Tag: motivation

Powerball Lottery and New Year Resolutions

Are you playing a game you don’t expect to win?

Hope is powerful! You need hope to keep going when the going gets tough.

Hope is that flicker of belief that things can get better . . . that things might get better. Even cranky pessimists have at least a little spark of hope, no matter how they try to hide it.

But hope won’t help you change.

Don’t get me wrong! You and I need hope. But hope is focused on something “out there” to happen to make everything better.

Hope is playing the lottery. You don’t expect to win, but you know there’s a chance.

So you’re saying there’s a chance . . .

What most of us do with New Year Resolutions is no different. We invest very little and hope for massive returns.
This kind of hope is like waiting for a miracle.

I believe in miracles.

I’ve seen miracles happen. God will sometimes step in and act for our benefit.

But I can tell you from experience that more often than not God is waiting for us to get off our ass and do something.

My choices determine the life I get.

I put up with a mediocre life for years hoping for a miracle. I’d set goals and only put in a minimal effort. I was waiting for divine lightning to strike and make me healthy, wealthy, and wise.

I finally figured out that God gave me the ability and responsibility to choose what I get in this life.

I wrote about how I changed in my previous post.

Feeling like you “should.”

Turning the page of the calendar into a new year and decade makes us feel almost obligated to make some changes in our life.

Add to this the peer pressure that comes from “everyone making resolutions,” and we tend to make Resolutions about minor quirks or annoying habits that don’t matter all that much.

So we make Resolutions with a handful of hope and a dash of indifference.

Are your Resolutions keeping you from what you really want?

You won’t get rich from playing the lottery.

You won’t get the life you want by making Resolutions each year.

Decide to get what you want.

Any change starts with a decision.

If you’re like me, you want more from life than what you’ve got right now. I plan to keep growing and improving always.

So why not ditch the resolutions this year and decide to go after something you really want for your life?

It is possible to get what you want in life. It starts with deciding what you want and then going for it.

This could be your year . . . your decade. It’s never to late to start.

When you have an “ultramarathon mindset,” you can accomplish more than you imagine is possible. Get started by checking out my FREE guide for the 3-Steps to Guaranteed Success. Just leave me your name and email for instant access.

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January 14, 2020
How to reset your mindset.

My mental game fell apart 32 miles into my 100.

The Pumpkin Holler 100, in Tahlequah, OK, is billed as “relatively flat.” This is true if you compare it to other 100 mile ultramarathons in, say, the Rocky Mountains.

I was hot. I was on pavement. (I’m a trail runner. I prefer dirt.) The hills were oppressive. Then, a local resident used her car in road rage against some runners ahead of me, forcing one into the ditch then swerving around another before stopping and backing up and hitting him. (He wasn’t hurt badly. And he kept going.)

And my mental game was dripping away like the sweat I was losing.

I lost my focus.

Don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t thinking about quitting. Not even close.

I was moving forward. And I was well ahead of time for the goal I’d set. But from mile 32 to mile 37, my mental game was in the toilet.

From the outside, I looked fine. If you’d asked me, I’d have told you I was fine. So it took me about 5 miles before I saw the danger I was in.

My mind was on autopilot. My body was on autopilot. My thoughts were going like a herd of cats.

Because of my scattered thoughts, I slowed down, and my economy of motion was in a deficit. Now, you know that the government is the only thing that keeps going with an continuous deficit. I was headed for trouble. . . because my mindset had slipped.

Running with focus and flow.

My ultramarathon mindset training doesn’t prevent me from having low points and mental struggles. I don’t just dial in to a zen state and flow blissfully through the miles.

The mental game for running an ultramarathon takes work. Your attention and your focus will wander. In fact, I expect my attention to wander when I’m running.

What works for me is to be in FOCUS and flow for 30 – 60 seconds every 5 minutes or so.

Flow states tend to be fleeting. But my ultramarathon mindset practice gives me the tools to create a “running flow state” at will.

