Once Inspired

Archive for September, 2009

This is a very short story with a fairly significant moral. Enjoy it.

“Mom, can I ask you some questions?”

“Sure son. Is there something bothering you?”

“Why do camels have humps?”

“Well son, we are desert animals. We need our humps to store water. We are known to go for days without water in the desert.”

“Okay, but then why are our legs long and thin and feet big and round?”

“You see son, our legs and feet are made especially for walking for days in the soft sand of the desert.”

“I see. One last question though mother.”

“Sure son.”

“Why the hell are we in the zoo then?”

Moral: Skills, knowledge ability and experience are only useful if you are at the right place and are able to use them.

Where are you now?

Good Monday to you. I thought I’d start the week off with a wonderful story about a young South African who had a planet named after him. Here’s how it goes.

“I was Chairperson of the Anglo American Open Scholarship Panel for many years. Because we offered not only basic university fees but also a generous living allowance plus an overseas trip, it was like auditioning for Idols.

We got an unbelievable response every year which involved some of the most intelligent matric students in South Africa. Last year in January, we interviewed the brightest of them all – a young man called Siyabulela Xuza. He hails from Umtata in the Eastern Cape and was awarded an Academic Scholarship to St John’s College – a top private school in Johannesburg – from Grade 8.

The first question we put to him, as we did to all other candidates, was: “What degree have you chosen and why?”

His response was as follows: “I’ve chosen Chemical Engineering at the University of Cape Town. The reason is that I developed a fascination for chemicals when I was 12 years old. I mixed them in my mother’s kitchen and caused minor explosions to her utter dismay.

“Then I decided to concentrate on a particular project. It was to create an energy-intensive fuel which was safer and more effective than the stuff Nasa uses to propel its rockets into outer space.

“I managed to build a rocket which broke the South African Amateur Altitude Record. I then entered the Eskom National Science Expo and won gold, as well as the Dr Derek Gray Memorial Award for the most prestigious project in South Africa. The best prize, however, was to be invited to the International Youth Science Fair in Sweden, where I met the King and Queen of Sweden as well as attending the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm.

“The consequence of that was to be entered into the world’s biggest student science event at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in the US. I won two top awards but what really made my day was that the Nasa-affiliated Lincoln Laboratory was so impressed by my achievement that they named a minor planet after me!”

So, naturally, we gave him the scholarship. Three months later, he came running up to me at ORT International Airport. “Hey, Mr Sunter, do you remember me?” “Siya,” I replied, “I’m never going to forget you. How’s the University of Cape Town?”

“You haven’t heard?” he said, with a questioning smile. “I’ve been awarded another scholarship to go to Harvard University so I’m off there in the fall.”

He even had the American lingo.

So there you have it folks, he is studying at the university that is ranked No 1 in the world.

If you have a powerful-enough telescope, you will find his planet, now known as “Siyaxuza”, near Jupiter in the night sky.

My question to you as readers of this column is simple: How many of you know that this guy exists? Our media is very bad at celebrating excellence, even when we have a rocket-scientist in our midst!”

By Clem Sunter

Clem Sunter is a world-renowned scenario planner, speaker and author of many books including “The High Road: Where we are now”, “AIDS: The Challenge for South Africa “, “Pretoria Will Provide and other myths”.

Taken from FNB’s South Africa; The Good News.

Go and be awesome now.

What is it that motivates us? What is the basic fundamental of all motivation? Everyone seeks freedom in some form or another. And although absolute freedom is not possible, our struggle to achieve the ideal is the basis of our motivation. That is what motivates us here on earth. There is however an unconscious motivation, one which involves us returning to our source. For now though, I will be referring to the conscious form.

The motivation to be successful is something that I’m sure everyone strives toward. However I fear that some people do not know the true meaning of success. Perhaps my dad can help you with that. “Success is not measured by the thickness of the wallet but rather by the fullness of the heart.” – Anton Muhl. Learn it.

