Passion

Had you called the PL&L offices over the weekend and asked for either my partner Lindon or me, you would have been told that we were both out of town. You would have probably assumed that we were both away on a Learning Vacation. But that was not the case. Lindon was in New Orleans playing in a volleyball tournament and I was in Las Vegas playing in a baseball tournament.

Among the many things we have in common is that Lindon and I both continue to pursue our love of sport in competitive situations. As we get older, it gets physically more difficult to maintain the level of performance needed to compete at that level. And yet, that is part of the challenge. Getting and staying in “tournament shape” is part of the fun.

One of my dreams as a kid was to play professional baseball. I loved playing baseball and couldn’t get enough of it. Still do. I’m really blessed that physically I can still do this at my age and that I have created a business that affords me the time to do it.

Oh by the way, both Lindon’s and my team won our tournaments. As one famous baseball player once said “you don’t need to win to have fun at this game, but it certainly helps.”

Technorati Tags: Adult Baseball, Passion, Xtraordinary Living

Enjoying the Journey

My bike trip to Portugal is in two weeks. Yesterday I did my longest bike ride to date – 25 miles with 6 of those being up hill. While I’m looking forward to the trip, getting ready for it has been a blast. It’s been fun seeing how my body is adjusting to the longer and more difficult rides as I’m getting in better shape.

We have a saying at PL&L that “the course begins once you register for it.” How true this is. This whole experience is a great reminder to “enjoy the journey.” I can’t wait to see what the Portugal rides will be like. Regardless, I can tell you that the San Diego rides have been fabulous.

Technorati Tags: Biking, Portugal, Xtraordinary Living

Akheela and the Bee

My family and I just watched the movie Akheela and the Bee and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a rare family movie that appeals to both adults, teenagers and kids.

The movie is being distributed by Lionsgate Entertainment and is part of a new series of films that are inspirational and focused on conscious living. Heather Somaini who is a PL&L client, works for the company and is in charge of creating a nationwide network of like-minded people who want to see films like this one. I will be interviewing Heather in an upcoming podcast episode so she can tell us more about this project.

If you haven’t yet seen it, I highly recommend that you do.

Technorati Tags: Akheela and the Bee, Movies, Lionsgate, Xtraordinary Living

Groundhog Day conversation

I was recently working with an executive team and we were having a “Groundhog Day” conversation – the same one we’ve had on several occasions. I then asked the team a question: “When is it time for you to put an issue to rest and move on?”

As we were discussing this, I got my answer: “when I no longer have any negative energy on the issue.” I shared this with the group and they all agreed this was also the case for them.

With this insight, we proceeded to find out what it would take for each of them to remove the negative energy they had around the issues we had been discussing. As people thought about this they realized that when they changed the context (story) that they had been telling themselves, most of the negative energy went away. The results were incredible! The rest of the meeting was spent on moving through the issues without very little resistance.

The next time you find yourself having a “Groundog Day” conversation with someone, you may want to keep this in mind.

You have to be strong to be flexible

In an earlier post I talked about my need for structure to do the things that I don’t particularly enjoy doing. I don’t like stretching! It is very hard for me and very uncomfortable. I believe this is so because of my lack of flexibility. Which is why I need to stretch.

I only recently started focusing on my flexibility – it’s that getting older thing While I have been doing weight training to maintain my strength for years, I finally put some structure in place where I get to stretch a few times per week. I decided to add a Yoga class for a limited period of time as part of the structure.

“You have to be strong to be flexible” said the Yoga instructor. That was an “aha” moment for me. Up until I heard that, strength and flexibility seemed to be two unrelated concepts. No longer.

However, it is a certain kind of strength that allows you to be flexible. For example, while gymnasts are BOTH strong and flexible, body builders are strong but very often they are too “bulked up” to be flexible.

