Like a Bigfoot

Motivation, Mindset, Positivity, Endurance, Adventure, Perseverance, and Possibility

Category: Goal Setting (page 1 of 3)

Make 2017 Great: 3 Podcasts to Start Your Year

One of my core beliefs is that we are all eternally optimistic.  We all want the best for ourselves and others and we truly believe that this is an outcome we can achieve.

So all of us start off the year unbelievably hopeful that “This year will be the best one yet!!!”

For the first few weeks is easy to stick with our goals or our blueprints of how to achieve “best year ever.”  And then sometime around the end of January most of us look around and realize “Holy crap, I’m already off course.”

Why does this happen?

There are probably many reasons, but I think the main one is that we refuse to turn INSPIRATION into THE HARD WORK.  It’s easy to see someone who has lost a bunch of weight and think “I can do that too!”  It’s a heck of a lot harder to actually put in the MONTHS being intentional with your daily actions to actual be successful.

In short, we love hearing these stories of success but struggle in telling our own.

  1. First step is inspiration.
  2. Then you must set an intention for yourself.
  3. Create a success map. (How are you going to be successful)
  4. And finally you must follow through….consistency + time= success.

In the last week three of my favorite podcasts have put out FREE material to support steps 1-3.

I’m going to share them with you today.  If you are really pushing towards a successful 2017, I highly recommend listening to these throughout the next week (total of about 4 hours) and taking action in apply these lessons to your own life.

PODCAST 1: INSPIRATION

RICH ROLL PODCAST #266: DAVID GOGGINS IS THE TOUGHEST ATHLETE ON EARTH

While Rich Roll is consistently putting out ultra-inspiring, human-bettering conversations (like the Iron Cowboy) this episode with David Goggins is the RRP at it’s absolute best.

David Goggins is an ex-marine who began a quest to complete all of the world’s toughest endurance challenges.  Starting at 266 pounds he completed Badwater 135 (135 miles through Death Valley in August), Ultraman (5 day Ironman), set the world record for most pull-ups in 24 hours, amongst many more.

He’s also the type of no nonsense, put in the hard work, push through your perceived pain, and get shit done person who is highly in-line with the Like a Bigfoot mentality.

Check this out first to get completely inspired to push yourself past your self-imposed limits.

PODCAST 2: SET AN INTENTION

DREAM. THINK. DO 107: HOW TO SET GOALS THAT WILL STICK

A huge problem with chasing goals is actually setting them.  Figuring out your core beliefs to set your main goal, and then discovering “fuel” for your goal and the actions you must take to accomplish it.

When thinking about a new year, most of us don’t take time away from our distracted days to actually think through this self-analysis.

Ultra-positive and wonderfully high energy Mitch Matthews walks you through a clear-cut and easy graphic organizer (teaching nerd talk) that will help you form a clear goal and formulate what you need to accomplish on the path towards completing the goal.

I would check this out second, make sure you text in to get the graphic organizer, and create your 2017 intentions.  (I’m a visual learner so the idea of the “tree” really helped me!)

PODCAST 3: CREATE A SUCCESS MAP

GOOD LIFE PROJECT: TO SUCCEED AT ANYTHING, DO THIS

I mean…it’s right in the title.

Whatever you want to achieve, there are certain steps you must take and beliefs you must trust.

Alabama football coach Nick Saban always says “TRUST THE PROCESS”.

In this podcast, host Jonathan Fields essentially just gives you the process.

These are the things you need in order to be successful at anything in life (including New Year Goals)

FINALLY….FOLLOW THROUGH

This is the hard part.  Listening to podcasts is easy.  Evaluating “why you were put on earth” and figuring out what you want to accomplish with your precious time is more difficult.  Actually doing it…that’s the hard part.

I don’t have much advice here beyond this….get ready for some hard work.  Don’t be scared of it, intimidated by it, and don’t have unrealistic expectations that “this will be easy.”  It’s going to be hard.  You’re not going to see success instantly.  Remember our main formula:

Consistency + Time = Success

Be intentional with your daily actions and those little things you are doing in honor of your goal WILL add up.

Best of luck to you!  You can do this.  Find a community to support you (like the Like a Bigfoot community) and CONSISTENTLY PUT IN INTENTIONAL HARD WORK.

Complacent

Recently I feel as if I’ve been complacent.

Going through the motions.  Like I’ve been doing just enough to get by.

I’ll do the same old workout in the gym.  Run the same old routes at the same old pace.  Do the same old yoga videos.

Start my morning the same exact way.

Go on this blog and post some lackluster post.  Giving it about 10% of my effort.

