Every now and then you see a video that hits something in you.  This video did that for me.

It features Yvon Chouinard the founder of Patagonia and environmental activist.

Enjoy

Best line in the video “It’s not about catching the fish its about the fish catching you really”

Its not uncommon to get off track.  It happens all the time.  Personally i have been feeling spread very thin over the past few months and felt like i really needed to reassess my situation and determine my next steps forward.  What came out of it is this…

My Goals for the Rest of 2010-

-Only focus on MY businesses or businesses that I own a part of, no longer work for anyone else in any capacity

-Stay open to new people and new experiences (2009 was a great learning experience and I met a lot of cool people, need more of that)

-Travel Again (For the first time in my life i took almost a whole year off from traveling and i am restless time to get back on the horse, at least 2 out of country this year, Ecuador for sure!)

-Be Calmer  (I found myself very stressed from this last year and need to just calm down)

-Do more yoga (stress relief, better surfing, and a six pack, yea yoga is good)

-Take a Bonsai Class

-Cook More

-Stop putting off guitar lessons

-Renew old friendships

-Ski more

-Surf more

Yea there are some monetary goals mixed in there as well, but I wont bore you with those…..

Are you on track?  Do your efforts feel like a laser or a floodlight.

Come on now, tighten up, get it dialed in

Man, what a great experience it has been working with and learning from Greg lately.

I mean Think and Grow Rich, that’s huge!  This book has been accredited with making more millionaires than any other book in the history of mankind, and rightfully so.  I have the original on CD in my truck right now, its just a great motivator and breaks down one’s ability to control his destiny by controlling his mind.

So the story goes like this, in 1908 the country is in turmoil.  People are losing their jobs and everyone is up in arms about how bad their lives are and that there is no hope.  The richest man of the time, Andrew Carnegie commissions a young man by the name of Napoleon Hill to go around and interview the most successful people of their time to figure out their secrets.  He does this and it goes on to become the book now know as Think and Grow Rich.

Fast forward 100 years and once again, the country is in turmoil.  People are losing their jobs, banks are shutting down and everyone thinks the sky is falling and then it happens….again.  This time the Napoleon Hill Foundation themselves commission someone (Greg) to go around and interview the top entrepreneurs of our time period and the result is this book.  Think and Grow Rich – Three Feet From Gold.  Its an awesome book that is a must for any entrepreneur.

Thank you Greg for the interview, for the insight and of course for your friendship.  Its an honor to know you.

Enjoy the video and check out that 1980’s microphone, pretty sick I know.

Mat

yea, I like quotes and I heard a few lately that I wanted to share, all about taking action….

“Knowing is better than wondering…..
Waking is better than sleeping……..
and even the worst, biggest, most un-retractable mistake beats the hell out of not trying”
-Benjamin Franklin

“20 Years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do, than by the things you did.  So go on sail away from the safe harbor and catch the trade winds in your sails…..explore, dream….Discover!”
-Mark Twain

“Ships in the harbor are safe, but that’s not what ships are built for”
-William Shedd

I am 27 years old, and after this trip I wonder why I waited so long to finally go to Yosemite.

The place is awesome and the whole valley looks like a postcard.  You can literally see exactly where the Glacier came through and carved out the valley.  Yosemite is also home to 3 famous mountains.  El Capitan and The Sentinel are great mountains, but we were here to conquer none other than The Half Dome.

Now most people will start around 6 am and hike through the day to summit and then come back down in the afternoon/evening.  We decided to take a little different approach.  We started just after 9 pm and got to the base of Half Dome around 3am.

We camped out below the dome until we couldn’t take it anymore and finally scaled the remaining thousand feet or so by cable to get to the top just before sunrise.

It was definitely a surreal moment looking down a vertical mile to the valley floor on either side of you as you hold on to an old steel cable attached to the top of a rock.  Its a rush and even more so at night, but absolutely worth it when you get to the top and look around a gorgeous valley below as the sun starts to peak over the eastern mountains.  I highly recommend it.

I usually try to tie all my adventures and trips into business somehow, but for this post I think I will just leave it at this.

Go see some damn nature, you’ll feel better.

Mat

Okay, so quick story.

I spent all day today surfing a huge summer swell in San Diego.  These waves were generated by an earthquake off the coast of New Zealand about a week or so ago.  74 degree water, sunny, 8-12+ foot waves and just a great day to be out at Blacks Beach in La Jolla, Ca.

Blacks Beach

So your probably wondering how I am gonna tie this in to business and life and so on and so forth so here is the ah-ha moment.

