Another day -- Another year in passing

365, thats how many days are in a year, 8760, that’s how many hours are in a year and 525600, thats how many minutes are in one year. A great deal can happen in one year. One can age and grow weak physically but, yet grow stronger and richer in wisdom. New friends are made and old friends grow more distant. New passions discovered and old passions re-discovered. How many of those 365 days, 8760 hours, and 525600 minutes are spent happy, sad, or just simply letting the clock tick. For me many of those hours and minutes are spent being happy. No matter how hard one tries it is impossible for all of those 525600 minutes to be spent in a joyous state of mind.

However for me the past year has been good for me but most of all it has been a year I will never forget for numerous reasons. Many significant things have occurred in the past year that have had large impacts on my life, not only for the current time being but also long lasting effects.

In the past year I moved to Dallas, Texas. I started working full time after graduating from college. It was truly the beginning of my adult life. Upon arriving in Dallas I continued to pursue a passion for running and triathlons that had began, unfortunately, too late in my college career. Much lay ahead of me as began living in Dallas. At various times shortly after moving I questioned the move to Dallas and my motives behind it. Now that one year is past, questions of motives are no where to be found.

As the days of orchestrated routine past, I began to notice how I would look forward to the smaller things in life as opposed to the large events like summer vacations or spring breaks. In my eyes this is all very necessary since when working full time your life is dominated by others and doing what you want any time is simply not an option. For me this was time spent with friends, cooking, running, swimming, and riding my bicycle. Many of the 8760 hours of the past year were spent in the pool, on the saddle, and on the pavement. Many goals were sought after and eventually achieved. The initial 2 goals of the last year were to complete my second Olympic Distance Triathlon and run my 3rd half marathon. In my last Olympic Distance Triathlon I finished with a time of 2:55:52. My previous best time in the half marathon was ahcieved in Nashville, TN at the Country Music Half Marathon. I posted a time of 1:48:15, if my memory serves me correctly. Initial expectations for both races were to simply finish and feel stronger than previous and post a time that was still respectable. I set a goal to spend time in the pool and increase and grow my ability as a swimmer. I truly put dedication to this and even though 5am came early I would show up 2 or 3 times a week at the YMCA and swim before work. The time spent was not wasted. As the days past my running ability strengthed. My stride became more efficient, my lungs capacity grew, and my body lost weight. All of this would eventually contribute to a stellar preformance in my 2nd olympic distance triathlon. I finished with a time of 2:37:13. It would take realizing victory over the triathlon before setting my 3rd goal for the year. A television show would be inspiriational in helping me to set my 4th goal for the year. The 3rd and 4th goals of the past year respectively would be to complete a Half Ironman distance triathlon and running a Marathon. They day came and past of running my 3rd half marathon. I finished with time of 1:33:34. Right at the outset of moving to Dallas I had achieved so much and was not ready to stop any time soon. Within the first 4 months of moving I was able to shave 18 minutes off of my Olympic Distance triathlon time and 15 minutes off of my Half Marathon time. At that point in my life, late December, I thought that I could achieve anything if I truly wanted to. Little did I realize that the rest of the year I would have many more exicitng times both with my racing and my life as a whole.

And so the training would begin for my first Marathon and Half Ironman concurrently. Soon after the training began I chose goals 5 and 6. I would register for 2 more HIM races in 2008. I knew at the outset it would be difficult and it would take time before it would feel comfortable. As Lance Armstrong says, you can’t fake a marathon. Anyone who has ever completed a marathon or Half Ironman (HIM) knows that you can’t fake them. No matter who you are or where you are at physically, you have to be prepared to both mentally and physically to race these distances. The biggest change from racing in Olympic distance triathlons and Half Marathons to longer distances is the actual time that the individual spends training each week. The hours increase and can some weeks approach 12 hours of training. This a great deal of time spent each week training. Long runs and rides tax the body and mind. For me I have learned so much about the minds ability to overcome the body’s weakness. The mind harnessed correctly will always win out over the body. I will get to that a little later. For me I felt it a good exercise to take my log book after writing in it for one year and tally the miles.

I swam 97 miles in pools, lakes and oceans

I rode 1,998 miles on bike trainers, roads, and spin bikes

I ran 890 miles on sidewalks, trails, and streets

When put end to end, I covered 2,984 miles.

I did all of this because I can.

To put this in perspective time wise I used some simple average paces as follows:

1:45 / 100m swimming pace
16 mph riding pace
8:30/mi running pace

This works out to the following numbers

45 hours swimming
125 hours biking
130 hours running

For a total of 300 hours of training

or on average 6 hours per week

or an average of 49 minutes of training per day for 365 days.

To me this is amazing and is a testament to the fact that through discipline, desire, and devotion anything is possible. I am Looking forward to tackling my last goal of the year before the big one in 2009, Ironman Wisconsin and looking back on that year after the race is complete and reading this post along with many others and seeing how things have really changed.

So keep swim strokes long and smooth, your pedal cadence high and run stride efficient and you too can achieve anything.

