This weekend there are hundreds of scared and nervous people in Port Elizabeth. They are partaking in Ironman South Africa, a 3.8km swim, a 180km bike ride and a 42.2km run. All but a handful of the 1800 of them will finish. All but a handful will have lots of excuses for what went wrong out there, too.

I am a simple guy when it comes to these things. Sure, I am blunt and I am rough at times. Insensitive by societies standards and not as compassionate as the majority of people would like. Whatever. I haven’t achieved what I have by being nice and having excuses all the time.

This weekend the amazing race takes place. You will go through places in your mind and through experiences within that you may never have thought possible. I urge you to bring to excuses in your arsenal of weapons to race day. Bring the hours you spent out on the roads training your mind and your body. Bring the ability to make the right decisions, which you so carefully worked at over the last six months. Bring your sense of humor, which I hope you found out there training because let’s face it, you`re a little bit crazy, aren’t you?

Things may go wrong out there and elements beyond your control may affect you on the day but if you look back and see excuses, then perhaps the day was not all it could have been.

I promise you there is a guy or 10 out there who could have far more excuses than you possibly have. What about the triple amputee who finished in Kona last year? What are his excuses?

(I know the video is a little thick on the cheddar but it’s Ironman week, so no holding back on the emotional stuff!)

There is someone who sacrificed more than you did, who had to probably sell something of immense value to them to afford the entry or possibly who slept in their car the night before the race because budgets didn’t allow for hotels. These people exist, I promise you. They have no excuses and do the best they can with what they have.

So go out there on Sunday and be all you can be. Be smart, above all. Focus on pace and nutrition. If you can master those 2 simple things ALL day, you will have no excuses. Stay focused and remember those 2 things and the excuses will vanish and you will get lost in the moment in what is truly an amazing day away from the world. Get lost and be amazed at what you are doing, what you are achieving.

No excuses. Take that with you and be one of the handful of guys who gave it all without a “but”. So when you`re standing there at the start line and the guy next to you has that look of fear in his eyes, that inevitable blank stare…

Pat him on the back and tell him to breathe and that he is going to have a great day, with no excuses. You could be changing his life, right there.

BOOOOOM!!

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I came across a wonderful article in my RSS reader today called Beyond Talent & Motivation. The following text is modified from that to suit my own life and where I like to implement these things, as well as where I see a particularly strong association in the way I am doing / not doing things:

I love persistent people who are able to learn from mistakes. People that persist at something as difficult as Ironman or Multi Day Stage Racing are driven by more than the desire for achievement. They want to really breakthrough. There is a desire for greatness that permeates extreme endurance sports. It’s completely infectious to outsiders who poke their heads in from time to time too.

When we look at exceptional athletes, what lessons can we apply to our own lives? What is different from the way we live our lives?

* They know their mission
* They simplify their lives to achieve their mission
* Their mistakes are visible
* They change as a result of their mistakes

Bring your mission down to a single sentence for each key area for your life (family, work, self). Here are mine:

* Love My Family
* Deliver Value
* Train Daily

Know the price of your time (something which has been a total revelation in the office I work in), so you will be at peace when you say “no” to attractive opportunities. The most successful people that I’ve had the pleasure of learning from are also really good at saying “no” with compassion (or they are great at creating total isolation, something I find myself striving for more and more).

Ironman is an interesting niche — consider nutrition — many of us hurt ourselves with excessive control, while living in a society that is, broadly, out of control.

Great athletes have the ability to discipline themselves enough to get the job done, but not so much that they break down. Keeping track of mistakes is a good way to figure out your relationship with control. You should also know your coach’s blind spots, with regards to control. This last point is something I can happily admit to still be learning. At times it’s tough to spot the blind spots on the athletes I am working with, as well as spotting where my own coach is perhaps not seeing the whole picture. Blind spots exist and we best learn how to spot them early.

Athletic mistakes (injury, excessive fatigue, poor performance, weight gain, chronic depletion, immune suppression) are a normal part of our journey. Typically, most of us will rationalize away our errors with an external cause. With any repeating set-back, look for the internal cause.

When I think about the highest achievers, they have an ability to learn from their errors and take steps to limit repeating the same errors. They also have the confidence to stand by their decisions.

The difference between a good race and a great race likely comes down to a dozen key decisions across the year. As a good athlete, you’re already doing things right. Get visibility where you may have gotten in your own way last year.

As you head into the new year — keep what worked and simplify your life so you can do more of what you’re good at. When you do your season review — seek counsel to create a limited number of guidelines to protect you from your extreme tendencies.

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What a great piece of advice.

Tracking greatness and spotting the traits in those who I choose to surround myself with which, in my humble opinion, make them outstanding human beings, is the simplest way to learn how to be great ourselves. It doesn’t happen overnight and it takes many tough decisions along the way. People around you may not realise how much strain you are taking having made these decisions and you may end up holding onto something wild and trivial to give reason and justification to your actions, but in the end, you cannot bullshit life.

It will be clear for all to see and in the end, it’s about toughing it out, even when it looks easy to those around you, because like John Collins said;

“You can quit. You`ll be the only one who knows why, and the only one who cares.”

Do, Learn, Repeat…

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Yes, another motivational video. I love them. They make me want to go out and train. In truth, I write because I want it to be my fault.

I want it to be my fault that you are off your seat and outside with the fresh air in your hair.

I want it to be my fault that you took the giant leap of faith to enter your first race, your first test, your biggest challenge to date.

I want it to be my fault that you grimaced through the plateau and blew your mind and body out of the stratosphere and learnt to truly believe you can achieve anything.

I want it to be my fault that you reconsidered your life, that you reconsidered what is possible and made the leap into the unknown only to come out stronger and a bigger asset to everyone around you.

After all, once all that has happened, you`ll realise it has nothing to do with me, that it was not my fault in any particular way. That really, all I may have done is given the spark, but that really, it was all your fault.

ALL

YOUR

FAULT.

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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.

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In trying to build a kick-ass presentation video for a new client this morning I came across this video. I thought you should watch it too. Once you`ve watched it, you`ll know why.

We love sport for many of those reasons.

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Motivation. It’s that most fleeting qualities. With it, you have the power to dig deep in training. Every day is another opportunity to work toward a better you. It is the savings account from which you draw the fortitude to bury the needle for another few seconds, to refuse the slice of cake, to head out for the ride in the dark.

It is as mysterious in its presence as it is in its absence. Its switches are nonsensical, ironic. One bad run can light a fire that melts the asphalt beneath your feet two days later. Or it can lead to a sense of futility causing you to skip runs, fall off the program, pig out, even. (more…)

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