Embrace the spirit of a marathon

I recently had the great opportunity and privilege of being able to run in the Cellcom Green bay marathon. It was amazing for a number of reasons. First and foremost I had the ability to run, others cannot. Second I was able to work with an amazing organization called myTEAM TRIUMPH. They help challenged athletes compete in endurance races by having Angels push them in buggies. Third the atmosphere and spirit of a marathon is amazing.

I have the ability to run, it is a gift. A gift that far too often many of us see as a burden, “I have to run today”, “I need to train today”, “I need to run x miles today”; yet we forget that there are people in this world who cannot even walk. They can barely move themselves. In my book the ability to run is truly a privilege. The speed you go at, does not matter, the distance does not matter, just be happy you can run.

myTEAM TRIUMPH is an organization that is dedicated to helping challenged athletes compete in endurance events. The challenged athletes are called captains; they are the ones in the race, the ones who get the shirts, medal and whose name is behind the time. They are the inspiration   behind every step we take. Angels are the ones who push or pull the captains. It is an honor, privilege and pure motivation to be able to be an angel. I an inspired constantly by the passion, greatness and love these captains live there life with everyday. Thank you to everyone who cheered us one. Thank you for your inspiration and the ability with a phrase to power us through the run. I had the privilege of running with a father who was pushing his daughter the whole way. The words, signs and smiles meant more to us than you can ever know.

Embrace the spirit of a marathon, it is truly amazing. Runners, your dedication to training proves that if you believe, you can do pretty much anything. Getting up for at 7am for a 20 mile run then getting on with your day is fantastic. The sport is addicting and even though running seems like it is a solo sport, we are all in it together. The power and awe of a marathon goes beyond the runners. To the trainers, staff and volunteers who dedicated their time just to ensure we would be okay, thank you. We could not compete without you. Last but not least, lets not forget the fans along the course who cheered us on. Many of them had no one to specific to cheer for, but they choose to stand out in the heat just to cheer random strangers on. They made signs, turned on their hose and handed out water just to see a total stranger succeed in a dream.

What if we lived everyday like that? What if we invested our time, energy and passion into helping people succeed, with nothing but the satisfaction of knowing we helped them succeed. In my opinion, life is not about us, it is about everyone else. How can we live each day to provide inspiration, motivation and dedication that helps people achieve their dreams?

The greatest pleasure in life?

The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do - Walter Bagehot

With all do respect to Walter, I have to say his belief is absolute bull. Since when is the greatest joy we get in our life from showing the people that never believed in us that we can do what we knew all along? More importantly what kind of culture and society does this build? The question you need to ask yourself is, who are you living your life for? Are you living it for the ones who denied you the power to believe in yourself or the ones who stood by you, the ones that are willing to push you along and show you how much they loved you? The very concept of seeking pleasure by showing the non-believers is a slippery slope that can only end in disaster.

This quote instills in us, that if we want to truly be happy we must prove that someone is wrong. It sets us on a path to search and find the ones that do not believe in us and waster our time on them. This takes away from the time we could be spending with those who have supported us all along, degrading the true friends that we have. Instead of spending time with and appreciating the true friends in our lives we try to justify our every move to the ones that do not matter. The fact of the matter is, it does not matter who started it, where it came from or why it started, what matters is it stops, that we choose to change the world.

Our life is full of choices, one of the most important, is who are we living for? We can choose to live for the negative or we can choose to live for the positive. I believe whole-heartedly that if we choose to seek pleasure in proving others wrong, we will never truly be happy and if we choose to live for the positive, nothing will stop us.

It is time that we start living our dreams for the ones that believe in us. These are the people that have always been there for us throughout the journey. What greater joy can you have then showing everyone that believed in you, that they were right?

So here is my challenge, lets start believing in the people we care about. Let’s start helping people achieve their dreams and start to take them seriously. I believe that we all have gifts that will change the world.

Change the world

The difference between those who change the world and those who don't is that those who do believe they can.-Simon Sinek

I believe this to be true, and that is why it scares me.

In our society today as it stands, hardly any focus is being put on helping people realize that they can change the world. Yet we question why not everyone is not changing the world, it is simply because they do not believe they can. Our focus has been on finding out how we will change the world, which will not work.

Rarely in your life will you ever truly change the world in the way you imagined. While this may sound bad, I believe it is one of life’s greatest gifts. I believe that we are all put on the earth for a reason. Yet this can be discouraging for many people, because they road is rarely paved and the path is never clear. Every step that we take is a step in the right direction.

When we “fail” we lose faith in ourselves, when we lose faith we stop believing. This creates one of the greatest tragedies in life, when we stop believing we can change the world.

It is time we start to engage others to believe that they can change the world. We cannot do the work for them but we can help them believe. Start telling people what they mean to you and how they have changed your life, it will change their world. Let them know that you will support them, be a friend. If our goal is to truly change the world, we must give people the courage, belief and power to realize that they can too.

Go out and change the world