Full Strength LIFE

When The Soul is Murdered in Search of Profit

You’ve felt it—we’ve all had the experience, more often than we care to admit. 

Perhaps it was a favorite local eatery that after a decade of perfection one day become every bit as mediocre as Denny’s. It could have been a favorite line of shoes that you were excited to finally find on sale at Walmart, only to find it wasn’t the same shoe at all.

“It,” invisible to the naked eye, is the soul sucking sound of the move from passion and purpose to profit. And it’s happening right now to shoes, clothing, hair salons, tires, coffee shops, and in all manner of business large and small.

I suspect “it” may even be happening to Facebook as we speak.

In the beginning businesses are less a cunning strategy than an expression of passion by a person on fire and on purpose. Plans are often drawn after to justify the insanity.

On the extremely rare occasions when everything goes according to plan you and I get to touch and feel the products or services, we like them. They are new, fresh (even when they often aren’t really) and authentic.

There’s an energy and aliveness that is exciting.

I Was Busted with Crib Notes During Interview [Embarassing]

It was while standing in line for our first grade photos when, for reasons I have never known, the little girl in front of me whom will call Rhonda (because that's her name) windmilled her old-fashioned steel lunch pail up, over and around, slamming it smack down between my eyes. I was caught completely off guard—blind-sided right between the eyes. 

When the bleeding stopped, the teachers cleaned me up as best they could and the photographer snapped my class photo. I can still feel the pain when I see that photo of this little blond haired boy in a blue button up, with a red bleeding bump on his forehead. 

But all these years later it's not the pain of the lunch pail but that I still feel but the embarrassment. Sure, from an adult view I can argue that logically there's nothing to be embarrassed about but at the tender age of six... well, you know how far that logic would get you.

I share that story to help you recall your own experiences with embarrassing life moments. We all have had them and we will continue to—on some level.

And the Beat Goes On... The New Faces (& Bodies) of Fitness

A couple weeks back I gave a Key-Note talk at a Global Fitness and Transformation event in Tampa hosted by former Body-for-Life Champion Joel Marion. 

Now, I don't do a lot of speaking but I more and more I am inviting the opportunity, even when I can come up with a hundred reasons not to travel.

With this particular came the opportunity to share a new presentation--one that I'd been working on and that I believed to be a true "game changer" in health & fitness (more on this later)--and the chance to meet a number of fellow fitness "guru's" that I've only known from the web.

Of course, it didn't hurt that I was to be the Key-Note speaker, which was a privilege and an honor.

Entering the 3-day event with an beginner's mind, I'd hoped to not just share but also to receive some inspiration and wisdom.

What I walked away with was more than I could have imagined. I met some amazing people, both speakers and guests, and found myself energized, elevated--more resolute inside and assured in the world as a whole.

As you might guess, a good number of the presenters were friends of mine, like one and only Jon Benson, who I'd not seen in too long--although we talk regularly--and who, BTW, looked great!

I also got to see my good friend and fellow Colorado based Transformational Leader, Tom Terwilliger speak. He was every bit the energized power-house and leader I had heard, and expected him to be.

Tom truly owned the show.

Then of course there was a host of what I'll call the "new guard," or the youth movement in Fitness Transformation.