 

That’s unacceptable.  I hold myself to a higher standard.

I need to follow my own advice and stop riding this wave of momentum.  So I’m going to intentionally steer my ship in the direction I want it to be on.

 

Step one: Find something to train for.  Check!  I now have two months to train for a 50k in Castle Rock, Colorado.  Nutrition, strength training, endurance, and recovery all have a new goal to focus on.

Step two: Change my morning routine.  Wake up and do something PRODUCTIVE.  Meditate, gentle yoga, go to the gym, write, work on a project….anything besides sitting down and eating my breakfast in front of the TV and checking Facebook.

Step three:  In fact, check social media only once a day.  What the hell am I missing by doing this?? Absolutely nothing.  Recently I’ve been telling myself that I’m only getting on to see updates of the 14ersproject anyways.

Step four:  Find time to sit in quiet with my thoughts.  I don’t need to be constantly entertained all day with noise.  If I can do this then I will begin to organize my goals and begin to move forward on them.

 

I’m going to start with these four steps and see where it takes me.

Good luck to you on your journey!

What’s I’ve Been Programmed to Believe

“Don’t raise your hand or the teacher might call on you.  If the teacher calls on you, you might be wrong.  If you are wrong your classmates might laugh at you.  If they laugh at you, you might never make friends again.”

At times this is how I felt growing up.

Don’t stick out.  Don’t have the opportunity to fail.  Try not to be noticed.

I’m dropping this.  I don’t know how this was uploaded into my consciousness, but I can’t have it in there anymore.

To be successful I need to operate on a new paradigm.

Stand out.  Fail often and learn from the failures.  Get noticed so that you can affect more people.

It’s going to be uncomfortable (there’s that word again!) because its going against my programming.  Luckily working through discomfort is a skill I’ve been building!

Unexpected Obstacles

I just wrote a long post about consistency and my failure at writing a blog every day.  Then I tried to post it and it was deleted.  Desperately I scrambled to look if wordpress saved it only to find that, of course, it did not.

(EXPLETIVE) (EXPLETIVE) (EXPLETIVE)  was my first thought.

This has happened before.  In fact it was one of the excuses I used in not writing for a whole freakin year!

I’ve learned a lot since then so I will not use one tiny obstacle as an excuse.  So I’m writing this immediately after the last one was deleted (and saving it this time….fool me once…)

Obstacles.

They pop up all the time.  Mostly when we least expect them.  In fact, unexpected obstacles are the worst type.  They can be damaging.  They have the potential to send us spiraling out of control.  Our routines might totally be thrown off or our goals might be put on the backburner.

Obstacles are bad.

….If you perceive them that way.

You can also look at obstacles as stepping stones or THE WAY.  This perspective has come to term with the fact that obstacles WILL HAPPEN and do in fact happen all the time.  Obstacles are EXPECTED AND EMBRACED.  They can be viewed as a good thing.  Maybe they cause you to find a more creative solution to a problem or make you more conscious in your preparations.

It’s all about perspective.

So today I’m looking at retyping this blog as a good thing.  In fact, the ideas flowed a heck of a lot easier the second time.  I’m going to embrace the small inconvenience and use it to make me better!

…and this time I’m going to save it before I post!

(Read The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday for an entire book about this idea)

Join100club.com

What skill could you learn if you spent 100 days of intentional work EVERY SINGLE DAY?

How good of shape could you get into if you spent 100 days of intentional exercise EVERY SINGLE DAY?

How much improvement would you see if you practiced EVERY SINGLE DAY?

I keep preaching the importance of “showing up”- of being consistent and persistent.  The importance of being disciplined.

I’m awesome at this….in some areas.  I’m terrible at this in other areas.

For example I’m pretty good at this in the areas of health and exercise.  I’ve made being active part of my routine.  I generally don’t miss a workout.  If I say I’m going to go for a run, I go for a run.  If I say I’m doing yoga before bed, I do yoga before bed.  Consistent (I show up every day) and persistent (I keep at it).

I know this idea is the key to open many doors in life.  I’ve seen it work its magic.

But it’s still hard to get right in other aspects of my life.

Ever since I was in 7th grade I have wanted to learn how to play the guitar.  I was an EXPERT at air guitar as I imagined myself on stage rocking the heck out!  So I begged and begged my mom to buy me one.  “I promise I’ll practice every day!”  Guess what happened?  For a few months I stuck to my promise.  Then time passed and the guitar sat there more and more.  The sadness of an unplayed guitar.

Every so often I would get inspired.  “Now I’m really going to learn the guitar!”  For a few weeks I would consistently play.  Then I would play less and less until it resumed its job of sitting there.

