Category: Podcast

Speaker’s Notes

When I was 27 years old, I was a runner. I’d been married for a few years and started putting on weight. I decided I could become a runner and still eat whatever I wanted.

It worked. I lost weight. Then I decided that since I was a runner I should set a goal to run a marathon.

But after I reached my goal, I quit running. For 30 years, I quit. 

I learned a lesson about success! Don’t quit.

If you’ve been listening for the past few weeks, I’ve been talking about 3 steps to success.

Step 1: Decide what you want. Decide to get what you want.

Step 2: Start

Step 3: Don’t stop

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This is a framework of what I do as a coach.

When you decide you’re going to make a change in your life . . . be the best version of yourself . . . live an epic life, you have to take these 3 steps.

And your mind (and body) will resist you.

Some resistance in every step. But one will be like kryptonite and drain your power and energy.

My kryptonite was quitting.

I trained and got in shape and ran a marathon. I was a runner. But I checked that off my list and quit.

I gained back all the weight I’d lost and more.

But running wasn’t the only thing I quit. I have a long history of setting goals, getting started, and quitting.

I’m sure there are those who find this same pattern.

You have a creative mind. New ideas and possibilities are always bubbling up. And it’s easy to get started.

But then you come to what I call the “messy middle.” 

Ultrarmarathon terms – after 60 miles.

The excitement is gone. Your motivation has evaporated. Your plan is off the rails. You wonder why you ever thought this would be fun.

Entrepreneurs & artists – new ideas and possibilities keep bubbling up. “Shiny Object Syndrome.”

So how do you have success with this step (Don’t Stop) if you’re a quitter?

In step one and you have to lay the groundwork for success in step 3.

MMM: Powerful Decisions – When you make that decision to get what you want . . . decide you will keep going until the finish.

For 15 years I set a goal to lose 30 pounds. 

Finally – I will weigh under 200 on Dec. 31

Step 2 is to start. 

Even starting in the wrong direction is better than waiting.

Do something to act on your decision for what you want.

Step 3 

Make a plan on next steps. (Don’t have to figure it all out yet.)

Make a plan for framework that will get you through the messy middle.

Plenty of tools to help you develop a strong mindset. 

Mindset is what gets you through step 3: Don’t Stop.

Mindset is the story you tell yourself.

If your story goes like:

I don’t deserve it.

I’m not good enough. 

Good things never last.

I always end up losing.

I can’t stay focused.

It’s too hard to change.

All of these make it more difficult to keep going.

And often you’re unaware of the story you’re telling yourself.

You only see and feel the results when you start and then eventually stop.

My role as a coach is to help you fix your story. First I help you see it. Then I help you change it.

A mindset for taking on challenges

Martha Schoppe didn’t set out to be a smokejumper. She focused on the sciences in college and worked afterwards in a wilderness therapy program in the western US. She was surrounded by people who loved outdoor adventure: mountain bikers, rock climbers, and hikers. She adopted the outdoor lifestyle and the seasonal work that comes with it.

In the process, she took a job with the Forest Service working on wilderness trails. Over the winter, avalanches and rock-slides would block the wilderness trails. She and her team were responsible for clearing the boulders and cutting the trees that blocked the trails. The wilderness areas don’t allow for any power tools. All the wood cutting is done with hand saws. In the course of her trail work, she got her qualifications to work on fire lines to fight wildfires. But it took five years before she had a chance to put her firefighter skills to the test.

After a few years on the fire crew she was chosen for a hotshot crew. This 21 member crew traveled around the country to where help was needed to contain wildfires. After a few years more, she got her certification to be a smokejumper. 

She never liked running when she was younger, but it was part of her firefighter training. She picked up a copy of the book Born to Run and was intrigued by the “run smooth, run light, run easy” philosophy of the Tarahumara people. She decided she wanted to figure out how to run better. She followed the gradual progression of shorter to ever longer distances. While working in Ouray, CO, she saw the Hardrock 100 runners. She was intrigued and started thinking about what was possible.

Summer races are out of the question for Martha because fighting wildfires keeps her fully occupied. She also needs several weeks for her lungs to fully recover from all the dust and smoke she deals with in her work. So she looks at the winter races as her racing season. One of her challenges was a 100 mile race in Alaska. In addition to the cold and dark, she had to pull her gear on a sled. 

She found that the mindset for running ultramarathons set her up very well for success as a smokejumper. The ability to be flexible and adapt to changes in weather conditions, terrain, and to keep moving through the night is key to both. And, after parachuting in to deal with a fire, she often has to hike out with all 135 pounds of gear and tools. 

