The Running Writer : 2:45 Marathon Quest : Lessons Learnt in 2013

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Lessons Learnt in 2013

I did my last long run yesterday - a 10K with strides. Now I wait and get fresh legs. Stanchart is two days away. We will see how that goes. But Stanchart results don't matter so much. I know where I am and I am already setting goals for for 2014. For 2014 I will be aiming for a 1:25 Half, Sub 1:35 Ndakaini and Sub 3hours Full .

LESSONS LEARNT

1. Be Consistent - Not more than five days should pass without going for a run. Don't think too much. Just go and run. Thats it. It doesnt have to be a perfect run. Remember, NOBODY ever regretted going for a run. Ever.

2. Keep weight Sub 70Kgs. Eat more fruits and vegetables and drink more water. Reduce or cut out red meat. Watch what you eat. It matters. BE CONSISTENT with your diet too. There is no season for gluttony. Stay the course or pay the price.
3. Do more long runs. Use singles for trenches.
4. When outside the trenches, keep it intense. Keep the long runs intense.
5. Do more sprints for strength and speed and 3X1000 repeats for speed.
6. Have fun with the runs. Take risks. Go hard and let the chips fall where they will.

7. Stick to hilly or rolling routes where possible.
8. Invest in shoes and other gear. Be nice to yourself. Stay warm. Stay comfortable.
9. Keep positive and keep positive people around. Every step is a victory.
10. Take care of core strength and flexibility. Learn from every injury and take corrective action. Strengthen and improve technique and form as the case may be. Think. Don't stumble around the running experience. Learn.
11. Have more group runs - one every two months at least. Don't sweat their planning. Just do them. Go with one guy or ten guys. Doesn't matter.

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“When setting out on a journey do not seek advice from someone who never left home” -Rumi

The stream is deep. But the swimmer is willing.
You dont test the depth of a river with both feet.
The best workout is the safest workout. Stay injury free.
To think is easy. To act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult, Wolfgang Von Goeth
The marathon is about setting goals and achieving them, confronting limitations and surpassing them, embracing pain and producing something beautiful. The marathon is not a road race; it is a triumph of the human spirit. It isn’t about singular acts of individual brilliance. It’s about the magic of community. Mike Cassidy

You go through the good phase, and the bad phase. If you prevail in the bad phase you will succeed. Meb K.
It is far better to be exhausted from success than to be rested from failure. -Mary Kay Ash
People have two reasons for doing what they do: a good reason and the real reason. -Henry Ford
The pain you feel today will be the strength you feel tomorrow.
Achievement does not come without risk.
There are a million things telling you you can’t keep going, but if you find the things that say you can, you’re golden.” – Kara Goucher
Why would you choose failure when success is an option?
Train don’t strain
I choose to be great. You can too.
When you want to succeed as badly as you want to breathe when you are drowning, you will succeed.
Live your life and forget your age
Never mind searching for who you are. Search for the person you aspire to be. ~Robert Brault
The only way to fail is to give up.
Set a goal so big that you cannot achieve it until you grow into the person who can. Unknown.
"There are no limits, there are only plateaus, and you must go beyond them" Bruce Lee
To give anything less than you have is to sacrifice a gift.
A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.
~Bruce Lee
You get what you focus on.

QUIT WAITING

For

Perfection

Inspiration

Permission

Reassurance

Someone to Change

The kids to leave home

The new administration to take over

Being Ready

An absence of risk

Someone to discover you.

A clear set of instructions

More Self-Confidence

The pain to go away

Get on with it Already!

Satisfaction comes from Enough Action.

Do not prepare - begin. Time is always accelerating. With every passing season, a year is always a smaller percentage of your life.
If you would like to get hurt for small amounts of money, we call that the military. Bob Sapp
One of the first lessons running teaches us about success in athletics and in life is that there is no one else. No one else can do your workouts for you. You alone must do the drills, repeat the core exercises, stretch, and lift the weights. You cannot hire someone else to do your cross-training when you are battling injury, or pay someone to run a race and get you a new PR. You are truly your own hero in running. It is up to you to have the responsibility and self-discipline to get the job done.
Adam Goucher, in Walking the Line Between Tough and Stupid.

