When it comes to making a
commitment to being active and helping others do the same, it is
definitely best to use a no nonsense straightforward approach. So here is my advice:

• Know your strengths and weaknesses.

•
Do activities you know you can handle, don’t try to run straight up an
expert level trail full out. Do a good warm-up for the first 5 minutes
then brisk walking or easy jogging. Once you can recover more quickly
between running attempts go a little further the next time or run a
little longer.

• Workout with Integrity.

A
good philosophy is to always do things the right way, even when no one
is going to notice, but you. You have to hold yourself accountable.

• A Good diet really does matter.

Fresh, healthy, home made food really is so much better for you. Remember, you are what you eat.

• Keep a consistent time and place, but be flexible if need be.

Set up a schedule and commit. It is supposed to be fun and productive. You will feel better about everything.

•
Approach being healthy as you would a term paper – start with an
outline. Even a professional athlete has a hard time making things up
as they go. Take the time to set goals and organize a plan of attack
before you start just being active.

•
Never underestimate the power of momentum and how great you will start
feeling about yourself! Physical & Mental go hand in hand. It’s
phenomenal stress relief.

•
The status quo should go by the wayside. We need variety in life.
People need to individualize their activities and at the same time not
be afraid to push the envelope by doing something they never thought
they could. Ride a Unicycle, learn to play frisbee golf, try ice
skating, play paintball or laser tag with your kids or take some sports
lessons of any kind. We need to try some crazier things that challenge
our sensibilities!

•
Follow your instincts. The best experiences happen when you do
something new because it looks like fun and you think it will be a
blast!

What
have you done lately that is a little crazy or out of the norm? Have
you done something active regularly for the last 21 days or more to
make it a habit? How do you feel because of it?

The individual challenge for all of us?

FIND WHAT WORKS… on a regular basis!

We each have areas that we tend to be more proficient in. There are different personality types so this makes sense. And since each of us can be very different in that way we can also be very different physically.

Here is the challenge and the key – finding what works for our individual body type and metabolism. Then make it interesting and fun enough to do it consistently.

We all know that we need to eat a well balanced diet and combine that with exercise and an active lifestyle.

Professional athletes take this to a whole new level, measuring aspects like VO2 max( how their bodies use oxygen & how fast they can recover), body fat percentage, blood glucose, resting and max heart rates. The list goes on and on. But their primary goal in all of that is to find the ultimate combination to maximize their potential, turning it into a tangible result.

There are a few things that can derail us from our action plan. These are typically injury and sickness. And there is always the business of life (big excuse) so we are going to throw this one away. There…gone for good, right? Now let’s assume we stay relatively healthy, ignoring soreness, stiffness and fatigue.

Now let’s assume we are organized, have a game plan AND we are going to be flexible when life throws it’s inevitable curve balls at us. Done.

Here’s where the hard work begins. We really have to make the effort to listen to what our bodies are telling us. They are truly incredible pieces of machinery and when we tune them up by eating right and exercising and getting enough rest they let us know that we have done a good thing either by our physical appearance or by how we feel. We have energy, we don’t get sick or at least not as often. It’s like looking after a high end sports car. You give it the very best of fuel and attention and it performs to it’s optimum. You have the best opportunity to succeed!

Do not get discouraged because it can take awhile to figure out what exactly works best for each of us. And just to make it more interesting our bodies change as we get older, kind of like a classic car, and it may take a little more care to keep it performing. Here’s where the automobile analogies end. We cannot trade it in for a new model !!!!

Bottom line- it’s worth taking the time to figure out what works for each of us. We all know the common sense basics, it’s in the fine tuning that we can really reap the rewards. If you try one thing and it’s not working quite the way you want, change it! Experiment. Try again and keep doing this until you get results because it is worth it. Not to mention how you feel mentally, you just feel good about yourself when you exercise! Mental & Physical go hand in hand.

Read Taking Action Part One

Sure, we worry about what kind of parent we will be. We think of the obvious changes in our life style that begin with a pregnancy and continue on as we have additional children. You suddenly realize that “someone” very small depends on you for everything!

In this life change, we realize that we will have an everlasting influence on these little people. In some cases this is for the positive. In other cases we would like to have a redo. That’s life, really. My wife and I have joked on occasion that our first son got to be the experimental probe. Try this, great it worked! Try that, oops that didn’t work so well. Try again and so forth. Hopefully we have improved with each successive child and become wiser in how we relate to the children as a whole unit as well as individually.

