Diana Nyad – Post Achievement – Ok, Folks What Are You Doing Today?

Find.A.Way1-resized Don’t let this happen to you – we get all excited about someone’s achievement and talk about how they have “inspired” us to take action etc etc etc.

But the next day, what happens? You think about it (or not) and probably go right back to your old way of living.

Today is the day to make a change. To make a decision. Today (if you didn’t do it yesterday) you write a commitment to yourself about what you vow to do to follow a dream. Even if you don’t think you have a dream, take today to dig deep and write down all the things you’d like to do and have wanted to do since you were a little kid.  DO SOMETHING and DECIDE SOMETHING! Don’t wait for another great human interest story to get you all fired up – for a few hours or days. Do this now. Then use my Define and Conquer 2013 program to help you “Find a Way” (Diana Nyad 2 September 2013).

You cannot just sit on your butt and expect that your dream will be brought to you because you wished so hard. You have to do the work. But if you decide to follow it and you aim high and continually refocus and regroup, you WILL achieve your dream.follow dreams

There will be naysayers out there that will say Diana Nyad had it easy this year because the weather was good and there were no sharks and no jellyfish. Easy? Try enduring all she’s endured for the last 3 years with a near death experience last year, the disappointment and discouragement and the picking herself back up and looking at all possibilities and all avenues to find a way to combat those threats. I believe that Mother Nature said “ok, I know you’ve prepared and persevered so we will not throw much more in your way.” But ladies and gentlemen – she still had to do the swim. She still had to swim in the ocean for 110 miles, 53 hours never touching anything solid, not being able to rest her body and not sleep at all. And she’s 64. So don’t anyone say she had it easy.

You really can find a way. I will be on you about this all week until I feel you have either decided to do something or have really gone back into your habit hole (not rabbit but habit).

Let us know what you have decided to do!

Terrie

Diana Nyad Breaks The Record(s) and Reaches Her “Insurmountable” Dream

Watch Diana walk onto the beach and deliver three messages for us:

Here’s her three messages:
“I have three messages,” said the breathless Nyad.”One is we should never ever give up. Two is you are never too old to chase your dreams. And three is it looks like a solitary sport but it takes a team.”

Follow Your Dreams – Lessons Learned From Diana Nyad

follow dreams Diana Nyad is very close to achieving her dream and I am not only in awe of her and her accomplishment but have also learned a lot about life from following her for the past 4 years. Here’s just a few of those things (feel free to add whatever lessons you’ve learned – post in the comments section):

