Dan Gable- A Living Example Of Dedication & A Winning Habit

Dan Gable is well-known in Iowa as well as around the country. He is famous for having only lost one match in his entire Iowa State University collegiate career—his last, and winning gold at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany while not giving up a single point. He was the head coach at the University of Iowa where he won 15 NCAA team titles from 1976-1998.

What does this all have to do with health and fitness? The fact that Dan Gable had the dedication to get to 181 consecutive wins. When he lost in the final match of his senior year, he could have let that ruin him, his dedication and his ego. But, he didn't. He used that as a motivator to work even harder, to be even more dedicated, then to go to the 1972 Olympic Games, not letting one point be scored against him and walk away with the gold metal.

Watch this:

How many times in your life have you let something hold you back? How many times, when something didn't end up going your way, did you just throw in the towel and quit? How many times did you let the thought of failure enter your mind, then when it ultimately comes true, you say "See, I knew it wouldn't work!". I'd be willing to bet any or all of these have happened to most of us at one time or another.

Take Dan Gable's example. When things get tough, whether in your workouts, your diet, your job, your life, decide you are going to put your head down and push forward. Decide that regardless of what obstacles get in your way, you are going to persevere. That no matter what, you are going to reach your goals and beyond, because the only real way to fail is to quit.

Dan Gable could have let that one lose crush him for life, but instead he used it to make himself stronger, more dedicated and more committed. It is definitely an example we should all work towards.

Let me know your thoughts. I always love hearing from you and learning from you!

Adaptability in Action

Here's another great essay, written by Denis Waitley. It really is an interesting perspective, if you think about it. How many times do we do the same thing over & over again, expecting a different result? It has been said many times, but this is the definition of insanity. If you want a different result in your life, your workouts, your career or your love life, you need to do something different. Check out the essay & let me know your thoughts.

Rebecca

***********************************************************************************
In a way, human beings behave like bees. If you place several bees in an open-ended bottle and lay the bottle on its side with the base toward a light source, the bees will repeatedly fly to the bottle bottom toward the light. It never occurs to them to reverse gears and try another direction. This is a combination of genetic programming and learned behavior.

Put a bunch of flies in that bottle and turn the base toward a bright light. Within a few minutes, all the flies will have found their way out. They try all directions—up, down, toward the light, away from the light, often bumping into the glass—but sooner or later they flutter forth into the neck of the bottle and out the opening.

We often allow ourselves to become locked in our present circumstances—even if we are unhappy and really want to be reaching in a new direction. What we’re doing may make us miserable, but at least it’s familiar. One of the most important factors in achieving personal success is the willingness to try things out, to experiment, to test new ground. In fact, this is the only way to learn and progress: trial, error, feedback, knowledge, trial and success. It is a far better thing to try to succeed and fail, than to do nothing and succeed.

This week:

* Try it
* Change it
* Do it

Stop stewing and start doing!

-- Denis Waitley

Success Is Not an Accident by Brian Tracy

Sometimes I find stories or essays that really speak to me & I want to share them with the rest of you. This is one of them. I truly believe that we can accomplish anything we want in our lives, as long as we focus on that & realize that the first step is to think about what we do want, not on what we don't want. This essay by Brian Tracy explains that beautifully.
Rebecca

*************************************************************************************

Success is not a miracle, nor is it a matter of luck. Everything happens for a reason, good or bad, positive or negative. When you are absolutely clear about what you want, you only need to copy others who have achieved it before you, and you will eventually get the same results that they have.

This is referred to in the Bible as the Law of Sowing and Reaping, which says, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that also shall he reap.”

Sir Isaac Newton called it the third principle of motion. He said, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

For us, the most important expression of this universal law is that, “Thoughts are causes and conditions are effects.”

Put another way, “Thought is creative.” Your thoughts are the primary creative forces in your life. You create your entire world by the way you think. All the people and situations in your life have only the meaning you give them by the way you think about them. And when you change your thinking, you change your life—sometimes in seconds!

The most important principle of personal or business success is simply this: You become what you think about most of the time.

It is not what happens to you, but how you think about what happens to you, that determines how you feel and react. It is not the world outside of you that dictates your circumstances or conditions; it is the world inside you that creates the conditions of your life.

—Brian Tracy