Martha doesn’t foresee any change in her love for working and playing in the wilderness. She’s going to keep doing what she loves.

Not satisfied with a typical career path

Iveta Zaklaskinova is from a small country called Czech Republic. She calls herself a digital nomad. She is a coach and consultant for health coaches and therapists. She works extensively with her clients in the area of developing their mindset for success. She created her coaching business so she can work anywhere in the world. This gave her the freedom to follow her dream to do more than just visit a country as a tourist. She gets to experience the culture and flavor of the places she goes.

Iveta’s path to become a world-traveler began when she was 16 years old.She went to a summer job in a factory where her mother had been working for 15 years. She saw the women who worked there doing the same thing over and over again. The women appeared to be tired as the routine wore them down. She decided to study business and took a job in London when she graduated, working in sales and marketing. She soon found that the corporate structure didn’t suit her restless spirit either. She wanted the freedom to travel and see the world. 

She had several coaches and was working on her mindset and getting past her limiting beliefs. She decided that she wanted to become a coach, so quit her job and enrolled in one of the top coaching schools in London. She didn’t know how she was going to pay for it, but she trusted that things would work out if she made the decision and took action. After graduation, she started her business and began her life as a digital nomad.

She had a lot of fears when she started her business. She was 27 years old and had thoughts like “who would trust me?” “who will believe me?” I’m too young to start a business.” She also felt self-conscious in that English is her second language. How would people respond to her strong accent when she created videos on social media. Now she coaches 22-year-olds who say they are too young and lack confidence. And she coaches 55-year-olds who say they are too old to be on social media. The limiting beliefs are the same for those on both ends of the age spectrum.

Iveta still works on her mindset, not only on continuing to develop her marketing and sales skills but also on making sure of personal things like her mental outlook. Almost every day she sits in a cafe, orders a cappuccino and picks up her journal and works on whatever fear comes up, works on her mind, her energy, writes down what she is grateful for, what she wants and works on her alter ego. Every day she tries to look at where she wants to be and works from that place. She is always looking for the next coach to learn from a mindset or business perspective and always invests in herself.

Iveta began to dive deep into quantum physics and learning how mindset and energy work together to create success. Her clients often tell her that the program is amazing but the energy work she does is simply transformational because she works from the perspective of energy and from where we want to be.

For people who want to get started to create a different life than what they have, Iveta says that the biggest resistance you’re going to get is from family saying don’t do it. They will say that you should take the safe place and finish school, get a job and settle down. This resistance doesn’t always come from a negative place. People close to us give us advice because they love us. They just want you to be safe.

Iveta says that most people put victim limits on themselves, saying they don’t have time, energy or money. Most of the time these excuses are a cover for fear and self-doubt.

What is the phrase or word that sums up her philosophy of life?

 Always make decisions from where you want to be. 

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Connect with Iveta:

https://www.ivetazaklasnikova.com/

https://www.facebook.com/ivetazakla/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivetazaklasnikova/

https://www.instagram.com/ivetazaklasnikova/

Speaking notes

Today is Memorial Day in the US.

National holiday – start of summer. First long weekend w/ warm weather.

Most of my life I haven’t thought about why we celebrate.

As a kid, we occasionally went to put flowers on graves. 

But these last few years I’ve been trying to look at our national holidays and at least spend a few minutes thinking about the reasons they were created.

This Monday Morning Mindset I want to talk about Memorial Day.

Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day. It’s a day of remembrance for those who have died serving in the US military.

Memorial Day was borne out of the Civil War (which ended in 1865) and a desire to honor our dead. On the 5th of May in 1868, General John Logan who was the national commander of the Grand Army of the republic, officially proclaimed it in his General Order No. 11. 

“The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land.” 

On the first Decoration Day, 5,000 participants decorated the graves of 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried at Arlington Cemetery.

Long history from that first Decoration Day to today. 

But I noticed something about this first one that is significant.

They decorated the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers.

The Civil War often had members of the same family fighting on different sides.

General Logan set up Decoration Day to remember the sacrifices on both sides as a way to help the nation heal and move forward.

So take a moment today to remember the men and women who gave their lives in service to this country. 

And I think it’s important to not only remember the past but look to the future as well.

It’s important to remember the sacrifices and struggles of the past: as a nation and for yourself as a person.

But also look ahead to create a better future.