Now in order to succeed you need failure. “No one ever achieved greatness by playing it safe.” – Harry J. Gray. And when you are taking risks you will more than likely fail once or twice. Failure builds character. Character is the ultimate survival tool. Bounce back from failure, but in order to do that you need to be creative. Creativity is commonly a learning process. That’s why creative folk usually put their ideas on paper using a pencil with an eraser within reach. Multiple failure leads to a more comprehensive process and thus a greater learning curve.

If everything you do works, you are not trying hard enough.

And on that note here is motivation simplified.

The 3 Elements of Motivation

1. Creative freedom
2. Love to learn. “Knowledge is power” – Sir Francis Bacon
3. Learn from failure. “Every mistake brings with it lesson, opportunity and inspiration” – “Challenge Exposes Opportunity.” BOOM!

The 7 Rules of Motivation

1. Set a major goal but follow a path – The path is filled with little goals which light the path to your major goal. Each goal needs to be attainable in order for you to conquer it and move on to the next – and so on and so forth along the path of goal successions you shall walk, in the direction of your great goal.
2. Finish what you start. A half finished project is a wasted effort. Quitting is a habit. Develop the habit of finishing self-motivated projects.
3. Socialize with others of similar interest. Mutual support is motivating. Attitudes are contagious.
4. Learn how to learn. Learn the art of self-education and you find, if not create, opportunity.
5. Harmonize natural talent with interest that motivates. Natural talent creates motivation, motivation creates persistence and persistence gets the job done. So simple.
6. Increase knowledge of subjects that inspires. The more you know about a something, the more you want to learn about it.
7. Take risk. It’s good for your character.

There is one more thing that I would like to include here. That is perseverance. Since I was able to understand full sentences my father used ask me if I knew Percy and his wife Vera. I can introduce you if you’d like? Perseverance is consistent and repeated efforts. However, if you are trying and trying and absolutely nothing is happening; STOP! THINK! Change your approach. Learn from your mistakes. Be creative.

So now that I have covered the dos. Here’s the one and only don’t. DO NOT slip into a comfort zone. As with most things there is always something to fear. In this case fear the comfort zone. A comfort zone is not a good place to be as long as motivation is required. In a comfort zone there is nothing to challenge you, nothing that is character building.

So being Friday you have an entire weekend to take this all in. Use it, apply it from Monday… and please make sure it has a greater effect than one of those pathetic “Monday Diets” that people tend to go on every single Monday.

Enjoy the weekend. HappyFriday

Right so Reach for a Dream is going all out for this one. You should come. I’d love to meet you.

No doubt, the current economic situation is inconvenient for all of us. With reduced spending and everyone trying to cut costs, how is anyone supposed to make any money? Well if you can’t convince the consumer to spend, you can certainly place yourself ahead of your competitors so that when spending is on the cards the consumer will come to you first.

If everyone is saving more than they are spending, what does that mean for the economy? It’s certainly not all sunshine and hay. That’s precisely why it is up to you to ensure that you are a credible company that the consumer can trust. In these desperate times people will only buy from a credible company.

There are three reasons for reduced consumer spending. Firstly, people and businesses won’t buy what they can’t afford. There is no confidence in purchase during these desperate times. Fear fills the consumer. Consumer uncertainty is your worst enemy. That is why it is up to you to educate the consumer. A consumer who has accurate information is a confident consumer, and if you are the company responsible for instilling confidence in the consumer they will look to you for information in the future. All of which will add to your credibility.

Secondly, if the consumer cannot pay cash for it they might not buy it because paying interest makes someone else rich. Right now the consumer is selfish. They have worked hard for their money and they will spend the necessary minimum where they can. A penny saved is a penny earned.

Finally, there is also a lot of debt hanging over the heads of many and spending has taken a back step because of this.

What you need to do is the following:

• Leverage existing satisfied customers
• Ask for referrals
• Back off on the pressure selling
• Focus on the best selling opportunities
• You need to sell:

·           Reliability

·           Peace of mind

·           Safety

·           Security

(People buy benefits, not features)

• Become a problem solver
• Know something about your prospect. This impresses them and improves your credibility.