Brett

A Positive Way to Start the Weekend

Here are a few quotes to start the weekend. I read these this morning and it just put me in a better mood and made me feel more greatful for what I have in life.


"The awareness to appreciate and keep perspective of what you DO HAVE each morning helps set a positive tone for rest of each day."
-JT


"Children are more influenced by the sermons you act than by sermons you preach."
-David McKay


"Admit your errors before someone else exaggerates them."
-Andrew V. Mason


And...


"I'm growing older but not up, my metabolic rate is pleasantly stuck. Let those winds of change blow over my head...I'd rather die while I'm living than live while I'm dead."
-Jimmy Buffett

Why Do You TRI ????

So I was reading in the Tri Forum while I ate my tuna fish at lunch and came across this thread... Check it out:

Why Do You Tri??

So I thought I would do my own but also on my blog, since this is can be a very introspective exercise.

Why do I Tri???

1. Because I Can, otherwise why did you have legs and arms, what else are gonna do with them, we don't have to hunt for our food like our ancestors did ! And the second you can't swim, bike, or run you are gonna be wishing you had.
2. I used to be FAT
3. It gives me something other to do than work
4. I like to compete
5. I like to compete and never loose, this is why I love the individual aspect, the only person you have to loose to is yourself. The only way you loose is by quitting.
6. It keeps me healthy
7. It can hopefully inspire others to get into shape and become healthy.
8. If I didn't I would have to fill my spare time with something else and I don't know what that would be but it couldn't be more healthy than what I am doing now.
9. Because when I see a really FAT overweight un-healthy person, I think I never want to be like that and I am sure they don't either. If only they would have TRI'd"
10. I like the freedom, its something that only God can take away from me. I will always be able to swim, bike, and run. Unless someone steals my bike.
11. I like to eat.
12. I think it's cool how the human body can be trained to do anything
13. I like to push my mind to control my body, and what better way to do so then endure pain during a hard workout.
14. I love the feeling of butterflies before a race.
15. I love the feeling of accomplishment after a race.
16. Its better than just running.
17. Its cool
18. It makes people wonder how you do the workouts you do, but little do they realize that they could too if they only would TRI !
19. When I do an Ironman, I will have bragging rights for the rest of my life !
20. It's such a bad-ass sport.
21. It is possibly one of the only sports that requires you to be a very balanced athlete and rely only on your abilities.
22. Because, its not always your arms or legs that get you a 1st place, it's the stuff between your ears and in your chest. Its about having a strong heart and mind.
23. The bikes are really cool.
24. The girls can be really hot
25. Where else is pissing yourself acceptable
26. You have to have goals in life
27. The sport is as old as I am, it's so young that some of the best moments are still to come.
28. Because I get this excited, happy, and emotional feeling when I think about winning my age group at a race and qualifying to go to KONA
29. I love the people who do it with me, the friends I have met training, the enjoyment had with complete strangers at races. There is a connection that you have that can't be compared to anything less than a family.
30. Without Tri, I wouldn't be me, no matter what happens I will always want to be a part of it some way or another.

I could go on for forever about that. I welcome any comments to this, just reply back if you want.

Back to work..

Ironman Wisconsin

So this evening I looked into flights to fly to Chicago and then bus myself to Wisconsin to volunteer for the Ironman Wisconsin 2009 race. It looks as if I can get there pretty cheap and possibly use my airline miles that I have accumulated from traveling. I figure this is probably a great idea for 2 reasons. First I will get exposed to the excitement and hoop la that surrounds an Ironman event and get a chance to ride the entire about 60 miles of the bike course and run  good portion of the run course. This is a huge advantage for me to get mentally prepared for the race. The second reason this is a good idea is that there is almost a 100% chance I will reserve my spot for the race in 2009. 

Other than those thoughts, I am moving right now and have been doing a little too much during the evenings and haven't been able to get my workouts in. However carrying heavy stuff for 2 hours on monday and tuesday night is not that easy either. So it's not like I have been sitting around on the couch. Tomorrow, I am going to try out the run again in the morning. I had some pains from after the Half Ironman and it really was just sore and strained. It felt really good for a while, but I have not really ran since my last olympic distance tri on 7/13/08. I also PR that race by about 4 minutes even though I rode an extra 1.8 miles on the bike because I got somewhat lost. I finished in 2:18 and change. The ankle hurt bad in that race. I ran an easy 2 miles after my 45 mile bike ride last saturday and it felt good. So I will try it back out tomorrow for a super easy 5 miles. So all those days off, I just Iced and rested it and took some NSAIDS.  So we shall see how it feels. I can't stand not being able to run, but I know I need to just rest it. So if tomorrow goes good, I know I can get back to running, but if its sore, I will rest it some more and stick to swimming and cycling. 

I will update later on how everything goes.

Check your attitude at the Door and have some RESPECT !!!!

