Tag: full circle coaching

Go Be D.U.M.B Today!

by fullcircle, posted in Blogs, Mindset

What an amazing year 2015 was. I like to take this time during the holidays when I actually have some down time and sleep in, spend quality time with my family and also make some alone time to really think about all that happened this year. The good the bad and the ugly.

I, like many others had struggles. Some couldn’t train or race due to injury, some had great comeback years after being injured or sick, some had other priorities that led them away from themselves. Others had great successes and personal records in sport as well as business or family. I hope each one of you takes the time over the next few days to do a recap and review of the last year.

Did you achieve the goals you set out to accomplish? Did you miss on a few? Maybe look at the hardships you had to face to see if there was some lesson to be learned on how you handled it or what was brought to light because of that struggle. Or, really acknowledge all the hard work that went into your big successes and how you can repeat them this coming year and make even bigger and better wins for next year.

I have a constant quest for learning new things to see where I can improve my relationships, health, life, coaching, and business so I am always listening and reading up about new ways to improve and pass on good stuff I learn to my athletes. During this time of year everyone is talking about resolutions and setting goals for the New Year. I have written about and used S.M.A.R.T. goals in the past and I’m sure most of you are familiar with them:

I know many of you have heard of SMART Goals:
SPECIFIC
MEASURABLE
ATTAINABLE
RELEVANT
TIME-BOUND

This year, I would love to you to set some D.U.M.B goals! I love these as a precursor to the S.M.A.R.T. goals and I learned about them from Brendan Bruchard check out his video about them at this LINK. 

D.U.M.B Goals
D – Dream/Destiny Driven goals – I love this because it is asking you to think way outside the box and truly get excited about something BIG for yourself. Something that may not seem attainable at first thought but that you really want to achieve but are maybe too scared to even fathom. Brendan talks about the vision of landing on the moon or curing a disease. How did those people ever achieve those amazing things without dreaming about them 1st!

My business coach Sean Greely always says if your dream doesn’t scare you, it isn’t big enough. And my mentor Paul CHEK says your dream has to be bigger than your distraction. So, start with the dream and the how will come later! Think about something that would make your life magical and make you feel alive. Have fun with it.

U. Uplifting – Choose something that you want to GAIN not lose. Instead of I want to lose weight, how about I want to be a sexy beast and have an amazingly successful body that is strong and capable to carry me across the finish line of a triathlon, Ironman, 5k, ultra- endurance, feel alive, you fill in the blank __________________.

M –Method friendly – A goal that you can create a practice around. A map that makes it happen more easily. If the goal is to feel vibrant and passionate about your life, to get there you need a practice, map or method that will lead you to your success. For example, 3x a week you are going to fuel your body with healthy breakfast and then go to the gym or walk/run/swim/cycle for 20 minutes. Use a set of practices that you repeat on how you wake up, cook your food, meet with an accountability partner or whatever you choose. This is where I highly recommend that Miracle Morning book again, it has a blueprint for the method of your morning practice. The repetition of the practice makes it easier every time you do it. I also incorporate this in creating more successful athletes by implementing the dynamic warm up before every workout to help prevent injury, or having the athletes perform the skill driven drills for swim, bike and run to improve their performances at any level.

B- Behavior driven with triggers set up to help you be successful – Every time I do this than that. For example, every time my alarm goes off in the morning I say my mantra and start my morning routine, which includes all the SAVERS (silence, affirmations, visualizations, exercise, reading and scribing) from the Miracle Morning Book. And sets me up for success. Using these behavioral driven triggers helps motivate you to stay the course and go for the big DREAM!

The Scariest Thing That’s Ever Happened to Me

by fullcircle, posted in Blogs, Erinne, Mindset

By Coach Erinne Guthrie

I have had my share of life’s ups and downs Divorced parents Failed marriage Successful birth of my daughter Death of a soul mate My fathers suicide But none of those scared me the way waking up one morning seeing only black in my left eye did.

I don’t have good eye sight to begin with (-8.50!) but wearing contacts has always allowed me to see 20/20 and do everything I ever wanted to do.
But waking up seeing black was so scary for me because it really threatened the active lifestyle I live and love.

Interestingly enough the week before this happened I had been introduced to a book called Miracle Morning and had started adding helpful elements recommended in the book to my normal 20 min meditation at 4:20 am every morning. The 6 elements of the Miracle Morning are silence, affirmation, visualization exercise, reading and scribing or journaling.

Although I was already implementing 3 out of 6, it is amazing how implementing all 6 helped me get through this challenging period in my life. Even though I did allow for exactly 2, 24 hour pity parties,
that was really all I needed.

I got through retinal re-attachment surgery with a scleral buckle around my left eye with the best doc in the world Dr. Smiddy. Luckily, I have an awesome team and coaches and no sessions were canceled. My team of coaches stepped up I kept training as soon as doc gave me the green light. And although my vision is not back to 100%, I raced in my 1st ever draft legal sprint triathlon to try and qualify for world championships.

