On Sunday, October 13th, I completed the Chicago Marathon on just a few minutes short of my goal (4:02:53) and raised $2501 for PresenTense in the process.  If I only had finished 2 hours faster, I would have had the world record!  Kidding aside, it was a great experience, and I recognized something important.  

I had been keeping up with the four hour pace group for almost the entire race.  By the half-way point in the race, the miles began to take their toll, but I persisted and pushed myself to maintain the pace.  Around mile 20, I started to fall to back of the pack and was having trouble keeping up with the group.  My physical stamina was in bad shape and my mental composure was beginning to slip.  At mile 23 I hit a serious wall and my body was overheating.  3.2 miles from the finish, I had a decision to make.  I could force my body to keep pace with the four hour group, pushing myself past my breaking point.  Alternatively, I could intentionally slow down, lessen the risk of any serious bodily harm and ensure that I would finish and have a smooth recovery.

I chose the latter option.  I recognized that at some point it becomes about finishing the race in the right way.  I know that I could have dug deep, put mind over matter and finished the race in less than four hours.  I also know that I would have beat myself into oblivion to make it happen.  I chose to care for myself in a way that ensured I was able to complete the task in a condition that will allow me to run the race again. 

Success is knowing what is most important for yourself, meeting those expectations and recognizing that you need only answer to yourself.  This is a lesson for runners, coaches and social entrepreneurs alike.  I extend my warmest gratitude to all of those who supported me with resources, kind words, and strong cheers to achieve a successful Marathon to benefit PresenTense.  

I have written about running a few times before (The Last Run Down the Lake, Runners High and 4:23:12) because running has changed my life.  It has become more than a hobby and piece of my identity.  For me, being a runner is about taking steps to get farther and faster in life.  The blood, sweat and tears I put into the sport push me to accomplish more in my day to day life.  However, this fall I will be running not just to change my life but the lives of others.  

I am running the Chicago Marathon on October 13th to benefit an amazing organization, called PresenTense (100reasonstowin.com/marathon).    That is 26.2 miles through the streets of my kind of town, sweet home Chicago!  PresenTense (www.presentense.org) is where community and entrepreneurship meet.  It is a global enterprise equipping passionate people to address communal challenges in the present tense.  They have a presence in 10 cities across the U.S., Israel and Russia, including my former home Chicago and my current home, Washington, DC.

As far as PresenTense goes, while working at The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, I coordinated the launch of the DC PresenTense Fellowship in 2012. Currently I train new Fellows, as a PresenTense Social Start Trainer.  I have experienced first-hand how PresenTense programs empower individuals with new ideas for social change to make a difference in their local communities.  PresenTense Invests in people: innovators, entrepreneurs, community leaders, educators, and thinkers.  They support and are supported by hundreds of volunteers and community members around the world, and they rely on donations to make those investments possible. 

Over 400 innovators (www.presentense.org/fellows) with ventures that benefit their local communities have been a part of a PresenTense Fellowship.  For example, Jill Zenoff of The Gan Project was a PresenTense Fellow in 2012, providing a source for sustainable agriculture in Chicago.  Elizabeth Weingarten from Washington, DC launched Tribelle in 2013 to help female Israeli artisans gain access to a broader market for selling their Jewelry.  Other projects have involved improving religious school education and sending underprivileged communities used sports equipment for school athletic programs, just to name a few.  

When you visit www.100reasonstowin.com/marathon you can find a place to donate and learn more about helping to spread awareness for my race and other ways to help the organization.   

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with an amazing woman, Lisa.  As she shared with me her story of life, her journey with a coach, and her reasons to win in both her professional and personal lives, I related with her in many ways.  I am honored to share her story with you.

Lisa’s mountain is built out of her parents’ unhappy marriage, competing for attention with a brother that has a disability and her weight problem.  As a child and teenager she learned a series of coping mechanisms to deal with all of this.  She used piercings and tattoos as a way to reach out to others that might be more like her.  She learned to react with strong and exaggerated emotion to grab attention and gain the focus from her parents when they were engrossed in the issues facing her brother.  Lisa also developed what she calls “Fat Girl Syndrome,” where she made sure to be the first to make bad jokes about her weight before anyone else could.  

By the age of 26, Lisa’s damage to her health and self-esteem had caused her to stumble as she entered into adulthood.  She had a bad haircut, acne, and struggled to keep a job.  Looking back, she now sees that she was an awkward, bumbling kid inside of a grownup body.  She was depressed and the doctor confirmed that she had a health issue that could cause infertility, unless she took actions toward treatment and weight loss. 

It was enough of a wake-up call to get her to at least deal with the obesity.  Lisa saw a nutritionist, purged her home of junk food and joined a gym.  She lost 60 pounds and, for a moment, thought she had found the cure. 

