To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. ~e.e. cummings, 1955
Wow, what a week that has passed. Consumed with something I will be able to share with you a little later today, I am happy to say that I haven’t put anything hugely motivational down this week. Instead, I have been living it out there, where not all of you can see what is going on. My inspiration has come from amazing people in my life who are fighting for their jobs, their lives, their health and their hearts. They fight with a humility that we should all strive for and when I wake in the morning I think of how they go about their days, so simply.
I am striving towards, as I have always said, a life filled with adventure, meaning & love. Oh, and music. What’s life without music that touches you? I have to fight for this and I know this. I choose to fight smart, because I am not the strongest guy out there. I am aware of the limits I have and I work on those whilst exploiting the areas where I am strong. I had the privilege of having James Cunnama stay with me for a night this week. He is testament to this. Currently ranked No 1 triathlete in the world on the official rankings, he has risen from the bottom and this man (no longer a boy) has had to fight and fight. He had serious weaknesses, and a few years later, they are all gone. The shift in his mind though, the biggest change since I last saw him. Definitely the product of success. Beautiful to see.
The busyness of our lives doesn’t allow us time to pause and appreciate the people we have around us. Adversity often awakens us to the treasures that are far more important than money and material possession: our health, our family and our friends.Sudden financial losses teach us that we shouldn’t base our happiness on money. An illness teaches us to be humble and lead a healthy life. A sudden loss in the family makes us appreciate the cycle of birth, life and death. Such things may seem superficial, but you should learn from adversities if you don’t want them to control your life.
”I was complaining that I had no shoes till I met a man who had no feet,” Confucius
I love this clip. The fight in the hardest race in the world. What do you risk? What are you willing to fight for? How far does the rabbit hole go once you throw your body down there? You gain the sense that the team is there to support the guy who is willing to risk everything. Surrounding yourself with a team of people who support your best interests – such a key fact to life.
The fight is something that is always there. It will always be there. Gear up, study how it’s done smartest, not hardest. Have a great weekend out there.
Today I am leaving our wonderful accommodation in Kona for this place:
I am racing this weekend, just two weeks after Ironman Hawaii. A whole new experience, this training immediately after an Ironman. Will I do it again – hell yes. I feel way better than I ever have, two weeks after any previous Ironman. A combination of better preparation and better conditioning, sure, but also nice to have stayed active and kept moving. Exercise has been very light with only a few runs and lots of short bikes and swims. Feels pretty good.
Will upload some more Garmin stuff after the race, so you can see how that went. I am going to go all in with the Forerunner on Sunday, covering all 3 disciplines. It’s going to be very important to watch my top end heart rate as I would imagine I am going to have very little speed but a very solid sub maximal effort in me, so its going to be all about those last 5km on the run where I am either going to lose or gain 5minutes, which is podium in age group.
THBK Jnr did quite a cool interview for Xterra TV and you can catch that by clicking here…
Also, have a read at this, It’s what i`m going to be reading on the airplane to Maui. I need a break from my current book which I am slightly obsessed with. Thankfully its 1200 pages so lots to be obsessed about and much going on there, but a break is needed today.
Here is a great preview on the weekends race too…
I have new tires, new chainrings, new (well, have run in them to wear them in) shoes, new clothing, gear and all the energy inducing nutrition a dude could dream of. I am ready, set and hopefully, will save enough for the Spooky Forest and the last few hills home.
Have a great weekend out there…
‘A few strong instincts and a few plain rules suffice us.’ ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Life can be ridiculously complicated, if you let it. I suggest we simplify.
Thich Nhat Hanh’s quote, which I’ve stolen as this site’s subtitle, is the shortest guide to life you’ll ever need:
“Smile, breath, and go slowly.”
If you live your life by those five words, you’ll do pretty well. For those who need a little more guidance, I’ve distilled the lessons I’ve learned (so far) into a few guidelines, or reminders, really.
And as always, these rules are meant to be broken. Life wouldn’t be any fun if they weren’t.
less TV, more reading
less shopping, more outdoors
less clutter, more space
less rush, more slowness
less consuming, more creating
less junk, more real food
less busywork, more impact
less driving, more walking
less noise, more solitude
less focus on the future, more on the present
less work, more play
less worry, more smiles
breathe
Such a beautiful way to begin the week, I had to share. The article was originally published here.
I am happy to confess it to you. I am happy to tell you that I am far from normal, that the normal limits of mankind don’t apply to me. That society deems me a freak.