This is going to be a long post but it will accurately and descriptively tell my tale of what its like to race in a Ironman 70.3 race at Buffalo Springs Lake in Lubbock, Texas. Here are the results

As I rustled around in the sheets I peer over at the alarm clock. It read in bright red lights 6:13 am. It dawned on me then that hotel sheets at a Holiday Inn are not that nice, and it reminded me why I spent $80 dollars on my sheets I have at home. Anyways, it was Saturday morning and after falling asleep to a TBS movie at 9pm I arose quite early. After all I woke up at 4am on Friday morning. The room was still dark and cool so I decided to sleep some more. As the day moved forward I lay asleep and still in my hotel room. I ended up sleeping until 8:30 am. This was a nice change of pace for me a long nights sleep.

After I awoke, I headed to the EXPO one more time and ended up buying a crazy wild speedo, that I am planning on wearing in the upcoming DISCO Triathlon. Check out the link.



My first impressions of Lubbock reminded me a great deal of the city or lack there of that I once lived in called Lavonia. The city of Lubbock to me just seems like a place that many people never leave, and if they do leave they don't come back. I find it hard to understand why anyone would ever want to go to school there but they do. Some 30,000 people go to school there. If the information some co-workers provided me with is correct, Texas Tech, including graduate students has about 50,000 people. This accounts for nearly a 1/4 of the population in the city. Crazy huh?

So I headed to eat Brunch at an IHOP, not exactly the best dining, but you take what you get in Lubbock. There were numerous other Triathlete’s eating there as well. I sat alone and they seated another fellow triathlete next to me. We carried small talk about racing and the course in general. After this I packed up my car with my wetsuit, bike, and other supplies and set my compass for Ransom Canyon and Buffalo Springs Lake. See one may think that oh well your racing in Texas, it must be a flat and fast race. Oh the contrary, the race begins and ends in a canyon. To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect. All that I had seen was the elevation profile seen in my previous post.

Approaching the lake, the land was flat and barren. Much of the fields were plowed and desolate. Black and white images from an 8th grade history book suddenly came to life in vibrant colors. I thought of one thing the Dust Bowl of the Great Depression. It occurred to me that had all of the pictures I had previously seen that were tied in context to the subject of the dust bowl been in color, it would not have been so depressing. The color of the dirt is a bright and rich copper brown. It’s a bold color to say the least. Once past the gates of the park I scan the horizon and all I could see is a vast canyon off into the distance with a sliver of blue-green lake penetrating the middle depths. I snake my car around the perimeter of the canyon catching glimpses of the spring fed lake below, wondering when will I get to the bottom, how far do you have to go to get to the start. At that moment it felt like time stood still and I would never get to the transition area. Needless to say this would not be the last time I felt like this.

I finally arrived at the bottom and saw the transition area and beach. I parked my car and got out and got my wetsuit on and went for a practice swim. I swam about 7 or 8 minutes just to get a feel for what the temperature of the water was and if it’s really dirty or what, mainly so there are no surprises on race morning. The swim was relaxing and refreshing in the hot semi arid climate of Lubbock. As I made my way back to my car another person had just parked and was getting his bike ready for a ride. We began casual small talk about the water. Then as we both readied our bikes to ride he realized he left his helmet at the hotel. He was quite upset about this and was worried about being disqualified for riding without a helmet. Another and myself assured him this was only on race day that they would DQ for riding without a helmet.

This is also when I met Rich from Minnesota. He indicated as we mounted our bikes that he was going to ride the run course. This was precisely what I had intended to do. So we both set off for a casual easy ride to survey the run course that we both would eventually be taking on the next day. We set out and talked about various triathlon related things, bikes, training, swimming, etc. etc. As the time passed we completed our ride and Rich suggested we both drive the 56 mile bike route. I had considered this earlier in the day and wasn’t planning on doing it until his recommendation. See it was earlier in our short ride that learned that Rich had raced in some 12 Ironman distance races. He had been racing triathlons for some 20 years. I knew that Rich had a wealth of knowledge to share and if someone who has raced has much as him suggest to drive the bike course, I am going to listen. Not to mention I enjoyed the company. It can be weird going to races in different cities where you know no one, mostly boring until race morning. A friendly face is always welcome in my book.

So Rich parked his car outside the gates of the park. This was some 4 miles from the transition area. See the bike leg of this course goes like this: Hill, Flat, Hill, Flat, Flat, Flat, Flat, Hill, etc. etc. However those hills are challenging. We will get to that later. So we drove the course and parted ways. We agreed to meet a little before the pre-race meeting then go to grab some dinner later. It was at the pre-race meeting that we were treated to a traditional Indian song and dance ritual. I found this to be very interesting and have video taped a little bit of it an posted it for you to view on my blog site or embedded depending on the where you read this.

Indian Dance at the Pre Race Meeting


So Rich and I spent the next hour or two hanging out talking and eating dinner. We shared a bit about our backgrounds and families at home and so on. As it turns out we both like to eat pizza before a race. This was nice, because this has sort of become a ritual of mine before all my races and big training days. Before I knew it I was back at the hotel and climbing into bed.

