Organizational Psychology of Wellness, Performance, and Play
Posts Tagged ‘europe’
Life Life Love | Volume Five
Hello Everyone,
Happy Holidays! I have added some new names to my quarterly musings through my Facebook and LinkedIn contacts. At the end of 2007 when I started the Live, Life, Love endeavor I was filled with elation. Unfortunately, the end of 2008 has been quite tumultuous for me as I am sure it has been for many of you.
It is important in these times we keep our head up, surround ourselves with propitious people, and make sure we reciprocate in kind… but don’t take my word for it, check out this article from Science News.
I found myself in one of the corporate offices of Nike recently and I was taken back by a marketing slogan plastered across the entry wall: Training is the opposite of hoping. The message really resonated with me. As many of you know, I have been a staunch critic of people who interpret and/or peddle the Law of Attraction to mean that you can manifest anything in your life without action. This was further reinforced this quarter through my physiology studies at UCLA. I was surprised to learn that at the muscular level the notion of “muscle memory” is a complete fallacy. After three days of inactivity we begin to lose the positive effects of adaptation and there are limited accelerants to help regain what has been lost. This applies to both anaerobic and aerobic conditioning. In short, the feast and famine training approach I’ve adopted over the years has probably hindered any real progress towards achieving some of my overall fitness goals. I am going to implement a more well-rounded and continuous approach in 2009. I’ll let you know how the experiment goes.
And with that introspective let me introduce the fifth fitness leader to contribute to the Live, Life, Love knowledge database, Dave Scott. Dave is one of the “local boys done good” from my hometown of Davis, CA. He is a six-time Ironman World Champion athlete and the first inductee into the Ironman Hall of Fame. Dave continues to live up to his distinction as “The Man” through his various speaking engagements, sport clinics, and race sponsored activities. It was a true honor that he took the time to answer my five questions. The interview about fitness training can be found here.
The fifth business leader tapped in my quest for knowledge is Scott Bell. Scott spent the last ten years at one of the largest and most revered firms on Wall Street. For legal reasons the company shall remain unnamed but it shares a commonality with my favorite rum (a hint for the truly inquisitive). In 2008, Scott left this firm and started the company Gross Domestic Product. Within less than a year’s time he is already managing over $25 million in personal assets. I am equally honored that Scott took the time to be interviewed, given his profession and the understandable time constraints placed on him over the past couple months. My five questions with Scott about wealth management can be found here.
The life experience for this quarter was going to Oktoberfest in Germany. It was the first time I got to share one of these adventures with my brother and we had a great time — a beer drinker’s dream!
Oktoberfest | Munich, Germany
As for giving this quarter, I helped aid the efforts of few of you, like Melissa, Stephanie, and Mark but I think my favorite was sponsoring Todd’s mustache growing efforts… part of the proceeds Todd collected went to helping fight male depression so it was a truly worthy endeavor (click here to learn more about Movember). Anna and I also donated our old cell phones to the Cell Phones for Soldiers program.
Once again, thank you for being a part of my journey (and sharing in this fifth installment). Please continue to let me know if I can help you in anyway along your path. Wishing you nothing but the best in 2009!
Warm regards,
Michael
Live Life Love | Volume Two
Hello Everyone,
Can you believe it has already been three months? It is crazy how fast this year is going, already time to release the second volume of the Live Life Love newsletter.
I am very excited that I started this project. Thank you for all the positive feedback. It’s so awesome to interact with all of you and share information and experiences. From my best friend’s mom contemplating taking the risk of starting her own business, to my brother losing almost 100 pounds, it is a good feeling to know forward momentum is contagious and that already a few of you have espoused my vision.
This is especially important given that new research shows our level of happiness will most likely follow a “U” shaped curve, with our most unhappy years falling somewhere at middle-age. “One possibility may be that people realize they won’t achieve many of their aspirations at middle age,” the researchers of this study say. If we stay cognizant of what we want in life and develop a proclivity towards those goals, I feel that each of us can combat disappointment and pessimism and avoid this.
In the next three months my aspiration is to flesh out a Web portal to document the goals of this project (for those of you new to the newsletter the goals are: learning from 100 wellness leaders and 100 business leaders, experiencing life in 100 new and exciting ways and giving $65,000 and 2000 volunteer hours to charity). My hope is to create a system of capturing the elements of this project that provides value to other people.
This quarter I got the chance to catch up with two old friends, Luke Aguilar and Jamie Ramsden. They are the interviewees of this volume and after reading their pedigrees I think you will understand why I chose them.