We marvel at how different they all are, that they have very unique aptitudes and interests. Some personality traits become evident and you realize that no matter how much pressure you put on yourself, you can only hope to be a good mentor by your example.

Give your children a strong, positive foundation. Be a mentor in how you approach things and take on challenges. Give your kids the opportunities to figure out what it is that they really have a passion for, what it is that they really feel Joy in doing! If you can help them to discover this about themselves then I believe you have become the Mentor  you should be.

The most profound suggestion I have; truly appreciate each child’s uniqueness and abilities. It has taken me a while to realize that they are not all going to like what I like or what my wife likes. At first this made me angry! They should like what I like – I’m their Dad and that’s reason enough! Ha ! Ya know what? The fact that some of them do and some of them don’t is the best blessing of all and really makes them that much more interesting. It makes me reflect on how we have all been created to be truly unique individuals. We all have free will to make choices as we grow. These will also shape us as we grow throughout our lives.

So as parents we need to stop, be quiet, watch our children and appreciate every second of every day that we have them, as life itself is very fleeting. The best way to mentor them is to accept them, show them how as fathers we love our wives. We are here to protect and correct them as our children and to let them know that they are given precious individual gifts that they are responsible to cultivate into the best they can be. As parents we are to help shape our kids for a greater purpose.

This sounds a lot easier than it is with our daily routines of work and family duties. It is all too easy to go through the daily mundane tasks we all share and decide by days end that you have had a productive day. In fact I was just discussing this with my wife. Should we be striving to find a way to be able to outsource these tasks or should we embrace them for the purpose they serve?

What do I mean by this? Are we mentoring our kids to be responsible stewards of all that they get or will have in the future? We all should appreciate everything we are blessed with and take care to look after those things. This is just common sense, right? I do appreciate the fact that my children will know how to cook, look after their pets, sew, do their own laundry and mow the grass, just to name a few activities. These are essential life skills so that they will be able to function in life.

What about activities that really produce change that we want in our lives? Can we exchange some of the mundane responsibilities for more of the purpose filled activities that   

make life exciting and challenging? I am working on this. You see I am the personality type that finds it easy to get into a daily routine, focus on the task at hand and then repeat. This is a blessing and a curse. It can also make a person seem one dimensional really quickly. It also stops anyone from really knowing who we are and what matters to us.

I have the ability to see things through but also the stubborness to keep at it when it is not working. It is the definition of insanity ‘where you do the same thing over and over and expect a different result’. Unfortuntely, my wife has seen me do this first hand and felt the failure in this along with me. “If only I work harder, longer, better…. I know things will change for the positive”… if only this were true.

Ever heard the phrase “work smarter, not harder”? This is essential if we do not want to get sucked in to the thought process that we just need to put in more time.

I am at the point where I want to maximize my time in all aspects of life.

Produce while you are at work, use every minute to it’s max but know when to shift gears and focus on other aspects of what makes life so exciting! Do not define yourself by what you do but by who you truly are and what you want to become. That sounds pretty cool doesn’t it?

How do we do this? How do we make extra hours in our day in a day that has a finite amount of time? I am willing to bet that we have all asked ourselves this at one time or another. The first step is to organize and prioritize your days. Include activities that are in line with your purpose, your goals. Include fun activities that are good for your soul. Pretty soon when you hit the pillow at night you have had a very satisfying day. One filled with our daily ‘have to’ activities but most importantly life fulfilling activities like donating time to the betterment of others, your family and keeping relationships alive and well.

Include activities that improve your health, physically and mentally and spiritually so that we get recharged and fired up!

If we do not have a plan full of small action steps this is overwhelming. I know this first hand. I am not a planner. I have to become one! My family and friends will attest to this. I can easily fool myself into believing I have had a productive day if I go to work, make some money and tuck my kids into bed at night. Don’t get me wrong, I know that individually these things are a blessing in their own right. I just want more. I believe many people do too.

The first step is realizing that life is more than the mundane and being willing to give yourself a chance to benefit from all life has to offer. Embrace organization, get prioritized, begin activities that will allow you to truly become a mentor to others. Life if full of endless opportunities if we decide to open the door ourselves and not wait for someone to come knocking first!

Join me now in this adventure!!