Patient Perseverance

April 29, 2025 by Leave a Comment

On Sunday, April 21, I started a new 100Pedals 100Day Challenge. My challenge is to “consult” the I Ching or “Book of Changes” for the 100 days. On the recommendation of a friend, I purchased this book. I found the inspirational perspectives resonates with much of how I live, think, and feel. They provide great insights for living and the fresh insights from inspirations are most enjoyable. Upon occasion, I will share my daily inspirations. Below is the inspirational thought from yesterday’s consultation.

Sunday, April 28: 3. CHUN/DIFFICULTY AT THE BEGINNING and 60. CHIEH/LIMITATION

“If we persevere a great success is at hand.”

Despite the challenges and obstacles we face, any impatient intervention will slow progress. The best course of action is to accept, with patience, the challenges in front of you.

“Voluntarily chosen limits empower growth.”

To succeed in any task we need to clearly define our path without putting too much structure to the definition of that path. You vision defines the purpose and the responsibilities; but, true progress is made in gradual steps.

100Pedals Lesson:

This past week I was experiencing great pressure from four fronts — Brandon’s addiction/recovery; the marketing of my book; my passion for building 100Pedals; and, a pressing client related issue. It was a challenging, stressful week. I could feel the stress building as the week went on. As the pressure increased, I found myself in an unbalanced emotional state and started putting unnecessary urgency to be more assertively proactive in my actions and activities.

Until I read this passage, I was struggling with getting back to my place of peace and balance. After I paused and reflected on the message and then celebrated a 40 mile meditative bike ride, I slowly returned to that place of peace, patience, confidence, and trust.

Adversity is part of the process of daily living. It is the educational component of our journey and our lives. It is where lessons are taught and learned, provided we are willing to endure the lesson.

The clarity of our vision defines the path we take. In the face of a challenge or an obstacle, patience and perseverance is what most effectively keeps us on our defined path.

Trust the path you are on. Be comfortable with the pace of your progress. Avoid letting your expectations for better progress distract you and create fear and doubt in your journey. It is through focused confidence and patience that you will realize the successes you have envisioned for yourself. You must be willing to patiently persevere — it’s where the greatest progress occurs.

Filed Under: Focusing On Your Vision, Live With Passion, Living Your Purpose, Maintaining Focus, Managing Adversity Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Changing Adverse Emotions

April 28, 2025 by Leave a Comment

“If you don’t like something, change your mind!”

An old boss of mine would drop this on me when he sensed I was developing an attitude about something at work. It used to piss me off because he was preemptively holding me responsible for my mood and behaviors. He was reminding me that how I felt about something was dependent upon me. Nearly fifteen years later, I discovered how accurate and insightful he was.

I read a great article by Gretchen Rubin of the Happiness Project in which she shares that she changes her mood by taking action and engaging in behaviors that reflect how she desires to feel, not how she feels.

” ‘Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not.’ (William James) By acting as if you feel a certain way, you induce that emotion in yourself.”

When we find ourselves in that emotional place where we are feeling low, anti-social, distant, or mad at the world, the best thing that we can do is engage in behaviors that completely contradict how we feel. By being genuinely and authentically warm, kind, friendly, or funny with someone else, the response we receive reflects the behavior we shared and it moves us to a different place emotionally.

Happiness is choice. If you don’t like something, you can change it or live in it. It is up to you.

Filed Under: Embrace Responsibility, Managing Adversity Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Removing the Obstacles

April 24, 2025 by 1 Comment

On Sunday I started a new 100Pedals 100Day Challenge. My current challenge is to “consult” the I Ching or “Book of Changes.” I started thumbing through this book and found the inspirational perspectives resonate with much of how I live, think, and feel. There are great insights for living in this book and I find freshness of these inspirations most enjoyable. Upon occasion, I will share my daily inspirations. Today, is one of those days.

Wednesday, April 24: 7. SHIH/THE ARMY and .59 HuAN/DISPERION

“In times of war it is desirable to be led by a cautious and humane general.”

In the face of adversity, how we prepare, who leads us, and how we conduct ourselves defines the outcome. Discipline, perseverance, and balance are key references. Putting inferior emotions under the guidance of superior emotions help achieve peace and detachment from the situation.

“Disperse hard attitudes with gentleness.”

When we find ourselves in a negative state our attitudes have a tendency to be structured and inflexible. Finding that place of peace opens our mind and enables us to be more flexible and receptive.

