Step by step in 2016

Step by step in 2016

It’s the beginning of the year, and most people are eyeing new goals – or the ones they never got around to finishing last year. For me it’s different this year. I’m addressing one I created a need for in 2015. I gained 30 pounds.

It’s been a tough year

This year in October, the cast of Season 8 of The Biggest Loser met at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD. We were excited to hug each other and talk over memories, but we were called there for a reason. During the trip, I learned some important things. We all have struggled with our weight after the show – some more than others – but everyone has struggled.

We went to NIH to get our metabolism tested again. You see, during my season on The Biggest Loser, the government tested our metabolisms before we began, in the middle of the process, at the final weigh-in, and 2 years after the show. They found that our metabolisms slowed despite retaining most of our muscle mass. They had speculated that if we kept the muscle, our metabolisms wouldn’t slow as much. They were wrong.

After the show, my resting metabolic rate (RMR) was 1500. Two years later it was 1650, and now it is 1800. When I began it was over 3000! They expected it to slow, but 6-years after I am at 79% of a normal man’s RMR, which puts me behind the 8-ball! Your RMR is the amount of calories you burn resting – doing nothing – and I’m at a 450 calorie disadvantage. They suspect it is because of our rapid weight loss paired with our rapid energy expenditure. I burned about 8000 calories per day while only eating about 15% as much. Our RMR’s haven’t bounced back like they thought it would. Our bodies have changed – despite packing on some additional muscle and our weight increasing.

All of that said, I gained 30 pounds this year, and I cannot become a victim to my circumstance! So what do I do now? I set a goal.

Success begins with a goal

When you set a goal, it should be attainable with real measuring points to hit along the way, whether the goal is financial, physical, spiritual, or relational.

First, you should come up with a precise goal statement. It should contain what you want in measurable form, a time frame in achieving it, and it must be realistic. To simply say “I want to lose weight” isn’t enough. We want to be specific.

Here are my goals for 2016

  • I want to lose 30 pounds in 3 months. I have an amount to lose, a time frame to achieve it, and it is achievable.
  • For financial, you might say I want to pay off $5,000 in credit card debt in 2016. It is measured in amount and time, and that could be done.
  • Maybe I want to spend 15 minutes a day reading the bible in 2016. Yes! If I’d said 1 hour a day, I’d ask if it were realistic to spend over 6% of my waking hours reading. I’d say no – but less than 2%? Okay!

Write your goal statement and put it everywhere – on your refrigerator, mirror, desk, phone – everywhere!

Taking steps

Next you should set 3 goal action steps. Getting started begins with taking steps. Make them specific. Not “work out 1 hour every day.” 7-days a week is too high, setting you up to fail.

My action steps look like this:

1. I will eat lunch in the office four days a week.

2. I will work out three times a week in the gym, including an additional two hours of cardio.

3. I will weigh-in once per week and measure my achievements. Those three steps I can handle!

Each step, you may need to break down even further. If your first step is join a gym, you might break that down to

1. Visit three gyms this week

2. Choose one and sign up

3. Set up an auto-draft payment.

So, create your specific and measurable goal statement for 2016, and create 3 attainable action steps to get you moving. Now you just have to start moving – step by step! And if you need help, reach out to me! I have an online coaching group that can help you set and achieve your 2016 goals! You can email me at danny@thedannycahill.com.

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What are you Afraid of Anyway?  By Carla Willingham

What are you Afraid of Anyway? By Carla Willingham

“What are you afraid of anyway?  ”Let’s face it. We’re all afraid of something. Thunderstorms, snakes, heights, darkness, public speaking – or maybe being alone or taking on a new challenge; whatever it is, fear is fear and we all deal with it at one time or another. Whether we realize it or not, fear often times is a big factor in our lives.

But what exactly is fear? If you break it down, fear can be described simply as:

False

Education

Appearing

Real

Fear from perceptions

My fears may not necessarily be like your fears, but they are no less real. I personally find clowns to be delightful and funny, but have a friend who cowers in fear at even the mention of them. While I don’t believe she will ever encounter an evil clown who intends to do her harm, her perception of clowns prevents her from seeing them any other way.

Is her fear real? Yes, it certainly is.

Fear from experience

A person very close to me had an automobile accident recently and had to get past the fear of being behind the wheel again. The fear of having another accident was very real, but if they hadn’t worked through the fear, they would have been left with no way to get to work and provide for their family. Fear can be so powerful that it can impede your ability to even do some of life’s necessary functions. You can literally become a slave to fear.

Bondage from fear

It seems at times that there is no way to avoid becoming prey to the spirit of fear. Fear is a very powerful emotion and succumbing to it can be very easy. On the other hand, overcoming fear doesn’t seem to be as easy as falling victim to it. Sure, fear exists; otherwise, courage wouldn’t exist. But far too often our fear can be magnetized into something much bigger, causing us to hesitate, or even turn and run! The good news is that much of the time, a fear is a nothing more than a lie from the enemy. You can overcome it and you can break free from it.