  •  All strength comes from within – it starts within and although it may spread outward, it is always anchored within and you have to keep coming back there.
  •  It’s not about age, gender or any other distinguishing or separating feature – it’s about dream, drive, determination, dedication, destination, development, and gathering the forces around you. The human spirit is so resilient once we wipe away all our limiting beliefs.
  •  You’re never too old. If there is anything that Diana Nyad has taught us is that you are never too old to accomplish feats that many feel are impossible even for younger folks. There are many other older people that have achieved such accomplishments but Diana has made it a crusade to reach out to the older generation to give them hope and to tell them NOT to give up no matter what. You really are only as old as you think.
  •  Don’t give up – The actual quote, I believe, was “When you are going through hell, keep on going. Never, never, never give up” when Winston Churchill said it. I ask people this all the time – what if Columbus had given up and given in to the fears that he would fall off the face of the earth if it really was flat? Another quote: “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” – Dale Carnegie
    These people have said it so much better than I could ever. I just know that you will remember when you gave up and have the “what if” syndrome forever. Don’t succumb to that syndrome. If it’s important to you, it doesn’t matter if it’s important to anyone else – it’s yours and yours to do. The Universe doesn’t just give out ideas for the heck of it. You got this idea and dream for a reason! Now achieve it! And remember Thomas Edison’s quote too: “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
  •  Follow your dream – Don’t bury your dreams. keep them alive and find a way to make them work. “Commitment leads to action. Action brings your dream closer.” Marcia Wieder.  How many of us have dreams and then say “nah, I could never do that”? And then you file the dream away. Diana had that dream for 35 years. It may have been buried since she didn’t swim during that time but it was in there buried in the soil of her soul, being nurtured like the rose. And finally it has bloomed. Make sure your dream is nurtured and never forgotten.
  •  Think of others – give of yourself and you’ll get so much more back. Gratitude, as I’ve said many times before, is the most powerful force in the universe. When you reach out to others, especially in times of your own struggle, the Universe will reach back and provide you with more strength to rejuvenate your energy banks.
  •  Have a plan – know what you’re up against and make appropriate plans as well as having contingency plans. Don’t consider failure as failure. As Thomas Edison said about all his attempts to create the light bulb – “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Thomas A. Edison
  •  Be prepared – Goes along with contingency item – but need to be prepared – do your research so you know what you might be up against. “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games, 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot … and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. That is why I succeed.” Michael Jordan. If you’ve tried and “failed” go over every step of that attempt and find out what you should have planned for. Then make changes in your plans and preparation in accordance with that.
  •  When you think you don’t have anymore, you probably do – just dig deep. Remember all those quotes from above and the ones that say that if you just keep going when you’re about to quit, success will be right over the top of that hill. Diana is having to dig 549067_10151563869089292_1909204657_nreally deep to cover these last “few” miles – they are not “few” at all as anyone with any experience in endurance sports can tell you. But she is trying to go deeper within than anyone ever has in order to complete her dream. This is so important to her and she will find her strength. You can and should also pull strength from others on your team or from the universe.
  •  Have a team and a coach – you can’t operate in a vaccum. you have to have a team and preferably a coach. Surround yourself with people of the same attitude and spirit. There are multiple teams working with you when you are trying to achieve something great – intimate team (probably you and your coach), close team (your support), research teams or work teams that serve one function per team (such as creating the prosthetic mask for Diana, the other jellyfish research that was done news, the team that created her special suit so that it met requirements), the world supporting you – it’s important to get the word out. There can be many different groups of teams – any successful organization has many teams. Always surround yourself with people who have the same values as you do.
  •  Don’t let people tell you differently – don’t let people tell you you can’t do something or that you shouldn’t do something. Remember Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote: “Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.”
  •  Don’t be defeated before you start. If it’s a dream, it’s your dream and it was given to you to accomplish. Don’t think of all the obstacles or the reasons you can’t do something. As someone wrote about Diana – she’s the “anti-excuse”. There is no excuse other than giving in to your fear and you do not want to do that. Confront your fears and realize that your dreams are priority over your fear and over anything else that threatens to get in the way.
  •  Things will get tough but you just get tougher – know this ahead of time. Here’s another great quote for you: “When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • Have a solution based attitude – not a problem based attitude. If you keep looking at something as a problem, you won’t be able to find a solution because you have to be looking for a solution. That is vital. Switch your mindset once you identify an obstacle.
  • Don’t let anything stand in your way – If you find something that seems to be an obstacle, find a way around or over or even under it.
  • Get support from others at large – there is great energy out there in the universe – let’s harness it – this goes along with the team concept but draw energy from the Universe. Ask for support and help. There are many people out there who want to help and want to do whatever they can for you. But you have to ask them.

There are many more lessons from Diana’s Extreme Dream. What lessons have you taken from this experience? Post in the comments section below.

Terrie

What I Learned in Just 7 Days, Part 1 – ….Amazing Shift in Power and Perspective

 It’s kind of funny. I was just preparing some material for Define & Conquer 2013 and was looking back at last week’s posts. In the morning post from the 26th I sounded rather blah about doing a second 1/2 marathon that day. Little did I know what was going to happen. I had no idea how much my life and psyche was going to change in just 7 days.

Instead of just doing two back to back half-marathons, I ended up doing 6 1/2 marathons and 1 FULL marathon (26.2 miles) in 7 days. I had NOT planned on doing that at all. I was going to “try” to run 3 half-marathons in a row over the weekend. Although I had thought about doing all 7 half-marathons, that had been thwarted by my having to go back to work on Thursday and Friday. But then I got brave and asked my boss for those two additional days off – not so I could run but for other reasons. And I was blessed because he said “yes”.

Now that I had the opportunity to run all 7, did I have the courage and the capability?

I wasn’t sure. And I definitely wasn’t going to commit to anyone that I was going to try. That might mean failure if I couldn’t. And no one wants to risk failure if they can help it. But I don’t know that it was that I didn’t want to risk failure. More that I didn’t want to be embarrassed if I failed (in my mind it would have been a failure – not in other people’s – see how our limiting beliefs get in the way).

But you know what? I did the second and then I committed to showing up to try the 3rd. Doing the second one was uncharted territory for me and doing 3 in a row certainly was. But by then I was really up for a challenge and willing to put myself out there.

Why?

Because of the love and support I felt from these people I had simply interacted with once before – over Thanksgiving weekend. They embraced my attempt and realized that it was something new for me and beyond what I had done before. It was ‘nothing’ for them because they were all doing 12 FULL marathons in a row so doing another half marathon really was no big deal for them. But you would never have known it. You would have thought I was running for president and they were all my supporters. It was such a shift of energy – a feeling of acceptance and support I had never felt before from runners. Since I’m so slow and most runners are all about time and being fast, they don’t usually want anything to do with a slowpoke – and an old one to boot.

I know that I would not even have attempted this had it not been for all their energy. I was thinking about that last night especially as I still sat in awe of what I actually went out and did. Would I have done 6 runs in a row of 13.1 miles each and one of 26.2 miles – all in 7 days without them? NO! I can almost guarantee it. I fed off their energy pure and simple. You could feel it surround everyone, not just me. This group of people (and especially the race director) are very special folks filled with so much love and dedication.