The 100Pedals View:

In the face of adversity, trust the path you are on. Be at peace with the obstacle in front of you. Have faith and confidence that you will find your way through it. Have the discipline to keep moving. Be open, receptive to and aware of opportunities that present themselves to help you work through or go around the obstacles in your adverse moments.

Filed Under: Focusing On Your Vision, Inspirational Perspectives, Managing Adversity Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Most Powerful Force In Inspiring Change

April 22, 2025 by Leave a Comment

Motivation based on beliefs, choices and actions is more powerful and lasting than motivation based on feelings and emotions. ~ Mark Sanborn

It took me a few reads before I felt like I understood the message in this quote. I am a big believer in the power of emotion. I have encouraged many people to embrace the calling of the heart — the heart being the emotional intellect that exists within us. Connecting with and embracing this component of thought is the place where logic — fear, doubt, experience, worry, past history — is not as strong.

The emotional intellect — the heart — is where our dreams live. The mind is where our dreams go to die. They die in our minds because our mind only has the ability to embrace what it knows as true or possible; hence, it limits the options in our future because it is references only what it knows about the past.

At first I struggled with the notion that there may be a more powerful motivator than our feelings and emotions. The more I thought about it, our feelings and emotions are most powerful when they are driven by what we conceive and believe and what we choose to do to take action toward it. Feelings and emotions can inspire us to take action; however, the intensity of that action is defined and driven by the passion, energy and commitment we bring to it.

One of the Four Wheels of Personal Leadership is “Live with Passion.” To live with passion means that we discover and embrace our D.I.G. Our D.I.G is what drives, inspires, and guides us. The energy that comes from this point of consciousness is far more powerful than simply having a feeling. It is more powerful because there is something more tangible about this inspiration — it is a conscious commitment to live or create a life that is driven by what we value, love, enjoy, and get energy from. This level of awareness and the related commitment is an incredible force because it is well defined, uniquely personal to us, and reflects what is at the core of our value system and personality.

As you seek to create change or begin a transition in your life, focus first on your D.I.G. Clarity here will provide you the confidence and the inspiration to drive forward with greater passion and commitment.

Filed Under: Focusing On Your Vision, Inspirational Perspectives, Live With Passion, Living Your Purpose, Seizing Opportunity Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

The Hero Within Us

April 17, 2025 by Leave a Comment

This past Sunday I heard a story about an amazing person, Chaplain Emil Kapuan. Chaplain Emil was recently awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic acts in the Korean War. It is not very often the Medal of Honor is awarded. It is exceptionally rare to have it awarded a chaplain. What makes this story even more incredible is that Chaplain Emil is being recognized for his heroic acts nearly 50 years after his selfless act of courage. His story is amazing. His acts incredibly inspiring even under the most challenging of situations.

I started to write my reflections about his inspiring story to share on Monday. Instead, I shared my thoughts on something else.

In light of the awful events in Boston, I had this urge to come back to Chaplain Emil’s heroic and amazing story. We will likely never really know what makes a hero do what they do when they do it. We only know that because it is exceptional and selfless in difficult and adverse times we know it is a very special act. That is where heroism comes from.

In Sunday’s talk, I was reminded of the continued opportunities for me to be a hero in someone else’s life. I was challenged to “meet people where I am and to meet people where they are.” Meaning, regardless of our respective situations, I have the ability and the obligation to engage in being an inspiring, loving, helpful resource to those that need me most when I realize it.

In times of tragedy and conflict, we witness the most powerful acts of heroism. These are incredible reminders of the ability that each of us has been given to help our fellow man. We do not need tragedy or adversity to call us to action. All we need is the awareness and the commitment to be prepared to take action when action is needed.

Be a hero in someone’s life. The world will be better off for it!

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Giving Love, Inspirational Perspectives, Practice Humility, Seizing Opportunity Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

There Are No Limits!

April 15, 2025 by Leave a Comment

“The possibilities are limitless if you don’t put limits on them!”

One of my favorite 100Pedals quotes is “you do not know what you are capable of until you put yourself in a position to do something you have never done before.” It is a difficult challenge to facilitate incredible, unpredictable accomplishments when you use your past experiences — both successes and failures — to help define the potential outcomes in your future. Most goals or paths are only defined by using what you already know or believe as possible. In using this present reality check, the potential for incredible outcomes have already been unintentionally limited by embracing what is possible as a starting point.

This is one the primary reasons I have shifted much of my thought from defining structured goals to visioning, imagining the celebration of my accomplishments. There are no limits to the possibilities in my imagination; or, in the present behaviors I engage in as a result of my imagination. Much of my living or being in this state has brought me incredible peace, amazing outcomes, and a unique level of energy and unpredictable opportunity. Even more important, it has eliminated much of the pressure associated with trying to accomplish something in direct response to a goal or defined outcome.