I talk about personal growth . . . epic life.
The reason I want to be my best–help you be your best–is to make the best future for all of us.

Remember the past. Think about the struggle and sacrifice that got us to this point. Look to the future.
We should not be defined by our past, but by our future.

And the future is determined by who you decide to be.

A mindset to go big to celebrate 60 years

Imagine what it would be like to plan a big goal for your 60th birthday. It should be something epic and noteworthy. After all, turning sixty is a milestone.

Will Turner decided that the year he turned sixty he would do sixty Ironman triathlons. A full Ironman is 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles on a bike, and running 26.2 miles. Sixty of these in a year is more than one a week!

After he finished his goal for his sixtieth year, he decided to keep going to 100 Ironman triathlons. Then he discovered he could beat the world record if he did 105 Ironmans within 2 years.

Will Turner did his first triathlon in 1993. In the early 2000s he was also running marathons Then in 2009, when he turned 50, he decided he wanted to do his first Ironman.  Then he moved on to ultra-endurance triathlons. There are double, triple, quintuple, deca, and double-deca Ironman distances. He has run an ultramarathon distance as part of an ultra-Ironman.

He did the quintuple Ironman before he decided to do the 60/60. He did it just as a test to push himself and see what he was capable of doing. It was a 12 mile swim, a 560 mile bike and 131 mile run. He missed the cutoff time only seven miles short of the finish line. He says it was a humbling experience, but in retrospect it was a good experience because it helped him go for longer lengths to figure out what he should do differently in his 60/60 year. In that race he basically got to the point where his back was so knotted up that he was walking like Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre-Dame. 

The reason Will has stayed in the world of endurance sports for the last two decades is that he wants to be always pushing himself. It happens that every time you are training or competing there comes a moment when you want to give up and stop or walk. He calls that moment ”the sweet spot.” But when you push through and get to the other side and finish it’s like drinking a golden elixir that fills you with confidence and you realize you can do so much more than you thought you could.

When he did his first Ironman he was turning 50. A couple of years before he turned 60 he thought he wanted to do something big. He was with a friend a few weeks before he made the big decision and she asked him if he had a big race planned. She was the first to know he wanted to do 6 Ironman in the year he turned 60. She told him about another local athlete who had already done the same thing. He took the 10x principle and decided to do 60 Ironmans. 

He had two years to do the mental and physical preparation work to see if it was possible. It was a lot of going out on his own and seeing how his body responded and making some adjustments along the way, as well as making sure to build confidence that he was doing it safely and sustainably and would not be injuring himself.

Will loves the mindset work that goes into endurance sports. He is always testing what works and what doesn’t work. For him the biggest part is the belief, realizing that you can do the distance. This is something he took a long time to create because. He needed time to build that belief in himself, that he can hold on and cover the distance without hurting himself and knowing that he has mechanisms to deal with different situations. Part of his mental training is also to be self-taught in those moments when the going gets tough. He says you can either let the negative mindset derail you, or you can take control of your thoughts and let them lead you in the direction of moving forward. He creates a plan for himself. He has certain affirmations that he uses if he needs them. He also relies on his support people and he can use them as part of his positive self-talk.

His friend, Chris, helped him reach his goal. Will refers to Chris as his “uber-sherpa.” They went to a lot of amazing places and Chris had only one condition, that he could go to these places to take pictures.  Chris was a mountain biker, and they ended up taking the most amazing pictures together. They put Chris’ pictures into a coffee table book you can buy from Will’s website. They decided to head to various National Parks and they ended up going in a caravan, did a couple of runs in Canada, one near Whistler, and then drove 3,000 miles from Whistler through British Columbia and the Yukon in Canada and across Alaska. Will thinks the first year they averaged 1300 miles a week in driving on top of all the racing.

He was very inspired by seeing older people who are still doing endurance sports because if they are still doing it at that age it gives him the confidence that it can be done and that he will be one of those people. He plans to be doing endurance sports into his eighties and beyond. And he wants to inspire other people to reach beyond their own mindset limits and do more than they think they can.

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Connect with Will:

https://www.liveyourbold.com/

https://www.instagram.com/liveyourbold/

https://www.facebook.com/liveyourbold/

https://www.facebook.com/will.turner.5891

A mindset shift saved his life.

Mike Burke is an executive, personal and life coach. His work is about mental fitness, positive intelligence, and mindset. He began coaching after he wrote the book Waiting to Die, Running to Live, about living with and managing cystic fibrosis. People began to share their stories of life struggles, and he wanted to do more than listen and encourage them. 

