U CAN DO IT!

I have this friend who is a WORLD IMPACT LEADER!  I'm not kidding...he and his wife, for the past 22+ years have made a HUGE dent in peoples lives... ALL.OVER.THE.WORLD!  They have invested in others, who have invested in others, who have invested in others....I think you get the picture.  They have a "we can do this" faith/way of life.

So this morning I wake up (quick note:  I don't know what time zone he's in right now, I'm guessing he's in Africa, but he could just be a night owl) and I see that my friend, at 3am, sends my a "Facebook Messenger" post showing the medals of someone who recently completed the WORLD MARATHON CHALLENGE with his text, "Tim - maybe next year???.  The WORLD MARATHON CHALLENGE is 7 full Marathons (26.2 miles) in 7 Days on 7 Continents.  I know of this person that did this challenge and he's not an elite or professional runner, but really an "everyday champion" runner.  Here was our exchange (my reply is in blue):

As I point out, I run marathons but this, THIS.IS.CRAZY!  The one thing that did go through my head, "If he (the "everyday champion" runner) can do this...why not me?"  And my friend, the World Changer, says, "u can do it.....Go for it"

Later in the day, I have another runner friend who is getting ready to run a 100 Mile Race called the "Rocky Raccoon 100" to celebrate turning 55!  She posts a blog with a graphic that says, "I'm going to succeed because I'm crazy enough to think I can!"

Now, let me say, I don't know if I'll ever run a 100 mile Ultra Marathon or even the WORLD MARATHON CHALLENGE....but these 2 things today got me thinking about my VISION about my PURPOSE in my life.  I asked myself, "even though I do marathons and I think I think BIG...do I limit what I can do by my own "self limiting beliefs?"

I began to think about this and this what I came up with today to help me...and maybe help you to have your BEST YEAR YET:

• DREAM BIG
• for years I've told others: "Dream the BIGGEST dream you can and go after it with everything that is within you."
• One of my BIG DREAMS is to run the 6 Abbott World Marathon Majors before I turn 60.  I have 2 done (New York City and Chicago Marathons) but still have Boston, Tokyo, Berlin and London to do.  Not sure how, but I will do this
• I have others, but let me ask you, "What BIG DREAMS do you have?"  Like my friend said to me, "U.CAN.DO.IT!"  

• SET GOALS
• Let me say, setting goals is different than dreaming dreams.  The DREAM is the target....the GOAL is the "road map" to get you there.  
• Every GOAL should start with a DREAM
• Which leads to the next point:

• TAKE ACTION
• What is the controllable action plan you need to realize your BIG DREAM?
• Once you have laid out the plan....GET GOING!

What will make your BEST YEAR YET?   I talk about running, but what you have doesn't have to be about an athletic challenge.  What do you have hidden inside of you that is screaming to be revealed to the world around you?  I give you permission to unlock and unleash your potential.  I had an instructor in college that would say, "Always shoot for the Moon, because even if you miss, you'll still land among the stars!"

U CAN DO IT!  GO FOR IT and have your BEST YEAR YET!

WHAT'S IN THE SAUCE?

Have you ever wondered why the successful are they way they are?  Have you ever seen someone and thought, "well, if they can do it, so can I!"  But only to let that dream fade away?

I heard, long ago, a quote that said, "The successful are successful because they are willing to do what the unsuccessful are unwilling to do!"

Does your New Year's Resolution list look exactly the same, year after year, with only the year being different?  I want to let you in on a little secret.....here are 5 Characteristics of people who get what they want:

1.  BELIEVE you can!  Do you...really?  There seems to be a shortage of confidence these days.  If you need some, go get some.  It's as close as making a decision that YOU CAN!

2.  Get past your past!  Luke 9:62 says, "Jesus replied, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." The point here is keep your eyes fixed in front of you.  Yah, maybe things in past have been not so good or maybe things in the past have been great.  Either way, let them stay there and use then only as learning tools to move forward.

3.  Set the right kind of goals for yourself.  I plan on doing a whole blog just on Goal Planning later this year, but for now, when talking about the RIGHT KINDS OF GOALS FOR YOU, put them through a little test or certification.  A guy I know has developed a process he puts his goals through called, SMAC Certification:
S - SPECIFIC; are your goals very specific?  It's vague to say, "I want to lose weight."  Specific would say, "I will lose 10 lbs. by March 15th."  Be Specific!
M - MEASURABLE; They say what gets measured gets done.  Do your goals have an element to them that you can track and measure?  If not, change it up.
A - ATTAINABLE; This just means you have a 50/50 chance of hitting your goal. Don't set the bar so low you can step over it and don't set it too high you will never have a shot at reaching it.  I like to say, live the life of a rubberband:  a rubberband is NOT at it's greatest potential until it's been stretched!
C - COMPATIBLE to your vision; Do the goals you want to accomplish line up with your values? Roy Disney once said, "When your values are clear, decisions become easier."  If you goals and the action items you need to do to reach those goals go against your values, then question your goals.

