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Accountability Challenge Week 30: Celebrate the Journey

Accountability Challenge Week 30: Celebrate the Journey

It’s time to give yourself a pat on the back.

In this week’s lesson I wanted to acknowledge everyone who has been participating in the Accountability Challenge that we started all those many weeks ago.

I’ve had the opportunity to hear from many of you about your own wonderful journeys towards goals that are meaningful to you.

I know that some of those goals include the following:

  • Preparing for your first marathon
  • Cycling 200 km for the Cycle to Cure Cancer
  • Becoming a successful speaker and entrepreneur
  • Succeeding in your new business

These are all tremendous goals that require significant commitment, focus, determination, and persistence, not to mention delayed gratification.

Some days we’d much rather just kick back on that comfy old couch with a bag of Ruffles potato chips and your favorite beverage….Well guess what today is that day…

It’s time for you to take a moment, or several moments to celebrate your own progress-maybe it’s to indulge in a few potato chips (let’s admit it-they are yummy) -maybe it’s curling up to watch your favourite movie-or to read a great book.

Celebrate

It is very easy to put this off or to feel guilty when we do take a moment to celebrate our journeys. Perhaps you haven’t arrived at your goal just yet-maybe you already have. Either way, I personally wanted to acknowledge you for continuing to inspire me as I pursue my own goals and dreams.

Last week I mentioned the excitement and energy that is ours as the pursuit of our goals ignites a feeling of aliveness within our souls and our spirits.

My hope for you is that you have been tapping into that feeling of aliveness. An excellent way to do that is to not wait until the accomplishment of your goal-which is after all just a by product of the entire journey.

What can you do this week to celebrate your journey?

Expect Success,

Mark,

Thought for the week:  The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.”      Oprah Winfrey

Mark Hudon, CFP™CCS™

Financial Fitness Coach, Certified Cash Flow Specialist™

Creator of The Core Conditioning Program™

Check out our exciting new Website, Radio Show, & Cash Flow Planning tools:

https://financiallyfitforlife.ca/

http://webtalkradio.net/internet-talk-radio/financially-fit-for-life/

http://cashflow-specialist.com/

Accountability Challenge Week 29: Feeling Alive

Does pursuing your goals make you feel alive? 

It’s been said many times by many different people that the most rewarding aspect of accomplishing a significant goal is not so much the actual completion of the goal but who you become in the process. I certainly agree with this viewpoint. I would like to add something from my own personal experience.

You know you are on the right track when your goal makes you feel ALIVE!

In this week’s challenge I recap a major goal that I accomplished while creating the Accountability Challenge Program the first time around.back in 2011.

Back then I was training for the completion of my third Ironman Triathlon. To refresh your memory, an Ironman Triathlon is when you swim 3.86km, bike 180km, run, walk or crawl 42.2km…and then you get to BRAG for a lifetime…

Let me take you back to June of 2011….

………………………………

Accountability Challenge Week 29: Feeling Alive:

I’m currently less than four weeks away from pursuing the completion of my third Ironman Triathlon in Klagenfurt Austria. Because I have successfully completed this type of challenge twice in the past-I have complete confidence (certainty in fact) that baring any kind of unforeseen catastrophe I will successful cross the finish line on July 3rd.

However, I’ve discovered, or perhaps re-discovered something of immense importance to me-I believe it’s what they call an ‘aha’ moment. I discovered that the pursuit of this goal-which has definitely not gotten any easier the third time around-has awoken within me a strong sense of what Dr Maxwell Maltz calls ALIVENESS.

This spring I have cycled and run in some of the most unpleasant weather conditions that I can recall. From frigid temperatures, to high winds, and torrential downpours-my resolve not to mention my hypothermia has been tested. At the end of April on one frosty Saturday morning I had to get off my bike and seek shelter in the warmth of a local Oakville golf pro shop in order to give my frozen fingers and toes an opportunity to thaw out. It was so cold outside that they weren’t even letting the golfers tee off on the course. Here I was in the midst of a 100 km bike ride, wearing cycling shorts no less.

The last few weeks of training leading up to the Ironman tend to be extremely grueling. It’s not unusual to take on training rides of 180-200km followed by 2 hours of running. When you’re smack, dab in the middle of these sessions-you feel like a) you’ll never get through them b) that they will never end c) you must be totally out of your mind to be choosing to do this to yourself.

However, there comes a point during these arduous training sessions-a serene, tranquil moment-where you finally allow your mind with all of its chatter to let go, become quiet and you just focus on the work at hand. You suspend judgment and doubt and some other force takes over.

Pedal by pedal, and step by step you gain a rhythm and begin mentally, physically and emotionally you tap into strength you never knew you possessed. It’s hard to describe, the best way I can do it justice is to state that you feel an energy and power- an aliveness that makes all of the discomfort and challenges fall away. It truly is amazing what we can accomplish-it’s moments like this that I KNOW that anything is possible. Certainly a heck of a lot more than that old enemy Resistance will trick us into believing.

I find the pursuit of my goal in the midst of these drastic weather conditions and challenges has only served to heighten my resolve and make me feel more ALIVE, exuberant, and determined than I thought possible. Enjoying a feeling or sense of aliveness is one of the most wonderful experiences we can have.

Bike course Inukshuk

Accountability Challenge Week 29: Feeling Alive:

Where and when and how can you feel more ALIVE? Take a few minutes to reflect and journal around this extremely significant question.

Please feel free to pass along your answers to me when you have a quiet moment

Expect Success,

Mark,

Thought for the week: “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” Goethe.                                 