Mike was very sick as an infant, and after many months he was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at the age of one. As soon as he got on a medical regimen, he started to thrive but when he was diagnosed he was given 5 to 7 years to live. The disease means that Mike’s body doesn’t digest food well, and it creates a thick mucus in the lungs and makes him susceptible to a lot of infections. He did well enough to survive childhood. For him being a kid it was never a big deal, he played soccer and baseball. But the family didn’t talk about his disease. When he was a teenager and got curious, before the internet existed, he rode his bike to the library and checked out a medical journal where he read that the life expectancy was 18 years for those with cystic fibrosis. This frightened him because he was 15 at the time.

At that time the disease had permanently damaged his digestive system, but not his lungs. He was very thin and played golf in high school. In college he started running, and one day decided he could run pretty far so he ran 13 miles. But after college he started his career and didn’t have time to run or bike.

At that point he was past the 18-year mark that had scared him, but he felt like he was on borrowed time. He didn’t tell anyone about his disease, and his short life expectancy. But he was running and also cycling about 50 miles a day. 

After college, he focused on his career. He was traveling the country for sales and moving wherever they needed help. He was promoted to sales director for a big hotel company and he liked to work hard and long hours, and he really wasn’t paying attention to his body. Cystic fibrosis is progressive and aggressive, and he got very sick right around his thirtieth birthday. He realized that if he didn’t do something to manage this disease that he wouldn’t have many more years.

He moved back to St. Louis and had changed his lifestyle, always revolving around the same doctor. He wanted to exercise so he started running again, but the disease had taken 20% of his lungs. He was competitive and wanted to push himself and started increasing the miles. Soon he was able to run 10, and kept going until he thought he could  run a marathon. He tried twice to make it but had to drop. But in the end he managed to complete his marathon.

The mindset tool Mike uses in his races is to focus in on one sense. When he did his first Ironman he had never swam in open water. And other swimmers were packed around him and he was getting pummeled. He began hyperventilating, and frustration was growing. Then he calmed himself and focused in on the feeling of being in the water. He calmed down and was able to get in a rhythm. This body awareness is a skill Mike uses to get through the tough parts of the races he runs.

When Mike was young he thought, “Why work hard in high school?” “I’m never going to go to college” “Why go to college?” “I can never be an adult with a job.” And he says that thank God his father was able to put an end to those thoughts and give him confidence so he committed to going to college and had a positive approach. By the time he graduated he had his mind set on a career and to make the most of life.  He has a good focus on positive things, and when he sinks into negative thinking he tends to look for positive thoughts to pull him out of it. He is now able to recognize the internal dialogue when it comes and get out of it.

Mike’s Book is called ”Waiting to Die, Running to Live” and he talks about the 2 different mindsets he had in life. At first he was waiting for the worst things to happen. Cystic fibrosis hung over his head as a reality that was supposed to end his life early. But then he shifted his mindset to be as healthy as he could for as long as he could. That’s when he started running and taking on endurance challenges like the Ironman.

His phrase that describes his life philosophy is to live with confidence and in the face of adversity.

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Connect with Mike:

http://michaelpatrickburke.com/

Mike’s book on Amazon

An ultramarathon mindset for finding adventure

Only one more gym class! That was all Katie Spotz needed to graduate from high school. The problem was that she didn’t care all that much about sports. She played sports, but wasn’t very good at them. So she was trying to find a way to avoid having to take this final gym class. She even thought about getting a note from a doctor to get out of the class.

She finally chose a class called “Walking and Running.” But she became bored because she was walking in circles around a track. So she decided to try to run a mile. She didn’t think she could, but she tried. To her surprise, she did it. She says that this first mile was the hardest because she had never run that far before and her mindset convinced her it was all but impossible.

She made another important mindset shift. She asked the question, “If I can run a mile when I thought it was impossible, what else can I do?” She started running farther and before long, she was enjoying life as a runner. For Katie the great thing about running is that it never stops being fun. There are always challenges and opportunities to do more.

Her first marathon was the Columbus Marathon. After that she knew she wanted to do something else, but she didn’t know anything about endurance. She always told herself she wanted to do an Ironman so since she already knew how to run she looked on the internet for different challenges. She had a feeling she wanted to try to get better at cycling. She found a group doing a 3300 mile bike ride across the United States. It was a fundraiser for the American Lung Association. Her grandmother had just passed away from lung disease so she knew there was no better way to do something in her memory and in her honor.