If you can’t define it or act upon it, forget it.
Don't kill yourself by running your intervals too hard, it's better to be consistent than to be Superman for a day.
In the long run every man gets in life about what he deserves. The vision of that truth embraces many things which the objector will not see. The objector mistakes what he desires for what he deserves. Hence the importance of self-discovery in life's conduct.
Frank C Haddock, Power of Will
Every man has some one supreme possibility within his make up. The purposeful will usually discovers this. - Frank C Haddock, Power of Will
I run marathons. Everything else is a result of that. Simon Freeman
All men may be created equal but they don't stay that way. Steven Dutch, Tales From the Idiot Files
"You cannot give up. If today was a bad day then you must look to tomorrow, and then to think of next year. There is no other choice." Gebs advice to Kawauchi after the Tokyo Marathon 2012.
Take responsibility for anything you can control; react positively to anything you cannot. Ranelagh Harriers
Don't dream of winning: Train for it!- Mo Farah
"That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest" Henry David Thoreau
Holding a grudge against someone is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.
Distance does not kill speed, not doing speed kills speed-Mark WetmoreThose who sell their virtue for convenience soon have no convenience left - or some such thing. I cant remember the exact quote of author.
If you are training for a longer endurance race by logging 30-50 kilometres per week, you are simply looking to complete the distance as opposed to racing the distance. - Brandon
"You manage what you measure" old management adage
“Believe in yourself, know yourself, deny yourself, and be humble.” John Treacy
"Suffering is the sole origin of consciousness." Dostoyefsky
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those that matter don't mind." “We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.” Charles Kingsley Dr. Seuss
"Do not be too moral, you may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something." Henry David Thoreau
"No one would have crossed the ocean if he could have gotten off the ship in the storm" Charles Kettering
"Ultimate lows are followed by ultimate highs." Coach Stew
Emotional crisis is one life’s great equalizers. Carter
"There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot." Plato
You will need a personal act of insanity. If you’re going to continue and become the best in the world, you must have one. You must prove yourself to the mountain with a sacrifice. And this is the time.
Do epic shit. Quit the mundane. Do it for yourself, and let people be confused. Who cares.
"More moderate in all things." this is generally taken as good advice. But you know what? A person can get too much of this moderate stuff. Who wants to live a life that's always safe, controlled, aiming for the middle path?
Every once in a while I still want to feel the burn. To push to the limit. To be near collapse when I cross the finish line. Sure, I already know the result: It will be shown that I'm older and slower than I was yesterday and the day before that. I don't need a race to tell me these things.
"You can quit, and no one will care if you do. But you will know." ~John Collins, Ironman founder~
But a race says I'm not ready to surrender. It says I'm going to keep struggling to squeeze all I can out of this life. It says I'm not checking out of here until I've given it my all. Yes, I know I'm gonna die some day.
But I have a good feeling about tomorrow's race.
The satisfaction from running. I think it has multiple levels. One is just getting away from everything else. Another is the meditative aspect on easy long runs. Another is intellectual - learning and understanding the principles of training. And another is primal - just feeling like a biological entity.
“Success demands singleness of purpose” ~ Vince Lombardi
Its not hard work that kills people: worry kills people.
Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional - Haruki Murakami
Use it (your muscles/fitness) or lose it.
"Determination is like a muscle. If you do not use it regularly, it fades away." Lynn Jennings
Your most important workout is your next one.
"If you're gonna be a bear, BE A GRIZZLY!!"
A lion doesn't concern himself with the opinion of a sheep.
A man's primary need is to let go. Only then can he possess what is real.
Don't judge each day by the harvests you reap; judge each day by the seeds that you sow.
Nobody ever died from being tired Junior Dos Santos
Champions are made when nobody is watching.
A stop is not the end. Only you can make it the end.
As a writer, what you have to do is work on your attitudes so that rejection doesn't lead inevitably to dejection.
Nothing is so gentle as real strength and there is nothing as strong as gentleness - a quote from Criminal Minds
You have to love yourself and pay the price for that love. Herschel Walker
Go Hard or Go Home. Shaq O'Neal
The stubborn fly followed the corpse to its grave.
He who wants to eat a frog should eat a fat one, so that if people ask, he can say "there". What a boy sees while standing, a grown man sees while seated.
It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works.
All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get. Rene Descartes
"Chase down your passion like it is the last bus of the night." Glade Byron Addams.