Indirectly this recession has had a negative effect on company credibility. The consumer was previously happy to simply make a purchase based on convenience; the “convenience” store is now nothing more than convenient. Instead, the consumer will now make sure that they make their purchase from someone they trust. It is up to you to make sure that you are the company they trust.

There seem to be so many new runners out there. So many people I speak to are going to do their first 10km run or are trying to get fit and using running as a means to do so. So if you are going to run why not try go faster? Here’s a few tips on doing just that.

Enjoy.

STEP BY STEP

1. Make a commitment to train at least four days a week.

2. Gradually build a base of conversational pace running (a pace at which you can talk). Increase your pace no more than 10% a week. Make every fourth week an easy recovery week. Alternate between longer and shorter runs.

3. After a minimum of three months of base work, averaging three hours per week running, start following this weekly schedule:

Day 1 – Tempo run. Warm up 10 minutes. Run briskly for 20 minutes (80% effort), cool down 10 minutes.

Day 2 – Rest day

Day 3 – Easy 30 minute run

Day 4 – 40/20s. Warm up 10 minutes, 12 cycles of Sprint 40 seconds, jog 20 seconds. Cool down 10 minutes.

Day 5 – Rest day

Day 6 – Long run. Start slowly and run conversational pace for 40-90 minutes. It is helpful to have a running buddy or friend/spouse/kid willing to cruise along on a bike.

Day 7 – Rest day

4. Try challenging yourself once every two weeks or so with this technique:

Find a local track (400 meters) or flat surface (400 meters) to run on.

Stretch and do a light warm up (e.g. 25 jumping jacks or a light jog).

Do a 400 meter sprint followed by a 400 meter jog. Do the sprint & jog routine for at least 2 miles.

Beat your own time. Once you have your initial times, you do not want to go below it. At least maintain an average.

Do a cool down. After every run, you do not just want to stop running. Walk the run off till your heart rate is moderate. Then stretch.

5. Make a commitment. Do not quit your regimen, do not tell yourself you’ll do it tomorrow, do not tell yourself you’re too tired, and do not tell yourself you’re too busy. Run in the morning to get it over with.

TIPS

• Strengthening your core will help you run more efficiently.

• Invest in good training shoes that are both light and comfortable. Running shoes without sufficient cushioning can cause shin splints and other injuries. Replace shoes every 500 km or if they’re deformed in any way.

• When you are ready to race, pick a local race with a distance less than or equal to your standard long run. Cut back 50% the week before. Run no faster than your tempo pace the first half and see how many people you can pass in the second half of the race.

• Time sprinting and jogging by using telephone poles. Sprint from one pole to another and then jog for two poles. Sprint again to the next pole, jog past the next two, etc.

• Carry a water source with you, particularly if you are running for over about 8 kilometers. Remember that 2% dehydration leads to a 10% drop in performance.

• Results are at least partially based on genetics, some people will have to train harder to get the same results.

• When running, fully pump your arms and move your legs. The faster you pump your arms, the faster you will run. Also make sure not to pump your arms up and down, that will put more vertical motion in your stride. Instead, drop your arms and move them forward and backwards. Just by dropping your arms you may notice your race time drop by a few minutes.

Glad to be of service. Want to know more. Drop me a mail (nic@once-events.co.za)

Happy and safe running.

Many Triathletes struggle with the swim leg which is probably the most technical. So I fugured I’d find you something that can help you. It also gives you something to do over the weekend.

As technical as the sport of swimming can be, it is tough to narrow down the answer to the often-asked question, what should I concentrate on? So, I came up with a top ten list of steps to improving your swim for a triathlon. These aren’t necessarily in any order, but should go a long way in helping you achieve your goals, whether you are a beginner or trying to go pro.

1. Hand Entry Slice your hand into the water right about at your goggle line, and drive it forward. Many swimmers attempt to get as much “air time” as possible by reaching the hand out before entering into the water, but it is actually more efficient to go through the water with your hand as you rotate from one side to the other.