However, removing excess physical baggage didn’t guarantee that all of the emotional baggage left with it.  As her package got smaller she had nothing left to hide her insecurities.  This realization was further complicated when she realized that looking healthy and slim caused guys to notice her.  Lisa had never dated before, and wasn’t sure how to handle all this attention.  It was embarrassing to have to learn all of this so much later in life than her peers.  In fact, she soon began to realize that there was a lot she hadn’t allowed herself to learn because she had put up so many barriers for the previous 15 years of her life.  

Lisa had wandered through the fog of coming into adulthood late, alone and unprepared, (and still struggling professionally), when she found herself in a job that wanted to provide a professional coach for her.  She humbly accepted the offer to receive this wonderful gift from her employer.   She even went on to hire her coach to work with her on her personal life as well.  Now at age 30, Lisa is most grateful to have experienced coaching, so that she can use the lessons of coaching for the rest of her life.

What has Lisa gained from coaching?  First of all, she feels relief for the ability to let go.  Coaching empowered her to accept what has brought her to today and let go of what she'll never have -- and be ok with it.  She will never have what most consider a normal brother, a size two waist or parents that are happily married.  She accepts these realities for what they are and not as things she needs to win. 

Lisa also shared that she has also learned the powerful tool of naming.  She can name the barriers she has put up in the past that have challenged her ability to grow.  She can name the emotions she is feeling.  This allows her to catch herself and make a conscious decision of when and where is appropriate to go through the riptide of emotions that swell up inside.  In the past, she would stuff these emotions down further until she was so full that she would burp them up without being able to control herself. She now realizes, if she can name them, she can address them as if they are in the room. For example, "Thank you, anger, for showing me that there is injustice. But now is not the time to be angry. Now is the time to take action." 

Lastly, Lisa understands that she doesn’t need to look to others for soothing and validation.  Lisa can self-soothe, comfort herself in hard times, like an adult instead of like a child who needs to turn outward to be told, "It's going to be ok." Lisa can now spend the energy that she would typically use to seek validation to take an extra moment, judge her own work or behavior, and give herself a pat on the back and determine that her work or thought is right or good.  She doesn’t need to check in with anyone else but herself to feel validated.

Lisa says that the biggest win for her was surrendering and allowing herself to be coached.  Her employer was invested enough in her to see that she needed help and provided a coach for Lisa, and she graciously took that help.  Coaching allowed Lisa to name the mountain she faced and understand how to reach its summit.  From that elevated perspective, life has never looked the same.  

Congratulations to Lisa and all of the reasons she has to win!

Let’s take a moment to pay homage to the almighty To-Do List.  It is the quintessential organizational mechanism in the How-to-Get-#$%^-Done tool kit.  I know people that live and die by the list.  You know them too; they get a high from checking off the boxes.  They add things to the list they just completed, so they can have the thrill and satisfaction of crossing it off.  These people are very organized, and God bless them because they are accomplishing a lot of important work.  

Then there are the rest of us.  You, me and Charlie in sales who have every good intention of getting it all done, but staring down that list brings us more hopelessness than happiness.  The To-Do List is overwhelming for our brain types.  Where can we start?  How will we ever finish? Oh wait, here’s an e-mail, I’ll just respond to that now and get to this list later.  Oh no, now it’s 4:45pm and I still have a lot on my list.  Better put some work into figuring out what needs to be done tomorrow…It’s a vicious cycle. 

For us, the challenge of the To-Do List is that we end up writing a long list of 15-20 tasks that need to get done that day.  If we are lucky, we manage to at least start most of those tasks.  At the end of the day, the result is that we have started (and rarely finished) 15-20 important tasks.  

“Tell me about what you got done today,” our supervisor asks.  “Well I started this, worked on this, and got very close to finishing this,” seems to be all we can say for ourselves.  It’s an awesome way to show how we are not follow through material a.k.a. ready for advancement.  

To that end, I offer a simpler tool for the more easily distracted, slightly less organized among us.  I use it myself and have recommended it to coaching clients as a way to jump start productivity.   Most importantly, it ensures that on a daily basis, I get the most important things done.  Here’s how it works:

Every day (either the night before or first thing in the morning) I write out my To-Do list.  This is my 15-20 items that I want to accomplish that day.  After that, I put a star next to three and only three items.  The starred items represent the three most important items to complete that day.  They are not to dos they are must dos.  These three items bring the most serious consequences should they not be completed by the end of the day.  If I do nothing else that day, I commit to doing those three items.  Anything else on the list is considered a bonus.

That’s my productivity secret, and it works.  I figure that the majority of professionals are writing a good long list of things to do for the day.  Most of those individuals are putting in a good amount of effort to starting those items, but how many can really say they ever fully complete even a fraction of the list?  With that in mind, I figure if I can complete 3 tasks each day that means I will complete 21 items by the end of the week.  That’s 84 items each month.  The point is, that three completed tasks a day adds up to a heck of a lot of deliverables by the end of the month. 