Each step was preceded by my new mantra – forward motion. That’s all it was – relentless forward motion. I had to just continue moving forward. That’s what we all must do in life – every day, every minute, we have to continue to move forward. Do not ever forget that.

There were many obstacles during this 7 days for sure. I will talk about them more later. Again, if left to my own devices I would not have completed these events. Yet with the encouragement and witnessing of what each of them was working toward and overcoming I was able to overcome my own monsters (obstacles).

Here’s some words  and phrases that describe the concepts I experienced in 7 days – and I’ll talk more about these in future parts: Perspective, Perception, Persistence,  Overcoming Obstacles, Judgment, Perseverance, Passion, Pursuit, Love, Friendship, Camaraderie, Chunking Down, Acceptance, Mind over Body, Mind with Body, Pushing Pain, Loving What you Do, Doing What You Love, Teamwork, Balance, Rest,  Achievement, and so much more

There’s much to be learned about life in this short time frame. I can tell you that my power and my perspective has definitely changed.

Til later – sign up for Define & Conquer 2013 NOW.

Who Are Your Cooperative Components?

 This quote from Abraham summarizes not only the past 9 months for me, but also the past few days of working with all of you.

My Imagination Attracts All Cooperative Relationships… You have the power to evoke from others the relationships that you desire. But you cannot get to a new-and-improved situation by giving your attention to the current situation. The Universe, and all physical and Non-Physical players in it, is responding to the Vibrations that you are offering; and there is no distinction made between the Vibrations that you offer as you observe, and the Vibrations that you offer as you imagine. . . . If you will simply imagine your life as you want it to be, all cooperative components will be summoned. And even more important, all components that are summoned will cooperate. It is Law. The experience that you have with others is about what you evoke from them.

— Abraham

Excerpted from the book, The Vortex, Where the Law of Attraction Assembles All Cooperative Relationships # 470

It’s really all about Cooperative Relationships. We bring others into our lives to work together. We can bring them in as Cooperative components (meaning they all work together) or Uncooperative (meaning the opposite). Naturally a person wouldn’t intentionally bring them in as uncooperative but by “telling the same old story” they will be bringing in the same character types (even with different faces) as they have been all along.

What I realized in the past several months is that it’s really all about teamwork (Cooperative Components) and I was able to bring them into my existence as soon as I thought about them. When I first started imagining and training for the NYC Marathon a year ago, I was operating from the same place I had been 11 years ago when I really did not have any resources or any type of components to assist me in reaching my desires (many reasons) so I was on my own. But this year I have a much different perspective on life and have grown over the last 11 years and although I was initially “stuck” in the old ways, as I went along, my dream became such a  large, powerful and positive force that I (with help from Kay and EFT) began to take the blinders off and see an entire world of Cooperative Components around me – all there for me to call into my world. And believe you me, I started calling them and bringing them into my inner circle.

I could never have gotten to this point without my TEAM of coaches. Each has their own aspect of my life to address, but you know what? They are all Life Coaches even though that’s not what they are called. Why do I say that? Because they are all an integral part of my life – my life, not just my training. I pulled out all the stops in the last two months and solicited AIRROSTI doctors as an additional force of my team. And if you want a laugh, you can see my AIRROSTI doc, Dr. Jackson in a very funny interview – it put a big smile on my face because I’ve watched her an “Adam” interact and they are just like this interview. But, I digress….

My personal trainer (Dan) and my EFT practitioner (Kay) have been with me the entire year. Without them I would not be where I am today. I have to say that the Internet was a coach too. I found information on my shins and hips on the Internet and that’s why I was able to get through the inevitable injuries from such long training. I had THE most Cooperative Components possible. And there were the other Components too – Abraham-Hicks, Christy Whitman, Dr. Jeanette Cates, my POD group from my coaching class and on and on and on. I listened to Abraham’s teaching every Sunday during my 5-7 hour long runs and I learned more than you can possibly imagine. I was running in the Vortex (another post to come) almost every minute of every run. And you can’t ask for anything better.

So, what Cooperative Components have you drawn into your life? Which ones can you recruit and add to your team? Do you need help thinking around your box (not just outside of it)? Do you have a stable person (or persons) you can go to whenever things are not going as you would like them? What do you think you could accomplish if you did have a coach as a Cooperative Component? Who is your coach? Would you like to reach further toward your goals. Holly reminded me the other day of my primary goal in life – to dedicate a wing of St Jude Children’s Research Hospital to my hero – Suzanne. Thank you for that Holly! Who do you have on your side to bring you back to your path to the Vortex?

Think on these questions and let me know what you think and where you think you really could go if you brought the best possible Cooperative Components into your life…comment below.

Terrie