In today’s fast paced society time is compressed, work is challenging, and life is stressful.

Waking up each day can sometimes make you feel like you’re at the beginning of an endurance race.

Slamming together your day, chewing and swallowing something of sustinance, if you are a parent, managing to get a few extra people organized, and then launching into the day can be filled with challenges.

Some people are still actually commuting to work in time frames longer than an hour!

If you do the math, two hours of commuting 200 plus days a year is a minimum of ten days of our your life waiting to get to work and get home!

And the air we are breathing on those crammed freeways, subway tunnels, and bus rides is not FRESH!

Or maybe you are one of the many who’ve chosen or been relegated to working from home, finding yourself seated behind a screen for what seems like eternity, only to stand up, and then be pulled into the vortex of your phone!

Ironically the increasing demand of your time from the technical innovations that were supposed to save you time has become exponential.

Constantly at the beck and call of your bosses, colleagues, friends, and even acquaintances with e-mails, texts, messages of every kind even the dreaded Emoji is an essential part of your daily conversations!

Eating in general has become a real nutrition experiment.

Mastering the challenge of acquiring, scoffing, and digesting food that is prepared for you in every imaginable way has become a daily competition, and one you are surely losing.

Food is fuel, and the fuel today is often not digestible without serious consequences.

Oh ya, and in order to squeeze more into your day, you are likely shaving time from sleep.

Sleep is becoming an endangered species of sorts.

Most likely, the first thing you do when you have a deadline, or something you need to accomplish is compromise your sleep.

On top of that, even though sleep is THE most important element of daily recovery, it’s not unusual to pay limited attention to what you sleep in each night, and how you can make sure the quality of your sleeping space is more than adequate.

See that, I just used the word adequate! That is surely not the word I should be using to describe the quality of my sleep space, or my sleep in general.

Sleep should be stellar!

On top of that, society at large has begun to use drugs and other depressants to nudge into sleep. So many people today are addicted to sleep drugs, it has become a serious epidemic.

Add that to the new found love of prescription pain medication because people are literally running their bodies on empty, and experiencing a really nice combination of side effects!

Side effects we don’t even understand the consequences of just yet!

So what should you do you say?

Well here are ten things you can start doing today that will at least make a dent in the downward spiral.

1 — Do a Time and Space Audit

Sit down this week, pick three days in a row, and write down in a journal what you do throughout the day with your time.

What time do you get up, what do you do from the time you get up to the time you are about to go to sleep, what do you do on your commute, what do you do with your day, when do you eat, how often are you on your media devices, etc., etc., etc.

Write it all down. Log it!

Now, what are you going to do about it!

You’re going to sit down with yourself and have a frank conversation about where you are wasting time, and where you are doing things that aren’t contributing to your energy bank, but rather sucking the life out of it!

Useless TV watching

Video game playing

E-mailing

Social media doom scrolling

Talking to people you don’t like

Doing work that isn’t fulfilling

List it all and start purging!

Create your personal schedule, don’t just accept that your life HAS to be the way it is today, you have the power to re-craft it, and make it your own.

2 — Establish a Moratorium on Your Sleep Deprivation

One of the first things out of the gate that you need to do is determine a relatively consistent sleep schedule. Start to establish a time that you WILL go to bed and a time that you WILL wake up. Try to make the time in between consistent as well, and get it as close to 6–8 hours as possible.

You don’t want to be sleep depraved! 

Yes, I said depraved.

3 — Practice Good Sleep Hygiene

Make sure you have a good mattress, pillow, and sheets, and keep them clean!

Go to bed in the dark (shut down all the technology that lights up the room overnight).

Keep your room temperature cool.

Un-plug from digital media at least 30 minutes to an hour before bed.

Just try the above and you will be surprised how much better you sleep.

4 — Drink More Water Than You Think You Should

Basically, most of us are walking around each day either dehydrated, or close to it. Dehydration is one of the big reasons we get tired during the day and it’s also a reason we feel hungry. So drinking water frequently throughout the day reduces fatigue and limits binge eating. Carry a bottle with you so you keep filling it up and emptying it into your tummy regularly!

5 — Take a Break Every Day for at Least 15 Minutes and Do Nothing

Well, you don’t need to do nothing, but the something you do should be refreshing. You can nap, go for a walk, journal, meditate, sit in silence, or read a good book. But don’t go to your social media, don’t answer emails, and don’t spend time watching your favourite TV show. Just take some time for you to be disconnected from the wild world out there, and all the stuff that permeates your existence these days.

