Health & Energy!

29 May

Posted at 08:07h in Career & Purpose, Communication & Rapport, Emotions & Happiness, Entrepreneurship, Health & Energy! by

Supportive friends make you live longer

Image credit.

"The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself."

- Mark Caine

Today's post goes hand-in-hand with our online presentation on: How to Find & Meet Inspiring, Passionate & Supportive People In Your Hometown. You can see the recording here.

Onward...

Is Your Community Helping or Hurting You?

The goal of Live Your Legend is to provide the ideal environment and resources for making your impact on the world. Everything we do is to serve that purpose for you all. By now we should all know that the people around us shape who we are. They will either mold you to change the world or cause the world to collapse on your shoulders. In order to do anything meaningful - be it lose 50 pounds, run your first marathon, or do the work and make the impact only you are capable of making, you must have a support network that helps make it possible. So I want to challenge you to ask what may turn out to be some hard questions.

07 May

Posted at 08:17h in Career & Purpose, Emotions & Happiness, Health & Energy! by

love your work to live a long life

"Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease." - Hippocrates

The Health Benefits of Loving What You Do.

I believe doing work you love will change the world. But a lot of people still spend their lives filled with stress, anxiety and despair about how they spend the majority of their working and waking hours. As many as 80% of the world lives this way (although I'd like to think our Revolution here is beginning to push that number down). Yet despite the constant pain and frustration, we find reasons to push off change one more day. One day turns into a year, which turns into forever. But as we're about to see, there are serious risks in putting off the change you know you so badly need to make. The biggest risk of all? Life. Yes, there is real scientific and medical proof that doing work you don't enjoy will actually shorten your lifespan.

28 Nov

Posted at 13:52h in Emotions & Happiness, Health & Energy!, Love & Relationships by

live to see your children grow up

“First we make our habits, then our habits make us.”

- Charles C. Noble

Many of us just got finished with possibly the most unhealthy (and fun) day of the year in an American's life - Thanksgiving. And we are all about to dive into the most unhealthy few weeks of everyone's year - the holidays. I couldn't imagine a better time to talk about the most powerful habit on the planet...

The One Habit That Will Get You Anything You Want

I believe health & fitness are the most powerful tools in the world. I guess I'm kind of fanatical when it comes to the body... Three weeks ago I attended a TEDxSF UCSF conference on Global Health. It's so mind blowing and encouraging to see how many bad ass, smart, talented and motivated people are tackling such a huge problem. Then two weeks ago I went on a run with world-champion ultra-runner Scott Jurek, author of the book Eat & Run, which was damn inspiring. In two weeks, I'll be running our second-annual Accidental Marathon with a few close buddies. It's why I attempt all kinds of fitness challenges like running an ultra-marathon in Tahoe, doing 31 days of Bikram hot yoga in a row, swimming from Alcatraz and across the Golden Gate Bridge and the 12-hour Goruck Challenge.

05 Jun

Posted at 18:34h in Emotions & Happiness, Health & Energy! by

how to push limits goruck

"If we don't push you to your mental and physical edge, then we have failed you." - Goruck Challenge Cadre, June 2nd, 2012, 9:15 pm, on a cold and windy San Francisco night

The Testing (and Disproving) of Limits

The people who do work that matters, the Living Legends who impact the world, all have at least one trait in common. They push limits. And it's not some chore they force themselves to do every once in a while just to get where they want to go. Not even close. It's something they do daily, in one way or another, big or small.

It's a fundamental part of how they operate.

Last Saturday night around 9 pm I found myself standing in a dark wet field in San Francisco's Presidio. The air temperature was just under 50 degrees (before factoring in the 30-40 mph wind and blanket of myst typical of my lovely hometown). I was wearing a headlamp and a 47-pound backpack. Seven close friends were standing next to me, along with a couple LYL readers (who heard about the event through my Richard Branson fitness post). There were also about 80 more of us I'd yet to meet. Then, as if on queue, the sprinklers came on. The timing could not have been worse (or better, depending on who you asked)…

28 Feb

Posted at 20:35h in Health & Energy!, Productivity by

Richard Branson Productivity Space

"The more you do, the more you'll do."

