New Year, new goals.

2015 is upon us. We're already 5 days into the year, resolutions have been made, and many have probably already been broken. This year I won't be focusing on "resolutions" but solid goals in several aspects of my life. For those that don't know, physically last year was a time of ups and downs for me, I completed my first triathlon, and then had two surgeries, both for gout, that kept me sidelined for the rest of the year. Thanks in large part to the healthy eating habits, and great nutrition in my ViSalus shakes I have been able to, even with a physical activity level near zero, keep my weight under control, and while I have gotten a little bit softer over the last 4 months, I've kept the "beer gut" at bay!

2015 will be another rough year physically as I'm still recovering from one surgery and have one more scheduled for early in the year, so I'll be sitting on those aforementioned sidelines for most of this year as well. While I could look at this as an end of the road, I've been able to recognize it for what it is, simply a road block along the way. In some ways being able to keep my physical goals lower than they have been in the past, i.e. this year I'm simply looking to maintain a healthy weight throughout my invalid phase, I've been able to focus more clearly on my business, personal, and professional goals for the new year.

So here they are my personal, business, and financial goals for 2015:

Personal: While I've taken on a lot as far as job responsibility in the past year, going from working at an MSP to running IT for a reasonably sized regional company, for the most part entirely alone, I've struggled throughout in maintaining a separation and distance from my work and home life. My goal in 2015 is to devote more time with my family, to miss fewer events and to be there more both for my son and my wife. I will also grow myself, in several areas, fitness, gaming, and online journalism to help support my business goals.

Business: My business goals actually reside in several areas, a brand launch with a new friend that is already gaining momentum, my ViSalus goals, and the launching of an entirely new venture that finds me in a vertical that is new to me as far as monetizing goes. For the brand launch, along with my partner I hope to have built a 50k user Facebook Fan base by mid year, and be talking about expanding our purely Facebook presence into a full-featured website with e-commerce capabilities. For my ViSalus business, this year I will hit regional director, and be driving a BMW, helping countless others achieve their goals along the way. As for my new venture, it's been a project that's loomed in my mind for quite some time, and I've honestly been "too scared" to give it a go, but my biggest goal for this is to, in some fashion, have created a reliable revenue stream out of this avenue by mid-year, at which point I plan to refocus and see where it can take me.

Professionally: Two bigs goals in this field, one is to establish myself as a programmer, which will mean learning software development from scratch, and devoting a large amount of time to study of that craft. Along with this developing in my current IT niche, both with certifications, and continued education will be key to realizing my long term (post 2015 goals).

There you have it, my goals for 2015. While I hadn't exactly planned on "penning" these out in this particular forum, I'm glad that I did and hope that you will join me in keeping me accountable, and please take a moment in the comments below and share some of your goals for 2015, and I will do my best to check up with you!

Happy New Year to all, and may your 2015 be a year of realized and exceeded expectations!

I am not a Network Marketer!

My wife & I have gotten a lot of messages lately, a lot of folks talking about different companies, new "opportunities" out there, and while we appreciate our friends reaching out to us, we would both like to go on record to say that "We are NOT Network Marketers!" I know that a lot of people would point out that we are involved in a network marketing company with ViSalus, and while that's true and we do believe in the industry as a whole, we will not be involved with another company. We are not in ViSalus because of "positioning" or the comp plan, although being positioned as the #2 Weightloss company in the World after Weight Watchers & getting paid 11 different ways isn't a bad thing! We aren't involved because someone promised us a downline, or because there's some new super rare fruit in our product that's going to change the world and allow us to cover our driveway in gold. I say all that to say, take your new rare only harvested by the light of the leap year moon, using the left hand of a man that has never done another wrong, processed in the waters of the Egyptian sunlight underneath the largest of pyramids, going to grow my hair, paint my nails, lose my weight, and buy me a plane product, and share it with someone else. 

Rhonda & I are bottom line involved with ViSalus because we believe in our leaders, from the couple that introduced us to the business right on up to our companies founders. We believe in the vision of our company, to take weight off the world 10 pounds at a time until we end Obesity. We believe in our products because they have transformed our lives, & we believe in sharing the Challenge with others because we are passionate about affecting that same change in the lives of our friends and community. My wife & I are standing behind something that we believe in, and our beliefs will not be shaken as they are built on a strong foundation of love, respect, and personal results. I don't "sell milkshakes", I couldn't sell a hot chocolate to an eskimo, I simply tell my story and allow others to decide if it's time for them to make the same change that I decided to make 1 year ago. I will not be leaving ViSalus, I will not be quitting, and I will not chase the newest shiny on the block.   

#rantOVER

#VItillthedayIdie

#resultstrumpallelse

#Iamstickingaround

#GetONthetrainORgetoutoftheway

JUMP.