6 — Have a Good Conversation

The idea of just sitting face to face with someone and talking about a wonderful topic of interest today is dying. We’re sliding very slowly into the abyss of digital media, and we are losing the art of talking and listening, and learning about all the interesting things on this planet we call mother earth.

Rule of thumb: ask good questions, listen to the answers, and enjoy the time shared with someone else.

7 — Eat More Real Food

Try to eat at least 5–6 meals a week that you actually make from scratch, or someone you know prepares from scratch. Use fresh ingredients, real food, not processed food. This talent is slowly being lost, we are slowly becoming completely disconnected from what we are putting in our mouths.

And we’re getting really, really fat because of it! Or really sick inside.

8 — Take Time When You Eat

To add to the above, when you eat, eat slowly, taste the food, enjoy the food, and connect with what you are eating. Stop scoffing the food down so you can get to the next thing on the agenda, or eating the food while you do five other things, or eat while you are standing, worse, walking!

Sit down, take your time, and just enjoy the meal! You will be surprised how much more you enjoy it, and how much less you actually eat.

Maybe combine it with #6 and you’ve got an amazing connection point in your day.

9 — Do Some Kind of Exercise

You don’t have to go to the gym. You don’t have to win a competition. You don’t have to beat yourself into the ground. Just start moving, please!

Exercise invigorates you, improves the quality of your daily life, reduces stress, and prevents sickness, so how can you ignore all that and not do something, anything!

Going for a walk is enough (a brisk walk for 20 minutes is good enough). Play a recreational sport. Do a yoga video, or a workout video at home. It doesn’t matter, just get out and do something physical every day.

10 — Count Your Wins

At the end of every day, take the time to reflect on what you’ve accomplished, and no matter how small, celebrate the wins.

Counting your wins re-sets your state of mind, sees you complete your day with positive alignment.

Positive alignment at day’s end allows you to sleep better, and sees you rise with a greater sense of happiness the next day.

Try to make a change today in your life, maybe pick one of the ideas I talked about above and implement it, but start slowly incrementally shifting your life and you will see a difference in how you feel.

1- Space/Time audit

2- Moratorium on sleep deprivation

3- Practice good sleep hygiene

4- Drink more water

5- Take a break from life each day

6- Have a good conversation

7- Eat more real food

8- Take your time eating

9- Do some kind of exercise

10-Count your wins every night

I’ve lived a very charmed life when it comes to working with greatness.

When I was a little boy I wanted to be a professional football player. I dreamed of someday putting on a helmet and walking onto a football field and playing in front of thousands of people.

I loved football.

Alas, I wasn’t born with the genes to make me fast and big and measurably capable of playing professional football. Or at least, that is what I have told myself all these years since leaving the game I loved.

Maybe I could have played professional football, but I hadn’t yet learned the valuable lessons that have since marked my life through the incredible experience of training Olympic champions.

After leaving football behind, I decided a life of fixing and building high-performing athletes would be my connection to the world I loved, the world of competitive sport.

The lessons I have learned from these Gold Medal Olympians will serve me for the rest of my life. Each one has left an indelible mark on me, a simple mark of humility.

Each one is completely different. Their personal journeys all have their own expression born from their own perspective and experiences.

They are all impressive in their own light.

These lessons learned I am now sharing in every way possible. I share them in my mentorship of others, I share them with my friends, I share them with my daughter, and now I share them with you.

Be You

Stop trying to be someone else, to live up to someone else’s vision of who you should be, what the public adulation wants you to be, or perhaps your social circle wants you to be.

Just simply be you.

In every one of these champions, I saw them embrace themselves either through their journey or perhaps before I even met them.

Each of them is unique, and each of them makes no apologies for being who they are, nor should each of us.

Just be you.

Fear Not to Overreach

What does it mean to overreach?

Well, it simply means that you can’t rest on what you have accomplished, or where you are now. You most certainly should celebrate and live in the moment, but even so, while you are on this earth, you are meant to explore it and yourself.

To see how you really can grow. Growth is the key to true fulfillment.

If you want to grow, you must overreach, you must go beyond your current state.

Fear not who you can be.

Stop Taking Yourself So Seriously and Enjoy the Ride!

Each of those champions is intense and focused when they need to be, but one of the common threads of them all is that they also know how to be free. 