I’ve been stuck in this cycle for YEARS.

Recently I’ve gotten a little better, practicing a few times a week or consistently playing for a few months.  But I’ve struggled at incorporating this into my routine even though I know the magic of being consistent and persistent.

This is why it’s really important to be held accountable, which is where my friend Calvin comes into play.

He will hold you accountable.  In fact he’s creating a community meant to hold you accountable.  It’s called the 100club.

100 days to practice a new skill, compete in different exercises, to accomplish a goal.

You can join it here at join100club.com

Joining is free and will do nothing but benefit your life!

Good luck!

Work Smarter AND Harder

“Work smarter not harder.”

Can’t you do both?

Why not work smarter AND harder.  Isn’t that inevitably the key to success?

This is why “hacking” has always bugged me.  It seems unhealthy to be obsessed with shortcuts.

You need to develop your HARD WORK MUSCLE.  This seems a lot healthier in the long term.

Combining intelligence and hard work will be the most useful tool driving you towards success (in whatever area you are striving for).

So before you start working hard at something- do your research, do a pre-mortem, come up with a blueprint, breakdown your goals into smaller more achievable benchmarks.  Come at the goal with a well thought out plan.

Guess what?  By creating a plan, you’ve already put in some dastardly hard work in the form of time consumption and mental energy.  Gasp!

Once you have a plan in place then WORK HARD to achieve your goal.  Then WORK HARD to see what parts of the plan have been successful and what parts you need to tweak.  Then WORK HARD to make and observe those changes.  Then WORK HARD to do it all again.

Work smarter AND harder!

Also read Rich Roll’s fantastic article titled “Why You Should Stop Life Hacking and Invest in the Journey”

The Product or the Producer?

“Much of our behavior is literally contagious; when you make positive changes in your own life, you are unconsciously shaping the behavior of an incredible number of people.”- The Happiness Advantage

This idea is incredibly important.  You want to make the world a better place?  You want people to be nice? More positive?  Do you want your kids to grow up to be healthy and happy?  Do you want your coworkers to smile more often?  Do you simply want to see positive differences?

The way to do this is to start with you.

You need to be healthier and happier.  You need to make the positive change in yourself.

Change the only thing you are responsible for and, quite frankly, the only thing you have control over- Yourself.  

People always say “you are a product of your own environment.”  And in some instances that is completely true (mostly subconsciously).

But I feel like that thought can be dangerous; it takes the responsibility off the individual.

If I’m just a product of something else then it’s not my fault I am unhappy, lazy, zoned out, depressed, angry.

That’s a bunch of crap.  You aren’t on earth to simply exist as a product.  You are meant to be the producer.  The one whose morals and beliefs are permeating the community around you.  The one who is affecting change.

You CAN make the change you want to see in the world.  But you have to start with YOU.  And it’s not going to be easy.  In fact, it is much easier to be the product- to let your surroundings shape you and form your personality, shape, moral compass, beliefs.  Being mindless is a piece of cake.  Being mindful?  That’s the challenge!

But it’s a challenge I believe all of us can take on.

So today I challenge you to improve you.  However you see fit.  Whether that’s going for a run, doing yoga, taking on a new skill, stepping outside your comfort zone, calling an old friend, letting go of a grudge, meditating, uncluttering your house, or joining my friend Calvin’s 100 Club (100 days to learn a new skill).

Whatever you may choose, just step up to the plate.  You got this.  You rock!

 

Adventure

As I plan the next big trip I’m reflecting on what I love so much about adventures.

I honestly believe a life without adventure would not be a life worth living.

But adventure is what you make it.  You can have little adventures all the time.  You don’t need to head to Mt. Everest or the Amazon (although giant overseas trips are amazing).  You can have adventures in your own backyard.  You can approach every day with the curiosity of a child (what my two year old teaches me daily!).  You can go exploring everywhere.

The world is a fascinating place.

You just got to be receptive to it.

(This is an Anti-Zombie-Mode public service announcement)

 

“If only”

“If only_____________, but_______________.”

The mantra of the weak.

“If only I had more time, but I don’t”

“I would eat better if only I had more money, but I don’t”

“If only I could get this job, become famous, look like her, meet someone perfect, live somewhere else, have a different family…”  and so on and so forth.

Cut the excuses.

Everyone has “If onlys”.

Overcome them.

You have the resources, the information and (probably) the support.

Do you have the drive?

Setting the Bar

“There’s something intimidating about setting the bar high.  Now there’s a new standard you are going to have to reach every day.”

-Brady Manriquez

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