Before I turned off all the lights I called to front desk to ask for a wake-up call. I requested a wake up call for 3:15 am. You might think this is early, but the race started at 6:40 am and it takes about 15 minutes to drive to the park plus time to eat breakfast, shower, and pack the car. The guy on the other end of the phone simply laughed and said "Wow your the second earliest wake up call." I asked what was the first and he indicated it was 3am.

Well as anticipated I woke up to phone ringing precisely at 3:15 am. I was thinking to myself the entire time that some of my friends were still probably awake at this time drinking or doing something crazy. I on the other hand was calm and excited to start my race. I showered and started my normal routine as always. I had my oatmeal, banana, Gatorade, water, and cliff bar for breakfast. Once I was done with that I was ready to pack my car.

Careful to not leave anything behind at the hotel I prepared everything that I would need for the race day on the extra bed I wasn’t using and laid it out very organized. I checked my list and crossed everything off. As I slowly packed my car with all of my race day essentials, I noticed in the distance lightening. I was worried of this and hoped that I would not cancel the race. I recently read of some others whose 70.3 race was cancelled due to lightening. I would have been furious just as they were if the race was cancelled. It was then that I reminded myself that I can’t control the weather and that I need not to worry of the weather but instead focus on what I can control, and that was mentally preparing for the upcoming race.

I arrived at the lake with plenty of time to spare. In fact I sat in my car for almost 30 minutes just sitting there listening to music and hoping for the rain to go away. I had a certain calm about my mind that morning. I don’t know if it was from confidence that I knew I could do the race but also uncertainty in the sense that I didn’t know how I would take on the hills before me. I guess you could say that I was confident but cautious. I knew that one way or another this race would be a challenge.

As the time passed I set up my transition area, covered my skin with sun screen, and pulled on the wetsuit. I made my way to the beach and hopped in the water, surprisingly the water was actually warmer than the air temperature. See it had rained the night before and the outside air temperature had cooled significantly. The water felt good, and warmed the body from the outside in. I swam a short distance to where to the starting line was and climbed back out of the water.

At this point an Indian prayer was chanted and the race was ready to begin. The race directors lined all of the triathlete’s up and readied them for the race to begin. I was set to go in the second wave of swimmers, so I was curious to see the pro’s then Age Groupers in front of me start. I was uncertain how the actual start of the race would be whether it was a mass running start or what. As it turns out it was a beach start and the water is so shallow that most of the Pros actually ran along the banks of the lake as long as they could for almost 30 or so yards then jumped in and began to swim. This was a little unorthodox but I figured what the hell when in Rome right?

So The gun went off and before I knew it I was in my rhythm running along a jagged rocky shore and then finally taking the plunge face first into the water to begin a 1.2 mile swim. I just started swimming like I do in the pool. Stroke after stroke, breath after breath, I found my groove quickly. I should have sighted a bit more right out of the gate but there were 2 buoys that were close together and I started swimming for the wrong one, and then quickly corrected my mistake. As with every triathlon I do looking back on it the swim always goes by in the blink of an eye. I finished my swim with a time of 30:19. This time puts me at a 1:34 per 100M pace. I am very pleased with this time. I was able to shave over 6 minutes off of my previous time of 36:45 in my last half Ironman.

On to the bike leg, the hills were tough. I knew what to expect, and got what I expected. There were numerous climbs as you can see from my previously posted elevation profile (see last post link). I took each hill one at a time, and just repeated the words I say to myself when ever I ride a hill, “JUST KEEP SPINNING” All that I try to concentrate on is keeping a high smooth cadence and minimizing all other energy expenditures, all the while getting my breath into a rhythm. This has never failed me before, and I don’t think it will anytime soon. My bike split ended up being 2:52:57. This averages out to a 19.4 mph for the entire 56 mile ride. I feel that this is a significant improvement over my last race because the last race had nearly ZERO elevation change and I finished with a 2:45:18. So while I went up by nearly 8 minutes I feel if right now I went back and did the same course from my last race I would easily better my time by almost 10 plus minutes. I look forward to doing this next year. What I wasn’t prepared for was how my body was going to react after riding all of those hills. I felt I had trained well and did plenty of Brick workouts, but I had never been able to ride hills then do a run.

On to the run, needless to say, my legs were toast. Right from the get go, I usually find a rhythm after about 2 miles and it just never clicked for me. I am ashamed to say I ran a 2:02:09 half marathon. This is the worst half marathon I have ever ran. I averaged 9:19 per mile. This was were I really lost the race in my opinion.