4.  Connect with your WHY.  What motivates you?  You will lose your way when you lose your WHY.  Be connected with what is at stake.

5.  START!  An old Chinese proverb says it this way: "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is today."  A year from now you'll be glad you started today!

So, really there is no SECRET SAUCE, just 5 simple things that you have a choice of either doing them or not.  So, choose wisely today and make this your BEST YEAR YET!

MY CHEERLEADER....BE ONE, HAVE ONE

"A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer.  Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken."

Who's your CHEERLEADER?  Better yet, whose CHEERLEADER are you?  I think we all need someone in our corner....like Mick was to Rocky....or that we need to be in someone else's corner.  Sometimes being a CHEERLEADER, or being the "corner person" for someone else gets messy.  Life isn't always perfect and sometimes we find ourselves in a mess, whether it was self induced or an attack from the outside.  Either way, it's good...NO, it's GREAT to have someone who is with you through it all.

I have one such person like that (and I hope I'm the same way back to them); my wife, Chris.  She is the epitome of CHEERLEADER.  First, she was one growing up in Junior High and High School.  It didn't stop there.  I truly believe she has been gifted as an encourager.  In the Bible, the book of Romans, chapter 12, verse 8 (New Living Translation) says, "If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging."  THAT right there is Chris.  

Over the past 30 plus years we have been married, she has been by my side through great times and not so good times...all the while letting you know that it's going to be ok and that you can do it.  I could site so many instances where she has done that with me, but let me just say that each time it is genuine and very needed.  

She's not just relegated to cheering me on during competitions, but that is what I want to tell you about here.  A few years ago I took up running and have since got really into it.  I did my first 5k and first 10k in the fall of 2012 about a week apart, then I had this crazy idea to train over the winter and run a half marathon.  She was right there telling me I could do it...even though the farthest I had ever run was 6.2 miles and that was the one time I ran the 10k. Also, to make it a bit muddy, back in 2008 I had surgery to remove 75% of the meniscus in my right knee, but once again, she's there telling me, "You've got this!"  Well, I got through that half, and then another and then another and then my first full marathon in April of 2014.  Since then I have many other half marathons, 6 other full marathons and many, many miles of training....with her traveling all over the place with me cheering me on and ringing her monster cowbell.  That cowbell has become a part of our race travel check list.  It has such a distinct sound that I can pick it out over all the other noise, and when I hear it, it is a reminder of the one who is in my corner.

Is your "sound" of encouragement distinct to others?  Are you words, words of encouragement or defeat?  My wife has shown me what it truly means to "cheer" when the circumstances look bad or really good.

Be an encourager...be someone's CHEERLEADER today!  You'll be glad you did!

Have Cowbell...will travel!

NEW YEAR'S (re)SOLUTIONS

Here we are.  4 weeks into the new year.  Did you set New Year's Resolutions?  How are you doing with them?  Like most people, we have wishes and dreams to shed a few pounds,  tighten up the budget, get on a budget, same extra money for that dream vaca.  But something happened on the way to February....LIFE.

Years ago, our local newspaper published an article about marathon running.  It highlighted a specific individual who (unbeknown to me) was somewhat of a local running legend. At the conclusion of the article, there was a "marathon training schedule."  I was intrigued.  I thought, "I'm going to run a marathon....SOMEDAY."  Although it wasn't the "New Year" I resolved in myself that I, Tim Peterson, would one day run a marathon!  So I kept the newspaper and over time it moved from one location on my desk to another.  It was like an old friend that every now and again would show up, we would "talk" and then it would go back to it's rightful place on the pile.  Until one day.  "One day..."  you know the day, the day when you finally look at something and say, "who am I kidding? I won't...can't...shouldn't...etc.."  I was out of shape and used excuses as to why I wouldn't ever run a marathon.  So, I tossed that article in the trash, along with a part of me,  my dreams.  That one decision to give up my dream of running a marathon had a profound impact on me that I wouldn't realize until some time later.

Ok, so here we are, DAY 29 of 2017.  Have your resolutions go by the way of my newspaper?  Has life or circumstances stepped in and given you blow after blow like a boxer to a speed bag...and you are the speed bag?  

