Who wants to jump off a cliff?

I've got a bit of a confession to make. For some of you it's not new, but for others this might be the first time hearing it. Now, before you do an intervention for me and call the serious men in long white coats hear me out. For the past six years I've found myself delving deeper and deeper into a world where crazy becomes the new normal, and what was previously considered insane is today's standard. Now various friends around me have been acting as enablers (Ignacio, this might be you, just possibly) and have been pulling me deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole. The past three years I have started into the hardcore stuff. The stuff that leaves you beaten and battered afterwards. Yes, for the past three years I've become hooked on ultra-distance racing.

                             Ultra-Crazy, not ultra-distance although they may seem identical.

It started with buying a road bike, and like pot to meth within no time at all I found myself toeing the line at the Lake Placid Ironman practicing incredible self warming procedures in my wetsuit. (Don't ask) It wasn't enough though, I needed more, more distance, more suffering, more crazy. After the Ironman came the Canadian Death Race, which was a whole other level of bonkers. If you haven't flirted with hypothermia in the rain up a mountain while wearing short shorts you haven't lived.

Now stop calling the shrink, put down the phone and listen to my proposition. I want you to join me. Jump off the cliff of normal. Go crazy, it's okay. Do the characters in the movies you see or in the books you read do boring normal stuff? Hell no! They do stuff that has their neighbours convinced that they are nuts. Now, you don't have to follow me and jump down the extreme endurance rabbit hole. Find some think that you think would be cool, but kinda scares the buhjeezus out of you. When you find something that both attracts and terrifies you, go for it!! Commit yourself fully to the adventure.

"Until one is committed there is always hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, There is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising to one's favor all manner of unforeseen accidents and meetings and material assistance Which no man could have dreamed would come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."
                                                                                                                         -Goethe

Now, what you may find after attempting or finishing this crazy adventure is a sense of new self. You become more than the person you were before you started your journey. The great thing is that even if you fail you'll have grown through the setbacks. You may just find that you can grow wings when you jump off the cliff. Or your family and friends will have done an intervention and you now have a fancy white coat and a personal bouncy room with rubber walls. Either way the ride is gonna be sweet.

           I neither confirm nor deny acting like this.        

Shining Eyes; Redefining Success

Success today means many things to many people. If asked, most people would probably say that having a bank account loaded with benjamins, having a garage loaded with the sexiest cars, or just remaining sane in the moment would be a standard of success. While good goals in and of themselves (who would not want to be sane? or have 10 smart cars parked in their two vehicle garage?) I think there is another way that we can define success: by the amount of shining eyes that we have around us.

Before you start to think that I'm advocating for the presence of glowing eyed supernatural beings, check out this video to get the low down:

                                                 Do your eye's light up a small village?

What I find fascinating in this video, among other things, is the idea that success lies not in our personal gains. Rather that success is our positive influence on those that we have around us. Are you successful? When your with people do you inspire them? Lift them up to be more than they thought they are capable of?

Imagine if for 3 weeks everyone in your family, house, job lived like that. What do you think the atmosphere would be like? I know I'd be giving almost everything to be in an environment where people lived to lift up others on a daily basis. Personal relationships would grow immensely, as we focus more on what we can give to the other rather than what we can get from the other. Everyone wants to be loved and known for who they are, and not used as a means to an end.

How do you think the business world would change, if businesses focused their energy on trying to inspire not only their employees, but also their customer to be the best they can be? It's not enough to try to just get your employee to be productive and satisfied to the benefit of the company. If the company tried to help their employees to become the best versions of themselves as individuals, whether or not the company benefited, you'd would probably find a higher retention rate of employees and a better end result. If customers saw that a company tried to help them, sometimes regardless of the end result, people will stick around and support that company.

Success for ourselves is helping and inspiring others to be the best they can be. Can you start living a successful life today and make some shining eyes?