You better pull your head together before you get to the start/finish and pick up your first pacer.
My self-talk at Mile 37

Getting my sh#T together.

I started training my mindset long before I thought about running an ultramarathon.

I’ve narrowed down my niche on this blog to talk about ultramarathon mindset. But my past blog posts were all about how to transform your life. It just so happens that the practice I developed to help me focus on what I want for my life works great for running ultramarathons.

Yes, my mental game was in the toilet. But getting my sh#T together wasn’t difficult. You see, I’ve conditioned my mindset through regular practice. You can say that I train for this.

Just like I train to run, conditioning the muscles in my body to work together to do what I want them to. My attention is a muscle. And I’ve trained my thoughts to follow my attention. That “herd of cats” running wild — my unfocused thoughts — fell in line once my attention gave notice to get this sh#T together!

Energy flows where your attention goes.
Tony Robbins

Winning the mental long-game.

Running an ultramarathon is all about managing your energy. For most runners, this means eating what they need and pacing themselves.

I think the best ultramarthon runners have learned how to manage their attention and focus as well. Because focused attention means focused energy. When my mental game went in the toilet, my energy was going with it.

I’m not an elite ultramarathon runner. I fact, I’m just getting started. And I’m a back-of-the-pack runner . . . for now. But I can feel the difference in energy flow through my body when I FOCUS my attention.

My first 100 mile race.

I’m glad for the lessons I learned in the Pumpkin Holler 100. I learned I don’t want any more gravel or pavement 100 milers. I’ll be running a 100 mile race or two next year. I have a date for redemption with The Hawk 100 in September, 2020. I want to be running on dirt, jumping over rocks and tree roots.

I’m already back at my FOCUS exercises, training my mindset to be ready for when my body is back up to full strength. (I’ve found that my mindset work aids and speeds my recovery as well.)

My sights are set on some bigger goals ahead. I’m going to keep moving forward, past what my mind thinks are my limits!

The best crew and pacers
I could have asked for.

When you have an “ultramarathon mindset,” you can accomplish more than you imagine is possible. Get started by checking out my FREE guide for the 3-Steps to Guaranteed Success. Just leave me your name and email for instant access.

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October 28, 2019
How to change your life
Photo by Jake Ingle on Unsplash

Two simple steps you need to change your life.

These two steps are the guaranteed way for how to change your life . . . if you do them.

1. Start.

I told you this is simple. You have to start!

And, in order to start, you have to decide.

You won’t ever get to know how to change your life if you don’t decide to take this simple step and start.
- Start . . . even if you think you’re not ready.
- Start . . . even if you’re scared.
- Start . . . even if you think you’ll fail.
- Start . . . even if you have no one to encourage you.
- Start . . . especially when you don’t have it all figured out.
- Start . . . all you need right now is one small step.
Your challenge is to make the decision to get moving. You can adjust your plan as you go along. You’ll have to adjust even if you’ve already made a detailed plan of how to change your life. No plan survives intact when released into the real world.

2. Don’t stop.

Here is the sure way to fail and stay stuck in your rut — quit. I used to be good at quitting. And it took me decades to figure out that “don’t stop” was the way to change my life.

This two step formula will change your life.

This formula is simple. But it’s not easy. And you’ll feel resistance even at the point of “make a decision to change your life.” This resistance is what keeps most people always wanting a change, and yet few ever really take steps to make a change.

Others have done it. You can too!

Full disclosure here . . . I watched hundreds of stories like Jason Cohen’s–in the video below–and never took the first step. I never made the decision to start. You may be like me . . . or, rather, like I used to be.

Here’s the thing . . . these stories will keep your dream alive until you’re ready to take the steps to change your life. So take 16 minutes and watch Jason’s story. If he can do it, you can too.

When you have an “ultramarathon mindset,” you can accomplish more than you imagine is possible. Get started by checking out my FREE guide for the 3-Steps to Guaranteed Success. Just leave me your name and email for instant access.

Send me the 3-Steps to Guaranteed Success!

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October 3, 2019