What do you say we hit the "reset" button?  Instead of feeling bound up by a "resolution" let's look at our goals as New Year's Solutions.  If we truly are going to have our BEST YEAR YET what plan do we have?  Here are a few quick steps:

• First, determine to set achievable goals
• By achievable, I mean anything that you have a 50/50 chance of hitting
• DON'T have a list of 20 things....keep it manageable at 4 to 5
• These would be the goals that when you come to the end of the year, you look back and say, "because I accomplished, "X", I had a FANTASTIC year
• Focus your actions on what you can control
• You control if you work out; eat out; what you eat; how you spend; etc
• Have check in points along the journey
• Give yourself a time period, like 12 weeks (which is a whole other subject for a future blog) so that you can measure your progress.  See where you are at and then adjust, if needed, and proceed forward
• START!

It's not about setting artificial "resolutions," it's about finding a solution and going after it!

You don't have to wait for the calendar to flip or anything else.  Get going....you'll be glad you did.

By the way, I squashed the negative self-doubting.  I didn't start with 26.2 miles in mind, I just started and it has led to me picking up running and have since completed 7 full marathons with more to come. 

Whatever it is that you want, get a plan and control the actions to implement to make this your BEST YEAR YET!

After completing the 2016 Chicago Marathon

DAY 28...WAIT, WHERE ARE THE FIRST 27?

Just got done with a GREAT 5 mile run in the chill, (some) snow, and wind.  I was trotting at a very non-fast pace.  Just wanted to get my training miles off the treadmill today.  Before I left, my lovely wife and resident Cheerleader, Chris, and I were having a discussion about 2017 and maximizing each day.  

I told her about my idea of putting together my thoughts, daily, and sharing how each day of my BEST YEAR YET (2017 version) is going.  Although, we are 28 days into the New Year, her one word response, "START!"

START is an interesting word to me.  Some say the starting is the hardest.  Some say to start is easy, but to continue to completion is the hardest.  I see both.  But the key, I believe, is to START!

The road to _______________ (fill in the blank: health; dropping a bad habit; starting a good habit; education; etc) begins with the decision to START and then taking that step.

So today, 1.28.17, is my START to capture, on a daily basis, what is happening in my BEST YEAR YET.  Maybe, just maybe, you'll be able to relate to some of the happenings that are going on with me and those in my tribe, maybe not.  But I think it's going to be a fun ride to a destination that we won't know yet, but I am happy to travel to!

ARE YOU IN?

On a quick side note:  just got tagged on twitter by my oldest.  GREAT way to begin capturing my BEST YEAR YET!  By the way, he's a good follow on Twitter (@joshtweeterson)....and me, @_timpeterson for that matter!

BEST YEAR YET

"It was the best of times....it was the worst of times." This is how the classic by Charles Dickens, "A Tale of Two Cities" begins.  It goes on to have many contrasting statements for a few sentences, but we all get the picture.  THIS is how I felt on May 11th.

I had spent most of the previous year (2015) declaring that from Nov. of 2014 to Nov. of 2015 would be my BEST YEAR YET!  This was the time period before I turned 50 in November of 2015.  I had set out to gain entry into the New York City Marathon, which I did, and run as a St. Jude Hero to raise money and awareness for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which I did, as a cap off to this "self described" BEST YEAR YET.  It truly was a year to remember.  I asked myself last November, after I ran NYC and had my 50th birthday, "how does one follow up his BEST YEAR YET?"  I decided that the best way to do that would be to hit the "reset" button and have another BEST YEAR YET!!  Why limit my best year to just one round of 365 days?  Why not just live an inspired life, for the rest of my life, 365 days at a time....really, one day at a time?

So I set off to have another BEST YEAR YET.  I decided to challenge myself to run 4 marathons in 2016, the most I would complete in one calendar year (previously it was 2 in 2014).  So when I heard on May 11th, "the diagnosis is prostate cancer," this was not a part of my plan....my journey...for the year.  The diagnosis came just 10 days after I completed my 2nd marathon on the year.  Knowing I still had 2 more marathons to go (which I had already committed to running as a St. Jude Hero for the Chicago and Memphis marathons) my first reaction to my doctor at the time of deciding treatment options was, "how long until I can begin running?"  A few days later,  still processing the diagnosis of cancer in MY body, I started to not feel well.  I wasn't able to eat, could really only take in liquids and for the next week, I kept thinking "this will pass," but it didn't and it got worse.  I was taken to the hospital on May 23rd and found out I had a bacterial infection called Clostridium difficile...C diff. Not a pretty sight.  Cancer....C diff....NOT really the attributes that make up a BEST YEAR YET scenario.