Come here, I`ll tell it to you calmly, quietly, without prejudice. I`m happy to sit and listen to you tell me why I am mad to be trying to balance a full work day with my crazy sports obsession. I`ll sit and listen, without judgement. I realize you can’t fathom the compromise, the level of effort it takes to live the life I choose to live, every single day. I realize all you see is the training and the work and the limited time. I see that you see I am tired, that I look “ill” to you, too skinny by societies terms and conditions.
What you don’t see is the real effort. The packing of 2 bags a day, the effort it takes to shower 3 times a day depending if I am squeezing in a lunch session too. The compromise it takes when I want to go out partying with mates, because I LOVE the dancing, singing and laughing and bromance that they offer, but when I am simply too tired to be a part of whats going on there. The compromise it takes to stay true to a dream, a goal. I know you don’t see me when I`m sitting, 140km into a 180km ride, tired and weary, with 40km of hills and block headwind to get home. You cannot see the doubt in my mind right then, the fight in my head and body to keep going, despite the surrounding circumstance. All you see is “crazy boy spent the day on his bike again”.
You really can’t see that I`m training my mind as much as my body? Really? Interesting…
I full realize that you and most of the people I am surrounded by look at me with caution because they don’t understand my motivations. I know those of you who watch these videos and get goosebumps, wanting to be out there, on that course, that you share that burning desire. I salute you. In fact I am standing on the highest perch with a banner and a microphone for you, protesting the limits of society for you, with you, through you. I know you don’t expect everybody to understand you, but that you feel like an island some days. That the island gets lonely.
I get that. Just remember that life is NOT about finding yourself out there, in the open road. It’s about CREATING yourself out there, in the open road. That you are building the foundations for making amazingly good decisions by pushing the limits. The limits are beautiful. Just when you smash through one, it goes just a bit further again. The limits will challenge you forever. That is their essential beauty and truth.
Still not understanding what I am saying? Have a watch at this, tell me it doesn’t grip you in the heart and wake something in you. For me, I get so emotional when I watch this that I am ready to run out the door and onto the mountain, disappearing for a few hours where I set the trail and there is no route. Where all bets are off on whether I hit a limit out there or not.
It makes me want to go find that beautiful moment where I have to stop and ask myself serious questions about WTF I am doing out here in this state with so far left to go. Give me those moments. They make me laugh at myself. Yes, I am mad.
What am I doing?
This is my language. I know you might not understand it. I realize the crazyness of it all. I know it’s a little obsessive. I am fully aware of how intense it is. I am 100% coherent on the fact that I do it 100% for myself, however. I really can’t complain, all is Kosher around these parts. Thank goodness it`s far from over. Really there are too many great roads, trails and open stretches of water left to explore, too much great food to experience and far too many amazing wines I have never sampled.
I may not always be so driven to obsess about sport. I may switch it to exploration at some point, but I guarantee you I will explore by bike, foot and human power. I`ll be climbing the mountain, not catching the cable car to the top. I am too addicted to the way the body feels when it moves. How good it feels to walk, run, ride, climb, dance, jump, boogie, bounce, paddle and in the middle of all that, with all the senses going bazongkers, standing perfectly still with my eyes closed, arms wide spread, being amazed at how everything tingles with absolute excitement at doing what it’s supposed to do, when the mind and body are 100% stimulated through a full body sensory experience.
Don’t tell me I am mad.
I am well aware of the fact.
I have loads of questions at the moment, many pertaining to society and why we do the things we do, what sense most of them make and truly, the real meaning of why we are here. It’s a great space to be in, contrary to what many would think. I will put it out there that its due to the training and work stresses I am under at the moment, the fatigue that comes with it and the absolute pure humanness of myself. I am imperfect in every perfect way. That is the way I like to see it. I strive for a balanced life, at times this means 7 hour bike rides and at other times it means I wanted to come home at 10pm but the wine and company were so good that I snuck in after midnight with a smile on my dial and a slight added tiredness in the morning. This is how I choose it.
It’s been a great week for great questions.
What am I doing long term with my life?
How am I going to create a legacy for my kids to aspire to?
How on earth am I going to run the next 20min at VO2 Threshold when I am bobbing and weaving across the road already like a ragdoll in a bullmastiffs mouth?
Who has the coffee?
What is up with the dating game?
Why, if in the first video, are all the guys Lance dropped, either back from a doping suspension or retired because of doping? With all the current accusations there are lots of questions regarding sport and the legitimacy of certain performances in certain sports. It does sadden me a little and I hope that it amounts to nothing so that my full faith can be restored into what is a special sport to me.