If it is to be, it is up to me. - the ten most powerful two-letter English words
The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart. - Robert G. Ingersoll
If you can find a path without obstacles, it probably doesn't lead to anywhere. Frank A. Clark
Success isn't determined by winning; it is determined by how much you improve and grow and learn.
Change is the essence of life. Be willing to surrender what you are now for what you could become.
"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic and power in it." --Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
You alone are the judge of your worth, and your goal is to discover infinite worth in yourself, no matter what anyone else thinks ~ Deepak Chopra.
"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic and power in it." ---Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
We dont see problems because we dared but its because of failing to dare that we see problems.
Life takes on meaning when you become motivated, set goals and charge after them in an unstoppable manner. Les Brown
There are two things one should never worry about: what we can do something about and what we cannot do something about.
We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.
If we’re getting taken down, we’re getting right back up. Cain Velasquez (UFC HW Champ) on his training for a title fight with Brock Lesnar
Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one - Benjamin Franklin
The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary man takes everything either as a blessing or a curse.
American author Carlos Casteneda
The one who doesn't fall, doesn't stand up. Fedor Emelianenko
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly." Richard Bach
Frustration is the first step towards improvement. I have no incentive to improve if I’m content with what I can do and if I’m completely satisfied with my pace, distance, and form as a runner. It’s only when I face frustration and use it to fuel my dedication that I feel myself moving forwards. John Bingham
To whom plenty is given, plenty is expected.
“When I was 37, I pulled a groin muscle, and I tried to run through it. A friend asked, ‘You have to decide: Are you going to run for the next two weeks or for the rest of your life?’ That's been my philosophy ever since.” Richard Hillested, 66, finisher of more than 75 marathons and Ultras.
"It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do a little. Do what you can."----Sydney Smith
"You can only be young once but you can be immature forever." - Dave Barry
Excruciating pain cannot break those who are willing to die.
Jogging is very beneficial. It's good for your legs and your feet. It's also very good for the ground. It makes it feel needed. Charles Shultz
A good soldier understands, you can win a fight, but still lose the war.
"The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare."
There will be a day when you can no longer do this. Today is not that day"
Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
If absolute power corrupts absolutely, where does that leave God? -George Daacon
“This is the true joy of life....being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.” G.B. Shaw
"I learned that the only way you are going to get anywhere in life is to work hard at it. Whether you're a musician, a writer, an athlete or a businessman, there is no getting around it. If you do, you'll win--if you don't, you won't." -- Bruce Jenner, Olympic Gold Medalist, Decathlon
I don't bound out of bed in the morning aspiring to mediocrity, but rather striving for perfection.
If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito. Dalai Lama
Pain is temporary, quitting lasts forever.
There's a reason why your rear-view mirror is so small, and your front windshield so big and clear...
“Blood is just red sweat.” - Enson Inoue.
Pain is temporary. Pride is forever - Enson Inoue.
Real Power and strength and Heart can't be given...It must be taken - Enson Inoue.
Evolution is both fact and theory. Creationism is neither.
"Dare to confront what can only be imagined".
"Those that dare to venture experience the greatest rewards".
"Confidence is the key to great acts of courage".
"It is to the one who endures that final victory comes".
"The difference between the unattainable and the attainable lies in a person's determination".
"Where there is passion and desire, there will always be new horizons".
There is no way to fake a marathon. You've either put in the work, or you haven't. And - if you haven't - prepare to be exposed, whether it's at Mile 10, 13.1, 20 or even later.
GotLactate
"While most are dreaming of success, winners wake up and work hard to achieve it".
"Live today like it is the best".
“Concrete, Meet Courage” Paula Radcliffe
"The greater the difficulty the more glory in surmounting it".
"Push yourself to the limit and experience wonders you never imagined".
"Welcome the chores that make you go beyond yourself".
"If you can dream it, you can do it.
"It is not strength but ambition that drives us".
"Determination allows mere mortals to soar to unimaginable new heights".
"The greater the challenge, the riskier the move - the sweeter reward".
"You will always miss 100% of the shots you don't take".
"We acquire strength in what we overcome".
"Life's only limitations are the ones we make".
"What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve".