Luke Aguilar is the second wellness leader lending his knowledge to this project. Luke is the All-South Texas Cross Country Coach of the Year for two years running. He has ten years of Track and Field experience spanning the high school and college level. He is a Level One Coach with USA Track and Field and has been a certified Personal Trainer with the American Council on Exercise since 1995. My five questions with Luke about running can be found here.
Jamie Ramsden was chosen by me to be this quarter’s business leader. Jamie is the CEO of Goodridge USA which is an automotive company that supplies high performance products to the automotive and racing industry. Jamie is a Certified Executive Leadership Coach and ad hoc faculty member at the Center of Creative Leadership. Jamie also manages his own consulting firm, Adastra Consulting, which specializes in the development of executive talent and leadership potential. My five questions with Jamie about leadership can be found here.
My exciting life experience to report for this volume is vacationing in Paris, France for New Year’s 2008. My wife and I got to spend the night with some Stanford MBA candidates at a private club near the Saint Germain district. It was a great night. We stepped outside the club just before midnight for the countdown and watched the Eiffel Tower light up to cheers from the crowd while drinking French wine and celebrating another year gone past (silly tourist picture below).
Eiffel Tower | Paris, France
As far as charity this quarter, I have donated twenty hours towards Project Lifesaver as the Lead of Corporate Sponsorship for this project. My team has raised close to $10,000 towards providing lifesaving tools to members of the Southern California, South Bay community. However, we still need more funding, so if you happen to think your company would be interested in some positive exposure and PR by donating money to a worthy cause please contact me.
Thanks for taking the time to listen to me once again. The Internet is such a great medium for staying in touch. Next quarter’s volume ought to be good. I have secured an interview with productivity expert David Allen (of Getting Things Done fame). It should be extremely interesting.
Warm regards,
Michael
Live Life Love | Volume One
Hello Everyone,
Happy Holidays! I hope 2007 has been as great a year for you as it has been for me and Anna. We bought our first home. I landed a great new job. Anna became director at her company. I finished the Burrito Project and put three more marathons under the belt.
When I last reached out to everyone regarding the end of my previous “Project” some of you took notice that I used a different email address other than my norm. The reveal is I have become a practitioner of Stephen Covey’s four dimensions of renewal (physical, mental, spiritual, and social/emotional) and have been looking for an efficacious way to progress in these four areas. Voilà! I created Live Life Love as a de facto lynchpin to address them all under an umbrella concept.
The short version is I am creating a 25 year plan. In that time I want to meet and learn from 100 wellness leaders and 100 business leaders. Experience life in 100 new and exciting ways and give $65,000, plus volunteer 2000 hours, to charity.
It has been proven the strongest commitments are public ones so the idea is to check in with you once a quarter for the next 25 years and let you know how it is going.
The first wellness leader is Dr. Michael Gervais. His forte is developing systems and strategies for improving performance for individuals and organizations. Dr. Gervais, as the CEO of Pinnacle Performance, Inc., is an authority on the psychology of performance excellence. Throughout the past ten years, Michael has consulted with numerous NHL, NBA, NFL, MLS, AVP, Mixed Martial Arts fighters, Olympic, collegiate, and high school athletes. He is an internationally recognized speaker on issues related to human performance. My five questions with Michael about Sport Psychology can be found here.
The first business leader is Stuart MacFarlane. Stu has been a good friend to Anna and I and was very patient as my first subject (so thanks Stu). I singled him out because of his recent work on a new development platform (Ruby on Rails), which I believe is going to do for back-end web technology what Flash did for front-end web technology. Stuart was the COO and founder of MXG Media, an executive at idealab!, and the CEO of Insider Pages (one of the first large scale Ruby on Rail commercial projects). He is now Managing Director at Momentum Venture Management where he aids early stage technology companies gain the necessary traction to turn their ideas into successful businesses. My five questions with Stuart about Venture Capital can be found here.
My first exciting life experience to report is going to La Tomatina in Spain. The festival was absolutely amazing and definitely a must for everyone’s “bucket list”.
La Tomatina | Buñol, Spain
As far as charity, I am not going to give myself credit for any of my volunteer work to date but I am going to count the recent monetary donations I gave Adrene, Pat, Roger, Karen, Tracey, Ashley and Mark for their athletic achievements. I know first hand that it is not easy to ask your friends for money. I don’t have much to give but if a few bucks gets my friends across the finish line then I have helped them knock out a few of Covey’s dimensions and helped myself too. What a bargain!
Thanks for listening to my ramblings. Being the extrovert that I am, reaching out to you is what keeps me going. If I can help you at all in your journey, please let me know. Keep your eyes out for Entrepreneurial Minded, Enhanced Kinetics, and One-4-All, they are coming!
Here is to a great ‘08!
Warm regards,
Michael
