Monthly Archives: March 2017

You Get Out What You Put In

There are a few simple rules in life. One of those is you get out of life what you put into it.If you look back throughout your life history you will come to the same conclusion.

Take stock of your life today. Are you reaping the benefits of years of work put towards a goal? Or have you been coasting, putting off the work? Are you letting your circumstances dictate your schedule, or are you making your goals a priority with your time?

So you want to write a book? I hear this a lot. What is stopping you from writing? Common answers: no time, no money, I don’t know how or I do not have the education.

You want to write? Then you must write. Everyday you write so you get better. Writing is like a muscle and you have to use it in order for it to work properly. You have to become a wordsmith, a person who is constantly working on their writing so that they become more proficient.

Writing has got to be one of the cheapest hobbies around, because all you need is some blank paper and a writing instrument. I have a friend, Matthew, who has written six books – good books – in eight years. Three have been published and the others are in various stages. He has written screenplays and edited other people’s work, all while holding down a full-time job.

He is married with a child, is active politically and he never went to school to be a writer. He just does it, day after day, until it becomes second nature.

I train a number people in all shapes and sizes in the art of boxing. One group really stands out – the fighters in Rock Steady Boxing Minooka. They all have Parkinson’s disease. It has been over a year since I first watched Leslie Stahl from 60 Minutes do a story on Rock Steady Boxing. Leslie’s husband has Parkinson’s and he started training at Rock Steady Boxing. The difference in his life has been huge. Before the video segment was even over I knew it was something I wanted to be a part of. I went to the Rock Steady Boxing headquarters and took a weekend seminar on working with Parkinson’s patients. It change my life. I realized that everything I had learned and trained over the years could actually be used to help others fight back against a debilitating disease.

My first Parkinson’s fighter has been training with me for almost one year, three times each week. His wife is his “Cornerman” and she trains with him every workout too. They have stuck with it and pushed themselves. They have missed very few workouts in the entire year. All of their progress has been amazing. It has improved their strength, balance, coordination, footwork, speed, form, posture, health and cardio. Why? They show up even when they do not feel like it. They show up when they are tired or have other things to do. It is important to them. This is the same for all of us, no matter what age or fitness level. If you put in the time, you will see results.

If you wish to improve your body, you have to do the work. Any magic plan that promises fitness with no work is a lie.

Have you ever noticed that when you really wanted to do something, you found the time? When you really do not want to do something, or it is not a priority, something will always come up. If you are just doing something for money or just doing enough to get it over with – it shows. Quality in = quality out. Mediocre in leads to the predictable outcome.

The ability to get good at anything takes a lot of work, but to do so as a full grown adult is rare. It is not because we can’t, but because we are not willing to invest the time or go through the hardship of change. We have, to be honest, harsh and merciless with ourselves and most people are too sensitive get a lot better at anything. If you never intend to work hard, then anything you wish to do well – will be impossible.

This extends to living a Christian life. If all you ever do is go to church once a week and sit through a sermon, do you really feel you are giving God his worth? We are all sinners and not one of us is perfect. It is a constant battle to live a life that honors God. If you work on every day, you will see change. If you continue to just show up weekly at a service what can you really expect?

1 Corinthians 9:24-25

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.

Proverbs 13:4

The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.

Challenges to Change

1 Reply

What is holding you back? What is preventing change, in your life? In my life, the biggest hurdle to change was myself. If you look back at your life up to this point, what are some of the things that have caused you a lot of grief? Could they have been of your own making?

My life was full of what I like to call now, ‘ill-advised short cuts.’ I was always looking for a way around the rules. I never took the time to build the proper foundation. That meant everything I did to be a house built on sand.

When it came crashing down, I would just walk away and jump into something new. I did not care, because I thought I knew what I was doing.

Nobody cared what I did because I brought in money enough for everyone. As a result, not one person ever instilled in me the way to do things right. I never made long-term plans, because in my words, “Who knows what tomorrow will bring.” I was always one step away from being locked up.

I was in love with my lifestyle, because as long as I kept producing more and more cash, I never had to think about what I was not doing with my life. The life I chose gave me an excuse not to live like everyone else. In my mind, the rules of the world did not apply to me. I didn’t have to have normal relationships because, “Hey, my life isn’t normal.” I could lie, I reasoned, because it was part of my job. If I didn’t like something, for whatever reason, I could just make it go away. People wanted to be around me even if I was not a good person, because they felt they could get something from me. This kept me from facing the truth.

It has taken me many years and a lot of mistakes to write this today. I had to really examine my life and be honest with myself. I would work on one small problem area and then begin on another.

I kept thinking the life I chose was what caused me problems. Then one day I knew what caused them. It was me: I made the choices, I took it on myself to live the way I did. I was the one who would not listen to normal rational people. I always felt I knew better than everyone and I knew what was right.

I left what we referred to as “the life” in 2005, but that was just the beginning of my journey.

I had removed the work part of the equation from my life and yet I would still find myself having similar problems. I had heard often that life was not about making money. I was still doing things I did not like (legally this time) for money. My reasoning was simple, I would use the money I made to do what I really wanted to do. It never worked out that way, because I became involved in producing more and more so I could keep up with something that was only in my mind.

I was not happy and therefore I never felt any success.

I speak to people on regular basis that wish to obtain certain goals. Most of these goals have to do with fitness and health. Sometimes they feel they need to lose some extra pounds. It could be they wish to be stronger or more coordinated. They might want to win a fight. They need to figure out what their challenges are in order to change. Whether or not they succeed comes down to one thing, and that is mindset. In the end no matter what they decide, I can only bring out what they already have inside.

The formula for getting in shape and losing weight is simple. The diet industry in the world hopes that people will never figure it out. You have to workout and eat right, that is all. There is no magic formula or easy way.

Just like people are in search of a magic pill that will allow them to lose weight without a change in diet or exercise, I was in constant search for the magical off-road course that would take me where I wanted to go in life.

The whole time the map was in front of me and I ignored it.

I had to admit to myself that I was not as smart as I thought. I had to work hard and even when there was no visible change I had to keep moving forward doing my best.

Once I let God into my life, things became much more clear. When I started living in faith and stopped believing I was the captain of my soul, I began to really live.

Proverbs 19:21

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.

Matthew 19:26

But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Life With Purpose

Life: The Continuous Journey

Leave a reply

Our lives are constantly changing. We are ever changing. In fact, millions of cells are dying in your body right now and being replaced as you read this blog.

I find it ironic that when we are young learning is stressed, but as we grow older many people no longer see the importance continuing education. Many motivational and life coaches stress the importance of reading so that you continue to learn. To me, this is just common sense. When I finish one book it will usually lead me to another. I always take away something new from each of them.

My life has been a continuous journey of change, and I love the challenge. I constantly find something that I feel I could do better. It might be the way I treat people, or maybe one person in particular.

It takes courage to leave our comfort zone. Getting started on a new path can be uncomfortable, if not downright painful. When we examine our lives we can see that each small endeavor we have undertaken has added to our journey.

My own life has had many periods of plateaus where I stopped for a bit, learned what I could at that destination, and then moved on. History is one of my favorite subjects to study, because life repeats itself over and over again. Most of what we read is about in the news is the lives of politicians or the super wealthy or successful, but the truth is every person will experience life’s ebbs and flows on some level.

William Barclay Masterson was born in Canada in 1853 into a family that would include five brothers and two sisters. They moved and settled on a farm in Sedgwick County, Kansas. After very little schooling William left the farm at seventeen years old with his brothers Ed and Jim in search of work. They found work on a ranch near Wichita, and they worked there until they learned they could make two dollars and fifty cents per bison hide. That began William’s Buffalo hunting period. He and his brothers would be a part of one of the great battles with the plains Indians. A number of tribes joined forces to wipe out the trading post of Adobe Wells. At least seven hundred Indians descended on the small trading post at dawn, but William and his brothers, along with a man named Billy Dixon held them off from the store. Billy Dixon shot an Indian off his horse from almost a mile away with a single shot Sharps rifle.

William and his brothers then helped grade railway beds for a short time before moving on. William was later hired by General Nelson A Miles as a scout against the Indians.

William went on to become a professional gambler, working in the boom towns of South Dakota. He started working in law enforcement in Dodge City, where in 1877 he was elected county sheriff. He worked as sheriff, in a number of small towns across the western United States in the coming years. He had become friends with President Teddy Roosevelt who ended up appointing him Deputy U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of New York, a job he would hold until 1909.

It was at that point William, now known as “Bat Masterson” became a national sports writer for New York papers.

Bat Masterson lived an eventful life in the American West, but he did not stop there. When the west began to lose its luster, he moved to New York and began to write. He remained a well-regarded sportswriter until his death in 1921.

Many people take long winding paths to their goals, but one thing they all have in common and that is they are willing to change.

Take Saul of Tarsus, who was an educated Pharisee. He studied the law and was very respected in his community. He had begun to attain the fame and notoriety in his time by persecuting the followers of Jesus. He even went on a journey to Syria to help get rid of followers of Christ there, and that is when he had a fateful meeting on a road.

At that point on his journey he changed and his life completely, and his way of life before no longer mattered. He even gave up his Jewish name Saul and took a Greek name, Paul. He spent the rest of his life spreading the Gospel of Jesus and learning to live the life God intended for him.

What will you do with your life? Are you willing to change? Each of us must follow our own path, but one thing is for certain. We can never be content with just existing, we must constantly keep learning and growing.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

2 Timothy 3:7

Always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

Accomplishing The Impossible

1 Reply

How many times in your life have you told yourself that something was impossible to do, yet you ended up accomplishing it? We all have the ability to make the impossible possible. It comes down to mindset. If you believe you cannot do something, you won’t be able to do it.

If instead, you have an unwavering belief that you will reach your goal, you will.

There is an author that I have admired since I was a little boy. To date, he has sold over 300 million books in many different languages. He was even a favorite of Presidents like Ronald Reagan.

He was never a book critic favorite, but he nevertheless could produce books that people would read. He wrote over 100 novels and 250 short stories in his lifetime, passing away in June of 1988. He never went to college and in fact, he only ever made it to the 10th grade. Times were hard, so he had to quit school and begin working to support himself and his family. He might not have had any formal training after that, but he read as many books as he could get his hands on.

He was a professional boxer at times, a trainer, a merchant seaman, and an officer in World War II. He held so many jobs that I could not even begin to list them all here. He later used this vast experience and the knowledge of the people, landscape, and history to fill his books.

He had no formal training, he just sat down and wrote. The man was Louis Lamour, who today is mostly known for his Western books.

People around him early on urged him to get into a career that would pay so he would have something in life. He believed that he could accomplish what everyone told him could not be done.

Deep down we have to believe that we can do what we set out to do no matter our situation or what others tell us.

You have your own unique ability to do what most people will tell you is impossible.

Throughout my life, I always felt that I could do anything that I worked hard enough towards. I directed my energies in the wrong direction many times, but I did complete what I set out to do.

My main problem was I would take short cuts. I was willing to do whatever it took to get to where I wished to be. This works on the short term, but it has long-term effects and nothing is on solid ground. In a society where there is so much emphasis on the outcome and reward it is easy to fall into that trap.

I decided that I wanted to fight an MMA bout years ago and my coach told me that I would have to fight at 145 lbs, which was much lighter than I walked around. He based it on my height, body type, strength and skill set. I thought he was kidding because even in high school I was never that small. I doubted I could get that low. The good thing was that I was in a good gym and we had many fighters that passed through. One of those was a fighter named Cub Swanson. Cub was getting ready for a fight and he was cutting weight. We all rolled with him and trained hard. Cub was going to fight at 145 lbs at the end of the week and yet he was stronger and bigger than me. Cub made weight and won his fight. After watching Cub make weight, I knew that it was possible for me.

My time came and with the help of two fighters: Tim and Arian, I was able to make weight.

I learned that I could lean out and I learned that I could stay fit and strong while weighing less.

We can never forget that what seems today impossible will only be so until we complete it. If others have done, it so can you. If you have the courage and drive there will never be anything out of your reach.

There was a man who died 1,983 years ago who was only actively teaching for 3.5 years, yet today 2.2 billion people claim to follow his teachings. When he was alive he had 1/1000 of a percent of the Roman population following him. In just a few centuries 56 percent of Romans were believers. That man is Jesus. His story would seem impossible, yet here we are today.

Matthew 19:26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Matthew 17:20 For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

Job 42:2 “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Jeremiah 32:17 ‘Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.

Motivation, Inspiration and Change

living lives, bettering selves, health and fitness