It’s always good to be humbled by a race, and this course truly did just that. I have a great deal of respect for the course hence the title of this posting. As it turns out I am not the only one who thinks this course is really challenging. A PRO athlete named Mirinda Carfrae mentioned in her wining acceptance speech how challenging she also thought the course was. Check out this link about Mirinda. http://www.slowtwitch.com/Interview/Get_to_know_Mirinda_Carfrae_208.html

To me hearing a PRO athlete say that about a course I just raced, really puts things into perspective. There are not many people who can relate to a PRO athlete the way an Age Grouper triathlete like myself can. That is what makes this sport beautiful. After the rest of awards were presented Rich, whom I previously mentioned hung out for a while talked about triathlons, and drank a few beers and listened to the live band they had for us. It was a nice way to end the day. The next morning we agreed to meet for breakfast. We met the next day for breakfast and went to IHOP. It was a great way to end the weekend. One of the many things I took away from this weekend is that this sport is not just about personal records and performances, but a lifestyle. Its about travel, and friends. Rich was a great person to meet, who helped to inspire me to become a better triathlete. I went to a city all alone didn't know anyone, but yet I walked away feeling accomplished and having got to meet someone who is very accomplished in this sport. Rich has been blessed with opportunity of completing I believe 12 Ironman races, including 8 at KONA !!! I think that is correct. If you reading this Rich feel free to correct me. Not to mention he is still faster than I am and quite a few years older than I am. I think its amazing what this sport will give back to you, when your willing to give up yourself to it. I have made friends, traveled new places, and experienced great things all through TRIATHLONS.

I also have some new goals for the time being, I really want to break 5 hours in my next Half Ironman Distance race. This way I can begin to get closer to being able to qualify for KONA or CLEARWATER. Baby steps though baby steps. Don't want to get ahead of myself seeing as I have yet to even race a full Ironman. The way I see it though is why not, as much ground that I have progressed in a year, anything is possible.

I see two things that I need to do in order to break 5 hours in the 70.3 race. These are ride about 100+ miles per week, with one long ride of 50 – 70 miles each week. Along with run about 25+ miles per week, with at least 3 miles being a brick workout and around a 10 mile LSD run (long slow distance). I will take this week off and start back with un-structured workouts and begin my formal training the following week. I will put my workout plan together with the goal of racing a sub 5 hour 70.3 in Austin. I know my swims will continue to improve and I can expect a few more minutes to be shaved off my total time along with my bike. I really just have to combine my running speed, that I know I have, and use it in the race. I will close with pictures from the race.











This is a picture of Rich and I on Monday Morning.



Crazy Hills in the Canyon

Lubbock Day 1

So I left Dallas this morning at 5:30am headed west for Lubbock, TX. For those of you who don't know where Lubbock, Texas is in relation to Dallas, its 350 miles North West of Dallas. I arrived in Lubbock around 11am. We have a jobsite here in lubbock and I planned on working from there till now. I met with project team and took them to lunch and reviewed my role on this job with the engineer and electrical subcontractor foreman. It was good and everything has been going well with regards to my role. This is a positive thing.

I am now checked into my hotel. What is really neat about this race is that it is in the middle of nowhere and everyone racing is not from here. So, the expo and a bunch of events are that are at the hotel that I am staying in. They are also giving all of the triathletes a discounted rate. And the icing on the cake is that they are allowing late checkout till 2pm on sunday and then till 6pm for only a half day rate. This is great and I will take advantage of this most likely so I can spend my monday vacation day in Dallas as opposed to on the road. There is also a free awards ceremony dinner on sunday night. I might stay and go to this so I can see some of the elite athletes who win these races get their awards. Should be pretty neat.

Right now I am feeling very confident about the race. I think much of this stems from the fact that I have completed a Half Ironman already. So I believe, if you've done it once you can do it again. The hills should prove really interesting on the bike. I am curious to see what they look like in person. Check out the elevation profile for the bike at this link Hills So the hills might be hard and may affect the bike or they may be easy. We shall see. 

Well I am just gonna take it easy for the rest of the evening

How to find what you love to do !

This is for anyone who has came home from work pissed off at their job, wishing they didn't have to go into work the next day, or wishing they were doing something else when they were at their job. Or numerous other reasons we all stress from our jobs.

The below article was taken from this website: http://briankim.net/blog/2006/07/how-to-find-what-you-love-to-do/ I posted this on my facebook account back in November of 2007. I remember that stumbled upon it on the internet from some website. I really found it amazing and a good test. I have yet to do the test myself, because I can already see where it's going to go and I am not ready for that yet. I am still too content with my job and life right now. I guess you could say that right now in my life I like what I do, but I don't love what I do. So when will the fact that I only like what I do and not love catch up with me? I don't know the answer to that question. Another question will be will it be easier on everyone around me to go and find what I love to do now or later? Who knows? So for all those people out there older, younger and my age, READ this article and do what it says and let me know how it turns out. I think the very fact that I wrote the above paragraph just less than a minute ago has now made me committed to doing this excerise as well. I also want to now do it because I am sharing with people in my life and many others.

So here goes it, its long but stick with it and really think about. 

This article was inspired by Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford University. In it, he says the advice we’ve all heard a thousand times:

“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” - Steve Jobs

Well then, the question naturally arises:

How do you find what you love to do? It’s such a big question.

