Forged by Failure

I missed my Friday blog post for the first time yesterday since the beginning of the New Year.  I had a pretty hectic week that threw my usual routine out of whack and forced me into some slightly less comfortable territory.  By the time my day ended Friday and I sat down in front of my computer to write this post, I didn’t really know where to begin.  My wife was sitting with me on the couch and we were searching for a show to watch, when I started to think.  What is more important to me; putting out a blog post every Friday or the quality of writing I produce.  It was a fitting thought, since earlier that day I made a Tweet about living your standard and owning it.  Now I was confronted with hurrying through a blog post just to get it out on time, or being patient and trying to write something worth reading.  Set a standard for who you are and how you operate and don’t bend or break that standard for anyone or anything. I’m sure some of you re...

Positive energy is a powerful tool for powering us through our lives.  It’s also vital for inspiring others to be a part of our journey.  Last week I discussed the value of vision and purpose in knowing who we are and where we’re going.  Knowing who we are and what our mission is creates confidence which in turn powers positive energy.  It’s hard to be positive and upbeat about the things we do if we’re not sure where we’re going.  Now that we have a vision of our journey, a direction for us and our passengers, it’s time to get more people to join us.  It’s awesome to have a vision and understanding of who we are, but getting to our destination requires help and that means attracting others to join us on our journey.  The only way to inspire others to join us on your path to success is through positive energy.  Nobody wants to join a journey, no matter how powerful or great the mission, if the leader/driver is a Debbie Downer.  That’s where...

I’m sitting here Monday morning thinking about the start of the week and the things I’m looking forward to trying to accomplish this week when a person comes into the gym and every word out of their mouth is negative.  They are the definition of an Energy Vampire.  It’s “I hate Monday’s,” “I have so much work to do,” “traffic on Monday’s is always the worse.”  Every single thing is against them and their whole week is going to suck because they have to give a presentation today and the project was so stupid to begin with.  I don’t know about you, but I felt some of my energy being sucked out of me just writing that introduction paragraph.  Yikes, imagine feeling like this every Monday, or working with this person, or thinking that everything that happens in life is such a downer, or life is always against you.  I’m exhausted thinking about this and it’s only been sixty seconds. It really is amazing how much better you can feel just by thinking positiv...

I’m sure many of you clicked on this blog to see why a coach and trainer would be telling people to walk, don’t run.  Seems slightly opposite what most in my position would be saying, but this isn’t about hustling on and off the field, or sprint intervals in the gym.  Instead I’m referring to the journey of life that we’re all on.  I had a short conversation today with a friend who is on a weight-loss journey.  It’s a conversation I often have with people in my gym.  Most commonly I get asked, what’s the best diet?  What’s the best workout routine?  How often should I do this or that?   The usual I want to lose x pounds by this date.  All of this got me thinking about how our society rushes to everything.  How we’re so consumed by instant gratification and immediate results that we forget that everything we want out of life is a journey.  It all takes time if we wish to do it right.  It’s not just weight-loss I’m talking abou...

Today I woke up from a nap to three different texts about Kobe Bryant.  By now I’m sure most of you reading this have heard the news.  Kobe was one of the NBA players I most looked forward to watching play, he had an ability to control a game like few have ever had.  The news of his death is just another reminder about how fragile life is and how suddenly it can come to an end.  I’m not saying this to be morbid or to scare you into fearing life’s uncertainty, in fact I’m hoping to do the opposite.  There is one truth about life, eventually it will end.  Death will come for all of us, and it’s not going to come when we ask him to.  Death doesn’t care if you’re young or old, he doesn’t care if you're rich or poor, famous or unknown.  My point is this, we can’t control when our time comes, we can only have faith that when it does we’ll be ready and that we’ve embraced every opportunity presented to us while we were here. Our time on Earth is pr...

I find myself in conversations about coaching a lot.  I think it’s a fascinating profession that has many incredible people doing an amazing job everyday.  However, we still hear and see stories of terrible coaches.  I often wonder why there are still bad coaches out there?  I think to myself that with all these resources how do we have coaches who still just don’t get it?  A lot of times especially at the youth level.  It’s hard to watch the kids that need the most coaching and teaching get stuck with people who don’t know how to do either.  It’s not entirely the coaches fault in that instance, they are volunteers that got stuck leading a team for a sport they never played because their kid is on the team and nobody else would step up.  This is topic for another time, but to be blunt and simple about it, if you had the chance to coach your kid and chose not to, keep your mouth shut if you don’t like what the coach who did step up is doing....

Recently I’ve been working on building a clothing brand.  More than that I’ve been working on building a brand that reaches beyond clothes.  It’s something I’ve been tinkering with for a while and I’ve really wanted to release something that carried a strong message.  Something that I felt those I coached and trained could grow from.  During my search for a brand name I dabbled with a bunch of different ideas and names, but kept coming back to using the word failure in my brand.  First, I thought Fail Forward would be cool.  I was excited about the idea and meaning and name, until I found out someone already had that name.  So, from there I put out three more options; Forged by Failure, Edge of Greatness, and On the Brink.  I found the feedback interesting.  There was positive feedback on all my logo designs, but one common thing continued to present itself.  “I wouldn’t want the word failure in my brand.”  Why? I’m genuinely ...