“Tell me about what you got done today,” your supervisor asks.  “Well I completed the Turner Report, managed to get those follow up e-mails out from the Fletcher meeting, and I made a point to tweet about our new product launch next week.”  Your supervisor makes a mental note that you have started to show some real progress and responds, “Keep up the good work, and I’m looking forward to hearing what you accomplish tomorrow.”

1. Put the pieces in place to attract more health and wealth.
Lose weight, get in shape; make more money; earn a better income.

2. Walk through life consciously.
Move through your day with constant awareness and purpose and make a noticeable difference in how you interact with the world around you.

3. Connect with people meaningfully.
Improve relationships; make new friends; meet the partner of your dreams!

4. Discover peace.
Expect and understand that everything is happening just as it should, exactly on time.

5. Make decisions with clarity and confidence.
A coach is a sounding board and confidant. A coach is trained to advise, encourage, or just listen as needed.

6. You have coaches for other things; why not life?
You spend 24 hours a day, 7 days a week living your life. Utilize coaching for guidance along the way.

7. Get in touch with your spirit and purpose
Learn what you want out of life and how to get it.

Thanks to OY!Chicago for publishing this recent post.  It hit big on Facebook and has remained "Most Popular OY!" for the last week!

"Ten years ago in April 2003, I was 130 pounds heavier, desperate for love, working the wrong job and financially unstable. One year later, I had tried hard to take a few steps forward, but in actuality had taken several steps back. Now, 10 years later, I am grateful for the monumental and positive changes in all four of those areas. I weigh less today than when I graduated high school; I eat and live healthier, having completed over a dozen distance races, including a marathon; I am married and very much in love with my beautiful wife; I healed and improved relationships with many friends and family members over the years; what I accumulated in debt by 2003, I not only paid off, but have managed to save the equivalent amount for retirement. I worked with coaches to win at the game of health, relationships and career."  Read Full Post

Thanks to 100 Reasons to Win client Annie Lumerman for the strong recommendation in her recent blog post on ROI Community,

By Annie Lumerman, Non-Profit Consultant and Founder of the consulting firm Generate  Change. Thanks to an ROI Micro Grant Annie hired a career coach to aide her in the building of her business.

"...I highly recommend hiring a coach if you are starting a business, growing your business, or embarking on a new professional journey. Without one-on-one help from Andy, I would probably be searching for a job instead of planning a future in which I hire someone to work with me!..." ...read full post.

1.  Take at least a few minutes to sit quietly each day.  

Whether it is turning off the computer in the morning while you have your coffee; turning off the radio on your way home from work; or turning off the T.V. before you get ready for bed, take time out to just let your mind stop.

2.  Give thanks.

Gratitude puts out a positive vibe that can instantly change your mood and attract what you really want.  Create a daily ritual to list the things you are grateful for: by writing them down or saying them out loud.

3.  Regularly change your routine.

When you are in a rut, if you keep digging, the walls will just feel like they are closing in more.  Mix things up a bit.  Take a new route to school, stop at a bookstore on your way home from work, or try a new flavor in your latte.

4.  Put your 10 most important things in your schedule FIRST.

As you are planning out the weeks and months ahead, it is important to get those big rocks into your schedule first. Otherwise, you will find it hard to fit them all in around all the less important tasks.

5.  Pick 3 things to do really well each day.

We can do an unlimited number of tasks each day, but it is almost impossible to do more than 3 things really well.  Pick three things to do well each day and by the end of the week you will have done 21 things well.   By the end of the month that is over 80 things done really well.  That’s more than most people get done in a year.

6.  Act on an idea today.

What is that idea you have been tossing around in your head?  What have you been putting off for some time now?  Take the first step TODAY.  You have nothing to lose.

7.  Plan activities just because you know you like them.

It’s the little things that make the biggest difference some time.  Without rhyme or reason, whether it makes sense or not, just do it because it makes you happy.

8.  Challenge yourself.

Pick a goal, a dream, a dare that would really stretch you out of your comfort zone.  This will awaken your spirit.  Now that you have committed to it, ask yourself:  If I had to hit this goal immediately, what three things would I do differently today?

9.  Acknowledge yourself

You are simply amazing and you show the world how amazing you are every day.  Celebrate the victories, accomplishments, and good deeds both large and small.  Keep a journal by your bed and every night write down 3-5 things for which you would like to acknowledge yourself.

10.  Get help from a coach.

A coach will hold you accountable.  A coach will ask you the questions that awaken your spirit.  A coach will help you get everything faster and in greater abundance than ever before.