.
• make sure that your schedule is set so that you are spending most of your time and attention interacting with these people. 

Phase 3 Day 4: Systems.

As you build a larger and more complex life you will get to a point where it no longer remains practical to keep everything in your head. Taking on new way’s of being, behaviors, habits... this stuff will take some time to integrate and can fade easily unless it’s put in a practical form, outside of your own brain. This is the stuff that people resist because it seems tedious and un-fun. It’s up to you to see it otherwise. 

Turn it into a game, see it as the key to the kingdom, do whatever you need to do, but unless you have something to keep things real and in existence... it won’t be real and it won’t exist. 

A system of existence will keep you accountable, remind you of the things you have going on and will keep things front of mind. 

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Unless you have an assistant who will do these things for you, you must do it yourself. There are tools that can be used... which will you chose? 

Challenge:

-Choose a system that will allow you to keep all of your energy moving forward. 

Phase 3 Day 3 : Habits of Action.

Today’s post is about “external” habits but that might be a misnomer. They’re still your habits and so they’re in you and therefore internal. The differentiation is made more clear however when you call these by another name “habits of action”. 

Clearly stated, action habits are what you do while the internal habits are what you think and feel habitually. 

Just like with the internal habits it’s important that you not look at these habitual actions as “you”. 

Yes one way to view yourself is by what you think and do on a regular basis BUT you are also free to choose those thoughts and actions... even if it doesn’t always feel like it. 

When looking at our habits of action, it’s important to note that too many people try to leave changes they attempt to implement to will power. Trying to psyche yourself up to take on a new set of actions is not a sustainable behaviour. We must set the table to win. Stack the cards in our favour and ... some other cliche involving making things easier on ourselves. 

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In order to look at what behaviours need modifying we need to look at a number of things. We must look at how much time we spend working towards our goals a day, how effective that time is and how much recovery we’re allowing. 

To simplify this, how much time are we spending driving, idling and refueling. 

In order to achieve what we want, our actions must support more driving and more refueling while eliminating as much idling as possible. If you complain that there aren’t enough hours in the day then you need to look at your habits of action and see how much you idle. 

I’ve found that I can only work for a certain amount of time before I need to take a break. I used to just push through and pat myself on the back for being so bullheaded in my pursuit of my goals while the reality is that I was being stupid. I became exhausted and was less and less able to function effectively. It’s not that anyone else really noticed but I did. I knew I wasn’t at my best, that my thinking was not at a level I was used to and my work was just “ok”. 

Changing a few small habits made a HUGE difference with me. One, I didn’t let myself work into the bleary eyed stage. I trained myself to become aware of the point where I stopped being effective and I would step away. Even as little as 5-10 minutes spent clearing my head allowed me to quickly finish tasks that I had usually allowed to drag on as I became more and more exhausted. 

Another habit I took on is so simple it is almost embarrassing to admit how long it took me to adopt.  This is similar to the last one but goes a little further... rest when tired. Managing my energy has become a huge theme of my life and it comes down to seeing a few friends come to visit and sleep a lot of the time. I have a home that is larger and more accommodating than many of my peers in the area. It’s not BIG by any means, but these things are relative. I also live by the beach and so I routinely have groups of friends stay here when they come through town. I remember seeing two of my most energetic friends sleep any time they weren’t needed and it got me thinking that perhaps they were energetic because they were more rested than everyone else. They weren’t being anti social or rude in any way... it was just in those dead moments where people were transitioning between one activity and another, they would rest. They wouldn’t play on their phones or watch TV... they would rest. 

This habit alone can change your life. 

You can choose as many are you like. 

Challenge:

• What habits do you need to replace in order to move forward? 
• What habits will you put in place? 

Phase 3 Day 2: Internal Habits.

Nearly everything we do is habitual. We’re used to thinking a certain way and acting a certain way. This serves us most of the time and yet it can be an obstacle when attempting to do something new.

We’re wired for the lives we have. We know this to be true because they’re the lives we are living. This does not mean that they’re the lives we were meant to have or anything that fatalistic, only that we keep doing the things that keep our realities in place. 

One example that most of us have heard of is how many lottery winners wind up exactly where they started within a year or two of winning. This is because there is a certain comfort in what we know and we keep returning there no matter what happens. 

In order to change our fortunes we must first change ourselves, and that really means changing our habits. 

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Here we’re focussing on internal habits, external ones will come later. 

What that means is your thoughts and your emotions. 

People become attached to their thoughts and believe that they’re fused to who they are as a person. For this exercise it’s helpful to see your thoughts as something external to you... something that you can have... or something that can have you. The same thing goes for your emotions. 

Out of the womb we start linking beliefs (a.k.a. thoughts) and emotions to everything we encounter. Some things become forever scary because our two year old self reacted to something a certain way and we never completed the thought loop. 

I’m showing my age with this next metaphor and I hope that everyone can follow me but thoughts can be imagined as a record that skips and restarts forever. In fact, it is believed that all thoughts will continue indefinitely until they are interrupted and rethought. 

This is what we’re up to now. Taking on the habits of thought and emotion that will get you where you want to go by interrupting old thought patterns and replacing them with new ones. 