Free in the moment, free in expressing themselves, and free in exploring the possibilities.

To be truly free, you need to let go. Let go of your ego, and embrace your spirit.

Dance, sing, laugh, float, fly, fall, jump, cry, hug, and flop, just don’t be so serious all the time.

Experience the Mountain

All mountains can be climbed.

It is not the summit that is the point of the climb (nor the gold medal) it is the experience of the climb. 

What you learn, what you see, how it shapes you, how it contributes to your sculpture, the one you are slowly chipping away at for yourself. 

And it is not the end, but simply a station once attained simply meant to prepare you for your next journey.

Embrace Support

None of these people stood at the top of the podium at the Olympic Games without the assistance of so many.

No one achieves anything without embracing a community of support.

That is the key though, embrace your community, respect your community, return the support of your community, and recognize that it is a part of you.

You cannot do it alone.

I have been changed by every one of these fine souls, Alex Bilodeau taught me about passion, Jennifer Heil taught me about work ethic, Mikael Kingsbury taught me about fun, Tessa Virtue taught me about tenacity, and Scott Moir taught me to free my spirit.

They all taught me these lessons and so much more. I have been extremely blessed to have them all pass through my life and contribute to who I am.

But such life lessons are not empowering unless they are shared for the greater good, so I offer them to you the reader as food for thought in your own journey.

Reach for the stars but in so doing, keep your feet firmly connected to the ground as it is the foundation for your every step.

It seems these days, perhaps because there is so much more news, we seem to experience tragedy almost daily. 

In some ways, sadly, we have lost our sensitivity, we have become numb.

Tragedy has unfortunately become the gray noise in the background, things that fill the editorial content calendars of all the 24-hour news desks around the globe; tsunamis, earthquakes, school shootings, wildfires, wars, mass casualty events of every sort.

It’s someone else’s problem.

But it isn’t really, if you are involved.

What does that mean, involved?

Does it mean that you know someone who is experiencing this trauma?

You are related to someone, you knew them once, you’ve met them, or maybe you’ve just heard of them? 

Maybe there’s a kinship, something you’ve done or experienced , just like the person who’s lost everything or been injured.

It makes a difference when you are involved.  It makes you pause.

We are all individuals who seek to differentiate ourselves. Clothes, accessories, material goods, jobs, tattoos, friends, homes, cars, and so much more, these are the symbols of status, but also the symbols of definition and difference.

Who you are, or who you are not.

To be the same as someone else in our minds is to be branded insignificant, so in our quest to be significant, we accumulate and connect with material items and statements of individuality.

But material goods fade, and so in turn require renewed emphasis on the next item of business, a never-ending quest.

However, when we realize that our growth as an individual within a community, and our contribution to that community is the secret sauce of fulfillment, that’s when things get interesting.

This is where many philanthropists get it wrong.

The person who espouses to be giving away so much wealth in order to help the underprivileged is often left empty and filling the void with still more donations.

Ultimately the truth of a philanthropic life is giving back to the community with whom you are connected. Establishing a path of contribution and an alignment with real human connection is the ticket.

The unfettered love of community is the anchor in our lives, at least for those of us fortunate to have a community around us.

Much of this is the centre point of the success of Facebook, where anyone who wants to, can create a community of connection.

Facebook provides the soil for community when used well. But it has also, along with much of social media, created the side effect of isolation.

We are alone in our community instead of truly connected to it. We now live in virtual communities where there is emotional and intellectual connection, but what seems to be missing is the true mutual suffering and success that used to occur in physical communities.

Physical community is the real deal!

When people suffer and succeed together, build and create together, support one another, and take turns doing so, a bond is forged that is empowering. It empowers each individual to reach higher, or to overcome adversities that alone may seem impossible.

That is the power of real community.

As we see these days, when tragedy occurs, the communities where there are deep roots of connection are the ones that somehow find the silver lining of “one for all”.  

It doesn’t replace the lost and injured, but consoles the pain and suffering of the moment, and the moments to come.

We are better when we are part of a community, individual in our character and aspirations, but aligned on our connection and what matters to us all.

They say that not all stress is the same.

The literature provides us with a framework for understanding stress that may serve us, and stress that may deplete us.

Eustress is the positive interpretation of stress; it’s generally associated with being energized, having higher degrees of performance, and motivation to make change, gives us a positive outlook, and helps us overcome challenges and sickness.

