Set Higher Standards by YogiRavi

During one of my many daily practices at the 2008 Level 1 training

I’m headed back to Level 1 Teacher Training for Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga. I attended last year as a student, and this time I will be an assistant, supporting the other students and teachers in the program.

I’m looking forward to spending another 8 days in the Catskills at Menla Mountain Retreat Center, disconnecting from technology for a while, helping others to learn and grow and I’m sure I’ll also pick a few things up myself. I am always amazed at how the act of teaching others can help you to learn so much.

See you in a week or so!

(Source: Livestrong.com - Alberto attacks on Stage 17 - 2009 TdF)

The 2009 Tour De France has come to an end. I am a huge fan of cycling. The amount of suffering these guys put themselves through is incredible. In the Tour, they’ll attack these Alpine climbs (where you ride up steep grades for literally hours on end) day after day for the duration of the 3-week event.Watching Lance and Albert fly up these climbs was inspiring.

What I always notice is how cyclists can easily put time into their competitors on a long uphill climb or series of climbs. However, on the downhills, they rarely gain much time – and often end up giving back some of their gains. The race really does reward those who are able to buckle down and dig into the uphills.

Seth Godin had a great post about Winning on the Uphills. I think this is spot on. Improving relative performance is very difficult on the downhills but very possible on the uphills, if you are willing to do whatever it takes. It might not be easy, but growth rarely is.

Instead of waiting for things to go perfectly or for the wind to be at your back, dig in and know that by pushing through the hard times, you’ll come out far stronger and with a headstart when you eventually hit the downhill parts of life – that is to say – when things seem to start going your way again.

I just finished reading a book by one of my favorite authors, The Blind Side by Michael Lewis. The book is about the story of Michael Oher – a kid who grew up and out of desitute poverty to become one of the most acclaimed high school and college football players in the country. Oher is now playing as an offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL.

What makes Oher’s (pronounced “oar”) story unique is that he only started playing football during his Junior year in high school, and was so poor as a child that he spent most of his childhood literally wandering the streets – looking for food and a place to sleep. After being taken in by a wealthy white family (with a passion for football), they discovered his talents and helped him get back on the track – channeling his energy and providing him with the family support system he desperately needed.

I highly recommend this book, even if you are not a sports fan. It will open you eyes to the inequity that is going on around you, and help you see that we all have a role in helping other people succeed. What if Oher hadn’t been taken in by his host family? What would his life be like now? Would he even be alive?

I picked up this book after hearing Michael Gladwell talk about his most recent book, Outliers, last year, and during the Q&A after his talk he mentioned Lewis’s Blind Side. He made the comment that if all Oher’s friends from the ghetto in east Memphis (where he grew up) had the chance to play football and get the care that Oher received later in High School, they’d need two NFL’s!

We like to think that our world is incredibly efficient, and that everyone has a fair chance if they work hard, and that the best people get the best jobs. Unfortunately, this is not the case. A heck of a lot is left to chance, or just depends on those that care to make sure that those that don’t have the means or a voice, get their shot.

Similarly, I have a friend – Robyn – who is in Africa, teaching English to refugees in Rwanda for a few months. She recently wrote a blog post describing her experience. It really struck a chord with me and again points out the inequity that still exists around the world. Here is a snip from her recent post describing the refugees in the camp where she teaches:

They are smart. They are ambitious. They are passionate. They are honorable and very Christian. They want opportunities. They kept asking me what their options are for furthering their education, or coming to the States. It is still not safe in their home country, the DRC. I have no answers for them. It is not easy. They tell me the people who get resettled by UNHCR into other countries are the vulnerables: the sick, the elderly, the crippled. This is because they would likely not survive in their own countries in the event that they were repatriated. It all seems so unfair. In the US, if you study hard and demonstrate ambition and intelligence, you have opportunities. But in this case, it is the very opposite. I wish UNHCR could resettle some of these young men in Seattle. I could help them find jobs, find a church, further their English study…. The challenges seem overwhelming.

Social inequity is everywhere, if you open your eyes you’ll notice. The good thing is, the most important thing we can all do is to resolve to not be ignorant of the reality of the world around us. With ignorance of this issue left behind, we have a chance to start addressing it by going out of our way to help others and really give people a chance – especially those who might not normally get one.

