A strategy is a plan that you create to achieve a worthy goal.

Hope can support a strategy. In fact, it is sort of prerequisite – especially when you are trying to do something extraordinary. Extraordinary things are  often surrounded by uncertainty and this is particularly where hope (or faith or grace or whatever you want to call it) plays a key role.

Regardless, hope itself is not a strategy. If you want to do big things. Plan. Learn as much as you can. Consult people who know far more than you do (particularly elderly people who can take a long-term view of things). Write down your thoughts and be specific in what you want your outcome to be, and also be specific in what you anticipate your key tasks and steps need to be in order to get you there.

Once you have done all you think you can do…keep at it….do some more!

Then finally…..allow hope to fill you and give you confidence that your efforts will inevitably lead to exactly the perfect outcome.

I went hiking a couple of days ago in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness a few hours east of Seattle, WA. This is a view of "Big Heart Lake". Photo by Ravi.

At the Sea-Tac airport upon returning from the Copper Canyon Ultramarathon, someone in front of me had this cool sweatshirt on. Very fitting after surviving 3 days of travel to get home, including a missed connecting flight requiring an overnight stay in Denver!

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

by Marianne Williamson

from A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles

- Patanjali

- Winston Churchill

Alex Honnold free-climbs Half-Dome at Yosemite. No ropes, just chalk!

It is inspiring to see people pushing the boundaries of what is possible, even if these guys are totally insane. Enjoy – then get out and start training!

Trailer for First Ascents Series

Real-life Spiderman

Free-Base Jumper & Slackliner Dean Potter

Ueli Steck’s Speed Climbing Records of Eiger, Matterhorn, etc.

My rendition of the course profile for the Pier to Peak Half Marathon, from the Santa Barbara coast to the top of Los Columbres Mt. (up Gibraltar Rd.).

I just completed what was easily the toughest running race of my life, the Pier to Peak Half Marathon in Santa Barbara. 4,000 ft of elevation gain, with hardly more than a few hundred meters of flat road in the entire course. The winning time was 1:38 with most runners coming in around 2.5 hours or more. I finished in 2 hours and 19 minutes (well off my best 1/2 marathon time of 1 hr 22 mins).

I finished the race without walking more than a few steps at the aid stations to help get water down. That was my goal and I was pleased with it. Running a tough race like this really helps focusing on pushing through even when things get tough. No one sets personal records on a course like this (unless it is your first half marathon!) so it really comes down to learning how to suffer and being OK with that. All growth comes when the mind says stop but you push through.

I read some advice from Stu Mittleman – a legendary ultra runner – who said that it is critical to determine the specific conditions under which you will quit before you begin an endeavor. In the heat of the moment it is impossible to make the right decision. You need to be clear with how much you are willing to suffer and deal with that. I came back to that advice often when I was thinking of walking. I knew it would be painful and it was. I’m glad I chose not to take the easy way out.

I’ve heard this twice today on two totally different radio stations. Good to see it is making the rounds again after first hearing it so many years ago. What an amazing song!

Wear Sunscreen or the Sunscreen Speech are the actually an essay called “Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young” that was written by Mary Schmich. It was originally published in the Chicago Tribune as a column in 1997 and then remixed into a song by Baz Luhrmann in 1998.

The lyrics are awesome. Here they are:

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be
it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by
scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable
than my own meandering experience…I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not
understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded.
But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and
recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before
you and how fabulous you really looked….You’re not as fat as you
imagine.

Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as
effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing
bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that
never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blind side you at 4pm
on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing everyday that scares you

Sing

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with
people who are reckless with yours.

Floss

Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes
you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with
yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you
succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your
life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they
wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year
olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children,maybe
you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky
chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t
congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your
choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s. Enjoy your body,
use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people
think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever
own..

Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for
good.

Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the
people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you
should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and
lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you
knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live
in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will
philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize
that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were
noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund,
maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one
might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you’re 40, it will
look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who
supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of
fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the
ugly parts and recycling it for more than
it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen…