Set Higher Standards by YogiRavi

I sat in a few teacher training classes during a workshop held at my yoga studio this weekend. The training is geared for those who are not yet teaching but have the desire to do so.

Since I am already teaching I’ve had several folks ask me why I would sit on a training session that I’ve already done and progressed beyond. My response has simply been that even if the training is a repeat, I am bound to learn something new. It is like going out on your favorite hike for the fifth time or walking into your favorite restaurant for the second time in a week. Just because it isn’t new doesn’t mean your experience the same as it always has been.

There is always a new experience to be had and new lessons to be learned.

In this training, we spent time doing personal introductions and getting feedback on them. I realized how my body language and tone and filler words (and, but) were keeping me from connecting with people in a powerful way. I’ve done literally thousands of introductions at work, in social settings and to begin yoga classes, but never really thought about how important those first few words I say about myself can really shape others impressions of me. Boy am I glad decided to do this workshop again!

I’ve been a runner for the past 15 years. Over this time I’ve suffered countless injuries. Training for marathons and Ironman Triathlons can be tough on your body!

Shin splints. Stress fractures. IT band issues. Knee issues.  Plantar fascia issues. I’ve suffered through it all. I can run injury-free as long as keep my mileage fairly low, around 30 miles a week. If I get above 40-50 miles a week for a month or longer – I tend to develop issues. My easy response to this is just to keep my mileage low and cross-train heavily.

There must be a better way to stay healthy while training – without having to cut back on mileage.

Lately, there has been a lot of buzz about barefoot running. The benefits of ditching traditional shoes have been discussed in Men’s Health, bestselling books like “Born to Run” and by popular blogger Tim Ferriss. Running and walking barefoot is what we were built to do as human beings. Ditching heels and overly cushioned trainers are said to be a huge help in curing lower-leg and back injuries as well.

Read the rest of this entry »

Just do it.

I really like that slogan. Say what you will about Nike….

When you are on the fence, non-committal, waffling and not sure if you should or shouldn’t do something, just committing and trying it out (in my own experience) is the best approach. Only by committing and just doing it will you ever figure out if it is the right thing to do. By just doing it you can discover your own talents and maybe even discover that whatever you are doing is just not the right thing for you to focus on at this moment. A little bit of action can make the next steps seem so much more clear.

Indecision paralyzes. Decision moves you forward.

Make your move. Just do it.

I’ve had a few difficult conversations so far this week. These are the types of conversations that typically are avoided, but really have to happen. The types of discussions that can make even the most seasoned negotiator squirm.

They have to happen because if they don’t, the underlying problems don’t get resolved. They fester and grow and get worse until eventually you have to deal with the much larger and more difficult problem. Sometimes confronting people and saying what must be said is the only way to move a situation forward. This is what I realized and did a few times already this week.

It might be an issue with a team-mate or employee, a child, a spouse or a friend. Regardless of who it is, when faced with these uncomfortable conversations, it helps to do the following:

1. Don’t apologize for what you are saying or for confronting the person. If it isn’t your fault, you shouldn’t apologize. You need to be clear and confident with what you are doing and why before you confront the person.
2. While confronting the person, go out of your way to say as little as possible and listen as much as possible.
3. Once you say what must be said, do whatever you can to make the other person feel comfortable in the situation. This doesn’t mean taking them off the hook, it does mean not pushing too far or steam-rolling them. Everyone deserves respect and and a chance to be heard.
4. If at all possible, make a phone call or meet face to face when confronting someone. E-mail is aweful for this.

Have you had a difficult conversation recently? Any tips to share? Please leave a comment.

Tim Ferriss has a short 5-minute video from the Google I/O conference. He talks about first defining your fears as a means to overcome them. I agree that our worst fears never come to pass. They sure can hold us hostage and keep us from acting, but I have never been in a situation where they have actually occurred in my own life!

It is a worthwhile exercise to consider the worst-case scenario when confronted with a big decision. Write it down. Look at it. Laugh at the absurdity of the chance of it actually happening. Recognize that even if it did happen, that you would still be OK at some level (you would still have physical health, or emotional health or good friendships or peace of mind ….etc.). Then press on with newfound confidence that the worst isn’t really all that bad.

I stretch everyday, in some way shape or form. I practice yoga or just do a few stretches to move my physical body and get the blood flowing. Stretching isn’t just about flexibility, it also makes you strong.

When you lengthen your muscles you increase the amount of blood that can flow through your tissues, which helps your cells cleanse and fill up with nutrients. The more nutrition you can provide your cells, the stronger and healthier you will become. So yes, stretching can and does make you stronger!

I also stretch myself in other ways every day. I stretch myself at work by taking on challenging projects. I also stretch myself at work and home to use my own creativity to solve hard problems. I stretch myself to motivate others and improve my own levels of health and wellness. I stretch myself to teach more uplifting yoga classes. I stretch myself to just blog more often .

How did you stretch yourself today? Before you answer…..get down on the floor, sit with your legs together and straight out in front of you and just fold forward in a relaxed forward bend. Don’t try to touch your toes, just fold over your legs and surrender to gravity and hold the pose for a few minutes. Releax your head down toward your legs too.

