What kind of shape are you in?

I don't know if you follow MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), but I like it. There's this guy Fedor Emelianenko, even with his recent loss most people would rate very high as among the best fighters in the business. The thing is that when you look at the guy, he doesn't look that great. Physically he's a bit pudgy. On the outside, you'd never know that he's that good, but over and over again, he just gets the job done. He's one of these people that I'd say trains to win, not to look good. I've been thinking about this for some time, when the other day, I was watching on The Golf Channel an interview with Phil Mickelson's trainer, Sean Cochran when he said the following:

"...you're gonna train an athlete...for the physical requirements of the sport. We're less concerned about how they look, but more concerned about how they perform. We're gonna train and develop the body for performance, not to be on the cover of a magazine."

That got me to thinking...What about the game of life? Are you training for performance or to look good? In one of my workshops I make a distinction between the professional attitude/mindset and the amateur attitude/mindset. When I do that, and the people start thinking about the difference between the two certain differences become obvious. Then I ask the million dollar question, are you approaching your life with the mindset of a professional, to be the best you can be, or are you approaching life like an amateur, at a hobby level? In all of the facets of your life do you go about it as a professional would or as an amateur? Are you a professional at being a husband, a father, a wife, a mother, a friend, at whatever your chosen career?

So in the game called life, perhaps you could ask yourself the following questions as well. What kind of shape am I in mentally? What kind of shape am I in emotionally? spiritually? physically? Am I in shape in these areas or have I let myself slide? If I am working out in these areas, am I training and practicing for peak performance or to simply look good? How would I even begin to measure myself in these aspects of life? It's been my experience that the things that get measured can be improved, so how would I go about measuring my performance as a husband, father, friend? How about a customer survey? What customer? Well, as a husband wouldn't your wife be your customer? What about as a father? Friend? We say things like I want to be the best person I can be, but beyond simply feeling good about ourselves do we really measure our performance? Let's go beyond that. Let's really set some higher standards to be measured and live that life.

Until next time...

Live FREE!