A Dreamer, His Music and New Dreams

Disclaimer: this might read more like a journal entry than a fitness blog.  You've been warned!  Enjoy!

12 years ago I met a very determined young man named Warren Barfield while we were both working a week long summer camp.  Warren was a dreamer unlike any I met.  At the age of 20 he quit college packed up his mid 90's green Ford Mustang and started traveling to any church, camp, retreat or event that would have him play and sing.  To be honest, Warren is one of the most talented songwriters I have ever heard.  And I knew it was just a matter of time before he hit it BIG!

Admittedly, I envied Warren, knowing success was just around the corner.  It had to be and it was.  Long story short the music business for Warren happened.  Which meant a record deal and red tape.  It meant getting promoted and projects getting shelved.  And if I were to ask it was probably not quite the dream fulfilled he shared with me while sitting on a deep freeze at 2 AM at summer camp 12 years ago.

I know you are asking yourself, why are you sharing this story.  This is not fitness or health related.  Bare with me dear friends, there is a point.

I saw Warren this week.  He is traveling out on the road, but not really playing music like he used to.  He is out promoting Food for the Hungry - a child sponsorship program on the tour of another successful artist.  He played 2 songs rather than 10.  He spent more time telling a story than strumming his guitar.  And he is by far happier with his current role.

This caused a lot of reflection in me.  In an honest transparent conversation in the backwoods of summer camp off the Ocoee River Warren and I shared our dreams.  But dreams have way of changing.  The end game of that dream once we get there may not always be what we thought it would be.

I too have had dreams come to life only to realize that my vision for that by far was better than the reality that came to life.  I am not being a "Debbie Downer" and saying don't dream.  Instead, I am challenging you to be open to dream new dreams.

My friend Warren is one of the leading voices for Food for the Hungry.  In his time with Food for the Hungry he has helped get more than 30,000 children sponsored.  30,000 families have clean water.  30,000 parents are learning a trade or skill.  30,000 families are been offered the love of God.

There is an often quoted verse from the Bible that says "your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions."  What I have learned and what Warren's story teaches is that dreams will shift and change from time and seasons of life.  The dreams you once dreamed as young man or woman may not have been realized or once you did it was not really what you dreamed it would be.  Then dream a new dream!  See a new vision!

This blog while geared around health and fitness is really just an extension of my heart to offer people HOPE!  Hope is the expectation of a good ending.  What Warren taught me this time is that the dream you once pursued might just be the thing that leads you to the next dream that has a much bigger impact than you ever first envisioned.

Keep dreaming!  Keep hoping!

**if interested offering HOPE to children through Food for the Hungry click this link**

I Can Only Imagine

"If you can dream it, you can do it."

Walt Disney

A golfer will visualize there shot before hitting it.  A shooter in his mind has already made the free throw before it ever leaves his hand.  Award winning actors have rehearsed their winning speech hundreds of times before the movie was ever shot.  

That is the power and the fuel that comes with imagination.  The first steps toward success - in health and fitness, in business, in sports, really in any avenue of life - starts with the ability to believe you will be successful.

I have been given the gift of imagination.  I am creative.  I am one of those people that have unfiltered ideas of grandeur. My left handed self thrives in these moments.  I have written #1 songs.  I have penned the screenplay for the next Oscar Award winning movie.  I at one point starred in 13 straight All-Star Games and finally brought the World Series back to the Chicago Cubs.  (I told you I had a big imagination.)

So it leaves you asking, "Jeff, why have you not ..."

That answer is simple.  The power of the imagination gives the dream.  The athlete, artist or person has to believe in it.  They have to sell out to that dream.  It is one thing to see the impossible happening for a brief moment.  It is an entirely another to continue to see that dream as a reality despite set back, despite obstacle, despite failure.  

There is a story of Walt Disney's brother, Roy at the opening of Walt Disney World.  Prior to the opening Walt had passed away.  A guest at that grand opening said to Roy "what a shame Walt was not here to see it."  Roy's response "He already had."  The only way the Happiest Place On Earth ever came into existence was because one man in plane ride over some swamp land in Orlando, FL saw something that did not already exist.  And then pursued that something passion, fervor and tenacity.  

