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Don’t look back too long you may be in for a major collision

By Tom Tognoli | October 12th, 2009 0 Comments

When you are driving down the road it’s okay to glance in the rear view mirror, but don’t stare.

Our eyes are supposed to be on the road ahead of us and if we look in the rear view mirror too long, we’re going to crash. This analogy applies not to just driving a car, but to anything in life.

I can’t remember exactly what the circumstances were, but this was advice I received from my good friend and chairman of our company Bob Moles several years ago.

So many people live their life in the past. It may be in past successes or past failures. Many just can’t let go. If it was a bad experience – often it paralyzes them with fear to do anything. And if it was a good experience they hold on to it and can’t stop relishing in it, which also stops them from doing anything.

Not that we should forget the past completely – because that is not what I am saying. Our past experiences are the building blocks of our future, and they are simply that – building blocks. Unfortunately, when people hold on to the past and aren’t willing to focus on the future and change, they’re in for a major collision.

I am 45 – and I know people who still can’t let go of things from High School, much less last year, last month or last week. It is amazing. Look, I get it, I know it’s hard to let go of the past, but to grow and get more of what we want in life, is critical to future success.

So next time when you have a big win, take a little time to celebrate and then move on. And when you lose, take a little time to grieve and then move on. Just don’t stare at it, or you will be in for a major collision in the future.

A side note from my son: Nick Tognoli (age 10)

“Hi, it is early Saturday Morning and my Dad is writing his Monday Morning MOJO. I asked him to send you this video of ‘Beat It’ to fire all of you up today, and for the rest of the week. ENJOY!”
Michael Jackson – Beat It

Follow the Commitment

By Tammy Parkinson | October 7th, 2009 0 Comments

How many times have you wanted to begin a fitness regiment or a weight loss program, but you simply thought it was too hard? We see this often! For some, it just takes a little push, others it takes a long term commitment.

What I see that’s very interesting, is to begin say, a fitness program, we might challenge a client to walk one day on their own…just 20 minutes. It sounds easy when the commitment is made but the day arrives and that 20 min is just not scheduled and not easy (familiar, a “habit”), so it doesn’t happen. What evolves afterwards is really interesting. The client then goes into a guilty spin of why they didn’t do it; wasting hours of beating themselves up!

Another example is getting on a healthy nutritional program. Maybe the challenge is to go 3 days without having desserts. Well, day 2 happens and that cookie just was too tempting…then the next 2 days are spent beating themselves up again!

The energy spent on feeling bad completely outweighs the actual moment of following the commitment, yet somehow we connect more with feeling guilty than trying something new, something possibly a bit uncomfortable. Why is it we are comfortable in negative feelings? Interesting, isn’t it?!

So my thought for you today is to commit to something which in the moment might feel a bit uncomfortable because it’s different; but know that the ripple effect of this new habit won’t waste hours of guilty nonsense but instead establish a comfort zone over time!

Monday Morning Mojo: The Big Old Huge Bucket

By Tom Tognoli | October 4th, 2009 0 Comments

Check out this video it is amazing!

As you watch, listen to what J-Mac says “the basket was just like this big old huge bucket.” Remember, even if you throw an air ball on your first shot at anything in life, keep shooting. If you have the courage to keep shooting after you miss, eventually you will make it. It will become “like a big old huge bucket” and inevitably you will make that basket.

Also notice J-Mac’s “I am enthusiastic” attitude. J-Mac exudes enthusiasm throughout his interview. This attribute is required in success – so always play full out with commitment, passion, and energy.

Make it a great week, and remember you can’t make the shot if you don’t take it.

To Be Physically Healed Takes Mental Healing

By Tammy Parkinson | September 1st, 2009 0 Comments

As many of you might have read last week, I had an accident which has “slowed me down” for a few weeks to say the least!

I’ve noticed through this experience that patience and mindset are two major factors in the process of healing, learning, and growing. This isn’t just about the body healing in a physical way, there’s a mental process of healing when “life’s obstacles” come in to play.

How about the person, who has been on a diet for a month or two, seeing some progress, then get’s extremely stressed at work, gets back to old eating habits and some of the weight comes back on. Does this person give up because it’s just too hard? Or do they become patient with the process and respect the fact that true habits will take commitment, patience and determination in order to change?

Or how about the person who at one point had a great paying job, spent every last cent on wants (in addition to needs) and then loses their job. Now becoming financially upside down in less than a couple months. Does this person turn towards desperate measures, feel devastated, depleted, and give up? Or does this person heal mentally, learn, grow and find a way to change their life somehow, someway with a positive and patient mindset?

Another example might be the person who is a professional cyclist, gets cancer and has the choice to give up his profession and wonder when he will die or does this person make up his mind he will beat cancer and beyond that, he will become one of the (if not, THE) best cyclist in history?

What happens when we heal not only physically but mentally? What happens when we slow down just long enough to stay positive and respect the process we are going through? We become someone new who can appreciate the lesson and create changes which could benefit our health and well being for a lifetime!

I hope this can give you the strength to slow down long enough when you need to mentally AND physically ramp back up!

