The Fundamentals Translate…

It’s the fundamentals that make the difference in business, in running, and in life…and they are pretty much the same!

1. Don’t Take it Too Seriously:  It may be important but if it stresses you out, your performance will suffer…laugh often!
Runners: Leave your Garmin at home on occassion.  :-)

2. Ask:  Ask for the sale, ask for help…from the heart, for the right reasons!  No one really wants to do it alone.
Runners:  Run with buddies…to speed you up or slow you down.

3. Stay in the Moment:  What you DO right now is all that matters…not yesterday, not tomorrow.  Right now.
Runners:  Run the mile you are in!

4. Be Generous:  If you want something, give something first.  Trust that it will come back to you.  Givers gain.
Runners:  High five fellow runners, congratulate the winner, volunteer.

5. Use Your Time:  We all have the same amount of time available to us.  You can choose to use it or not.  The keyword is “USE.”
Runners:  Go run!

6. Reflect:  Take some time to slow down, look around, breathe.  Find some quiet time.  You may see something new in that mirror.
Runners:  On occasion, stop and enjoy the view, the quiet, the moment.

7. Feed the Fire Within: …to live with joy and passion but make choices with your head.
Runners:  Do what you love whether fast or slow, short or long, but listen to your body.

8. Find Balance: Work, family, faith, health…the tree that leans too far will fall.
Runners:  Mix it up, cross train, rest!

9. Find the Positive:  In winning and in losing. In Everything.
Runners:  It hurts but it’s a good hurt!

10. Face your fear:  That which we are most afraid of is exactly the thing we need to go after.
Runners:  Sign up for that race already!

11. Choose…to be successful, to be happy, to be you…then ACT on it.
Runners:  Run Steady, Run Strong!

Do the work. Do the analysis. But feel your run…

“Do the work. Do the analysis. But feel your run. Feel your race. Feel the joy that is running.” - Kara Goucher, 2008 Olympian, Runner’s World Quote of the Day

This is how we ran as kids…less analysis but with joy
This is how we should run every day
Anything else is restricted, restrained, self-limiting

Joy is the key
Find your passion…persevere…to live your greatest journey
- Look deep
- Own it
- Live it
- Use it to look deeper
- Unleash it

In running, business, family, faith…in life
Feel the joy!

Update and Michael – Kick-off to Fight the Good Fight!

Update!
Ran the Glass City Marathon yesterday with lots of rain, great volunteers, and some awesome runners.  Made my goal of new best GCM time of 3:38:42 which was 4:16 faster than my previous time set way back in 2006!  Don’t feel so old today!  Woohoo!

That’s one race down, 2 to go…for my Honorees…for LLS…for a cure! Go Team!  If you missed it, check out the plan.

Next race is the North Country 50 Miler on August 24^th so ultra-marathon training starts today!

Fundraising Update
Thanks to Liz Schier, Dave Schlaudecker, Deb Spero, Karen Landis, and Steve Grindle and the staff at Champion Credit Union for early donations and pledges for the cause.  You guys are awesome!  We are on our way!

Honoree Update
We are adding Michael Warren to our Honoree list for our friend Jessica Blattner.  Here is what she shared:
“…my nephew Michael Warren in Dayton who suffers from lymphoma after being diagnosed about a year ago. He’s undergone many rounds of chemo so far and the prognosis isn’t good due to his on-going infections….but he’s gotten cleared enough for a bone marrow transplant in the next month and has his match. It’s grim based on the health he’s in and withering away of his body and strength. However, it’s his only real hope and he’s prepared to fight hard. He’s only 28. He was a full time airman at Wright Patterson AFB in the aerospace medicine field when he was diagnosed. Michael was always a star athlete, very successful in soccer. He misses it a lot. He loves sports, the Cincinnati Reds & OSU anything.

He ended up with some gastrointestinal issues through all of the chemo, developed a fissure and it got infected, the infection spread and went to his blood I believe….it all kept getting bad. As soon as he’d get strength there’d be a setback. A couple months ago he underwent a couple surgeries including a reversible colostomy among some other gastro things. He’s in remission with maintenance chemo ongoing. It’s been quite the road, and he plowed through and worked at the base as long as he possibly could in the early months. He was told by the transplant dr that he was not ready to handle it and it kept getting moved back, and back, and back. Then just a couple wks ago he was told no again by the transplant dr. A no that was final. It left him with about a 20% chance of living without this bone marrow. His oncologist went to bat for him believing that couldn’t be the final answer. After some more reviewing and consulting they agreed to go forward and Michael wants to fight. His parents are bracing for a big what if. He’s not as stable ideally as he should be to endure this. As you know a bone marrow transplant is agonizingly hellish. They have to go through the re evaluation of his donor again bc it’s been so many months. He’s not giving up though. And he lives life FULL. He’s moving and active and doing anything that his body allows him to. He and Lexy were at a reds game the other day…..he’s a fantastic guy who reminds us all what to do every day to capture every single solitary moment we can.”

