You are the maker of your own bed

These past two weeks, especially the past week, have absolutely flown by. I’ve had an insanely busy month, as we all do at times, yet despite all that, I made sure to take the time to think.

Thinking is one activity that I strongly believe helps slow down life and keep us centered and focused. I mean sure we all "think" all day, but I’m talking about real, intentional thinking on topics of your choice.

My topic of choice, generally, is how can I serve you better, how can I impact more lives, what can I do/say to help you see and understand how important your life is - and boy I came up with some good stuff.

Regardless of the busyness, I found this week to be fascinating because I had several long conversations with clients and friends about life (well, they usually don't realize it all applies to life lol) and it really makes me think. Again with the thinking...

I was chatting with someone else about our mutual love of dirt bikes when someone piped in with a comment about how dangerous it was and that we might just die. I mean it wasn't that blunt, but that was the point of the comment, that riding dirt bikes – or any motorcycle – is dangerous.

I brushed it off, life's too short to care about the negative opinions of others, but later I took the time to ponder their comment.

Because they were right?

Not at all. Because they were dead wrong.

In Canada (Where this is being written), the number one leading cause of death is cancer, which is just shy of 30%. The second leading cause of death is heart disease, with 20%. There are no other THREE causes COMBINED that even come close to that.

Here's the funny thing, 4.4% of deaths are equated to unintentional accidents - and that category is SO SMALL that Canada doesn't provide a smaller survey of results for it.

I would wager that if they DID a study, deaths by dirt bike's MIGHT be 0.000001%. I mean, sure, once, sometimes twice a year I hear about a death caused by someone on a bike. I'm not saying it doesn't happen. But every single day someone passes away in a car. And even that's a small percentage.

To be clear, I am NOT discounting deaths by these causes - all deaths are losses that are missed.

But here's the real kicker...

IF you continually pack your diet with CRAP, you substantially INCREASE your odds of death FAR greater than I ever will riding my dirt bike.

Eating crap consistently, I'm not talking about going out and enjoying yourself here and there and living a little, I'm talking about consistently eating junk, is taking a greater risk, a higher chance of death, based on statistics, then any other cause of death.

I've clocked my bike running 112 kilometers an hour in a little bush road surrounded by trees with zero room for error - and my odds are still far greater than the top three causes of death, cancer - heart disease - stroke, which total 55.1% of all deaths in Canada.

Now, I'm not trying to be dark and heartless here... We've all lost family friends, people close to us, and we all feel that loss. I'm just trying to paint the stark reality that your diet, your lifestyle, your positive attitude, your enjoyment of life and your health plays a substantially GREATER roll on your odds of life or death, than riding a bike, driving a car, taking a bus, etc.

I remember when dad and I were at a motocross track in Barrie this summer, and it started storming with thunder and lighting, and dad and I didn't care one bit. We came there to ride, not sit and hide in the truck.

Well, the lady who runs the track came out yelling and screaming to get off the track because were going to get hit by lighting - yet she weighed 350 pounds.

I'm not trying to be rude here, but odds are far greater that she's going to pass away from her lifestyle long before I ever get hit by lighting.

So logically, dad and I got off the track, she left, and we went right back on! Okay, I don't want to sound like we won, she did come back, yell some more and we had to leave.

But the point again is that YES, you can get hit by lighting, you can get into a car accident, you can get eaten by a shark, you can fall off a cliff, you can, you can, you can.

And if I was a gambling man, I'd take those odds over the average Canadian's own body saying “that's it, I can't take this junk food any longer”. Oh, and for the record, statistics in America aren’t any better.

YOU are in charge of your own life. YOU are in charge of own health.

I forget who wrote it, but I read an article once titled "Suicide by Spoon", and it talked about the dangers of poor health, a slow suicide and our 100% responsibility attached to it.

So this brings me to my next thought I pondered all week...
 

You need to have fun with your health and fitness, but take your health and fitness very seriously.

Did you get that?

One of the reasons I love Kickboxing is that no matter what kind of day I've had, I LOVE hitting the bag. Once I put the gloves on, my brain goes into the zone and I just beat the crap out of it and I feel amazing.

I've always been a fan of enjoying the workout process, of having fun with fitness, of seeing the drills as challenges that you can crush, as obstacles you get to climb, as the best part of your day.

I've never understood people who whine about having to do squats or lunges or skip, like come on, if you don't like it go eat a big mac instead, this is your life we're talking about!

When I'm working out, I love it. No matter how much crap you had to deal with that day, when you're working out you can feel how in control you are of your life. It's just you, the bag, the medicine ball, the push up, the jump rope, whatever it is, no matter how hard it is, it's just you. Nothing can stop a determined soul.

I believe that working out should be fun, it should be something that gets you pumped up, gets you excited, and makes you happy. You should strive to have FUN with your health and not beat yourself up if you struggle here and there. Enjoy yourself.

And the flip side, the other half of what I said, I believe you need to take your health and fitness very seriously.

You see, as much as I love working out, and I do my best to enjoy every minute of it (and that's the easy part if you have the right attitude) I also don't let myself get off easy. I don't allow myself to slack. I don't allow myself NOT to workout.

Take this week, sure, I've been gone hunting a lot and haven't worked out in the club, but do you know how many steps I'm clocking per day? An average of 80 000 steps per day, as contrast, the average person takes 5K steps per day. And no, that's no typo. My gps tracks my routes and my steps.

I'm not just sitting down drinking beer hoping something walks by. I like to work out, I like to walk the trails not drive my truck around, I like to cut cross country, walk up hills, over trees, through creeks, and put in my exercise - because I take my health seriously.

Not only is it good for my body, it's good for my mind, and it creates opportunities to view nature and all its beauty :)

I enjoy my health and fitness, I have fun with it, but I take it very seriously - and you should too.

Today, and just today, don't worry about tomorrow, be present, be in the moment, worry about right now, and take your health and fitness seriously.

Before eating or drinking anything, ask yourself...

Will this clog me or cleanse me?

Will this make me stronger, or weaker?

Will this extend my life or shorten it?

Will this make me healthier or sicker?

Will this make me stronger or weaker?

Will this bring me closer to my goal or further?

Don't ever underestimate the power of questions. I can almost guarantee you that if, before you eat or drink anything, you legitimately asked yourself these questions and answered them HONESTLY, you would make better choices.

Questions are powerful; questions can shape your destiny.

So take time today to think before you act, ask before you decide, and see where life takes you.

To your success, 

Al