What absolutely boils my blood is that we hear we should be doing what we love to do all the time, but there’s not any step by step advice out there on how to find what you love to do. The advice that is out there helps to a certain degree, but it’s just a bunch of pieces thrown together with no coherent logical structure or order.

A perfect example is this. In order to find your passion, we are told to ask ourselves: “What would you do if you had a million dollars (tax free)?”

The typical answer ensues: “Well gee, I would put it in an account that yields high interest and live off the interest each year. Then I would move to Hawaii, buy a house, sip margaritas all day, play video games, go to the beach, swim, travel around the world, taste all the cuisines, read the books, play the sports, and on and on and on.”

Does this really help? Not really. Sure, you figured out what your lazy butt likes to do, but it doesn’t really answer the question that’s hidden, which is “How do I make money doing what I love to do?

What’s the result? People working in jobs they hate, feeling trapped because they can’t quit as they rely on that sole source of income to finance a lifestyle tailored to escape their grim reality, drifting aimlessly in life, in short, leading lives of quiet desperation, as so eloquently put by Henry David Thoreau.

Why don’t they just quit their jobs and pursue what they love to do you ask?

Two Reasons.

Reason #1: They don’t know what they love to do.

Reason #2: Fear. They’ve got a lifestyle to uphold, bills to pay for, families to take care of, fear of no steady source of income, fear of what other people might think or say about them, etc. Fear.

Conquer indecision in Reason #1 and ACT, and you will most definitely conquer all fear in Reason #2.

The very fact that you are seeking to find what you love to do (by the very fact you came across this article and started reading it) is a BIG step believe it or not. Many people in their lifetime avoid or do not even seek to find the answer to that question. They hear the question in their head but have become extremely adept at silencing it.

It is extremely important to answer the question on how to find what you love to do.

You must decide what destination to steer your life in. Otherwise, you leave yourself wide open for others to direct your life, as well as at the mercy of the winds and storms of life. If you know where your destination is, the rest is easy.

You will find once you know what you want to do, all uncertainty and burden will be lifted off your shoulders and you will have clear vision as to what your journey is and that journey will truly be joyful.

By the time you finish reading this article, I sincerely hope you experience that.

What about how to make money doing what you love?

The question of how to monetize doing what you love is certainly a valid one. There are bills to pay, stomachs to feed, families to support, etc.

Don’t worry about that for now. That will be covered later in this article.

First things first, you’ve got to find what you love to do.

Why is it so hard to find what you love to do?

The answer is:

It’s not hard at all.

You read right.

It’s not hard at all.

Then why are so many people having difficulty finding what they love to do?

Because they’ve never truly asked themselves.

What amazes me is that there seems to be a stigma attached to spending time with oneself. You have to constantly be doing something, whether it’s going to the game, drinking beer with the buddies, going to that hot party or club downtown, etc. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with doing all that, but I suspect the vast majority of people who engage in this “I have to be doing something every minute because I can’t be by myself” mentality are just putting up a front to show people how satisfying and fulfilling their life is, when in reality, it’s just the opposite. The irony here is that spending time with oneself is EXACTLY what you should be doing to lead a satisfying and fulfilling life.

People think you have to travel around the world, experience new things, etc to find what you love to do. No. You just have to sit down and decide. The answer is already within you. You just have to dig it up and avoid procrastinating. Your brain has absorbed all sorts of information and experiences and it has the answer ready to be unraveled.

Just let it out.

Be honest. Have you actually sat down by yourself with no distractions, with your sole focus on asking yourself what you love to do without picking up your cell phone, surfing the net, watching TV, chatting on AIM, listening to your favorite song, playing solitaire or minesweeper, checking your email, returning a call, getting a drink of water, going to the bathroom, looking at the clock, reading a magazine article, I could go on and on but you get the point. I’m going to go out on a limb and say you haven’t for the sole purpose of you reading this article. Why is that?

Fear of what the answer will be if you ask yourself what you love to do.

The answer is: I don’t know.

But that is exactly why you MUST find out. You’re avoiding the question because you know the answer is you don’t know, but that’s ok. Admitting you don’t know is perfectly fine. There’s nothing wrong with it. You’re way ahead of a ton of other people who learn to quiet the voice within that asks the question of “What do I love to do?”

And let’s say you’re one of the few people who actually specifically know what they love to do. The next thought that pops in their head is “Oh, I can’t make any money off of that.” The seed that was planted never grew.

I hate vague answers. I want clear, logical, definitive answers to questions.

So let’s do this.

Step 1: You WILL find the answer. No doubt.

You will find the answer. You will find it. No doubt.

Approach the question with this mentality and you are sure to find it. How long will it take? It doesn’t matter. Bottom line, you will find the answer.

By doing this, you automatically instill an anti quitting mechanism within yourself, because you know you will find the answer. If you know what you want to do, then you will do it.

For example, if you know you want to arrive in New York, you’ll find ways to get there. You’ll hop a train, bus, or plane going to New York and will arrive in New York.