Even though I began to embrace this concept early on in my 100Pedals experience, the book, “The Power of Awareness by Neville” has provided me wonderful, additional insight into this concept. Neville helps reinforce the notion that I can bring my desires into reality by imagining and living them as though they are so. In this place of accomplishment, I have found that my choices, decisions, inspirations, and responses are completely different because they begin from a place of satisfaction and peace. When something happens to me or around me, my response to them is more measured, more relaxed, and more intelligent because fear and doubt are not part of the decision making process. In this place of imagined, celebrated achievement, I respond from a place of confident authenticity because I am not concerned about there impact on reaching those outcomes that I once believed helped define me. Since I am living in the present of my future accomplishments, I am at peace. I have released the pressure of arriving and am better positioned to make choices, decisions, and recommendations from this place of confidence and contentment.

While this may represent a far out, crazy perspective. I can assure you that the more I am aware of my ability to celebrate in present confidence the outcomes in my future, the more I am released from the pressures and stresses of trying to be something now.

This week, take a moment to imagine your life at peace and contentment. Allow your mind and your body to completely release in this state of being. Embrace it. Internalize it. Capture it. Memorize it. Carry it with you from that moment forward. Live in that state to the best of your ability every day. When you lose touch with it, recapture it. Get really good at living in it. The more you do, the more you will discover and understand what I shared with you today.

 

Filed Under: Celebrating Accomplishment, Focusing On Your Vision, Inspirational Perspectives, Live With Passion Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Find The Light That Inspires

April 12, 2025 by Leave a Comment

“You were placed here for a purpose greater than you know, and you have a long way to go on your journey to fulfill that purpose and find that joy from having an abundant life full of pleasant memories and lots of hope and love.” ~ A Grieving Mother

Addiction is the most frustrating of experiences for a parent. The hopes, dreams, and wishes for our children are slowly destroyed before our eyes. Worse, there is not enough love in the world to save a lost soul.

This quote is from a mom in an open letter to her son and others in the wake of his passing due to an overdose. Unfortunately, this happens far to often. Even though I have come to find out it is painfully common, its tragedy is never diminished. I have thought many times about the possibilities that my son’s life could end this way if he doesn’t find his path to peace in time.

My message to all — find the light that inspires. Chase after it. Run toward it. And, never turn away from it. What inspires you, drives you. What drives you, guides you. Anything that is positively powerful, will eventually save you!!

 

 

Filed Under: Embrace Responsibility, Inspirational Perspectives, Lessons In Addiction, Living Your Purpose Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Interrupting the Interruptions

April 1, 2025 by Leave a Comment

“The disturbers of happiness are our desires, our griefs, and our fears.” -Samuel Johnson

Last week I shared my most recent, surprising, and disruptive experiences with Brandon. Despite this adversity, I was able to forge ahead and have a very productive, fulfilling week. While I suffered for Brandon and his situation, I was also quite focused that the life I was living and the activities I was engaging is was the path I needed to remain on despite the chaos around me.

As I read this quote shared by Gretchen Rubin and her Happiness Project, I immediately reflected back to a paragraph from last week’s thoughts:

Life interrupts our momentum with the biggest of hurts, distractions and challenges. No one enjoys them, looks forward to them, or even asks for them. They come anyway. What you do, where you go, and how you live in the face of these adversities is measured by how effectively you stay on your path as you go through it. Adversities can slow you and distract you — but, they also define you. When the storm hits — be strong, stay focused, and keep moving. Trust your path and you will get through it. And, remind yourself to trust that others are on their very unique path, as well — their journey is not yours to define or manage.

Whether your happiness is being interrupted by external forces or that incessant, internal chatter in your head, the key to remaining focused and on your path is trust. Once you have defined your vision for your life and begin to travel the path toward that vision, the key to staying on course is trust. There will be course corrections, their will be detours and, at times, progress will be slow. This does not mean your vision or your path are flawed or failed. It means you need to trust your choices and your decisions. It means you need to find happiness and peace through the journey — even the confusing, challenging, and difficult parts. And, it means that you need to interrupt those forces — internal or external — that are attempting to derail you along the way by reminding yourself why you defined this path and what you are driving towards.

When you interrupt the interrupters with a focused, committed confidence, you experience peace, joy and happiness in maintaining your effort.

 

Filed Under: Maintaining Focus, Make A Commitment, Managing Adversity Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,