Respecting the Nature of Nature

By Tammy Parkinson | August 26th, 2009 0 Comments

About a week and a half ago, I was happily riding my bike up in Tahoe and while going down one of the easiest trails I’ve been on I went from chatting with my girlfriend to flipping through the air, landing on my knees and face and having my bike flip over me. I don’t know why I fell and I really don’t remember how I hurt myself so badly, but I am bruised all over.

Of course I have run through the mindset of how lucky I am that nothing was broken and how much worse so many others have it. I am thankful that in time, I will be up and “running”, and of course I am grateful that I still am excited to ride!

What I have spent a lot of time thinking about is WHY I fell. I lost my focus. I was thinking about what I was going to do later in the day and talking with my friend. I lost respect for the nature of nature and the intensity of the sport I was practicing.

When we (I) go for a ride, workout, hike, water ski, river rafting, or anything we do during the summer, it’s important to think about the conditions of the trail, water, and terrain. We need to focus on the way our body is moving, where there might be boulders and rocks, if there are other people around who might get in our path, etc.

Take great respect for nature and for the bodies we have worked hard to keep healthy. Take a pause to focus on what you are doing and how you are doing it and keep your eye on the event!

As another “nugget” from this experience, I realize that although I don’t remember how I fell, I realize (based on where my bruises are) that I basically hit almost every body part! What’s cool is although I have bruising, I realize I must’ve been pretty darn flexible to survive without anything broken! Now I am ever so grateful for all those yoga classes and core workouts! I’m sure they saved me weeks of recovery!!

Monday Morning Mojo: It Sucks To Be Normal

By Tom Tognoli | August 24th, 2009 0 Comments

Are you an average Joe or average Jane? I sure hope not, because average or “normal” in America today sucks!

Here are just a few things that are considered normal in America today -

The average American household carries nearly $11,000 in credit card debt. That sucks.
63% of Americans are over weight and over 31% of Americans (nearly 90,000,000 people) are obese (that has tripled in the last 20 years.) Nearly half a million people die each year from obesity related illnesses. That sucks!!! Want to find out where you are at? Use this BMI Calculator (Body Mass Index). If your number is not what you like, don’t start making excuses such as “it can’t be right”, “I have big bones”, “it’s my genes”, “it does not apply to my body type” or any other crap you will brainwash yourself with to make you think it is okay. Even though it is normal, it is not okay.
Over 43% of marriages end in divorce (they say that percentage is climbing and may be as high as 50% today). I think a big part of the reason the divorce rate is so high is because we are “normal” at everything else in our life and normal sucks? So, because our life is normal, it leads to our marriage being normal and we know what normal is – right? It sucks.
There are 49 counties in the world where the people have a longer average life expectancy than Americans. We live in America the greatest country in the world and we are number 50?!? Some say our children’s average life expectancy may be the first in history that will be less than their parents. That sucks. Why? Because our children are watching us and doing what we are doing.
Over 55% of people in America suffer from high blood pressure and over 300,000 people each year die from it. That sucks.

Unfortunately because the majority of people in America are ‘normal’ (or average) it has become our measuring-stick to measure our lives by. What we measure ourselves against “sucks” so compared to the masses we look fine. However, for people whose life is “normal” or average, guess what? Their life is not all that great, but they just don’t know it. If someone is normal they are probably one or more of these – overweight, broke, addicted, divorced, depressed, unhappy, stressed out and God only knows what else. It is all they know, so they don’t know what it could be like. Now don’t get all bummed out if you are thinking I am normal. The great part is we can do something about it.

It all starts with the first step – start spending more time with people who aren’t normal or average. Think about it, if all of the people you are spending your time with are like you, do you think you are going to change? NOT. On the other hand, do you think if you hang out with people who are achieving more than the average, you might learn by their examples and achieve more than the average? You bet.

So, why isn’t this a natural behavior? Because when we spend time with people achieving more than us, it makes us uncomfortable and it exposes us. This forces us to acknowledge our weaknesses and forces us to improve and improving requires us to get uncomfortable and change. You see, we want to spend time with people that make us feel comfortable, feel good about our life that is what is natural and easy. When we spend time with people like us it makes it all okay that we are the way we are that we are a “Normal Joe” or a “Normal Jane”.

Something to remember – we will very rarely achieve 10% above or 10% below the average of our five best friends. The five people we spend the majority of our time with in all areas of our life. So be careful who you are spending YOUR time with. Don’t get too comfortable, because comfortable is typically “normal,” and “normal” sucks!

Don’t be “normal,” be exceptional and have a kick ass life!

Monday Morning Mojo: Accountability Drives Us to Reach Our Goals

By Tom Tognoli | August 3rd, 2009 0 Comments

Money, work, health, your weight, your life – everything expands to meet the resources available. Have you ever noticed how that works? It’s easy to give you examples, because it happens to all of us every day:

It is April 15th tax day, how is it that we get our taxes done and delivered to the Post Office that evening just before they close? Was there no time available in the three and a half months prior? It’s all because we have a deadline.