“Feel the fear, move through it, do it anyway” – Jillian Michaels

The Journey Training  can give you the tools you need to overcome fear that is hindering you from living the life you desire and deserve. Each person that has attended The Journey Training has had to overcome some fear that they had in their lives. Whether it was a fear in the past, a fear of the future, or even a fear of change. Signing up for the Training may have been the first step through fear for many.

Living a life free from fear is possible. How do I know? Because I was once wounded by fear and let it hinder me from living life fully. And sometimes, I just have to look in the mirror and say “What are you afraid of anyway?” Maybe you should let The Journey Training show you how to get the tools to identify and overcome fear. Life lived without being slave to the spirit of fear is a good life indeed.

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Serving Myself through my Handicap

Serving Myself through my Handicap

According to the dictionary, here is the definition of handicap:

Handicap [han-dee-kap]
noun
1. the disadvantage or advantage itself.
2. any disadvantage that makes success more difficult: The main handicap of our business is lack of capital.
3. Sometimes Offensive. a physical or mental disability making participation in certain of the usual activities of daily living more difficult.

 

Handicap The picture is of my back – my actual back. No funny business, very real.

Life can throw you a curve ball

When I was 11 years old, I was told I had scoliosis. That meant nothing to me at the time. In my book Dysfunctional Inspiration, I wrote “While my life had been getting better, that scoliosis that I mentioned a while back had been getting worse. My mother took me to the doctor before school started, and he decided that the curvature in my spine needed to be dealt with ASAP. That meant I would need to wear a metal brace for the next two years—which were also my last two years of high school.

You’ve gotta be kidding! After everything I’d been through already, after all the hard work I’d put in, this was happening? What girl would ever consider going out with me? It would be like dating the tin man. How was I supposed to enjoy my last high school years? It was all too much. Sitting there in the doctor’s office, I started to cry. Not the feel-sorry-for-yourself kind, but actually more like the really, really mad kind. The kind where the tears stream off your face before they hit your chin kind. I was MAD! Partially at God. It was like, “Hey! I am doing every freaking thing I can, why can’t I get a break!?”

Not that it made a difference. My spine was curving into an “S,” which was not the proper shape for a spine. And it would only get worse. So I was fitted for what’s called a Milwaukee Brace; a contraption that kind of resembles a medieval torture device. It extended from my pelvis all the way up to my chin, and was made up of steel rods, fiberglass, and seat belt straps to hold it in place, and it would latch on the side, to hold my curve in place to keep the scoliosis from getting worse.

And yes – it was every bit as uncomfortable as it sounds. Sitting in a car was almost impossible—the seat pushed up on the brace until it would push up on my chin. I couldn’t even ride in certain cars—if they were too small, they couldn’t accommodate me. At school, sitting at my desk was also a challenge—I had to sit on the very edge of my seat with my legs tucked under the seat just to fit under the desk. Some desks had small openings that would tear my shirts getting in and out.

Of course, physical discomfort was only the tip of this particular iceberg. Chances are, if you’re reading this, you went to high school. In which case, I don’t need to tell you how cruel kids can be. And the sight of me clanging through the halls in my metal cage…well, I guess I was too tempting a target to ignore. They called me R2D2… they called me Robo-Boy…it was not a lot of fun. And it was certainly not the junior year I had envisioned for myself.

But something inside me wouldn’t let me fall apart this time. I had come so far—I had survived my mother’s drinking, my parents’ fighting and moves all over the country. I had found God, improved my grades and turned my life around. Maybe the old me would have given up and decided it was all too hard. But now I understood. I knew I had a choice. And I chose to live my life the best way I could.

Even today, I still have some physical limitations. I have endured many hours of back pain as my body and I wrestle to figure out just what those limitations are. Looking back, if I had to do it over again, and we had the means, I would have treated my scoliosis with surgery. Those muscles still grew, and grew wrapped around the bone, which makes certain things really painful, even today. However, I have adapted, and today I can almost always tell when I am about to have a muscle issue—so I go and rest so I can fight another day.”

Your ability (or disability) doesn’t define your worth

You have total control of your self-worth. When you look at a $100 bill, you don’t question how good it is based on how crumpled, messed up, torn or dirty it is. Its value is its value. One of the places I serve at is The Little Light House . There’s a quote there that I love. It says “our kids don’t have disabilities, they have different abilities.”

Test the limits, know your boundaries

Every one of us has limits. Even though as a teenager we behave like we don’t, we do have limits. (I wish I’d known this when I jumped off that 2nd story balcony with a bedsheet. I was trying to prove you could actually use it as a parachute!) Even though we do, it is important to test them. You need to know where your boundaries are. I know what I can do, and how much I can push it.

My wife hates it when I do stuff like this, but I know if I do something like this I will be fine to a point, then I need to rest. I know exactly what I can and can’t do. I can do this, but if I go golfing, then I am down for a week.

So my handicap doesn’t limit me; it just helps me view things from a different perspective.

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Wanted:  1969 Shelby – What Is Your Motivation?

Wanted: 1969 Shelby – What Is Your Motivation?