"The distance to success is measured by your own drive".
"There is no end to the amount of things you can accomplish".
Many people have gone further than they could because somebody else thought they could".
"Excellence is the result of striving each day to do better than the last".
"Success is sweetest when the effort is hardest".
Its never too late to be what you might have been. George Eliot
A candle loses nothing of its light by lighting another candle.
Running is a Defining experience. That is why I like it. J. Aliet
You can find on the outside only what you posses on the inside. Adolfo M. B.
When you reach an obstacle, turn it into an opportunity. You have the Choice. You can overcome and be a winner or you can allow it to overcome you and be a loser. Refuse to throw in the towel. Go that extra mile that failures refuse to travel. It is far better to be exhausted from success than to be rested by failure. - Mary Kay Ash
Dreams are to be pursued; not just achieved.
It is the weak who are cruel: gentleness can only be expected from the strong.
Age doesn't necessarily come with knowledge: a young fool will grow into an old fool.
The limits of one's language are the limits of one's world. - Heidegger
Facts are not everything - at least half of the business lies in how you interpret them - Dostoevsky
Do not pray for tasks that equal your posers: pray for powers that equal your tasks.
I run to test my will power. Willpower is defined by George Clason in The Richest Man in Babylon as "The Unflinching purpose to carry a task that you set for yourself to fulfillment"
And when it rains on your parade, look up for without rain there would be no rainbow.
"I love the feeling of freedom in running, the fresh air, the feeling that the only person I'm competing with is me."
—Wilma Rudolph
"I refuse to tip toe through life only to arrive safely at death." - Darxus
"Life may not be the party we were hoping for, but as long as we're here, we might as well dance." - anonymous
A dream without a plan of action becomes a nightmare - Valerie Young.
Successful people know that most success is guided by mental force, but takes place in the physical realm.
People's ability to grow is largely related to their ability to suffer embarrasment. Doug Englebart.
A writer is one who writes. So dont wait to be a great writer someday, just begin writing!
"pain is weakness leaving the body" - no fear
"what is right is not always popular. what is popular is not always right." - no fear
"Thinking men cannot be ruled." - Ayn Rand
"A closed mouth gathers no foot."
You have to wake up in the morning with determination in order to end the day with satisfaction.
Our minds thus grow in spots; and like grease spots, the spots spread. But we let them spread as little as possible; we keep unaltered as much of our old knowledge, as many of our old prejudices and beliefs as we can - James Truslow Adams
Beaten Paths are for Beaten People. Chart your own path.
Insist on being you. Do not Imitate. Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you aren't pushing limits, you aren't going far enough
Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go. - Hermann Hesse
There are two great disappointments in life: Not getting what you want, and getting it. - George Bernard Shaw
You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take. - Wayne Gretzky
If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich. - Lao Tzu
A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it. - Dogen
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Seek what they sought. - Basho
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha.
People in the West are always getting ready to live. - Chinese Proverb
Pressure is nothing more than the shadow of great opportunity. - Michael Johnson
Don't aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally. David Frost
We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done. Henry W. Longfellow
The reason the tiger does not fear the hyena is because he is aware of his own strength. Paulo Coehlo, The Manual of the Warrior of Light
The warrior doesn't need to prove that somebody else's path is wrong in order to have faith in his own path.
The battle is not the same as the quarrel.
If u continue to provoke the moment when you must release the arrow, you will never learn the art of the archer.
Bows that are bent all day no longer shoot arrows with the same force.
If you have a deep scar, that is a door.
From our deepest wounds come our greatest gifts.
Dont suffer the blows of life: let them transform you instead.
Our wants are fleeting: they are also indulgent.
If my muscles ache, it’s because I have used them.
Victory is preserved for those who are willing to pay the price. Sun Tzu
There can never truly be a selfless act:- we always do what we want, whether what we want is base or noble - Richard Carrier
The biggest failure is never taking a shot.
No failure can diminish your value as a person: you will still be who you are.
The greatest success is obtained by those that don't fear the risk of failure.
“We should not pray for easier life but pray to be strong men!” JFK
Money only magnifies who we already are.
Nothing worth doing can be done overnight.
If you want to give yourself a fair chance to succeed, don’t expect too much too soon.
No one ever wins a war.
Most things that happen to you are inconsequential in the long run. Always put things in perspective.