She was the youngest rider in the group. Most were a decade older than her. She and 40 other cyclists were doing 85 miles a day. They became their own clan, slept in tents in random fields and spent the day cycling and ate lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

A few years later she was planning to do the Race Across America, a bicycle race from Oceanside, CA, to Anapolis, MD. She was planning to enter the team competition and try to set the world record for a 2 person team. She crashed her bike on her final training ride a few days before the race. She thougth it was a pulled muscle, but she had fractured her pelvis. The doctors told her she wouldn’t be able to walk for 4 months. 

She and her friend didn’t want to give up on doing it together and started looking for alternatives and got a hand bike. Katie says it was really frustrating because you’re working twice as hard to go half as fast. She was still excited to do it, but it was definitely hard not being able to do what she had spent 8 months training her body to do.

Katie was in Australia for a semester as an exchange student, and she started talking about endurance challenges with her friends. She heard about a woman who rowed across the Atlantic with her 55-year-old mother. She thought that rowing across the Atlantic sounded like the ultimate challenge. The planning took two years. And when she said goodbye to her parents, they all had tears in their eyes because they didn’t know how the adventure would end or if this might be the last time they’d see each other. Katie said that she felt that if she didn’t row across the Atlantic she would spend the rest of her life regretting her missed opportunity.

She will probably go back to run a few Ironman’s and triathlons again. She also wants to run a race again in Ohio which is her home state.

Her adventures also serve as a way for her to raise funds for an organization called H2O for Life. This organization works to bring water and sanitation to areas of the world that don’t have access to good water. They have projects all over the world: South Africa and Central America. They even have projects in the Navajo Nation here in the United States as well as Kentucky and West Virginia. There is a link to Katie’s donation page at the bottom of this page. 

Bridge Questions:

Her must-have fuel: some watermelon or banana.

The weirdest thing she’s seen while running: Once at a race she was having hallucinations, and then she saw her uncle who lived in Ohio and thought it was another hallucination and he had actually traveled to see her.

His philosophy of life: You must have the courage to try things, and even if you fail you are closer to success.

Connect with Katie:

https://www.katiespotz.com/

Give Clean Water

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Speakers notes

This is one of the hardest questions to answer. 

Sounds simple. But it’s not.

Most of the time you don’t think about what you want.

And when you do have to think about it, you find out you’re not really sure what it is.

Imagine this:

You’re with a friend. One of you says, Let’s grab lunch. 

The other says, Great! Where do you want to go?

I don’t know. What do you want?

This goes back and forth a few times.

Then you get to the restaurant and look at the menu. It will probably take you several minutes to decide what you want to eat.

It’s just lunch! And it takes you time and mental energy to figure out what you want to eat today.

Now, think about how much harder it is to figure out what you want for your relationships, your job, and your life!

Most people go through life and don’t give much thought to what they want. Every once in a while they open that door. “Financial planning.”

But you aren’t like most people. You’re listening to Monday Morning Mindset.

You are looking to grow as a person. Be the best version of yourself.

Finding out what you want is the starting point.

This is where I start with my coaching clients. 

To find the WHAT to change your life takes work.

Usually under a couple of layers of Facebook answers and political correctness. Or, in my case, a pile of religious beliefs.

Someday I’ll tell the story of how God delivered me from religion. 

The point I want to make is that getting down to what you really want takes work.

But it’s the starting point if you are going to have an epic life.

Answer the question 3 ways:

1. Who do I want to be?
2. What do I want to do?
3. What do I want to have?

Last week: 

Do – Have – Be approach to life. Who I am is based on what I have and do.

You will never become your best version of yourself with Do-Have-Be

You must live from your identity.

So the first question you answer is Who do I want to be?

Your character and your personality are not set in stone. 

Your identity is guided by the story you tell yourself about yourself.

You can change your story!

Next question:

What do I want to do?

What is my assignment? What am I put here on earth to accomplish?

What is it that lights my fire and fills my soul?

Next question:

What do I want to have?

Ultramarthon: fuel, hydration, crew, pacers, gear, cowbells.

Life: resources, support of family and friends, coaches and mentors, tools, and fans.

Answer these questions about what you want for your life, and you will be at the start of your journey to having an EPIC life. 

Next week I’ll talk about the three roadblocks you may face when you start to figure out what you want. 

Thanks for listening.

I’d love to help you get started to living your best life. 

Free mindset reset call – ultramindsetpodcast.run.