2. Head Position Keep looking straight down when swimming freestyle. It’s important to keep your head down with only a small part of the back of your head out of the water. Also, as you rotate through the water, try not to move your head with the rest of your body rotation.

3. Pull In freestyle, your hands should pull all the way back past your hips. The last part of the stroke before recovery (arms coming out of the water) should be an acceleration behind you, and not up out of the water.

4. Kick Try minimizing your kick as you train for swimming. Most people will kick extra hard to make up for lack of balance in the water. Minimizing your kick will allow you to improve your balance, as well as conserve energy.

5. Training Intensity The best way to measure your training intensity is to count your heart rate immediately after each swim. You can estimate your heart rate by counting your pulse rate for six seconds immediately after each swim. Add a zero to this count, and you will have your approximate exercise heart rate per minute.

6. Master’s Swimming Move to a slower lane to work on stroke improvement. If you belong to a masters team, don’t feel that you always need to keep up with your lanemates at every workout. Masters teams typically have many people with many different swimming goals. It’s important to do your own thing! Remember that technique comes before all else and if this means swallowing a little pride to make improvements, just think of how much faster you will be for this in the long run.

7. Habit: Keep your arm from crossing over One of the most common bad habits I see in swimmers is the arm crossing over to the opposite side on the pull. Breathing on your left side results in your right arm crossing over, breathing on your left side results in your right arm crossing. Often times this happens when one goes to breath, but sometimes it’s caused just from over-rotating. To avoid this, make sure your head isn’t moving with the rest of your body, and try to pull more in a straight line (still bending the elbow) and ending the pull on the same side you started (i.e. right hand slices into the water, pulls back and hand ends up near right hip).

8. Keep the Feel If swimming is your toughest sport, it is important to “keep the feel” for the water, and get in the water at least every other day (no, showers and baths don’t count!) This way, your body maintains its kinesthetic awareness of being balanced in water.

9. Work Those Lungs Mix in some hypoxic training sets into your workouts. For example, do a set of 4×100′s breathing every 3-5-7-9 strokes by 25, with 15 seconds rest in between each 100. Your lungs will thank you for it towards the end of the swim part of your race!

10. Work Your Weakness In the sport of triathlon, most coaches agree that you should spend the most time working on your weakest of the three sports. For many of you this will be swimming! Within swimming, the same concept applies. Spend the most time working on the weakest part of your stroke. If balancing on your side is an issue, do some kicking drills on your side. If moving your head is a problem, focus on head position most of the time.

Whatever it is, you will gain the most by spending your pool time improving on that weakness.

Original Author: Kevin Koskella

Happy Friday

So it’s nearly time for 11global to hit South Africa again. Sun City sees the 11global Racing League, an international triathlon series, on the first of November.

11global Sun City is a hot and hilly affair, arguably one of Africa’s toughest Olympic distance triathlons.

There is however a common misconception amongst the South African public that 11global is for elite athletes. Offering age-group and relay team racing this is certainly not the case. If you can’t make the full thing get some mates to join you in an international racing experience.

11global’s mission: “To provide an annual Olympic-distance triathlon Racing League across the globe that will culminate in individual age-group and relay team league champions. We strive to ignite the Olympic-distance racing experience by carefully designing and planning each race in locations with superb landscape and environmental conditions to ultimately deliver the best racing experience to you, the triathlete.”

11global is developing a global olympic-distance triathlon series with the aim of hosting 11 races annually. Unfortunately, expanding the series beyond South Africa has proven to be difficult in this current economic climate however 11global is committed to expanding and is hard at work to develop the series.

11global has 2 events in South Africa, Sun City as you well know and Cape Town. 11global Cape Town is a real racers course offering a flat and fast bike and run.

The swim however is a little on the tough side. Bracing yourself for nothing warmer than a 15 degree Celsius swim and quite possibly a fair bit of Atlantic Ocean swell the swim leg is challenging but definitely a lot of fun.

11global is also quite involved in doing a fair bit of charity work in South Africa with their South African Goggle Drive.