What we keep owns us: what we give away sets us free.
At your highest self, you possess nothing.
Your significance is in your being, not in your possessions.
If you trust your power you won’t fear the future.
Every end marks the beginning of a new thing.
A leader who surrounds himself with yes-men is like pilots flying blind with instruments that don’t give him their true readings but what he wants.
You can judge a leader by the problem he tackles - people always pick a problem their own size, and ignore or leave others to the bigger or smaller ones.
Before you take action, ask yourself, is this action taking me to a more powerful place?
You can’t lose regardless of the outcome of your decision because every outcome is a learning opportunity and an opportunity for growth.
There is no such thing as a right decision or a wrong decision: just different ones.
If you haven't made any mistakes lately, you must be doing something wrong.
If you are not making any mistakes, you are not learning and growing.
Correct principles don't change. Principles don't react to anything. They don't get mad and treat us differently.
People cannot live with change if there is not a changeless core inside them.
The key to the ability to change is a changeless sense of who you are and what you value.
Loss of control is not loss of self.
If you are unhappy in a relationship, it is not your partner's responsibility to tell you what to do about your unhappiness.
Every conflict can be a source of learning and healing.
The highest reward for a man's work is not what he gets from it but what he becomes from it.
Don’t live in the past: the past makes us who we are and there is still a lot that can happen to us. Today doesn't know what tomorrow could bring.
You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him. James D. Miles
Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true. --Ralph Waldo Emerson
George Bernard Shaw: This is the true joy in life… being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one…being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and so long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die. For the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is not a brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I've got to hold up for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
Every obnoxious act is a cry for help.
Impatience is a sign of lack of focus.
Every act of creation involves destruction.
There is no free lunch. You have to give something up in order to attain something grander. You have to know what you are willing to give up to attain your goals.
In order to attain your long-term goals, you have to focus on the short-term. The real work gets done in the short term, not in the long term. Set small goals and achieve them. Day by day, week by week.
Every day is an opportunity to move ahead with your goals.
Leaders Do. Leaders Act.
After making a decision, act with conviction.
Not everyone has your dreams or desires so don’t expect them to act like you do.
Don’t hold onto things. You are fundamentally sound without things. When you hold onto something, you are stuck. When you let it go, you are free.
Where you are does not determine what you are. You decide who you are.
It’s all good.
There are no wrong decisions: just different ones.
Reside permanently in the Discomfort Zone - Tom Peters
Growth is a Choice, not a chance event.
Be relentless.
My life is my message - Gandhi
Do one thing every day that scares you - Eleanor Roosevelt
The only thing you have power over is to get good at what you do. That is all there is: there ain’t no more - Sally Field.
The problem is rarely/Never the problem. The RESPONSE to the problem invariably ends up being the problem - RMN Stewart, WJC
Build on Strengths - Tom Peters
Leaders Allow people to discover their own greatness.
If it works, its obsolete - Marshall McLuhan
Leaders know when to wait.
Leaders are optimists. Leaders Focus.
Have a To DON'T list. And list three things that you wont do. Three only.
Leaders make lots of mistakes and make no bones about it.
Fail faster. Succeed Sooner.
Leaders make big mistakes
Do stuff that matters and make your mark.
The deepest human need is the need to be appreciated.
You cant lead a calvary charge if you think you look funny on a horse - John Peers, President, Local Machine Corporation.
Paint Portraits of Excellence.
No problems=No Progress. Period - Tom Peters
You have to water the flowers you want to grow.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is a habit. Not an act.
Its not what happens to us, but our responses to what happens to us that hurts us. We have the response-ability always: we should act, not be acted upon.
When you let bad things stop you, you won’t be there for the good things.
Maturity is a balance between courage and consideration.
Celebrate life and enjoy the lessons as it unfolds.
Proactive people subordinate feelings to values.
Every conflict can be a source of learning and healing.You can change your usual ways of reacting (during conflict) by thinking about your choices and gaining mastery over your actions. Our perception of others can create conflict in us.
Yielding (letting go) is a sign of wellness.
Control over others is an illusion - the answer is letting go. Dependency is for childhood. Don’t depend of anybody or anything for your happiness. Independence is not healthy either. Interdependence is the ideal.