I was very tempted to skip the race for fear the warped vision in my left eye would cause issues in my performance. Would I get hit in the eye during the swim? Would I be able to draft safely? Did I Lose too much fitness in the weeks I had to take off leading up to the race?  I didn’t want to talk about it to too many people for disgrace of total failure, so with the encouragement of my FC TEAM and a few athletes and friends as well as the implementation of the 6 elements of the miracle morning book I decided to race. So even if I came in last I knew for me it was about being there and participating and how I decided to respond to my situation instead of react to it!

Guess what?
I qualified! This has always been a dream of mine and now I am headed to CanCun, Mexico with 2 other Full Circle athletes to race against the world! Wow, who would have thought this was possible given my situation. Although I did not have a great race by any definition, with 5 girls pacing me on the run, I did get 9th place and the top 10 in each age group qualified. It was a tough but really fun race and the draft legal element of the bike made it completely different. I highly recommend a draft legal race if you can enter one. Here are the race results and more info on the USAT Website.

So if you are still reading because this is a kind of long post The big things I wanted to share is that It’s not what happens to you in your life it’s how you respond. I can easily decide that after this happened I needed to quit triathlon and racing because it’s just too risky but what I realize is that is just not an option for me. I love swim bike run too much to say goodbye!

Also having a daily practice like the Miracle morning was definitely introduced to me just in time to help me keep my eye ( no pun intended) on the big picture of my life which is:

To motivate triathletes to break through the obstacles holding them back from their ultimate triathlon performance. On that note, please watch out how you can be involved in having your Ultimate Triathlon performance after attending our 6th Annual Ultimate Triathlon Camp in Clermont FLorida. Registration is opening up this week! And

Look for upcoming details in the next week!

Thanks for reading!
Namaste

 

What’s your Big Why?

by fullcircle, posted in Blogs, Mindset

What’s Your Big Why?  Do you know?

Knowing the answer to this simple question can make everything in life a little easier.
So many times we get lost in the day to day activities; going through the grind with no goals, no purpose no focus and wondering where the day went, how time flies and you haven’t gotten anything done.  Nothing is as you want it to be.

Next, you start to get cranky and ask yourself why am I even doing this?
  • Why did I sign up for this Ironman®?
  • Why do I want to become a triathlete?
  • Why am I doing my 1st triathlon?
  • Why do I want to get in shape, lose weight, get healthy?
If you don’t have an answer to these questions, it’s not likely for you to stick to a plan or program or schedule. But, when you do know the answer, you spring out of bed ready for the day’s training and find ways to fit it all into your day.  It becomes a healthy priority 2nd or 3rd to other items in life but still in the top 5.  It can be tough sometimes, especially when we get knocked out of our routines.  This is a completely normal part of life to have to make adjustments to get back on track.  But get back on we must!

A few of my current athletes are struggling with this as we speak and I am just reminding them to take some quiet time to go within and ask yourself what your big why is again.  Your kids, your partner, your parents, a deceased loved one’s, a friend, brother or sister.  Everyone has a why, you just have to find it!

Last weekend, my 9 year old daughter Kaia was doing her 8th triathlon after not racing at all for over a year.  She has 2 parents who love and live triathlon so it’s hard for her not to be involved and want to do triathlons, but I don’t push her.  The morning of the race she was having major anxiety about racing; Would she be as good as she was before?  Would she be last? All the same issues we all think about at some time before a race.  So, I started asking her if she wanted to race, and she said yes but all these other feelings were taking over so I asked her to think about a few things, like maybe doing it for someone else, so it wasn’t about her and her outcome, but more about just getting out there because someone else couldn’t.  The other thing I reminded her of was how great it felt when she had crossed the finish line of her last race.  She was all a glow, cheering for friends and happy just to be out there.  We looked at some of her race photos and she was reminded of those post-race feelings of success and accomplishment.  Although she struggled right up to the start, she did the race with a huge smile on her face and even saying at one point “This is the best day of my life!”

Another example of a good why, is being a part of Team Thumbs Up.  We were asked to be included and help Brett Anderson who has Cerebral Palsy complete a sprint triathlon.  I was so proud of my team for stepping up and giving this man the experience of flying through a triathlon as fast as we could carry him. He was ecstatic and so thankful!

These are just 2 examples of a why and I have a bunch more I turn to when I am finding myself out of my focus.  All I know is when I am committed and training regularly, everything else in my life is better.  I commit to more sleep, eat healthier, work harder and with more focus and really plan my fun stuff as the reward for all the hard work!  Although the race is always the reward for me!

Of course, I can’t leave without mentioning that if you have your why and still no energy to train it could be a nutrition lifestyle issue and of course I have a program for that!  So, now its my turn to ask you; “What is your big Why?” Id love to hear about it and how it motivates you to get out there and TRI!!!