If you want to be more fit, you have to think of yourself as fit. An athlete who breaks her leg will get mack in shape as soon as she’s cleared to walk again. Her self view is of someone in shape and anything but that seems weird. 

When someone who is out of shape, a person who has always been out of shape, tries to become fit, a barrier they hit is that they see themselves as someone who is out shape.  All actions become seen through the lens of “I’m doing something out of character”. Sometimes this is used to self-congratulate, “Look at me doing this thing that is so out of character! I’m really making progress” and that is seen as positive at the time. While not exactly negative, it does reinforce the belief that these behaviours are foreign to your experience and ultimately the scale will tip back to what’s familiar. 

Making the shift to a different self view can seem false and delusional at first and this needs to be overcome. It is no more delusional to create a vision of yourself that inspires you and then set to consciously make it your “normal”, than it is to continue with a set of mental and emotional habits we picked up when we were still pre-verbal. 

The concept of Self is too broad to go into now... the idea of an Observer that is able to see our thoughts and emotions... 

For our purposes we have to be willing to let go of the past and embrace the future. New habits of thoughts and emotions will be key to this. Come back tomorrow when we’ll be looking at external habits.



Challenge: 

-Identify as many old internal habits that are in need of an upgrade as possible. 

-Come up with an upgraded version you’re going to replace it with. 

(remember that you will have to push through the pain of implementing these for about three weeks before they’ll even start to take as new habits.) 

Phase 3 Day 1: Measuring your goals.

In Phase 3 we’ll be looking at the steps, tools and techniques that you can use to make your Goals leap out of your head and into your life. 

In order to make your goals happen we’ll have to go from theory to practice. Your days will have to be spent on things that when stacked in weeks, months and years will amount to the life you want. 


We’ve talked about giving certain things up and we’ve talked about commitment. This will be even more evident as you start planning your days to incorporate aspects of what you say you want your life to be made up of. 

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That essentially is what your goals are, right? The collection of days you want to live and call your life. We want to be, do and have a certain collection of experiences. In order to do that we have to start filling our days with certain ways of being and actions. 

If your goals involve stuff, you still need to start with how and who you’re being. 

The first thing to put in place is a system of measurement. Many people put in a lot of effort and time into actions that amount to very little because they’re not actually  tracking or measuring their actions. 

Some things are more clearly measured than others but all things that matter to us need to be tracked. This doesn’t have to remain a formal process, you’ll get a feel of the things you are tracking after a few weeks to the point that you’ll be able to start to go by feel. Until then however, you’ll have to track everything. 

To measure your goals you have to break it down to a measurable unit. 

For fitness, this is easy. How far did you run and how long did it take you? How much did you lift how far, how many times... etc. 

For other things you have to be more creative. 

You can create a scale from 1-10 for just about anything. Yes, this is subjective but it allows you to grade yourself on the fly. 

How much love is present today in your romantic relationship 1-10? How energetic are you feeling 1-10? How happy are you 1-10? 

You get the picture. 

You can also measure how often you do something, or how many things you do in an area... frequency or volume. 

What you track and how you track things is up to you. 

A small notebook or an app on your phone... really what matters is that you’ll use it. 

Tracking makes you measure and that makes things real. All of a sudden, you’re seeing the pieces of your goals swirl around you and fall into place. 

Have fun with it, turn it into a game and enjoy! 

Challenge: 

-Determine how you’re going to measure each of your goals. 

-Choose a tracking method. 

Phase 2 Day 8: What Would The Best Version Of You Do

Goals can be grand, goals can be inspiring, goals can change the world. 

Goals get a lot of press and rightly so, they’re important. The simple act of writing your goals out on a piece of paper has been shown to have a major impact to the lives of the people who take that step. 

People who don’t have goals are at a disadvantage, as they don’t have the galvanizing focus that goals can provide. 

As stated, simply writing out your goals is a powerful step. It’s not the only step to take though. 

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Because we’re writing goals in every area of life there’s something we can do to allow them unimpeded forward movement. We can make sure that the goals have a unifying element and that our action moment to moment flow from this place. 

Looking at your goals (which if you’ve been following along you have written already), ask yourself “do these fit together?” 

I was going to write a number of elements that I thought were so fantastical that no person could ever achieve all of them in one lifetime but then I decided that I didn’t want to let my mental limits limit you. 

If you dream of the fantastical, party on. 

Make sure however that the goals fit together in a way that YOU can comprehend. 

Once you do, determine what this embodiment of your highest self looks, acts and feels like. This is you at your Life Athletic best and you want to be able to access it from now until forever. 

Whenever you are faced with a question, any question, as yourself “if I were being my Life Athletic best, what would I do?” 

This is especially powerful with it comes to two seemingly positive options. When faced with two or more good options, it will come down to knowing that if you stay true to who you are at your best, you’ll figure it out. 

Even through this is clearly a construct of your own mind, it’s amazing how easy it is to access once created and how effective and satisfying it is. 

Goals come down to what you do moment to moment. 

Making sure that your actions match your projected best self allows you to start making the incremental changes that will lead you towards the giant ones. 

