QUITTING GYM
I cancelled my gym membership in 2010 and have never looked back.
I had been teetering on doing so for a couple years. I wasn’t using the gym. I was paying $60 per month to go, at best, two times per month. That turns out to be $30 per workout and they weren’t even pilates or trainer led.
I was hanging onto the belief someday I would get back into lifting more weights. Someday I would rediscover enjoyment in pushing metal plates around while staring myself down in the mirror. #Selfie
Hardly likely.
I had looked at some nicer gyms with pools and tennis courts. Perhaps they would inspire me to use the facilities and build up muscle. They offered indoor-outdoor settings. Yet, sign-up fees plus monthly dues over $125 for something I hadn’t proven to use, a gym regularly since college, seemed poor economics.
Posted in Living Well Training / Health by .
Dec 12
21
What Makes People Happy?
Nov 12
23
LEAN FORWARD
Let Us Not Hold Back
Two miles into a three point one mile race, my breath was heavy, but strong, my posture was holding tall, my quads and calves were murmuring, but not screaming their final cry. Circling about the wharfs and peninsulas of Long Beach on my way back to the finish line I was crossing paths with slower runners. Smiles and quick words of encouragement were exchanged.
I had my sight set on two guys and a solo runner in front of them when an older man coming my way in bright red yells to me, “you’re in eleventh place. Give it your all and you have a top ten finish.”
RENEWED PURPOSE
For someone going out to support a cause, encourage the newbies and younger chaps and get a good workout in, I was not there to break any records.
Posted in Living Well Training / Health by .
Nov 12
7
BY THE SEAT OF YOUR PANTS
ACQUIRING HORSE-SENSE
Have you ever attempted to learn a language? How about surf a wave? Ride a horse? Participate in a boardroom meeting?
While all seem quite disconnected, there is a common thread. The base upon which you build success within each trade is the same. They require one main, mirroring skill set.
CITY SLICKER
Six months ago, one of my great mentors solicited my help. He had been asked to get an ill-mannered, high ego horse into more rideable fashion.
It was a horse of great stature and strength. Were he trained properly this beautiful horse would be a special one. Until then, his name fit the bill.
Macho.
Posted in Finance / Entrepreneurship Living Well Training / Health by .
Oct 12
10
BY THE SEAT OF YOUR PANTALONES
LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE
Have you ever attempted to learn a language? How about surf a wave? Ride a horse? Participate in a boardroom meeting?
While all seem quite disconnected, there is a common thread. The base upon which you build success within each trade is the same. They require one main, mirroring skill set.
ALICANTE, ESPANA
Brand new, 49.8 pounds full, Greggory backpack upon my shoulders, 49.7 pound roller suitcase following my right hip, I twist and turn myself through the front door of the Garcia Beltran residence in Alicante, Spain.
The family bulldog lazily lifts his eyes to see whether the commotion is worth detaching his drooling chin off the ever so refreshing tile floor. Nope.
“Jeff, tuhabitacionestaenelsegundopisosepuedeponersumaletasalla.” My lovely host mother Reme says to me smiling.
Hmm. Not sure I caught that one. Is it humanly possible to speak that fast? She notices.
Posted in Living Well Travel by .
Sep 12
18
BY THE SEAT OF YOUR PANTS
SURFING BY FEEL
This is a 4 part article series under the banner of “By the Seat of Your Pants”. Look out for the sequels in the coming weeks.
Have you ever attempted to learn a language? How about surf a wave? Ride a horse? Participate in a boardroom meeting?
While all seem quite disconnected, there is a common thread. The base upon which you build success within each trade is the same. They require one main, mirroring skill set.
FEEL THE WAVE
In 2005 I was sharing in a chat with a friend of a friend named Liz Clark. Liz was the 2002 College Women’s National Champion in surfing. Continuously she’s proven to be authentically adventurous, ever determined to live her life out in the world, amongst the different cultures, surf breaks, and tidal changes.
Posted in Living Well Training / Health Travel by .
Aug 12
8
OLYMPIC PATRIOTISM
RED, WHITE AND YOU.
“Patriotism is a love and devotion to a country or homeland for no other reason than being a resident there.” Wikipedia
It is hard to watch the Olympics and not be filled with support and pride for your country man or woman’s success. The sense of patriotism welling up inside.
We don’t have to consciously think about rooting for them. It feels natural. It feels instinctual.
Our favorites resonate in our heart. Fire strikes our bellies. Anticipation. Unease. Hope. Compassion. Joy.
A transatlantic, active supporter, we are.
Yelling names at the television. Hooting for sporting events foreign to our typical likings. Passing on our own fitness to awe over other’s grace, power and physique. Neglecting our own dreams to engage in others.
Posted in Living Well Market Street Report Quotes Travel by .
Jul 12
3
TIME TRAVEL
CUBAN INSPIRED.
BILL AND TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE.
Have you ever watched a time travel movie, read a history book, or wandered through a museum and wondered what it would be like to walk the Earth decades, centuries or millennium ago? Or dreamed of blasting onward into the future?
Last week it was hard to miss the rampant Facebook posts of Michael J. Fox in “Back to the Future” setting his timer to our current reality, June 27, 2012. FYI – We all got punked. It turned out to be a big hoax.
Either way, it’s fun to imagine. Going back to days before machines or cars. When life was very much agrarian. Or going forward to see what our lives will be like as a nonagenarian.
One may not be able to travel back 7,000 years like Bill and Ted in “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”, however 500 years is possible.
Posted in Living Well Travel by .
Jun 12
6
PAIN = OPPORTUNITY
THINK LIKE AN ENTREPRENEUR, ALWAYS.
IDENTIFY PAIN.
Take a quick moment to reflect on the pain points felt throughout your day so far. Can you think of any? Are there few or many? How about over the course of the last week and last month? At work? At the office? In your car? Out at restaurants?
Quick, pull out a notepad and jot down these experiences. Are there any noticeable patterns? Does the pain last long?
Are certain experiences more painful than others? Circle those causing you the most pain.
This is not to depress you, nor to have you looking at the world with pessimism striped across it.
MIND OF OPPORTUNITY.
This is to have you thinking with a mind of opportunity.
Posted in Finance / Entrepreneurship by .
May 12
23
PRODUCTIVITY
THINK LIKE A LAWYER
“I’m three times more productive.”
New York City Lawyer
SETTING: NEW YORK CITY, CIRCA 2012.
A friend of mine recently got a job at a law firm in New York City. Long hours and a steep learning curve were clearly points of notation. Stress, of course. But where the stress was being derived was curious to me.
In a market where legal jobs have taken a particularly hard hit, especially when compared to the free-wheeling days prior to 2008’s Great Recession and en masse lay-offs, demonstrating your value to the firm day-in and day-out is of paramount importance. As such, especially for an entry-level associate at the bottom of the totem pole, high quantities of billable hours, is extremely important and is the best form of job security, where the firm is paying you to “bill,” not just to work.and a steep learning curve were clearly points of notation. Stress, of course. But where the stress was being derived was curious to me.
Posted in Finance / Entrepreneurship Living Well by .