A wise friend recently told me a fantastic story that I just had to share. Three frogs are sitting on a log, one frog decides to jump off the log, how many frogs are left? Simple math right, this is kindergarden type stuff, I bet you didn't even have to use your toes to answer this one! You answered two, right? Well if you did, you'd be wrong, you see there's still 3 frogs sitting on this faithful log. The key word here is that I said that one frog decided to jump off of the log, the problem is he never actually did.

How many of us in our personal or professional lives have been that one frog, the one that "decides to jump" but finds himself still sitting on the log? The real lesson to be learned here is that you will never get anywhere by simply making a decision. While making the choice to do something is an important step, as there are few truly successful people that ended up there purely on accident without first deciding that they would be great, but the common thread in all great successes is that there is an action that follows the decision.

You see Thomas Edison decided he was going to invent the lightbulb, but it wasn't until after over 1,000 times "failing" to create that lightbulb that he actually came up with a working bulb. The decision to create the lightbulb was integral here, but without the action of creating it, Sir Edison would simply be another one of histories great dreamers, and it is likely that you may never had heard his name.

For every Michael Jordan out there that has put in the hard work, time and effort to become the best in their field, sport, or vocation, how many others "decided" that they were going to be the best, but never jumped off their respective logs?

So the biggest question after realizing this is how do you make the leap, how do you take the action, what is the magic formula to actually getting off that darn log? Well the answer is simple really, so simple that most of us miss it because we, as humans, must endever to complicate things to the point that our productivity simply becomes activity and we never actually get off the log. We love to plan how to get off the log, talk about the different technologies and philosophies surrounding log jumping, even read books from people who have jumped off the log before us, but it is the rare person that actually makes that fateful leap and pursues their dreams.

The answer to how we jump off the log is this; just JUMP!

Not to complicated is it? Here's my question for you to ask yourself, if it's this simple why haven't you jumped?

Community.

Tonight I attended the birthday party of one of my best friends, a man whom I love, respect, and am honored to be associated with. While I'm a certain special kind of stubborn when it comes to my opinions, when this man talks, I listen. I've watched him develop as a leader and as a man. I've watched him talk to his children, both the ones that live in his house and those that he adopts and brings into his life. I've been proud the times when I was his friend, and humble the times that he has mentored me. He's changed my life in many ways, all for the better, and I couldn't be more grateful to him. This blog post isn't about how much he means to me, he knows that, rather I'd like to discuss what I saw tonight at his party.

Tonight at a small gathering of friends and family, I got to look at my friend in another way, through the eyes of those gathered to celebrate with him. There were people from all walks of life, some that I knew well, and others that I didn't, the one thing that we all had in common was my friend, and our mutual love and respect for him. We all gathered around this one social nexus and in doing so not only enriched his life, we were able to enrich our own lives simply by congregating with one simple purpose.

I was able to step back tonight and observe for a few moments what community really looks like, to see people gathering for a reason, interacting and coming together for a common goal. There's something incredible about community, something incredible about mutual love and respect overlapping, all coming together. While some might define a community as a geographic area that folks live in, I know that I witnessed the true meaning tonight.

Starting Over, not quite from the start.

Today marks a big day for me, the start of a new Challenge. What's a Challenge? A Challenge is all about setting a 90 day goal, and living your life in pursuit of that goal for 90 days. Since my first Challenge, my life has changed immeasurably. I went from being a couch potato to a triathlete. Never in my life did I imagine competing in one of the events encompassed in triathlons much less all three in one day! The funny thing about a Challenge though is, at some point it's over. 90 days only lasts for 90 days. Then you have a choice, do you go back to living your life the way you were, or do you embark on another 90 day journey. I've been living this lifestyle for over a year now and while I've had victories, I think it's important to note that there have also been defeats. I'm not where I wish I would be, I haven't achieved all I want to achieve, BUT I have achieved much more than I thought I could.

I'll make a confession, the last 90 days, I haven't been "on Challenge", I haven't been drinking my Vi-Shake, I haven't been watching my nutrition, and the last 90 days have brought an attack of gout, the brief return of some of the medical issues that I used to experience, and some of my weight has come back. Some would decry their fitness regime, some would blame ViSalus, but I'm a realist, and want to be honest with both myself and you. Nothing external failed me, ViSalus works, it has worked for me. My training while not as consistent has been solid. I have failed me, my fitness and my health. I've made more bad choices than good, I've decided to live my life without keeping my goals in mind. There is no one and nothing to blame but me.

Don't think that I'm being down on myself, there's comfort in being the problem. When you're the problem you can also be the solution. If you are the only thing that is holding you back then you can change. You can make a conscious choice to be different. That's what I'm doing, I'm making a choice to change.

"My Line in the Sand"

Today I'm drawing my line in the sand, today I'm saying that enough is enough. Today I'm making the conscious choice to be better. Today I start a Challenge. My Challenge over the next 90 days is to lose 20 pounds, and I will accomplish it! It won't be easy, but I know that it will be worth it. I'll be updating this blog along the way with thoughts, stories and triumphs. Thanks for reading and look out for my next post!