Having a simple set of trigger words is what you’ll need. This cannot be complicated as we’re accessing a pretty easily spooked part of your mind. 

You know those WWBD (What Would BATMAN Do?) T-shirts? You need your question to be this simple. 

Use “what would Life Athlete me do?” if that works for you (I think that’s a powerful one personally ;)  ) or whatever works for you. 

Just make sure that whatever you use has the layers of meaning and understanding that conjuring Batman has for me and scores of other awesome (okay geeky) guys and gals around the world. 

You know what this best version of you is like, get it to make your decisions as much as possible from here on out. 

WWTBVOYD? 

(What Would The Best Version Of You Do?) 

Challenge: 

-Ask yourself if your goals fit together into a unified whole life that inspires you. 

-Make any changes necessary. 

-Establish a word or set of words that immediately conjures the best version of yourself. 

-Commit to letting this best version of you guide your behaviour from here on out. 


(note: If the idea of your best self running the show sounds constricting or boring, remember that you created this! This isn’t some sunday school version of “best behaviour” we’re talking about. This is you at your most awesome! Add some fun for Batman’s sake!)  

Phase 2 Day 7

With target goals acquired you now have a clear understanding of where to focus your attention and your efforts. 




To make it... more clear... your task is to fulfill and accomplish your target goals. 

In order to do this we need to break down your daily actions into achievable bits.

I like to call these clicks.

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 I'm Canadian and we measure distance by kilometers, a nickname for a kilometer is a click, or “Klick”... it actually might be a military thing... or it might just be something that my dad said that has nothing to do with Canada or the military, it doesn’t really matter... and how many clicks you are traveling either speed or your distance.

What it represents here is a measurable unit. You want to be able to measure your performance measure your achievements.  

For me it also represents something clicking into place. The image of a piece of a puzzle going where it belongs,  is one I like a lot. 

Essentially these are right actions taken at the right times. 

How do you know what's the right action is?  

Ask if it will take you towards your Target goals and if it fits with your identity as a Life Athlete.  

If you follow this metaphor then really it should just “click”. 


Challenge: 

-Fill in the clicks from where you are to your first Target Goal in your calendar for at least three weeks.  

Phase 2 Day 6: Target goals!

So far in Phase 2 we’ve been talking about goals, big goals, dream goals, your horizon goals. They’re exciting, they’re inspiring and they might feel very far away. Your job is to soak in the inspiration and then aim a little closer to home. 

Enter your target goals. 

Your target goals are that big step up from where you are that you KNOW you could get to if you put in a month or two of solid effort. You may have been there before or just have faith that you could make that leap with enough focus and sweat capital. This could be a few more lbs on your max deadlift, a few more bucks in your account or really anything that represents a big step up from your “now”. 

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These goals need to be so close that you can taste them, but far enough away that you actually have to try in order to reach them. They’re worthy of celebrating even if they don’t represent “it”. 

(editors note: there is no real “it” this is a constant process of personal growth and evolution that keeps going for as long as you do.) 

This might be the first hundred dollars made in your business, or certain benchmark weight that you can lift, weight that you’ve lost or anything else that you see as a challenging but achievable level.  If you’re in debt, and have a goal of making a million dollars a year, getting out of debt might be a powerful target goal OR significantly less out of debt to start. 

These are the things that are on the path to your ideals and represent real achievement but also are the things that are accessible enough to not discourage you. 

As you started marking down steps from where you are now to your horizon goals yesterday, this should be relatively simple. Your job now is to choose one of the closer steps to you and get yourself there. 

Challenge: 

-Identify a Target Goal for each area. 

Phase 2 Day 5: Live your future now!

Today’s entry is picking up from Phase 2 Day 4. If you haven’t looked at that one yet, skip over there and come back a.s.a.p.! 

As you started looking down the line at each of the steps from where you are now, to where you want to be, were you able to feel what it would be like to actually be there? 

Could you feel the excitement of accomplishing your goals? Could you feel what it would be like to be and have those things come into existence in your life? 

If your goal was to have $1 million could you picture yourself having $1 million? Did it feel good? Were you happy? Did you feel powerful? Did you feel free? Did you feel how you wanted to feel? 

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Did you feel in any way different than you do on a regular day now? Why did you feel different? 

You have not yet achieved these goals. If you felt that way now, it is because you're capable of feeling that way now. 

Think about that. You don’t need to have your goals accomplished yet to feel the joy, power, freedom, or whatever, that you know you’ll feel when the goals are achieved. 

Yes there’s of course an element of amplification that you’ll feel when you get there for real BUT you can still channel those feelings now. 

Think of it like a form of time travel. Many people wish that they could go back in time and give advice, or lend support to their younger selves. You can do that now by projecting forward, looking at how you’d be further along on your path. 

Also, and this is the point of all of this, the ways of being that you believe these goals will unlock are the ways of being you must take on in order to accomplish the goals. The journey will bring it out of you and you can help it along by adopting these ways of being now. 

It is in you, bring it out, and be it now! 

Challenge: 
-Look at the ways of being you feel would open up with the accomplishment of each of your horizon goals

-Write them down.

-Think about ways to incorporate those ways of being in your life now.