When your paddling out in 8-12+ foot waves its easy to get a little nervous, especially if you have not done it in awhile.  You can begin to doubt yourself and even sometimes hesitate to take action.

Same as life, if you have fear or apprehension about something, the only way to get rid of that fear or apprehension is to “drop in.”  Start that business you have always wanted to start.  Begin writing that book you have always wanted to write.  Paddle into that perfect 12 foot barreling left hand wave and get after it and something very interesting will happen almost immediately.  Your fear will DISAPEAR.

Its amazing, fear fades with action.  Even if you fall on the wave or have to rewrite that chapter in your book, the fear will be gone.  You will realize that it was not so hard and wonder why you ever hesitated in the first place.  That’s why marathon runners always say that the hardest step in a marathon is not the last step, its the first one.  That is also the reason that so many people will never reach their dreams, because they are too scared to take that first step.

So today, after you read this, look at your life and figure out what you have been putting off because you were too scared to act.  Suck it up, take a deep breath and take that first step.  Put the first words down to your book.  Incorporate that business you have always wanted and drop into that perfect left and then paddle back out to your buddies with a huge smile on your face, because you know they are all jealous!

Good luck out there, go make it happen.

So if you know me, you know that I am about to embark on a massive crusade to change the way the average person sees nutrition, health and food.  In my mind, we need to pick the low hanging fruit first, so here is an easy one.

Why should you stop drinking cola and soft drinks?  Well, there are literally so many reasons, I could go on all day, but lets start with phosphoric acid.  Yes, acid.  Its contains citric acid too, but I am not too worried about that, I am more worried about the phosphoric acid.  Why?  Well, because its what they scrub rust off of aircraft carriers with.  Its the stuff that stone masons use to make etchings into stone.  It has a ph level of 2.8.  Your body’s ph level is around 7.35 in an ideal world, so do you think that’s a good idea?

Get That Phosphoric Acid Baby, Get it!

Here is what one big cola manufacturer said on their website about phosphoric acid, and i quote “Yes, CC does contain phosphoric acid (E 338). It is used as an acidulant to add a pleasant tartness to the beverage. Phosphoric acid contains phosphorous, an essential nutrient and one of the basic elements of nature.”

Hmm, well thats a intersting way to put it.  Oxygen is pretty integral to health too, but take it in the wrong dosage and it will kill you.

You have no doubt heard that you can dissolve a nail in 3 days with cola. Well that might not be exactly true, definitly in pure phosphoric acid,  but not cola.  That being said its still terrible for your body, terrible.  I mean its killing your body every time you drink it, so wake up.

This is your first of many eye opening messages about the truth and what you have been told and yes, they are very different.

-P.S.  we havent even gotten into the massive amounts of sugars and other body destroying chemicles in these drinks and not just cola’s and soft drinks but energy drinks and tons of others.  Stop being a sheep and start arming yourself with the knowedge that can save and improve your life.  Ok, i’ll get off my soapbox now.

Man, I have had a few just hectic days of late.  Have you ever been there?  You get so bogged down and derailed with work and family and just life in general that you forget what you are working towards?  What you are working for, what it truly is you do what you do for?

I was there today and have been there in the past and one thing I have started doing in the past few years is reaching out to those who A. are smarter than me, and B. have been there before.

I find the teachings of these people to not only inspire and motivate me, but also to remind me of what my goal, my purpose, my “why” is.

Today I want you to recenter and find your “why” and determine if what you are doing is getting you closer to that “why” or farther away from it?

Decision is the ultimate power and as you will see in the video below by one of my all time favorites, Tony Robbins, each decision we make directly affects our future and possibly the futures of other and even the world.  If this video does not get you excited to change your life for the better, you are not alive to begin with.  Enjoy…

Now go…

Ok, so its time to expose one of my biggest fears.

Being average

It terrifies me that I could somehow go through this one life and not experience all that life had to offer, positively affect everyone I came in contact with and not leave a legacy that will live on long after I am gone. This video is for everyone who feels “stuck” in their current role or life, I urge you….

TAKE ACTION, now, this very minute!

Today is the first day of the rest of your life.  Enjoy

I love Gary because he always speaks with such passion.  He lives with passion, works with passion and he speaks with passion.  That is one thing I have always wanted; that when I die people can look back and say “He had passion.”

Whether that passion was for a girl, for business, for life, whatever. It is that passion that separates us from the lesser animals and even those among us who make their way through life with no “passion”.  Please make the choice right now to not be one of those people.

What is your passion and what are you doing about it?