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…