How am I going to execute certain scenarios in Kona?
When am I going to see my entire family together again?
Questions are important. I would hate to think I would ever know everything, this I have said before and I will always stand by it. Without asking questions we can’t get the freedom of the answer. Take a step back though and you have to be prepared to ask the question. Another step back and you have to be prepared for the right answer, which isnt the answer you might want, or the answer which leaves you with a improved self image. Courage is a key part in asking questions. Most people will only ask questions they know the answers to or the questions with safe answers.
Even then its not always that clear. Take a guy like Allen Lim, who stood by Floyd Landis, based on the numbers he put out on the day he essentially won the Tour de France. According to the facts, the numbers and the data, it was not a superhuman ride. The facts made perfect sense. Core temperature control, watts control and there you go. Simple, not easy, right? Not so in the current debacle with Landis. Allen Lim is one of the most obsessive, smart, calculating people on the planet and even he cannot answer all the questions, like:
Why come out now Floyd?
If the numbers were all normal, why risk everything if Floyd knew, still took the chance that he might get caught?
What am I doing in this sport if no matter how much sense it makes, some doos is still going to cheat?
I cannot imagine all the questions a guy like him asks himself all the time. They have to think of everything, as pioneers to a cleaner sport, three times as much as the guys who are just gaaning aan like there was no repercussion.
So whilst the never ending stream of questions resounds so loudly in my head, there is hope for me this extended weekend in the form of a mini-camp. 3 days of what it seems is going to be bad weather, long miles and lots of wet cycling gear. When out there, many questions are asked as well, especially on the harder weather days:
What the hell are you doing?
Where is the coffee?
What the hell are you doing?
Where is the food?
Ok, come to think of it, its all about coffee, food and why I am out there pushing the limits. Maybe that is exactly why I am out there?
…
Such a simple thing. Could be a pause to ponder or an eternity of waiting in those 3 little dots.
From Wikipedia: “An ellipsis can also be used to indicate a pause in speech, an unfinished thought, or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence.”
If that description doesn’t inspire thoughts of beauty in you, you might not be a minimalist at heart or even at attempt. For me, ellipsis is the core of a lot of what I write. I use it more than I use a lot of more pertinent marks. I find it beautiful and insightful and the pause, for me, is the simplest way to evoke.
A pause in speech is silence. Silence is one of the most profound ways to connect with your inner voice, with nature. Silence is the best part of speech. It’s the best part of me, silence. I can ride my bicycle in the forests for 5 or 6 hours without saying a word. My closest friends will attest that I can drive for hours in the car with them without saying a word. Simple comfort in silence is the highest respect I can pay you as a person.
An unfinished thought is any thought, really — if a thought is “finished” it’s dead. We are all of us in transition, all the time, and our thoughts can be no exception. Constant transition. How beautiful.
Trailing off into silence implies that there is much left unsaid … that what is said is only the start. Once we realise we are in constant transition, every end is merely the start and every start is the end. The simple realisation that we never stop evolving is uber powerful.
Intentional omission is the foundation of minimalism: we leave things out because they are unnecessary, and retain only what we need or use or love. Omitting the unnecessary is a thing of pure beauty. Constant reassurance from things which are unnecessary is deemed “consumer” in my mind. Move from being consumer to being provider. Try it out sometime…
…
Say less, and hear more.
Do less, and have a greater impact.
Make less noise, and appreciate the silence.
Send out fewer emails, and make each one count.
Tweet less, and each one becomes more meaningful.
Have fewer possessions, and enjoy the space.
Have fewer “friends”, but make each relationship stronger.
Appreciate the spaces between everything.
…
Ed’s note: I have quoted the last 8 lines directly from another post, they are quite profound.

Today I am not going to speak about my weekly totals. It was virtually an off week with more work and really, more opportunities than I care to even get into. It’s an exciting time out there. Hope you are making the most of it, too.
Today I wanted to talk about what drives us. What makes us give the extra mile. What makes us get up at 5am and go for a jog before heading to meetings, work, proposals, deadlines, stress, pressure, commitments and then possibly back to the gym for a swim before heading home to spend time with friends and family, cook & deal with admin & possible more work.
What kind of idiot does that?
This guy.
Me.