Doing Yoga certainly promotes the type of strength that will increase flexibility. I now have another reason to continue practicing Yoga after my limited period is over. Who knows, maybe another benefit of working on my physical flexibility is that I’m becoming more mentally flexible as well.

Self-diagnosis

Earlier in the week I woke up and felt a lot of tightness around my neck. As the day progressed the pain was getting worse and worse and by the end of the day I could hardly turn my neck. I assumed that I had pulled a muscle and proceeded to take some Advil and ice the area. I remember saying to my mother – whom I was visiting at the time – “you can’t go wrong with ice.” Little did I know how wrong I was!

To make a long story short, turns out that I didn’t have a pulled muscle. I had a pinched nerve around the collarbone area. And I learned that you don’t want to ice the area right next to the neck because you can freeze some of the nerves there and create some major damage.

This incident reminded me how often self-diagnosis leads to inaccurate conclusions. Not only does this not solve the original problem, but it makes it worse. On the other hand, it also reminded me of the importance of having expert resources available to help us properly diagnose situations and treat them appropriately.

Podcast Episode #8 -The Power of Networking

Episode #8 of the Xtraordinary Living podcast is out. The topic is Networking. In this episode, I was joined by Dawn Lyons, who is the Executive Director for 3 franchises of Business Network International (BNI) in the San Francisco Bay Area and she is also a master trainer for The Referral Institute.

Dawn is a world-class networker and embodies the “givers gain” mentality. Listen to Dawn and I talk about some tools that will help you build business and personal relationships.

The episode is 20 minutes long. If you have broadband, click on the player below:

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If you don’t have broadband, click here:Podcast Episode #8.

If you would like to subscribe to this podcast and receive new issues automatically, you can do so by clicking iTunes button on the left sidebar. You can also go to iTunes or Yahoo directories, type Xtraordinary Living and subscribe there.

Technorati Tags: Dawn Lyons, Referral Institute, BNI, Networking, Xtraordinary Living

Ashes and Snow

Swimming with whales in Tonga ranks as one of my all-time xtraordinary experiences. I was recently introduced to the work of photographer Gregory Colbert. Viewing some of his work brought back those fantastic memories.

Here’s one of his quotes that captures the essence of what he is all about:

“In exploring the shared language and poetic sensibilities of all animals, I am working towards rediscovering the common ground that once existed when people lived in harmony with animals. The images depict a world that is without beginning or end, here or there, past or present.””

Check it out at www.ashesandsnow.org. His work is truly Xtraordinary!

Dining in the Dark

At PL&L we have always looked to provide unique experiences to help us facilitate the learning process. Most of these experiences have occurred in our Learning Vacations. Experiences like swimming with the whales in Tonga or touring Europe aboard the Orient Express are hard to bring to the classroom setting of our local courses.

And yet this past Saturday, we offered an experience that in my mind, ranks right up there with some of these magnificent Learning Vacations. As part of the Living in Appreciation Yearlong course, we arranged to have one of our weekend sessions “in the dark.” Here is how it went.

The company who staged this event is called Opaque and they put together an event called Dining in the Dark. Their concept is to allow you to “willingly plunge into a world of sensitivity you have never experienced before, taking you through a journey of taste, sound and touch all in the dark.”

And so it was! Sitting in a pitch-black dining room, we were guided to our tables by blind servers who were specifically trained to serve meals in the dark. Not only was their service equivalent to a 5-star restaurant, but their compassion, guidance and reassurance was invaluable.

Being deprived of my sight for two hours was a fascinating journey that included all of the following: fear, stress, elation, gratitude, appreciation, insightful conversation and lots of fun.

The Living in Appreciation course is off to a great start. I can’t wait to see where this journey will take us next!

Appreciation

Today we start the Yearlong course Living in Appreciation. I’m very excited about this course given that appreciation and recognition are two key elements in having an extraordinary life. Plus we have some experiential activities planned for this course that promise to be lots of fun. The first one of those is tomorrow. Stay tuned.