I am not suspicious: I am experienced.
Be a trained person, not a tough person. Tough aint enough.
Channel your energies towards activities that make you a better person.
With the time you waste on a life you never had, you can make yourself a better person.
No man can be a hero all his life unless that life is a short one.
Determine to be more that average. When you devote yourself to one ideal, you will become extraordinary.
Don’t edit out important pieces of your life (stories) in order to make them more presentable to others. Embrace your luck, pain and ghosts.
A life without battle is a life without victory.
Do not reduce your life to a number of consumption experiences: seek a higher purpose.
When you tell someone I cannot live without you and mean it, you are suffering from a failure of vision because you are incapable of conceiving a greater good for yourself than having that person: that you cannot take care of yourself except by having a relationship with that person. - Source is anonymous
(For the lonely) How can you expect anyone to enjoy your company if you don't like your own company?
You are the Solution for you. Build yourself to fullness and when you are overflowing, you can share that. Dont get into a relationship if you feel lonely or empty alone because you will be imprisoning yourself.
Losing all hope is freedom. What is done is done.
The highest reward from your work is not what you get from it but what you become from it.
Enjoy your life for what it is and do not worry about what it is not.
Train yourself to let go of everything you are afraid to lose.
It’s only after we have lost everything that we are free to do anything - Fight Club.
Evolve and let the chips fall where they will.
If you want to change and haven’t changed, you don’t want it badly enough.
Do not neglect yourself. Even if you lose everything, always leave something for yourself.
Be your own best friend. Never ever, put yourself down.
Don’t let fear guard the gates. Subdue your fears and you invite the truth into your life.
From our deepest wounds come our greatest gifts.
Don’t mistake you career for your life.
The way the dice falls doesn't always determine whether we win or lose.
You can find on the outside only what you can possess on the inside. Adolfo M. B.
Throw away your crutch. You crutch is whatever you have relied on too heavily along the way. It is whatever you secretly fear you cannot succeed or be happy without.
Attack your fears.
Failure is hard but success in the wrong thing can lock you in forever.
Dont mistake intensity for passion.
Don’t confuse commitment with hours.
Don’t confuse efforts with results.
Dont confuse activity with progress.
The greatest enemy of progress is success.
Sameness is not oneness; uniformity is not unity - unity is complimentariness. The essence of synergy is to value the differences.
People see the world, not as it is, but as they are.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. I can become my own first creator. I can change. I can live out my imagination.
People can’t live with change if there is not a changeless core inside them. The key to the ability to change is a changeless sense of who you are, what you are about and what you value.
Dont live by the scripts handed to you by other people - friends, family etc - because they serve their own agendas and pressures of circumstances. Develop scripts from principles, not from people.
Work on things you have control over. Work on you.
Dont argue for mistakes, whether yours or other peoples. When you make a mistake, admit it, correct it and learn from it - immediately.
Look at the weaknesses of others with compassion, not accusation.
Be driven by values, not feelings.
It does not matter what you do with your money: what matters is what you do with your life.
You don’t need to be taken care of: you are fundamentally ok.
Don’t be afraid of abandonment like a child. Susan Jeffers.
If you haven't risked anything, you haven’t grown or discovered a self that you feel worthy of defending.
Don’t permit any situation to turn you into a person you don’t like.
Fear will never go away as long as you continue to grow. Times of confusion lead to times of clarity.
Watch yourself unfold. Life is a practice.
When being with yourself doesn’t feel like punishment, you have grown up.
Power is having minimal needs. If you make finding another person the object of your search for fulfillment and meaning, you place your destiny in another's hands.
It is better and more realistic to work on your shortcomings and learn to like yourself.
The extent to which you need others defines your potential for desperation.
Never act to avoid being passive or weak.
All news, especially bad news, gives us the opportunity to explore the unused parts of our being.
Whatever happens, you will discover a new and wonderful part of yourself. Susan Jeffers
When you desperately want something to happen, you lose sight of the fact that something IS happening.
Huge advances are not possible without the hard times.
Act like your own hero.
Handle things today but don’t worry about the outcome.
When upset, ask yourself what it is you are hanging on that is causing the upset. When we are finally able to let go of the need to be in control, for the first time, we are truly in control.
Get out of your own way: be flexible and fluid. Say yes.