Wanted:  1969 Shelby- What Is Your Motivation?  My dream became a reality directly due to my motivation and goals and I can tell you exactly how I made that happen.

Statistics show that people who write down their goals have over an 80% higher success rate of achieving them than those that don’t.

I have often told people that, regardless of what your overall plan is, step one should be to write down your goals, your motivations. However, people often write down a goal or two, stick the piece of paper in their pocket, and never see it again. Sometimes I even hear people say that they simply don’t have the time to write down their goals. If you don’t have enough time to write them down, how in the world will you have enough time to achieve them?

Write it down, and make it visible!

Ever since I was a teenager I wanted a Ford Mustang. Not just any mustang, but a 1969 fastback. I loved the sleek design, the rumble of the muscle, and the smell of gasoline when you revved it. This was the car that, when you mention it, people have that far away look and their eyes glaze over. I also loved the fact that it was a car of distinction, not one of money. It was a car with character, just like me.

Now that I am older, I still want to get one. My wife, the amazing woman that she is, bought me one. It was 40 years old and every time I started it I could feel how old it was. I ended up repairing a window latch here, and a fuel line there. A few more repairs in, and I realized that I did’t have the time to invest in this beauty like she deserved.

So, I set my sights on a different one. I wanted it all to be new, state of the art, something that looked nostalgic, but ran like a dream. I found a picture of it and posted it on my wall. I did not know how, or when, but this would be my car. I would look at that picture regularly.

Here is where it gets good.

 

Step 1

I shared my goals with others.
I shared it with others, I took action and shared my desires. It was posted in a place where anyone that is in my office could see it. It always struck up conversation where I could share what specifically I wanted to have. Meanwhile I saved.

Step 2

Take some action.
I saved for it. Seems odd, I did not even know it existed, but it was an idea I wanted. The best of both worlds I called it. Either way, I saved. It was not much, it started as $150 per month. Then it grew a little here, a little there, and I think it ended up being about $250 per month.

Step 3

When the opportunity came up, I took it.
A friend came to me one day and told me he found my car. I asked him what he meant, and he shared with me about a company that he knew of that builds exactly what I wanted. I took a trip, and sure enough, I got to build exactly what I wanted. Retrobuilt.com

There were still things I had to do to get it, so it took another few months, but If I did not share my goal with others I would not have found it. If I had not started saving, I would not have had any resources to get it.

Our dreams and goals may be huge, but if you fold it up and put in your pocket with no call to action, it does no good.

Wanted:  1969 Shelby- What Is Your Motivation?  My dream to a reality.

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Choose and Move

Choose and Move

In the Journey Training, I often use the phrase “choose and move.”  I love this statement, and so I use this all the time.  When I am driving, if you’re a passenger in my car, you would possibly hear me yell, “C’mon buddy, choose and move!” How about when this happens at the mall?  It is December at the mall, walking down the corridor, hundreds of people around me. Everything is moving along at a good pace, kind of like a herd of cattle, until someone stops right in front of you. You come to a screeching halt to avoid running into them, and then everyone behind you is doing the same. Not choosing and moving caused a 9 person holiday pileup.

Even if I don’t know exactly what to do, I choose and move.  I may not have all the facts, but I will make a choice and act on it.  Sometimes I will move without all the facts, and it ends up messing things up, and other times I may wait, producing an outcome that is not what I wanted.

I have 6 kids, and one thing I have learned is when to tell your kid is sick.  I remember my son Casey once came in to me, about 18 months old and had a certain look. As a parent, you just know! I knew what this look was, but I knelt down and started trying to over-analyze it. He was whining, and kind of crying. “How are you feeling Casey, does your head hurt?”

“No”, he whined. I had him breathe in and out, then I put my hand on his stomach, and I felt it turn…HOLY POOPY! I knew what was about to happen.

I yelled “NOELL,” grabbed Casey, threw him on my shoulder and bolted to the bathroom, which was on the other side of the house.  We made it half way there before he exploded, puking everywhere; since we were running to the bathroom it was like crop dusting.  I got him to the toilet, and we got him all situated.  Then, once the adrenaline stopped, I assessed the situation.  He started throwing up down the hall, so it was at head height on the west side wall, for about 17 feet. When we tried to set him down by the toilet, in the adjustment, he belched out another, and that took care of most of the restroom. It was in my ear, on my glasses, and right into my mouth. By the time Noell got there, I looked like I just got out of battle, and stood in my suit, dripping, spitting, and wiping  whatever Casey had for breakfast and lunch off my glasses.

If I hadn’t made a choice and moved, the situation could have been significantly worse.

When I know I need to move on something, here is why I am passionate:

  1. The window of opportunity may not be open long.
  2. I may lose the passion if I delay
  3. Once I get it done, I can move on to other things.

What do you need to move on today? 

You can learn tools such as these fromThrive15.com an online 24-hour a day “edutainment” “edutainment” platform that helps people learn from Millionaires, Moguls and everyday success stories like me.  You can use my access code 2inspire and get a FREE 30 day membership.

 

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