I am not here to waft through life. I am here to live. I am here to eat the best food, ride the best trails, run in the wildest frontiers, to eat more of the best food, to laugh the loudest, the hardest and the most. To brave the circumstances and scare the living bejissus out of myself from time to time. To doubt if I can achieve the lofty goals I have set, to practise milking the journey to that ever changing goal.
I am here to wander among the masses and inspire you to be more. I am passionate about that, about you. I want to push my body to the absolute limit and then crush the limit. Human limitations are just that. Limits. Rules. If there was never anybody who pushed or broke limits then we would surely still be in the stone age. That human willingness to go above and beyond it what drive us.
Yes, I suffer. I hurt. Great. Awesome. I am smiling all the way because I feel absolutely amazing when I am out training and racing. I am happiest when I have no idea how the hell I am going to get through, shortly followed by absolute euphoria when I am through it. That is the essence. Hence the picture. Its Tour de France time. For the 200 best cyclists in the world to ride over 30 mountains in 3 weeks, only to finish in absolute agony with cold sores, strains and tendonitis. For what? Only one dude can win.
Its not only about that one guy. It’s about the celebration of the pinnacle of how far and hard a human being can ride his bicycle. It’s about celebrating the marvel of watching these guys race down twisty roads much faster than the cars can. It’s about celebrating how absolutely amazing we are as a species.
We are driven beyond comprehension. Only the brave….
It is so beautiful and so simple and so primal that I cannot yet fully comprehend how grand it really is. I do believe I have a small insider view but really, I know that every couch potato is inspired when they see the willingness of these guys to hurt beyond comprehension, just to make it to the top of that last climb.
I am going to fill my body with best, most natural food I can find. It will be tasty beyond wowness, fill me with energy beyond zest and give me the appreciation of being responsible for how I fuel my engine.
I am going to explore the entire world. I am going to give back to those who I love with all my love. I am going to be peaceful and appreciative of the simple beauties of the world. I am inspired by people, by their amazing ability to overcome.
I want more of that.
What are you doing to get more of that?

Many people, even close to me, even me at times, I think are feeling overwhelmed these days. Our attention is being pulled in too many directions, leaving us feeling overloaded, distracted, chaotic, spread thinly, without focus.
I get asked daily where I find the energy to do what I am doing, making 3 jobs work at once at the moment. The thing is, not 1 of them is sustainably working just yet for me to do only that, and being a young white male in SA means I need to be looking out for myself a little more than in years past. Just the way it is.
There are a million blogs, people, services, media, competing for our attention. Our attention is limited, and valuable, making it one of the most precious resources we have. I could spend my day reading blogs, twitter and connecting on Blackberry Messenger with my friends. Literally the whole day could be wasted, I kid you not.
The world wants that attention. Only you can decide where it goes. Repeat that sentence to yourself right now. Now do it again!
Your attention span determines the shape of your life. Then the amount of attention you give each energy dependant thing in your life also determines the shape of your life. Surely you can see that? Attention = reality. If you watch and read the news all the time, you will become obsessed with the latest crises. If you watch and read about celebrities, your life will revolve around them. If you socialize on social networks all day long, this will become your world.
If instead, you choose to give your attention to work you’re passionate about, that you feel is important, that will change your life and the world in some small way … this will become your life.
If you choose to give your attention to your friends, family and other loved ones — really give your attention to them instead of only half-heartedly while also checking text messages and emails and other updates — your life will be rich in many ways.
And so I urge you to sit up and take a deep breath. Walk around your office slowly. We are about to reclaim your attention!
1. Limit your friends. Not real-life friends, but social network and blogging and forum friends. Not that these can’t be good relationships, but having too many makes them meaningless. And each friend will take up a little bit of your attention — when you read their updates, click on their links, reply to their messages, look at their photos, and so on. The more you have, the more attention they’ll require. Limit them to just the essential. Read more on the people you care about, and less on the people you want attention from.
2. Limit your feeds. Blog subscriptions, newsletters, other updates and news subscriptions and so on. Limit them to a handful of essentials, and let the rest go. The more you have, the more attention they require. I recently cut my Google Reader down to 20 feeds, from the 80 or so I was following. Out with the drivel.
3. Limit your communication time. Going into your email inbox? Just give yourself 10 minutes to read, reply, delete, and get out. Going to do Twitter? Give yourself 5 minutes. Seriously, set up a timer. Don’t let these things take up all your attention.
4. Stop watching the news. FULL STOP. It sucks.
5. Give your attention to the important. This is the crucial part: choose what you give your attention to, and do this choosing carefully. What is important to you? Writing? Photography? Design? Coding? Creating a new business that helps others? Your kids? Figure this out, and give this the majority of your attention.