Have you ever noticed that so many of us diet, lose weight, and eventually gain the weight back? Next time you lose weight try cleaning out your closet, purging all the clothes that are too big, giving you no easy way to expand back into them. Removing the easy option makes it hard to go back to your old ways, and gives you a defined line in which to not cross.

Why is it no matter how much money we make it never seems to be enough? Our expenses are expanding to meet our incomes. Watch out for this situation, it’s a dangerous place to be.

Isn’t the final two minutes of a football game the most exciting? Often teams that struggled to make a touchdown the entire game come through to score during the final moments? They have a deadline that defines the game, they either will win or lose – they have no options.

No matter where we are in life, we always feel like we don’t have enough time – in high school, then in college, as we start our career, after we get married, and especially after we have kids. Not only are we able to accomplish more and more during each stage in life, but when we reflect back, we wonder what we did with all the free time we had in the previous stage of our life. The time you take to accomplish anything in life will expand or reduce to meet the amount of time you give it.

The lesson is, with deadlines we are forced into action. There is no more time for procrastination and you just do it because you have to. Somehow we all need to figure out a way to create our own self imposed deadlines, getting us ahead early in the game as opposed to the last two minutes. What has worked for me is to create mini deadlines on my goals and then share those deadlines with someone I know will hold me to them. This is accountability. Granted, it adds uncomfortable pressure to our lives. Yet the reality is, if you want to have freedom and success you need to have accountability and discipline. They go hand in hand.

Make it a GREAT week.

Monday Morning Mojo: The Ax vs. the Sledgehammer

By Tom Tognoli | July 27th, 2009 0 Comments

Whack, whack, goes the dull ax against the tree making dents instead of deep, sharp, cuts.

In life how often do we experience this? Instead of taking the time to slow down and sharpen our ax so we can be more productive, we find ourselves in a hurry to get things done by pounding away at our problems and tasks with a dull blade yielding the same result as the solid surface of a sledgehammer – dents not cuts.

If we would just take the time to slow down and sharpen our ax, not only would our trees get chopped down faster, but it would require a whole lot less effort. And in the end, we would actually get more trees chopped down and have more time to spend in the other areas of our life that we are neglecting. Sometimes we get so consumed with getting stuff done that we don’t slow down long enough to educate ourselves and evaluate what we can do to be more efficient and effective. This applies to everything in life – business, finances, relationships, faith, health, etc.

So my advise is take the time to sharpen your ax, your skills, and your mind. Continuously learn, grow and try new things. Ultimately it will make your life easier and you will become more productive at a quicker pace. And remember a sharp ax cuts through a tree swiftly and with ease, as opposed to a sledgehammer which only makes a dent.

Monday Morning Mojo: Conquering the gap between here and there

By Tom Tognoli | April 13th, 2009 0 Comments

I am here. I want to get there. But the gap is so wide it is overwhelming.

Have you ever felt like that? I know I sure have and quite frankly it feels like it is almost be too much to even deal with at times. We can feel this way about our job, our health, our faith, our finances, our relationships. I will bet all of us have at least one area of our life where we are dealing with this right now.

So, what are we to do? Throw in the towel and say screw it, it’s just too hard, or what? No way.

We are an instant gratification society and therein lies part of our problem. We want it now. Texting, email, internet, downloading music, you name it. We can have most things we want in seconds today. Unfortunately, for the most important things in life there is no quick fix, no quick solution, no text, email, or website.

It takes time. It takes discipline. It takes accountability.

So, here is our challenge. Quit wasting time looking for the instant gratification solution and get to work on chipping away at it. It’s like this: If you want to get fit and healthy but have been eating like crap for years and not exercised in decades it is not going to happen overnight. Heck it is not going to happen in days or weeks. Accept the fact that it is going to take months, or perhaps years to accomplish it. And in the end, to maintain it, we will need to stick with it for a lifetime.

The key is to start small. Ride 20 minutes on the bike 3 times a week. Then build on that bit by bit over time. After a few months you will get up to 60 minutes+, 5 times a week+… Then with discipline, accountability, consistency and time, you will experience the breakthrough you are looking for.

It works this way for anything worthwhile in life. No matter what it is we are trying to accomplish in life remember the metaphor of starting with just 20 minutes, 3 times a week on the bike. Not an hour, not 7 days a week. Just start small and build on it over time. Because if we really want it and if we stick with it, we will be amazed at we can accomplish…we will bridge that huge gap and get there.

Be passionate, but be patient and make it a powerful week.

Go BIG!!!!!

Archive for the ‘Discipline’ Category

Don’t look back too long you may be in for a major collision

Follow the Commitment

Monday Morning Mojo: The Big Old Huge Bucket

To Be Physically Healed Takes Mental Healing

Respecting the Nature of Nature

Monday Morning Mojo: It Sucks To Be Normal

Monday Morning Mojo: Accountability Drives Us to Reach Our Goals

Monday Morning Mojo: The Ax vs. the Sledgehammer

Monday Morning Mojo: Conquering the gap between here and there

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