- Anonymous

On discovering the ultimate source of confidence & productivity...

Not long ago I attended an event with Sir Richard Branson and a bunch of other entrepreneurs. Something about his message and his presence brought clarity to a concept I've inherently known & practiced for years. Now that it's clear, I'd like to share it. It's a topic I rarely write about, but it's a huge part of every one of my days (often before I check an email, write my first sentence or even open my computer). It's the primary foundation of not only my own confidence and productivity, but that of almost every successful lifestyle entrepreneur and CEO on the planet.

"So, how do you get more done?"

Why is it that so many successful people seem to be able to do so much? How is it that the more accomplished the person, the more it seems they're able to get done? Shouldn't it be the opposite? How is a CEO of one company able to found another one on the side, while administering his charity and still taking the occasional family trip? For years this has blown my mind. With how much effort it takes to do one thing well, I couldn't imagine how people who seemed even 'busier' than me could produce magnitudes more results. Then I figured it out.

30 Jul

Posted at 10:29h in All Topics, Career & Purpose, Emotions & Happiness, Health & Energy!, Love & Relationships by

Get the Life You Love

"Be the change you want to see in the world."

-Mahatma Gandhi

Written by: Scott Dinsmore

Average Read Time: 6 minutes

Editor's Note: This is a book review for Arvind Devalia's book Get the Life You Love and Live It

We all have dreams. Maybe get that perfect job. Start that business. Meet the right person. Lose 20 pounds. Find your purpose. Whatever your own vision of success is, the only thing that usually stands between your dreams and reality is action. It starts with that first single step to climb a mountain. Why then is it so hard to begin? We get so used to just one way of doing things that getting ourselves to take that first key step requires some massive effort. It isn't enough to know the end result. We need to fill in the steps in between. Just as it's difficult to drive somewhere without directions, it's even more important that you have a map to your success. Arvind Devalia provides just that in his book "Get the Life You Love".

21 Jul

Posted at 23:29h in All Topics, Career & Purpose, Emotions & Happiness, Health & Energy! by

Attempt the Impossible

"So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable."

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-Christopher Reeve

Written by: Scott Dinsmore

Average Reading Time: 5.5 minutes

Three weeks ago I thought that running a barefoot 50k Ultra Marathon at 7500 ft. of elevation would be impossible. So did a few others. Three days ago I found out it wasn't. In just a sliver under 8 hours and 24 minutes, after over 31 miles, I wobbled across the finish line of the Tahoe Rim Trail, barefoot-style (In my Vibram's). Up until Saturday I'd never run over 15 miles, let alone a marathon, especially at elevation. I heard all kinds of objections (both from myself and others). But you haven't even run a marathon. Those barefoot things you call shoes will never give you the support you need. That elevation gain is too much for a first long run. And on it went. So why did I decide to give it a shot? Because it seemed impossible.

13 May

Posted at 11:20h in All Topics, Career & Purpose, Emotions & Happiness, Entrepreneurship, Health & Energy!, Love & Relationships, Productivity by

The80/20 Principle and Richard Koch Interview

Written by: Scott Dinsmore

Average Reading Time: 4.5 minutes

Ask Richard Koch and he'll tell you that life efficiency can be summed up in a sentence: 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort. My guess is we've all heard it before (especially if you read my resent post summarizing his book). But what might surprise many of you is that he sums up life happiness and fulfillment in just the same way. I had to learn more. After virtually following him between his homes in South Africa, Portugal and Sevilla, I learned two things. 1. He's not the easiest to track down and 2. He lives what he writes, to the T. He IS the 80/20 Principle. He of course wouldn't give a phone interview, only email--it was an 80/20 thing...