For me, it is not a problem to see swampland as the world's greatest amusement park.  I have the imagination for that.  My struggle is taking what I imagine and believing two things:

1) that I am able to bring the dream to reality

and 

2) that there are others who are willing and wanting to share in the dream.

While Walt gets the majority of the credit, others like Roy stood by him.  

So when I fly over the swampland of my life what do I see?  I see a guy with a successful Team Beachbody business impacting 1000's of lives.  I see a guy with the ability to take his family to the Happiest Place on Earth whenever.  I see a guy on a stage in front of thousands sharing a message of hope and change.  

What do you see for your life?  Maybe you imagine yourself 10 pounds lighter.  Maybe you imagine yourself debt free.  Maybe you imagine yourself wildly successful in your giftedness beyond what others believe.  

It is time for you and I to not only imagine,  but to come alive.  

A person should set his goals as early as he can and devote all his energy and talent to getting there. With enough effort, he may achieve it. Or he may find something that is even more rewarding. But in the end, no matter what the outcome, he will know he has been alive. ~ Roy Disney

The 3 Places We Look...

We all have those spots...the places we look when the keys are missing or the remote can't be found.

The go to spot when we need to find that extra $0.27.

In life there are similar spots. I call them the 3 places we look.  Each of these spots hold incredible benefit for us, but if not careful each can hold you back.

BEHIND

Looking behind is a great tool to remind us where we have been, where we have come from and how far we have come.  It is a measuring stick of success.

You can only know how far you come by measuring it against where you've been.  This gives a clear sense of exactly how far in life you have come.

Yet looking behind can be like walking in quick sand.  It's full of remember whens, the good ole days and it will never be like that again.  It can become a mental trap to move forward.  Every "there will never be another" creates a mental mile marker that what is ahead of you can not compare to what is behind.

What's behind is behind and great reminder of the...

PRESENT

This moment is happening.  Now is now and will never happen again.  Whether your in the midst of the storm or life is pool side at the Ritz Carlton, it is happening.  Embrace the moment, stop and smell the proverbial (or actual) roses.

Too often we get caught on the bookends -- looking behind or ahead -- that the moment is lost.  So go ahead and YOLO it!  Because you really only do live once.

As modern day poet MACKLEMORE said,

Can we go back, this is the moment
Tonight is the night, we’ll fight 'til it’s overSo we put our hands up like the ceiling can’t hold usLike the ceiling can’t hold us


Embrace the here and now.  But don't live this moment captive to what's BEHIND and not satisfied because you are looking too far...

AHEAD

Benjamin Franklin said "A failure to plan is a plan to fail."  Looking ahead requires making plans and plans to achieve those plans.   Goals setting is key to success.  Having dreams and the desire to chase them is essential to living a fulfilled life.

Looking ahead is all about creating a plan for the future.  Understandably, life is going to throw you curve balls.  There are going to be moments that you will not be able to control the circumstances.  But have a clear destination picked out allows you realign your path and stay on track.  So looked ahead with expectation of great things.

Looking ahead can cause amnesia about where you have been and you are.  Don't let what is ahead of you hold you back from celebrating past success and winning in the moment you're in.

Oh and your keys are always in the last place you look. (That's because the last place you look is where you find them.)

Letupicitis the dream killer

It is a common disease that strikes many quickly and suddenly.

It has destroyed the strongest of men and the bravest of women.

It is a silent, decimating killer.

It's Letupicitis!  Commonly known as quitting, letting up, slowing down, pulling back and backing down.

It is the moment you taste the start of success in your goals and instead of hitting the gas you "let up".  It the day you step on the scale to see you have dropped 3 pounds and reward yourself with a Big Mac and a day off, instead of pushing play.  It is the moment after you have posted your third blog of the week and decide to cool the keys and wait on inspiration.

Letupicitis is rooted in the bacteria of disbelief.  It is contracted on the microbe of a poor self perception and spreads on the virus of a poor self perception.

It is known as the dream killer disease.  It slowly infects the dreamer and keeps him/her from pushing past barriers to new levels.  At one point or another we will all contract this silent killer of imagination, passion and conviction.  If you let it, it will infect your heart and keep your from achieving the dream you set out to.

Know the symptoms, recognize the signs, and push past letupicitis!