If you don’t have the cash, you’ll borrow it, or get a job and save up, or get a job as a flight attendant to get there for free. It doesn’t matter how long it will take or what you need to do because you know you’re going to New York.

All your actions onward from the decision that you want to arrive in New York will revolve around getting to New York.

Read that last sentence again.

All your actions onward from the decision that you want to arrive in New York will revolve around getting to New York.

Finding what you love to do = Deciding to arrive in New York.

Step 2: Make a list of your skills and interests in two columns and WRITE THEM DOWN (I’ll explain why you must write things down later):

I’ve taken the liberty of creating a document you can print so you can easily fill in the blanks. You can download it here. KEY is to WRITE THESE DOWN!! I cannot emphasize this enough. Don’t think you can do it all in your head. WRITE IT DOWN.

When I mean by skills is any skill. It could be an intangible skill. Empty your clip here, list EVERY skill you have. It could be programming, making web pages, talking, listening, persuading people, typing, flirting, analyzing, giving speeches, making things easy to understand, whistling, blowing bubbles with your spit, it could be anything. Don’t be bashful. List everything you perceive your skills to be.

On your other column, lists your interests and don’t be shy here as well. List EVERY interest you could possibly think of. Spiders, shoes, hair, makeup, basketball, tennis, thinking of ideas, babysitting, walking, hiking, fireworks, helping people, making fun of people, fishing, tai chi, karate, seashells, seaweed, can openers, anything goes. Yes, I did say can openers. Your interests can also include subjects you are knowledgeable about as well. Computers, economics, biology, baskebtall plays, football plays, magic tricks, etc.

To help you write down more interests, think of what you were interested in at your previous jobs and write them down. Also, think of what you were NOT interested in your previous jobs and write the exact opposite.

Asking yourself the following questions may shed light as to what skills and interests you possess.

If you went in a bookstore, which section do you naturally gravitate toward?

Ask friends for any skills and interests they see in you. You’ll be surprised at how much insight they have on you that you’ve never thought of before.

What do you spend most of your time doing? What do you look forward to doing?

Go back and think of your accomplishments as a child. What kind of skills and interests revolved around your accomplishments?

What did people praise you on doing?

What did your teachers or parents say you had a skill or knack of doing?

Why am I emphasizing skills and interests here?

Skills: Because you’ve got to leverage what you’re strong with. And don’t say you don’t have any. Everybody has skills. You’ve just never sat down and thought about it and wrote it down. By using your skills, you’ve got a head start, a catalyst.

Interests: Simply because you’ve got to love what you do. By including interests, you include another form of an anti quitting mechanism.

Focus on generating as many skills and interests you can possibly think of and WRITE IT DOWN!

You may find that your skills are gravitating toward one or two particular skills. The same may hold true for interests. Keep that in mind for step 3.

Step 3: Set aside some TRUE alone time with no distractions to focus and figure out what you love to do by asking yourself the right questions.

It amazes me how people set aside time for taxes, cooking, watching movies, reading, but when it comes to their own personal future, they NEVER set aside any time. How much MORE time should you set aside to figure out the path that will make you happy?

Ok, you’ve set some private alone time with no distractions; now what?

You must ask yourself an extremely clear question. Clarity is key here. The clearer the question, the easier the answer will be.

For example, if I ask you what 12 times 12 is, the answer comes easily, 144.

However, if I ask, what is some even two digit number times some other even two digit number? Guess how long it’ll take you to answer that question?

Clear questions lead to clear answers.

Another key thing is to WRITE it down. I know you’ve heard it a billion times and it’s so cliché but there’s a reason. Writing things down allows you to easily make connections you’ve never thought of before because you see it on paper. It also allows you to “free room” in your brain for other thoughts because they are put in another container so to speak.

If I ask you, what’s 257 times 852, try doing that in your head vs. writing it down. When you write it down, the answer comes out easier, not to mention more accurate.

If you haven’t already wrote down your skills and interests in the previous step, STOP and DO IT NOW. It won’t do you any good having them in your head.

So, let’s use your alone time to ask yourself a clear question in writing. What is the question you should ask yourself? Is it: “What do I love to do?”

That question is a bit broad, so let’s narrow it down a little. Try asking yourself:

What would I love to do on a daily basis utilizing both my skills and interests that will add significant value to people?

See the difference here? The more detailed and clearer the question, the easier it is to answer it. Why did I add the add value part? Because that will lead you to find a way to make money doing what you love.

By incorporating the question of how to add significant value by utilizing your skills, you automatically filter out all the “common answers” that people come up with when asked what they love to do. Common answers such as: “I love to watch TV.” Or “I love to play video games.” Answers such as that discourage people because they see no way of making money from it.

Adding to that, many people tend to make the mistake of focusing on how to make money. A lot of people fail to realize that money is just a byproduct of adding value in the form of a product or service to people.

When you know how you can add value to people, you’ll know how to get money.

Open up Word or get out a blank sheet of paper and write that question up at the top. Here it is again in case you don’t want to scroll up.

What would I love to do on a daily basis utilizing both my skills and interests that will add significant value to people?

