03.26.08
Success
Success is a consistent pattern more than it is an isolated event. It is the way you live rather than some object or experience you acquire.
03.17.08
Upside-down. It’s not just for bats any more.
My back has been pretty good, despite my wieght gain and my new found attempts at running… Yes, running. However a few weeks ago it went again. Not completely, and not in the same fashion as usual but it made for a very nervous couple of days and some stress on my part. The problem is that now I can usually feel it going out. I am sore, the pain moves around a bit and eventally I get the sense of impending doom that I am going to be completely off kilter and on pain killers.
As an aside, Costco has had on sale for some time now an inversion table for under $200. For me it is one of those things that I would like but can’t justify. Something that I know I would like and use but really have no practical reason for getting. That was, until the pain came back. So it was after coaching on Saturday that my back started to get sore. I had run for 20 minutes the day before which was part of my 5 minutes extra per week routine. I had started with my usual 45 minute walk with 5 minutes running interspersed. Then moved up until eventually I made a deal with myself that I would stay on the treadmill until I had run 20 minutes, regardless of how long that was. So that Firday I had been terrible ambitious and run for 20 mintes only taking 27 minutes to do it. Saturday during coaching was ok, but once home I realized that I was quite sore but not more than I could rationalize. Sunday came and I was starting to realize that there was a problem. Fortunately Sunday is Costco day for us and I decided finally that if I was going to buy the table for the sole reason of rehabbing my back then this was as good a time as any.
Flash forward to Monday and I am off work, in a great deal of pain and although not completely incapacitated I am very close. The parts of the inversion table are layed out upstairs as we had to unpack it to get it out of the car and I think that it can’t be that hard to put together. So, using the pieces as crutches and canes, I slowly manage to get the thing built. It took about 2 hours and a great deal of sweat but eventually it was done. I climb in, strap myself in and slowly rotate myself backwards, the pain searing down my spine as I turn. Then, in less than 30 seconds the most amazing thing happens, my back cracks, and I feel a warm and tingly sensation through my midsection. I rotate myself back upright and step off the machine and to my utter amazement I feel perfectly fine.
Now of course, I am a HUGE skeptic and I assumed that in a few minutes I would be back the way I was that morning. However, as the day rolled on I felt better and better. I did go back and use it again later in the day and despite some sciatic pain im my butt, the back was completely better and I was back at work the next day as good as new. Now for those of you who have ever experienced long peroids of chronic pain you will know that as the pain continues you will do almost anything to get it to stop. That, at least for me, includes spending $200 on a miracle machine that the inversion table has turned out to be. I have been using it regularly but I find that if I have been doing something strenuous or repetitive such as snow shovelling then 5 minutes on the table puts me back in the game. Seriously, it is an unbelieveble device for my back pain.
03.13.08
Goals are dreams with deadlines.
Have a goal
When you’re not headed in any particular direction, that’s where you’ll end up arriving — nowhere. When you have no specific goal in mind, that’s what you’ll end up accomplishing — not much.
A little bit more
Four short words sum up what has lifted most successful individuals above the crowd: a little bit more.
They did all that was expected of them and a little bit more.
03.05.08
Challenges
“It is time for us all to stand and cheer for the doer, the achiever – the one who recognizes the challenges and does something about it.”