OK, once you get in the pose, now ask yourself the question…how did you stretch yourself today? If you don’t feel completely satisfied with your answer, what are you going to do differently tomorrow to give your self a  more inspiring answer?

I just got back from a special dinner with  a few friends. It got me thinking about the value of friendship.

If there is one truth in this world, it is that we are not alone. In fact, no matter how much we might want to go our own way and do our own thing, we can’t really do anything worth doing without the support of others. The value of friendship is that it is through our friends that we are able to really create achieve things that are bigger than ourself.

Friends provide a sounding board for good ideas, and help you to see bad ideas for what they are. They provide a nurturing environment for the good within you, and help you to externalize those qualities in a way than help you serve the world in a bigger way. Friends aren’t afraid to call you out on the carpet when you aren’t being your true self, and they can help you to see the humor in situations that might otherwise seem incredibly serious.

Friendship is priceless. You can never understate the importance of a close circle of friends. Like anything worth having, there is some effort involved on your part to build and nurture this circle of friends. But rest assured, just like an oak tree stands tall and strong with little care once it grows from a seedling to a young tree, so to will friendships stand strong once they are cultivated. They are worth every minute of time, second of attention and ounce of energy you can give .

When you have no other choice, you stop making excuses and start doing the things you know need to be done. When you close off all alternatives, it is much easier to commit and make progress.

Most business people I know love the fact that they are able to get so much work done while travelling on airplanes. At least on most flights, cell and e-mail access isn’t an option, so one is left with the only choices of reading the inflight magazine, reading a book, listening to music or actually getting work done. Goodbye internet, hello productivity.

Can you go internet free one day a week? Can you go e-mail free a couple times a week? Can you resolve not to answer your work calls after 5pm or before 9am? Can you commit to eating a leafy green salad with every meal? Can you not turn on your TV after 9pm? Can you stop reading so many blogs and focus more on writing more of your own

What can you do to recreate such situations (like the internet free flight!) in your everyday life – so that you don’t have to rely on your own willpower to achieve a positive result? For example, have organic produce delivered to your door every week so you feel compelled to eat healthy food – so it doesn’t spoil. Join a sports team that will make you feel guilty for not getting out and exercising. Do work in a location that doesn’t have internet access. Sell your TV (or loan it to a friend for a while). Disable your Facebook and Twitter accounts…etc.

Get creative and design a lifestyle that makes it easy for you to be more disciplined and smarter about how you live you life and spend your time.

The problem with success is that we can never have enough or be good enough. Each time we feel successful we just create another minimum bar that we have to cross to feel successful again. Win a baseball game and there is just another game yet to win. Win a business deal and you need to win not one, but two more deals to feel that much more successful. Win a running race and you need to win another, only faster, to feel more accomplished.Get a raise and you need to get another – bigger raise to even more successful.

The problem with success is that we make is so darn hard to feel successful. We create higher and higher hurdles to jump. At some point, it creates more pressure than it is worth. Progress is defined in terms of doing better than others or than how we have done in the past. It is time to throw out the comparisons.

Maybe now is the time to redefine what we mean by success. Instead of defining success by doing more, better, faster, stronger, smarter, longer, etc…how about defining success by simply having to inspire or contribute to others well-being in the process of doing whatever you are doing. How about defining success in terms of simply experiencing  joy in the process of doing what you are doing. How about defining success in terms that are fulfilling and sustainable and achievable over the long term?

If you define the rules of your game of life properly, that is to say – in a way that you can actually feel success on a regular basis and feel good in the process, you are bound to experience happiness at a level and consistency that you have never before imagined.

Today I have deactivated my Facebook account, and will no longer be posting to my Twitter account. This is another 30-day challenge. I’m an avid social networker, but at the end of the day, I realize that much of the conversations that happen through these networks are not directly supporting my overall goals or well-being.

Participating in social networks is a fantastic thing, but you need to be incredibly disclipined and focused so that you do not begin to allow the network to swallow you whole. As your network builds, the more people will contact you, the bigger and busier your news “feed” will be and the higher the noise-to-signal ratio will become.

You run the risk of becoming a human spam filter just trying to parse through what is valueable vs nice-to-have vs absolute garbage. For me, with over 600 friends on facebook, the information tsunami was difficult to manage. I would check the site several times a day just to see if there was something of interest.

I would get people sending me notes and e-mails on Facebook totally out of the blue and often off-topic. I’d also have lots of “shallow” interactions with people and very few meaningful conversations. In the end, I am not that big on small talk. I would much rather have a few meaningful conversations with people than a hundred casual chats. People can easily contact me through my blog (or my e-mail, which is also posted on this blog).

Lastly, I also have found myself posting updates and photos just to see what other people think…that is to say, just to get a reaction. I don’t think this is healthy behavior or a good use of my time.

Therefore, for the next 30 days, I have deactivated my Facebook account and also will not be using Twitter at all. The only exception with Twitter is that when I post a blog, my site auto-updates to Twitter. I’ll let that continue, I just won’t check it! I am curious to see if I even miss not having this connection to my online network.