We can’t just rely on our institutions and “systems” to take care of social inequity, we have to make the problem a personal one, and take individual steps to create equality wherever we can. This could be through donating money to a worthy cause, helping kids through a Big Brothers/Big Sisters program, volunteering at a local charity, teaching pro-bono yoga classes, tutoring kids in needs….whatever you can do. No step is too small.

I have a tendency to go to extremes. I set clear and sometimes audacious goals, achieve them (at at least give it a good attempt) and then frequently fall off the bandwagon a bit as I succumb to what I call the “post-goal blues.” When I raced triathlons, I found this “disease” to be common amongst my racer friends.

We’d train hard all year for a big race, and then the day after – feel relieved that the event was over. No more worries about squeezing a workout in, dealing with soreness or dreading another track workout. A week later, we’d be enjoying our time off from training. A month later, we’d be scratching our heads while looking at our ever-growing bellies and wondering what the next big goal is gonna be – but feeling too unmotivated to actually come up with one. I experienced the “blues”big-time after my last Ironman – totally stopping any sort of training routine for over a year.

Time away from a purpose-driven and goal-driven life can be a good thing. It is like going on vacation and getting away from all the demands you might have at work or home. However, at some point, you need to get back in the groove and reconnect with those things that really motivate you long-term, even if those things might require a bit of work on your part (like getting in the gym, learning to speak that language, hitting the trails or writing that book you’ve been putting off, whatever it is!).

All athletes have an off-season, even folks like Lance Armstrong – 7-Time Tour de France champ – takes at least a month off at the end of each season, chowing down on burritos and drinking beer. Even in my place of work, our executives tend to check-out during the month of August, enjoying the summer time and relaxing while they can. The key, though, is not to let yourself take too much time off and fall off track.

I’ve written a lot about goal setting and vision boarding. One of the great things about vision boards is that they give you a visual reminder of what is important to you. They become super important at times when you feel yourself getting off track and taking things too easy. We all know the difference between taking a little break and just being lazy.

If you haven’t checked in on your new years resolutions (or as I like to call them, new years “intentions”) or looked at your goals sheet or vision board in a while. Now is the time. Take it out, dust it off and remind yourself what is important, and think about what you can do right now to make progress against those things that at one point were so incredibly important to you, and assuredly are now too.

(a 1-room cabin in the high in the Rocky Mountains, where I spent 5 days fasting and meditating in utter silence).

Better yet, if you have a chance to get away for a few days and check-in on your goals and new years intentions, that can be incredibly powerful. Find a cabin or a bed & breakfast that is away from the hustle of your current life, and just take time to reflect on what you achieved this year so far, and what you are looking forward to achieving during the rest of the year. Recommit to achieve those things that are most important to you. Get yourself back on track.

It is rasberry season! Finally, I can enjoy these wonderful berries fresh without having to pay and arm and a leg. I picked up an entire tray (6 overflowing pints) of rasberries for $15 from a local farmer’s market (all organic of course). I could probably get them cheaper, but that would require a drive outside of town.

Throw half-pint of berries, a super-ripe banana and a heaping tablespoon of hemp seeds into your Vita-Mix. Blend for about 10 seconds and enjoy. I use the whole hemp seeds in this recipe to get more of the good fats (as opposed to just using the hemp protein isolate). Hemp is an amazing source of Omega 3 fatty acids, and is also a complete and full-spectrum protein source – with all the amino acids your body needs to build muscle.

It’s harder to be simple than it is to be complicated.

Even though most of us know that having a simple life is actually one of the keys to finding happiness, it is a tough thing to put into practice. Entropy is always at play, and things seem to expand and grow to fill up space. Simple activities, thoughts and words grow and grow until they become mind-numbingly complicated.

It is harder to live happily with fewer material possessions than it is to allow yourself to acquire and stockpile lots of random and useless things. It is harder to write clear and concise prose than it is to drone on in an essay. It is harder to eat simple and healthy food than it is to consume lots of overcooked, overspiced, oversized meals. It is harder to speak clearly and briefly when talking to friends and family than it is to ramble and talk over others. It is harder to look neat and cute in simple clothing than it is to over-accessorize with designer duds.

Being simple is hard, at least at first. However, like anything, the more you do it, the easier it gets. You can train yourself to welcome and embrace a simple life, but it takes work to counter the inertia that pulls in the other direction. After some time, that inertia will lose its grip, and you’ll find the simple life as a normal way of being, and not something you need to work hard to maintain or achieve.