Mark Hudon, CFP™CCS™

Financial Fitness Coach, Certified Cash Flow Specialist™

Creator of The Core Conditioning Program™

 

Check out our exciting new Website, Radio Show, & Cash Flow Planning tools:

 

https://financiallyfitforlife.ca/

Why Ironmen and Ironwomen Make Great CEOs

Why Ironmen and Ironwomen Make Great CEOs

Over the last decade, triathlon has become the executive sport de rigueur. Triathlon tests you in different ways than most other endurance sports. And interestingly, it is analogous of the unique challenges of executive leadership. Like triathlon, executive leadership involves three core key competencies: setting a vision, developing strategy, and managing accountability. Great leaders are well-versed in each of these disciplines and know how to move fluidly between them. Athletes who progress to Ironman-distance events have developed several key characteristics that can serve them well as executives:
Read more here

Accountability Challenge Week 28: The Power of Commitment:

Accountability Challenge Week 28: The Power of Commitment: 

Are you committed to your goal?

Are you really? On a scale from 1-10, rate your current level of commitment.

If it is less than 10 out of 10, than I propose that you are not as committed as you absolutely must be to reach your goal.

You can easily gauge your personal level of commitment (and whether it needs an attitude adjustment) by the answer to this very blunt but telling question:

Are you doing the work that your goal is telling asking you to do to achieve it?

Are you?

When I relate this very question to certain goals in my life (specifically my business development goals) the answer more often than I’d like to admit has been a resounding NO. No I haven’t been doing the work that my goal is asking me to do to achieve it.

The reason? It’s Resistance with a capital R in the form of my own favourite brand of ‘Rational Lies’:

“But what will they think? They’ll probably just say no, so why bother?

It won’t work! I’m not smart enough, I’m not good enough….enough”

Lies, Lies, Lies. To quote my favourite line from The War of Art:

“Resistance is always lying, and it’s always full of shit”  

 Ok, so now I’ve decided to fight through my Resistance and this is the time that I will finally do the work.

The truth is always simple, not necessarily easy, but always painfully simple-at least that’s my own personal experience,  and it’s always staring me in the face.

All I have to do is to have the courage to look at it, and then of course the courage and commitment to do the work .

What kind of personal commitment will it take to break through that wall of Resistance once and for all?

In listening to Pressfield’s audio program, Do The Work, he quoted some wonderful words from author WH Murray that I wanted to share with you. I quickly skipped over them the first few times I listened to the lesson, but tonight I decided to make an effort to gain a better understanding-so of course I googled them and le voila here they are….I hope they resonate with you as much as they have with me.

power of commitment

Accountability Challenge Week 28: The Power of Commitment:

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents andmeetings andmaterial assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”

Quoted from the book “The Scottish Himalayan Expedition, 1951”, by William H. Murray (1913-1996)

Expect Success,

Mark,

Thought for the week:  “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” Goethe.                                 

Mark Hudon, CFP™CCS™

Financial Fitness Coach, Certified Cash Flow Specialist™

Creator of The Core Conditioning Program™

Check out our exciting new Website, Radio Show, & Cash Flow Planning tools:

https://financiallyfitforlife.ca/

http://webtalkradio.net/internet-talk-radio/financially-fit-for-life/

 

http://cashflow-specialist.com/

 

Accountability Challenge Week 27: Stay Stupid

Accountability Challenge Week 27: Stay Stupid…You just might learn something.

 I remember being very excited when the new Stephen Pressfield CD, Do The Work came out a couple of years ago.  I’ve been a huge fan of his work since I read his terrific no-nonsense book, The War of Art.

Pressfield is a writer who pulls no punches and I was anxious to hear how his work translated into audio format. I certainly was not disappointed.

Do The Work, is designed to guide and coach us through the completion of any creative plan or goal that we are determined to complete.

I laughed out loud when Pressfield bluntly stated that one of the keys to overcoming the enemy of Resistance was to “stay stupid”

Ok, you’ve got my attention I thought to myself, now what exactly do you mean by this?

The answer was refreshingly simple. Quite often we let the incessant chatter of our minds overwhelm us as we attempt to move forward toward a creative purpose-whether it’s losing 40 lbs,  completing a marathon, starting a new business, or  doubling our sales and income.

If you’re at all like me…Mr. Analytical-you find yourself endlessly analyzing every choice, option, decision you make-past, present or future. This can seem like a sensible approach to getting things just right, while cutting down on possible miss-steps. In truth it is more often a sly form of Resistance that holds us back from doing the work that our goals are telling us we need to do.

In my own experience this seemingly sensible approach has added needless years to the life cycle of my own goal achievement.

Do you ever think too much about your goals? How am I going to achieve this? What will happen if I take this course of action instead of another?  What if it doesn’t work?  What will they think?  Etc. etc. etc…

stay stupid

To me “staying stupid” means to stop over thinking or over analyzing the probable outcome of the actions we know we should take, and just DO THE WORK now.

Pressfield in his no bullshit approach (maybe it’s a guy thing but I get a kick out of his “direct” method of communication) counsels us to develop the habit of acting more and thinking less.

We can always course correct if we need to. Not every action we take is going to work out perfectly, however the faster we find out, the faster we can move on to another course of action that will take us to our goal or dream.

What can you do to stay stupid this week?

Coach Mark,

Thought for the week: ”Stay stupid and expect Success”.

Mark Hudon, CFP™CCS™

Financial Fitness Coach, Certified Cash Flow Specialist™

Creator of The Core Conditioning Program™

Check out our exciting new Website, Radio Show, & Cash Flow Planning tools:

 https://financiallyfitforlife.ca/

 http://webtalkradio.net/internet-talk-radio/financially-fit-for-life/

 http://cashflow-specialist.com/