Founder of 11Global had this to say shortly after 11Global Cape Town earlier this year:

“With the 11Global Cape Town triathlon now behind us please take a moment to join Amy Kloner and 11global as we look to the future and help an amazing group of children from the Atlantis Community. In conjunction with the City of Cape Town and Western Province Triathlon, 11global assisted by the expertise of Woody (Alun Woodward), Amy, Hendrick De Villiers and Nico Sterk conducted a triathlon swim clinic at the Westfleur Sports Complex.

Amy was so impressed with the courage and determination of the children but noticed that very few had the swimming basics such as goggles, caps and swim suits. Amy has decided that she wants to try and change this and together we have started a “South African Goggle Drive”. Amy has posted the drive to her blog page and has also reached out to the USA triathlon community for assistance.

On behalf of 11global I am thrilled to be part of this drive and ask you to consider joining us by making a financial contribution. All financial donations will be matched by 11global and will be used to purchase swimming equipment. International readers or triathletes please contact me (ryan@11global.com) if you would like to donate any equipment.

On behalf of Amy and 11global I would like to thank you for your consideration to join us as we look forward to impact the lives of children much less fortunate than ourselves.

Kind Regards,
Ryan
11global”

11Global and ONCEinspired will be working closely together to bring you an exciting racing experience as well as keeping you updated with our charity efforts.

11 Global – Recalibrating the Olympic distance experience.

Stevie Wonder and Tiger Woods are in a bar. Tiger  turns to Stevie and says, ‘How’s the singing career going?’

Stevie replies, ‘Not too bad. How’s the golf?’

Woods replies, ‘Not too bad, I’ve had some problems with my swing, but I think I’ve got that right, now.

Stevie says, ‘I always find that when my swing goes wrong, I need to stop playing for a while and not think about it, hen, the next time I play, it seems to be all right.’

Tiger says, ‘You play GOLF?’

Stevie says, ‘Yes, I’ve been playing for years’.

Tiger says, ‘But — you’re blind! How can you play golf if you can’t see?’

Stevie Wonder replies, ‘Well, I get my caddy to stand in the middle of the fairway and call to me.  I listen for the sound of his voice and play the ball towards him.  Then, when I get to where the ball lands, the caddy moves to the green or farther down the fairway  and again I play the ball towards his voice.’

‘But, how do you putt?’ asks Tiger

‘Well’, says Stevie, ‘I get my caddy to lean down in front of the hole and call to me with his head on the ground and I just play the ball towards his voice.’

Tiger asks, ‘What’s your handicap?’

Stevie says, ‘Well, actually — I’m a scratch golfer.’

Woods, incredulous, says to Stevie, ‘We’ve got to play a round sometime.’

Stevie replies, ‘Well, people don’t take me seriously,  so I only play for money, and never play for less  than $10,000 a hole.

That a problem?’

Woods thinks about it and says, ‘ I can afford that, OK, I’m game for that.  $10,000 a hole is fine with me. When would you like to play?’

Stevie Wonder says, ‘Pick a night’

Challenge exposes opportunity. Think about it.

Thanks Brasco

It was a busy morning, about 8:30, when an elderly gentleman in his 80′s arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He said he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am.

I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would to able to see him. I saw him looking at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound. On exam, it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound.

While taking care of his wound, I asked him if he had another doctor’s appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry. The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife.

I inquired as to her health. He told me that she had been there for a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer’s Disease. As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late. He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now. I was surprised, and asked him, ‘And you still go every morning, even though she doesn’t know who you are?’ He smiled as he patted my hand and said, ‘She doesn’t know me, but I still know who she is.’

I had to hold back tears as he left, I had goose bumps on my arms, and thought, ‘That is the kind of love I have in my life.’

True love is neither physical, nor romantic. True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will not be.

The happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have.

‘Life isn’t about how to survive the storm but how to dance in the rain.

Author: Unknown

Thanks Lauren

You may have noticed that I focus a lot on love. What do we have other than love? What drives our passion and leads us through life influencng every decision we make? It’s love, or an abstract element there of. Ultimately we are all striving towards love.