This week, I revisted James Clear’s Atomic Habits. I first read his book when I started my business in January 2020. I wish his ideas had stuck right then and there. Had they stuck, I would have saved myself a lot of time—free of the paralyzation that stemmed from constantly trying to…

This morning I was reading James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits, and came across the above diagram with the following caption: “The difference between a good day and a bad day is often a few productive and healthy choices made at decisive moments. Each one is like a fork in…

I was looking forward to today. Saturday: a day I’ve looked forward to for a long time. Over the years, Saturdays have become a day to keep my same early morning routine while not having the pressure to get to work by a set hour. As an endurance athlete who…

The purpose of this set is to work on controlled distance swimming early on where it’s easy to burn the “wick” too early and not have anything left to burn at the end of the set. The goal is to descend the first 3 500s on an interval of 6:30, and then descend and compare the next three…

The other day I came across an article outlining categories of professionalism for writers on Medium. There wasn’t a category for me. And, as I was reading the article, I knew there wouldn’t—and shouldn’t—be one for me. And, no, it’s not because my level of professionalism exceeds…

Fast 100s: Scare yourself a bit on these first two 100s. “Can I keep this pace up for the whole workout?” “Shoot, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do 8 of these.” Allow yourself to go all out early on and trust that your body will…

Emotional are clouding your perspective. Remain objective…“We reason and plan to achieve a goal, but in the heat of action we become emotional and lose perspective…The extended vision that rationality brings us is often eclipsed by…

Have a dream. Set a goal. Then, start small. The big stuff—the work that you have to do—will take care of itself. You’ve already been doing that stuff for a long time. The little things—the work that you want to do—need time to develop. Habits need to form…

Change your habits to change your story.

“Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.” — Lao Tzu

“When it comes to mastering a skill, time is the magic ingredient. Assuming your practice proceeds at a steady level, over days and weeks certain elements of the skill become hardwired. Slowly, the entire skill becomes internalized, part of your nervous system.” — Robert Greene, author of Mastery

The alarm goes off at 4:20am every morning. And, every morning, I have two persistent early morning hopes: That I’ll pop out of bed and be MOTIVATED and INSPIRED. It never happens…

Lessons, through quotes, from Caleb Dressel: Olympic Champion, World Champion, World Record Holder

TO COMPARE IS TO DESPAIR

“I have some goals that I would like to accomplish…

The process of training for big goals reveals the same thing each time: a consistent routine develops over time and that routine is what leads to success. Habits are habits. When chasing a big goal, especially a fitness goal, you simply choose habits that benefit you. 

We had a really hard swim practice on Wednesday. Thursday morning called for a hard bike-run brick effort. Driving to swim practice on Friday morning, I was tired and trying to find the enthusiasm for a 90 minute practice. When I pulled into the parking lot, I saw that everyone was congregated at one end of the pool, “huh, I wonder what’s going on?”

The days when I want to are bliss. It’s easy to get up. It’s easy to get out the door. It’s easy to get started. Unfortunately, they are few and far between. As the damn process would have it, the days that I don’t want to are far too often. And, it has nothing to do with enjoyment. I love working out. I love challenges. I love hard. But, I think as humans…

I had been swimming the 500 freestyle at master’s swim meets for a number of years. I kept running into the same wall. No matter the amount of training that I did—no matter the amount of yards that I put it—my times stayed consistent: 5:15, 5:09, 5:12. Race after race after race I kept hovering around the 5:10 marker. I knew breaking 5 minutes was possible. I knew that I had it in me. I just couldn’t—no matter what I tried—figure out what I needed to do…

I’m not a naturally good swimmer. I never have been. It’s taken a lot of hard work coupled with an immense amount of attention to detail. Attention to the details that talent usually doesn’t want to attend to. The hard work has certainly paid off. I won’t deny that. But, for someone without natural talent, the accumulation of years of attending to the minutiae has paid off even more. After 32 years of swimming, I’ve learned that…

I’m still chugging along with Seth Godin’s newest book, The Practice. I’ll likely go back to this book repeatedly. It’s full of gems. The gems, as Godin writes about them, apply to creative work. But, really, they apply to any meaningful work that we want to engage in to achieve a goal that has deep meaning to us. Any goal that requires daily and consistent practice.

Like getting in shape…

Theory is much easier than practice. Unfortunately, though, theory doesn’t lead to change. The only way to change is through consistent and deliberate practice. Want to get in shape and feel fit? t’s pretty easy…in theory.

’m kind of obsessed with Seth Godin’s latest book, The Practice. I mentioned in my last post that it’s a book that has hit me square between the eyes. The last book that did that for me was Steven Pressfield’s, The Art of War. Both, in their unique way, basically tell us to quit focusing on the outcome and, simply (ugh…much easier said than done), embrace the process…The Practice (Godin)…Do The Work (Pressfield). Over the years of working with athletes, as well as those trying to find fitness and health, I repeatedly see the same pattern when setting goals…