Don’t wish for anything to happen or not to happen: Just watch it happening and let the wonder of life unfold.
What would you do if you had no fear at all? Act as if you had no fear! Now. Feel the fear and do it anyway. Susan Jeffers
The trick in life is not figuring out what you can get, but what you can give.
Security is not having things: it is handling things.
People who fear cannot genuinely give.
U must become what you want to attract.
When we let someone be who they are without changing them, thats giving away love.
You can only love in proportion to your capacity for independence.
If you haven’t made any mistakes lately, you must be doing something wrong.
It really doesnt matter.
When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
Once you have made a decision, throw away the picture - since you cant control the future. The picture can create unhappiness if it is not fulfilled.
Don’t protect, correct.
Don’t worry about making the wrong decision: learn when to correct them.It is impossible to make a wrong decision because each decision/mistake is an opportunity to learn.
You are not a failure if you don’t make it: you are a success because you try.
Finding out what you don’t like is as valuable as finding what you like. If you don’t succeed in one way, you will find another way.
When you act the giving adult, your fears are diminished.
We can choose our experiences in life.
Money buys distractions, not happiness.
The monkey law: the monkey swinging through the jungle must never let go of an old vine until he has a firm grip on a new one.
Don’t cling to a single scenario; allow yourself many paths to the same destination.
What people expect and what they get often have no correlation. This suggests that our expectations often do us no good.
Our expectations are frequently only veiled versions of our wishes and fears.
People only make their change cleanly overnight in stories told in story-telling conventions.
Dont let myths box you in because you dont have mythical strength.
The hardest thing about doing the right thing is that you usually have to do it alone.
There are no irreversible choices: you close one door and another inevitably opens in front.
Don’t live for anyone's approval.
The good life isn’t something you own: it’s the skills you master.
You can learn as much from mistakes as u can from success.
Don’t make long-term decisions based on your wants.
If u want to give yourself a fair chance to succeed, dont expect too much too soon. Nurture your dreams. It takes time.
Your responsibilities don’t keep you from your purpose: they are part of your purpose.
Dont sacrifice your principles to make it easy for yourself. Dont choose the easy way out.
The test of a person's character is how he behaves during a quarrel.
If you expect someone else to guide you, you will be lost.
When anything is placed on a pedestal beyond criticism, it becomes an idol. Those who seek to screen an idol from criticism only betray their own suspicions about the worthiness of the totem they worship - Paul Tillich.
Take some risks. Your life's goal should never be about being propped up in a cage.
Failure is not about falling down: it’s about staying down.
When faced with difficult circumstances, learn from them. Imagine that you created the situation intentionally. What can you learn from it? How can it be viewed as a positive event? Recognize and let go of the things that add no value to your life.
Your best days are yet to come.
The future isn’t written. There is no fate but what we make of ourselves.
A man who has been challenged, and survived, has props.
I am not responsible for what I was, but I am responsible for what I am and what I hope to become.
What we resist, persists.
Paradox of love: the less you need someone's approval, the more you are able to love them.
What path in life will make you grow? Find it.
Out-talk your negativity.
Ships in the harbor are safe, but that’s not what ships are made of.
A leader should be where the action is and should not get reports filtered by perceptions.
Behaviours are beliefs turned into action. Behaviours deliver the results.
We don’t think ourselves into a new way of acting; we act ourselves into a new way of thinking.
Leaders get back the behaviour they exhibit and tolerate.
Be more what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it oriented.
Getting things done through others is a fundamental leadership skill.
Micromanagers are insecure leaders who cannot trust others to get it right because they (the leaders) don’t know how to calibrate them and monitor their performance.
Everyone has unforeseen events that come along, and the people who ultimately succeed are those who overcome them.
If you cannot describe your strategy in twenty minutes, simply and in plain language, you haven’t got a plan. Every strategy boils down ultimately to a few simple building blocks.
No matter how well you execute, the risk of failure increases markedly when your ideas don’t fit your existing capabilities.
The payoff for blaming others for our misery is not having to create our own happiness: we can simply blame others for not giving it to us.When you are angry at another, ask yourself, what am I not doing in my life that I am blaming him for not doing for me? You will find that you are either feeling insecure, or not creating enough activity for yourself, or expecting them to make 'all better' something you are not handling.