Distress is generally associated with a feeling of unpleasantness, hardship, and energy depletion, perceived as beyond our ability to cope, and can lead to physical sickness, disease, and mental/emotional depression.

Sounds like stress is a little out of your control.

On the contrary, although some stress is imposed, and beyond your control, the vast majority of what you interpret as distressful is just that, an interpretation.  

You give it meaning.

And the more you engage in the negative meaning of the stress (effectively defining it as distress), the more it creates further investment in the meaning and the more distressful it becomes.

But, you do have control over its meaning.

Understand that the primary role of your brain and neurological system is to keep you safe.  

Death is not an option your brain wants to consider.

Your brain is being bombarded every moment of every day with literally millions of pieces of information.

Find that hard to believe?  

Just think for a second at all the noises around you at any given moment of the day. Take a second to simply listen.  

Take each sound you hear and for a moment, recognize and connect to each one.

Crazy isn’t it?  

The sound of the fridge running, the wind blowing, the de-humidifier, a dog barking, a car starting.  That’s just a sample of what I heard just during the time I was writing this paragraph!

Your brain has to decide what is worth acknowledging, and what is not.

It manages things so you can cope without you even knowing because if you had to know, you would simply be overwhelmed all the time!

Just think for a minute about the volume of sound at a nightclub.  Your brain recognizes and predicts you are going into a nightclub, and so it begins to manage what you actually acknowledge.  

It might feel loud, but you are soon talking with the person next to you and using other senses to navigate the conversation.  Your brain slowly revises its focus, tunes out the unwanted, and connects with the wanted.

Imagine for a second if a few days later, in the middle of a conversation at breakfast with your friend or family member, sound from your stereo suddenly just started playing at the volume you encountered in the nightclub!

You’d be in shock!  You’d cover your ears, and you’d run to find the volume knob to shut the sound down.  It would be untenable!

Why the difference in reaction?  

Predictive perception.

Your brain is predictive. It needs to operate with a sense of expectation.  What it believes is important now, and what is not important. And the most important stuff is the stuff that might hurt us.

The moment you walk into the bar, your brain has already acknowledged it will be loud, and you will be safe.  It’s expected.

The moment your stereo begins to blare full blast without your permission, that’s not what was predicted, and it’s therefore evaluated as unsafe.

Now, let’s throw a little curve ball at this concept.  

What if you had a really terrible experience at a concert a few years earlier when the sound was just beyond your capacity to adapt, and you were left with tinnitus in your ears for a few months after the concert?

Now, when your friend asks you to go to a nightclub with a live band this Friday night, you begin to feel distressed.  Your brain interprets the potential for loud sounds as threatening, and as such, your neurological system begins to prepare for something in the future that hasn’t happened yet but might cause harm.

You begin to feel anxious as Friday night gets closer, maybe you start to have a headache, or you feel overwhelmed, and fatigued.  As the night comes closer, you feel distressed, and yet you’re not even sure why.  You want to go out for a great evening with a friend, but your brain thinks otherwise.

The interpretation and reaction to sound volume stress has been created by your brain perceiving it as threatening.

Imagine for a second that you add in other life elements that degrade your neurological system’s ability to cope; lack of sleep, dehydration, low blood sugar.  You’re in this state when your friend calls to organize your night out…….and you snap and tell them you aren’t going out, you’re done with partying!

Your friend is perplexed by your reaction, and so are you, but this is what feels right, even though it feels wrong!

Your brain has defined what distress is and it’s fully invested in it.

This is but a simple example of how your neurological system manages information, and how you can and do have the ability to manifest different outcomes.

You can acknowledge that sound makes you nervous, you can prepare yourself for what might lay ahead, redefine your relationship with the information, and create a different outcome.

Once you begin to acknowledge that you give meaning to the information coming into your brain, you can choose to give it meaning that imparts safety, or at least you can choose to be more responsive to the information (considering all the facts like you’re in a nightclub) rather than reactive (it’s loud and unexpected in your house).

I’ve talked about some of these concepts in a different way in earlier blog posts. 

The concept of the story is how we give things meaning. How everything we see and understand is just a form of story, and how once we acknowledge that we’ve created the meaning, and we become aware of that meaning, we can also be accountable for changing the meaning and creating adaptation through new stories that serve.

The more you understand how your stories inform your interpretations, the more you become the owner of your relationship with stress, what is deemed positive, and what is deemed to be negative.

It’s a liberating truth.