Keep Michael in your prayers as well as all of our 152 Honorees so they know that we are with them every single solitary moment!  Fight the good fight Baby!

Finally, we need your help to reach our $5,000 fundraising goal!  Please make a donation in support of all of our efforts with Team In Training and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to help advance the research for cures for all!  It won’t be easy…it never is…but it will be worth it!

You can donate online at: http://pages.teamintraining.org/noh/detroit13/ernestlewis

If you have a family member or friend with cancer or lost to cancer that I can run for, send me their name and their story.  I would be honored to run for them!

And, thank you for your support… Run Steady, Run Strong!

Fear is a question…

“Fear is a question: What are you afraid of, and why? Just as the seed of health is in illness, because illness contains information, your fears are a treasure house of self-knowledge if you explore them.” – Marilyn Ferguson

Fear is the signal…
to ask a question
to focus
that there may be walls
that there may be opportunity
to change
to step in and explore

Whether one mile or a hundred miles, face your fear!

Awareness…

“Awareness is the birthplace of possibility. Everything you want to
do, everything you want to be, starts here. To be a successful visionary, you
must be as aware as possible. At every moment, many paths lead forward.
Awareness tells you which is the right one to take.” – Deepak Chopra

It’s key to…
- good leadership
- good followership
- your team
- your customers
- your work
- your future
- your legacy.

Kick-off to Fight the Good Fight!

It’s that time of year again!  I am on a mission to help find cures and more effective treatments for blood cancers…and all cancers. To accomplish that mission, I’m running 3 special races this year in memory of 3 special people…as well as running for all of my Honorees…all 151 of them! Honorees2013

Our 3 special Honorees are Herb Landis, Marcia Housel, and Paula Massey who each lost their battle with cancer in the last few months. I knew each of them and they made a huge difference in my life and in the lives of many others. For them and all my Honorees, I am running the Glass City Marathon on April 28th (just a week away), the North Country 50 Miler on August 24th and the Oil Creek 100 on October 5th…yes, 176.2 race miles in all and another 1,500 training miles just to get ready!  I’ve run each of these races in years past and my goal is to run each one faster than ever before!

And to top it all off on October 20th, I will be supporting other TNT volunteers and fundraisers as a Coach for TNT at the Detroit Free Press Marathon. My job will be to help and support other TNT runners as they make it to the finish line! Many of them will be first time marathoners as well as first time fundraisers…true heroes! Woohoo!

Through all of these races and many long training days over the next 5 months I will be carrying my Honoree list made up of friends and family with cancer and lost to cancer. The list includes Herb, Marcia, and Paula, as well as my friend Rodney Cundiff - brain tumor survivor, Judy Evanoff – lost to melanoma, my uncle Jack Connor – colon cancer survivor, my Mom – breast cancer survivor and many others…151 in all. It is my honor and privilege to run for all of my Honorees. When the miles get long and lonely, they keep me going!

I am participating in these sports endurance events as a member of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) Team In Training. Like the other members of TNT, I will be raising funds to help find cures and better treatments for leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma…and ultimately for all cancers. I’m improving the quality of my life by running and participating and with your support, we can help improve the quality of life for cancer patients and their families as well as remember those we have lost.

We need your help to reach our $5,000 fundraising goal! Please make a donation in support of my efforts with Team In Training and help advance the research for cures for all!  It won’t be easy…it never is…but it will be worth it!

You can donate online at: http://pages.teamintraining.org/noh/detroit13/ernestlewis

If you have a family member or friend with cancer or lost to cancer that I can run for, send me their name and their story.  I would be honored to run for them!

Finally, I will be posting training and fundraising updates here on my blog.  You can subscribe for email notices and please check out the donation page link above!

Run Steady, Run Strong!

Coaching with Heart

“Giving high-quality feedback doesn’t have to do with a skill or technique; it has to do with caring enough about people to tell it like it is.” 

-Robert Hargrove, Masterful Coaching

The best coaching comes from the heart.

As does the best sales technique…ask from the heart and the sale will be right.

As does the best leadership…lead from the heart and others will follow.

As does the best relationship…trust your heart to find the one.

As does the best art…

As does a good belly laugh.   :-)