Prior to this year, my only overnight stays in a hospital came when I was born and a one night stay when I was 16 for an early morning orthoscopic knee surgery (this was before it was an outpatient procedure).  I had a 5 day stint in May for the C diff and another 5 day stay in August for surgery to remove my prostate.

I'm not the fastest marathon runner, but I'm not the slowest either.  I won't make the podium in my age group, unless their are only 3 of us running.  One thing I prepare to do is start and finish each marathon I enter.  I do know how important training is and with my treatment choice for the cancer diagnosis, I chose what is called a Robotic-Assisted Radical Prostatectomy, I was going to be "down" for some time.  With surgery set for August 1st and the Chicago Marathon on October 9th, I had 9 weeks and each week down was going to be tough to prepare for 26.2 miles....doable, but tough.

I'm sure there are many that ask, "Why do you keep doing this?"  I probably could have taking a well accepted "pass" on completing my last 2 marathons this year.  I believe Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated it the best, "Life's most persistent and urgent question: What are you doing for others?" 

I learned a lot over the last 366 that has shaped me: love of family; the will to battle; my body can still do incredible things; and so on.  Not looking back, only forward.  In Luke 9:62 Jesus tells about the importance of keeping our eyes fixed in FRONT of us.  Don't look back, you're not going that way anymore!  

So, here we are, 51 years + 1 day, setting off on another 365 day BEST YEAR YET journey...who's in?



Note: if you would like to get involved in helping St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and my efforts as a St. Jude Hero for this upcoming St. Jude Memphis Marathon Weekend (Dec. 2nd), please go to heroes.stjude.org/timpete.  There is no amount too big or too small.

MILE 22

On May 1st, I ran the Lincoln, NE Marathon.  It was a rainy, windy and chilly day.  I knew going into race day what it was going to be like.  Every marathon that I have run (this was #5) has its challenges.  This would be no different. 

This was marathon number 2 out of 4 this year for me.  I had trained well for this race and didn't miss any long runs due to weather or anything else.  I was prepared as I "toed the line."

13,000 had registered for this marathon/half marathon.  Right at 3,000 were running the full (I think the weather kept many away as only 1,062 finished the full) so I knew after the 13.1 mile mark, the "herd" would thin out.

As I approached the half way mark, I was running a comfortable pace but I had started to experience some discomfort in my right knee.  I knew the next 13.1 miles were not going to be on the pace I wanted, but I was determined to finish this race.  My discomfort turned to pain just past the 21 mile mark and I slowed down and even walked more than what I would normally.  

******
As I woke up the morning of the race, I looked out the window and it was raining.  I had told my wife the night before that if it was raining, I didn't expect her to come with me to the start but she could track me on the app and meet up with me at the end.  Chris is my biggest cheerleader.  She can be seen or should I say heard, at these races with her monster cowbell in hand.  This cowbell has a VERY distinct sound and I can usually pick it out, from a distance, and know that a well needed kiss and hug was near. 

During this race, I heard other cowbells and they were a nice reminder and encouragement, even though it wasn't Chris ringing it.

******

I told myself, right as I passed mile 21, "I cannot be defeated AND I will not quit!" over and over.  I wasn't going to quit, even if it meant walking the final 5 miles.  As I was approaching the 22nd mile, I saw the marker, "Mile 22."  This took me back to a book I read over Christmas of 2014 about the New York City Marathon called, "A Race Like No Other."  In chapter 22 there was a piece about an everyday champion...a runner like most of us.  She had battled back and was recovering from alcohol addiction.  Her story was woven throughout the book, but mile 22 was special.  It told a story of her training and one of redemption.  It had an impact on me and continues to inspire me to this day.  So when I saw Mile Marker 22, I said to God, "Lord, I'm hurting.  I'm in pain. I need Your inspiration.  I won't quit, but I don't know if I can physically finish." and RIGHT AT THAT TIME, I heard someone clanging a cowbell.  How cool was it that right at my point of struggle and helplessness, that my God would have something that I recognized as a point of encouragement ring for me to hear....as if to say, "Tim, we can do this for 4 more miles."  As I got closer to the sound, I saw that it was my wife, Chris, who was the one ringing the cowbell for me at Mile 22 and cheering so loud (the pic above is me approaching her) with nobody else around.  To say I was emotional is an understatement.  I grabbed ahold of her and told her how much this meant to me, at this specific time, and through tears, I kissed her and said, "I'll see you at the finish."

I still struggled through those final 4 miles, but now NOTHING was going to deter me as I kept hearing the "sound of encouragement" with each step.

You know, in some races we have, all goes well and in others they don't go so well.  Some days in our lives go well where other days don't go as well.  Either way, we need to just keep moving...keep pressing on to the finish!