6. Become conscious of your distractions. Once you’ve decided to focus your attention on the important, become more aware of distractions as they come up. Make note of them, and as you get the urge to be distracted, learn to pause, breathe, and return to the important.
7. Surround yourself with the positive. If you want your life to be positive, let the positive have your attention. This applies to blogs, people, projects, and more.
I am not saying that I can do all of this, or that I am even doing 1 of these things. They are positive points that come to mind from my feeds, from my time spent trying to regain my attention. I am pulled in many directions each day at the moment, trying to claim a life of meaning and quality over quantity. I am getting there. I cut out 2 projects this week, and have cut out 8 this year in total already. Things that were just stealing attention without providing any real incentive.
Mind clutter dot com is not a great place to be. Reclaim your attention today.
As we get more technical, more specialist, more niche the smaller differences make the biggest differences. The Tour de France is won on a difference in strength of a 1 year old child. Not alot in it, basically. So to find the most out of your position on the bike, your equipment, your nutrition, your recovery, can make the biggest change.
The drive by manufacturers for the best equipment is easily then justified. A new frame might win a rider a big tour, get them onto the front pages of all the magazines on their bike, giving them millions of dollars of exposure. This, with the right back-up, leads to sales.
The top of any game is separated by minute changes to differentiate those who make it big, and those who make it. The effort required to gain those tiny improvements becomes more and more hectic as the level of competition/skill/power grows, with the commitment level having to increase exponentially as well.
Here is where 10 000 hours comes in again. The first couple thousand are easy, the improvements made are huge, the fun factor is still there. Once you get to about half way, the changes become much smaller, but the hours you need to put in become much greater for that small change.
Not quite what you want to hear, but its the truth. Varsity, first couple years work, then a lucky break. That’s merely phase zero. Phase 1 comes after that with it only getting harder from there. Knowledge bases become leveled. Time becomes irrelevant, its the process that becomes the key.
If you can grasp this success will come your way. This is why its so important to focus your efforts, do not become a guy with 3 000 hours of skill in 20 different avenues. You are a jack of all trades, wealthy man of zero. Nobody cares, and the guy who has put in his 8 000 hours into one avenue will be much further down the line than you are.
Have a great day. The video obviously relates to the tireless process for seconds. seconds. not minutes.
So as you would have noticed, there has been a distinct lack of posts from the site in the last 2 weeks. I have been on a semi sabbatical. After a really mad year I needed a time out, and it actually happened a day earlier than I had planned, but I had really just had enough, and got to a pretty low point.
We undertook an epic, unsupported 700km trek through the wild (more posts on that coming, its a life changing story), in pretty extreme circumstances and conditions, but came out with a new smile and a fresh lease on work, life, love, etc.
Before I get fully back into it, I thought to post something from my favorite contributor of the year, Zenhabits.It had to do with sticking to your New Years Resolutions…
‘Habits are at first cobwebs, then cables.’ ~ Spanish Proverb
Let’s face it: most of us fail when it comes to sticking to resolutions — so much so that many people swear never to make resolutions again.
And yet the rest of us are eternally hopeful when the New Year comes around, believing without any credible evidence that we can improve our lives, that change is possible, that we’re not going to be stuck in the same old rut again this year.
I’m here to tell you that you can do it. It’s possible. I’ll show you how.
The Problem with Most Resolutions
While I love the optimism of New Year’s Resolutions, unfortunately, the enthusiasm and hope often fades within weeks, and our efforts at self improvement come to a whimpering end.
New Year’s Resolutions usually fail because of a combination of some of these reasons:
There are other reasons, but the ones above are easily sufficient to stop resolutions from succeeding.
The 6 Changes Method
So what are we to do? I’ve created the 6 Changes Method, along with a new site called 6Changes.com, to solve these problems:
If you stick with the method, you’ll do much better than you’ve done in the past with New Year’s Resolutions. You’ll focus on creating long-lasting habits rather than trying to reach a short-term goal that fails. You’ll maintain your enthusiasm for longer and not become overwhelmed by the difficulty of change. You’ll have habits that will change your life, and that’s no small feat.
The Method
So how does the 6 Changes method work?
It’s simple:
You now have a new habit! Commit to Habit No. 2 and repeat the process.
Further Reading
Read more on creating your new habits for the New Year:
‘It does not matter how slow you go so long as you do not stop.’ ~ Confucius