The KEY is to WRITE YOUR ANSWERS DOWN!! I cannot emphasize this enough. Don’t think you can do it all in your head. WRITE IT DOWN.

Looking at the two column list you made in the previous step, start writing down a list of answers. Just write. It doesn’t have to be perfect and it doesn’t have to make sense because sooner or later, you will connect the dots. Here’s a story to illustrate what I’m talking about.

There was a story about a small town with a ski resort which attracted a lot of tourists, which in turn helped the town’s economy. However, when it snowed, the snowfall collected on the power cables, until the weight was enough to collapse the cables, resulting in several power outages. Slowly but surely, tourists stopped coming, so the town held a meeting to discuss how to solve the problem of having snow collect on the power cables. Solutions were tossed out for quite some time.

Then somebody shouted in a loud voice from the back of the room and said “Let’s hang pots of honey on the power cables to make the bears climb up. When the bears climb up and get the honey, their movement will shake the snow off the power cables.”

The audience laughed and somebody else deciding to play along said “How will we refill the pots of honey?” “We’ll use a helicopter”, another person said.

Then the answer dawned upon them. By having a helicopter fly by the power lines, the wind from the propellers would shake the snow off.

The main point here is that answers, no matter how ridiculous they may seem, should not be feared because more often than not, they lead to results. It’s all part of the process.

Even if an answer seems ludicrous, write it down. Write down all your answers. Do it until you have 20 answers and look them over. You will find that as you write down answers and look at them, it will in turn propel you to think of new creative answers that you would not have come up with before.

You will be amazed at all the things you wrote and the different solid creative ideas that come about.

Now the time comes for focus.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the sun and magnifying glass analogy pertaining to focus but I’m going to say it again. If you try to do a bunch of things at once, nothing will get done. If you wave a magnifying glass around on the hottest day, you won’t burn anything. You’ll dissipate all your energy among the trivial many.

By focusing and harnessing all your power, energy, time, focus, thinking, etc. on one goal, you will be amazed at how deep and quickly you can accomplish that. Just as you steady a magnifying glass on a single object, with the hot burning sun rays analogous to your desire, focus, power, energy, time, etc, you will make an impact.

The notion of focus is so important that I’m going to use another analogy. Imagine you’re a cheetah and you see two juicy gazelles grazing in the grass. Spending your time chasing both = no food = death. Hunt one down. It might take time to catch it and kill it, but when you do, you’ll be recharged. You will soon start collecting information on how the gazelles run, which direction they run, where they like to graze, etc, which will help you catch more gazelles in the future, thereby putting you in a favorable cycle. Case in point, focus on one.

So look over your list you just made and choose one idea that seems the most appealing to you. You may find you can combine a few ideas into one idea. Nevertheless, choose one idea that you will garner the greatest satisfaction not just for yourself, but to other people.

You might want to zero in on the ideas that combine your skills and interests that you’ve listed in the beginning. The reason being, psychologically speaking, you’ve probably listed your greatest skills and interests first and then as you started listing them downward, so did your degree of skill and interest. This might not be true. You might have 20 different but equal skills and interests, which if you do, I congratulate you. Just a tip I thought I would throw out.

How Will You Know You’ve Found What You Love To Do?

Does it make you feel good? If you feel it in your gut that you’ve hit the jackpot, you’re right.

If your friend were to bring up the idea you picked, would you be all over it talking about it?

You have to have no reservations about it. If you feel the slightest doubt that it’s not your passion, then it’s not. You must hunger to overcome any obstacles to pursue your passion.

Update (03/15/2007): A reader just posted this comment way below (#87) and I wanted to include what she had to say in the article so you don’t miss it. I think it ties in very well here and is also well written. Thank you Bronwyn for sharing your story with us and adding such great advice to the article.

“So when you look over your goals, and one seems right, but you’re still finding excuses to not do what you have to do, that’s not it. It might be a close relative, but it’s not the one. Keep looking and you’ll find the goal that makes you counter every objection with a solution, the one where you’d happily pay whatever it takes, cash and years on the barrelhead right now. The path that makes you quiver with eagerness like a hunting dog on the point, the one over there you’ve been ignoring because you’ll have to learn a difficult new skill like drawing, or face big mistakes and big fears, and you didn’t believe you could do those things? That’s the one. Admit how much you really want to go down it, tell yourself you really can do it, and then your passion will take over and you will not let anything keep you from it. “

Once you have that, your search is over.

That, right there is what you love to do.

As for how to make money off of it, you might have already found ways when you wrote down your answers. If you still want to find more ways to make money doing what you love, just follow the same steps.

Step 1: Know you will find the answer.

Step 2: Write a clear question, write down the answers, and you will be amazed at the many ways you can make money from it.

I’ll leave the money making question up to you, but it shouldn’t be hard to do.

Now that you know what you love to do and how to make money from it, you must ACT.

That’s a whole other story. Most people get to this stage but don’t act and it doesn’t make any difference in their lives.