“People aren’t grateful because they are happy, they are happy because they are grateful.”

                                                                                                            - Anonymous

This coming Thursday, we will be joining our family and friends around the table to celebrate one of my favorite holidays, Thanksgiving. 

In addition to indulging in an array of traditional foods like turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie, we will also pause to reflect on the many blessings in our lives and share our appreciation for family, friends and the many wonderful things our life provides us.

While taking a day to remember and express our gratitude is important, I have often wondered how my life and the lives of others would be positively impacted if we made gratitude a daily practice, rather than one just reserved for an annual holiday. 

A wise person once said, “Life does not happen to us, it happens through us.”  Said another way, the filter by whic...

“The moment you take Responsibility for everything in your life, is the moment you can change Anything in your life.”

                                                                                                                   - Hal Elrod

As a speaker, I am honored each year to share my Mind of a Champion message with wide variety of audiences.  Groups range from elementary school children all the way to corporate leaders. 

While it does take a diverse set of skills and strategies to be able to communicate with, and hold the attention of audiences of such a wide range, I believe that we are “all big kids anyway” and as a result the essence of my message if basically the same, regardless of the audiences to whom I am speaking.  That message is:

There is a champion inside of you and when access it and take full accountability for your life, you can achieve anything you put your heart and mind to.

While I enjoy speaking to all assemblies of people, the one group ...

“There’s a difference between interest and commitment.  When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstance permit.  When you are committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.”

                                                                                                - Art Turock

Several years ago, I was in a conference and heard a speaker make a cute little statement regarding the concept of commitment.  It went like this...

“I had bacon and eggs this morning for the breakfast, the chicken was involved, but the pig was COMMITTED."  

That statement, as trite as it might be, has always stuck with me.  How committed am I really to the things I say I am committed to? 

Or as super coach, Steve Chandler asks, 

"Are you interested or are you committed?"

Ready to FINALLY be committed, check out my Breaking Through Coaching Program!  

Throughout my career as a martial arts instructor, I have been privileged to teach li...

“Action cures fear.  Indecision, postponement, on the other hand, fuels fear.

                                                                                                       - David J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

We certainly live in uncertain and challenging times.

In times of challenge, it is understandable for us to be in fear.  It is a natural reaction. 

While unpleasant, one could argue that sometimes fear can be a good thing.  Being aware of potential danger and having concern for our personal safety can keep us out harm’s way.  It can also provide us with a surge of power to overcome an immediate threat that confronts us.

As an instructor in adrenal self-defense training for over twenty-five years, I have witnessed time and again, students using their fear as a catalyst for accessing their inner power.  When they do this, fear becomes their friend, their asset, and their secret weapon.  It allows them to access a power inside themselves that they didn’t even know tha...

“Once I made a decision, I never thought about it again.”

                                                                                             - Michael Jordan

Decisions, decisions, decisions…….. Scientists estimate that we make approximately 35,000 different decisions each day.  These range from what we will eat for breakfast and what clothes we will wear to life-altering choices in our businesses, relationships and our health and well-being.  

I know I can oftentimes find myself in “analysis paralysis” as I weigh in my mind what is the best decision to make in a situation. 

However, I have also found that once I make that decision based on the best information and feelings within my heart that I have available, and fully embrace it, forces I didn’t even know were available begin to come into my life to support me.  It was not that I necessarily made the “right” decision, but that I embraced my decision with my whole heart and mind. 

Or as William Hutchison Mu...

“If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.

                                                                                       - Frank A. Clark

OBSTACLES are an inevitable part of the human experience.  They come in many forms; manifesting as health issues, financial struggles, relationship difficulties and overall roadblocks on our path to achieving our goals and desires.

Interestingly, much of our progress in today’s world is derived from our quest to deal with obstacles and overcome them in the easiest and most efficient ways possible. 

Look only as far as our modern-day technologies from the automobile and airplanes in travel to laptop computers and today’s smartphones in the worlds of business and communication and you can directly follow a path to their development originating as a means to deal with a problem or obstacles in our daily lives.

The irony for me is that although we spend so much time developing strategies, processes...

“Master the basics.  Then practice them everyday without fail.  Small disciplines repeated with consistency everyday lead to great achievements gained slowly over time.”

                                                                                                         - John C. Maxwell

Last week I shared the concept of how in martial arts, a Black Belt is nothing more than a “Master of the Basics”. 

When we bring the principle of “practicing the basics” into our everyday lives, we can find that it serves us greatly in creating mastery and success in everything we do.

I discussed in detail how the practice of my first three of six basic life-leadership skills can lead not to only a positive impact on our lives, but also on the lives of those we serve and lead. 

Specifically, these skills are……………

• Giving our bodies adequate rest
• Eating foods of high nutritional value
• Physically moving or bodies each day

You can read that blog by clicking here: Are You...

“Success is neither magical nor mysterious.  Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.”

                                                                                          - Jim Rohn

I believe consistently and diligently practicing the basics is the key to success and mastery in any endeavor. 

In the Martial Arts, instructors consistently share with their students the following......

Black Belt is nothing more than being a 

master of the basics.

From early in my martial arts career, I have a vivid memory of my first martial arts instructor talking about the importance of practicing the basics.  He equated the basics as the foundation for all other advanced skills. 

“Build a house on sand (poor basics),” he would say, “and it will crumble at the first sign of harsh weather.  However, build it on cement (strong foundational basics) and it can withstand almost anything.”

In his book, Raise Your Game, author...

“Sometimes you never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”

                                                                                                   - Dr. Seuss

I am writing this blog in the Las Vegas airport, awaiting my connecting flight back to Denver as I am coming home from my 40^th High School Class Reunion in Wisconsin (just to be clear, I was only 2 years old when I graduated).

It was an amazing time, reconnecting with so many friends, many of whom I have known since 1^st grade, reminiscing about memories of old and laughing about the times we shared together. 

While physical appearances had changed, many miles were between us and years had separated us for sometimes decades, I was so wonderfully surprised to see how much I still recognized, loved, and appreciated these awesome people from my past; many with whom I shared the most beautiful and exciting times of my younger years, as well as some of most challenging.

It caused me to refle...

“Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.”  

                                                                                           - Joel A. Barker

I believe we are all born with a vision for what we want in our lives inside of us. 

Just think back to when you were child and the numerous visions you had for what you wanted to be in when you “grew up”.  Your imagination was boundless.  I personally wanted to be a cartoonist, a doctor, an astronaut and a super-hero (Actually, when I was 5-years old, I WAS Batman).  

I believe these visions are set inside of us so that we have a path of expression to share our innate gifts and make our world a better place.  This is not just available for some of us, but for all of us. 

However, this begs the question:  If this is true, why is it that so many of us allow those visions to become merely dreams that fade away because we never take actio...