When you correct what needs to be corrected in your life, all your anger towards others disappears.
Before you take any action in life, ask yourself, is this action moving me to a more powerful place?
Be patient with yourself. Growth is a process of trial and error. There is no need to be upset with your past, your present, or your future.
People do the best they can based on their level of personal growth. Its not their fault so do not be angry at them.
Our achievements arose from dissatisfaction.
When you realize that the choices you thought you had and the decisions you thought were yours are already made, that is fate/destiny.
Never give other people the power to define you. Don’t give away power to anyone—your teachers, your parents, your friends. Angelo Pizzo - Screewriter
You don’t grow and change in good times. Crises help you to grow and alter your character and make you strong. Embrace them.
What you do changes you. You cannot do something cruel and not be cruel so dont engage in bad habits because man is a creature of habit.
Thoughts become things.
Shift your awareness and create your universe.
Dont focus on survival: focus on significance.
Fully invest your energy in what you do.
Capacity is what you can handle and how much you can take.
Do not be content with a few victories: develop capacity for greater victory and have a huge cup because small cups overflow. Be a giant. Make giant steps.
Whatever your circumstances, remember that they make your CURRENT reality. Start thinking not of what is, but what you want. Do not define yourself by your current state of affairs because that way, you doom yourself to the present yet the future is infinite and full of abundance.
Habituate a positive, happy, enthusiastic and fired-up way of being. Decide what you want and believe that you deserve it. Enjoy its vision and live it.
Whatever you can imagine you can achieve.
If you know your potential to feel good, you would ask no one to be different so that you can feel good. You would free yourself from that cumbersome impossibility of the need to control the world, or control your mate.
If you still have your mind, nothing is impossible.
Focus on what you want, not what you dont want. Instead of being anti-war, be pro-peace.
Because, as Carl Jung said, what you resist, persists.
There is abundance in life. Enough for everyone. Let the variety of your reality free you. When everybody goes for what they truly want, there will be enough for everyone.
Ask yourself: DO THE RESULTS YOU HAVE IN YOUR LIFE WHAT YOU REALLY WANT? ARE THEY WORTHY OF YOU?
If not, now is the time to change that.
All power is within and therefore under your control - Robert Collier.
We are unlimited beings. Whatever you make your purpose becomes your purpose.
Anything that makes you feel good is always going to draw in more good things. Inner happiness is the fuel of success. Find something that feels good - that resonates in your heart. Joseph Campbell wrote Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you
There is no failure, there is only the next race - StyrofoamDeity - an UltraMarathoner
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. -- Mark Twain
Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action. -- Benjamin Disraeli
Who said it could not be done? And tell me what great victories does he have to his credit which qualifies him to judge what can and can't be accomplished. --Napoleon Hill.
About Branding Yourself: You need a brand for yourself in order to differentiate yourself and to set yourself apart from the pack.
Who do people say you are?
You thrive and triumph by enhancing your own brand.
Ask yourself: What do you want your brand to reflect? What r u doing to enhance your brand?
Seize the day. Don’t stand in the way.
Competitiveness = What you know + Who you know
Your brand should say: who you are, what you do and how you do it. A brand is a promise. When challenged, hold on: Take the path less traveled.
The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.
Common sense are the prejudices you have gathered by the time you are 18 - leave your baggage behind and take yourself to new heights.
Never, ever, ever, be scared to fail. Ever.
Booker T Washington defines Excellence as doing a common thing in an uncommon way. Do the ordinary things thoroughly and that will lead you to excellence. Break away from the pack.
Set your Goals. Goals are set. Values are lived. Values Guide. Goals drive.Values are for today. Goals are for the future.
Good managers don’t push: they motivate.
A picture is worth a thousand words and a model is worth a thousand pictures.
If you can’t describe it, you can’t create it.
A revolution is simply the gap between the ages.
Crash diets crash
A fool with a tool is still a fool.
Invention is a function of time, not personality. When the world is ready for something, it will appear.
All goals must be SMART. If we don't have SMART goals, we cannot be smart.
Platitudes (statements of desire) are not goals. State the mechanism for achieving the goals.

The best way to predict the future is by creating it.

It doesn't matter where you are at, at the time you begin to dream. Kai Greene

Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work. Gustave Flauberr

The Running Writer : 2:45 Marathon Quest

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Lessons Learnt in 2013

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