by Dan | Nov 13, 2016 | Exercise, Goals, Motivation, Wellness/Health
The ancient greeks defined happiness as: “Happiness is the joy that you feel when we’re striving after our potential”. In regards to happiness, Eleanor Roosevelt stated: “Someone once asked me what I regarded as the three most important requirements for happiness. My answer was: A feeling that you have been honest with yourself and those around you; a feeling that you have done the best you could do both in your personal life and in your work; and the ability to love others.” Good words to go by! Being active is crucial in staying happy. If you are happy you don’t sit at home and do nothing. Happy people are out doing things they are passionate about, and doing things that are meaningful to them. Their activity is empowered by purpose. Success is happiness, and as I stated on the previous post, the message on the back on my shirt I wear in the marathons states: Success: A journey, not a destination. The journey is life…life with all it ups and downs, good times and bad times…but it is your journey. Your journey to make without having to have someone else’s approval.
Success is happiness!
Happy people also have their times when they feel sad, or upset, or their dreams don’t always comes true. It is what they do under those circumstances that define who they are, and what they are made of. They are working continuously on how to become better…not better than somebody else, but better than they were previously. Happiness also means having fun. We need to do things that make us happy. This could be something different for all of you. When we exercise, and watch what we eat, we overall physically feel better, and everything that comes each day, both good and bad, we are able to handle better. Don’t be afraid to express your happiness. If might just rub off on somebody else, and actually make them smile, or even perhaps…make their day! Our run group is a great example of showing happiness. We all love to run. When we can’t run, things in life do go as smooth. We are crabby, more easily frustrated, quicker to anger…we are not happy! So when we can run, we are eager to show this off as well.
Some day we may physically not be able to run…today is not that day. We will come up with something else, I am sure, to replace this. Some other type of activity/exercise. Sitting around is not all it is cracked up to be. Life is much more fun and adventurous when you are on the move! The times we spend after a run are also very good. There are a time to relax, and enjoy life…enjoy and celebrate our ability to run!
Life is about choices…having choices, and making choices. You can choose happiness, or not. The decision is up to you. But, choosing happiness will definitely make you better. It will make you a better you!
For me, staying active, and especially running, is my passion. I feel better! I function better! I do better! It is helping me to become a better version of me! It is a runderful life!
Choose wisely! Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 3334
by Dan | Nov 6, 2016 | Exercise, Family, Goals, Motivation, Wellness/Health
We all have goals or ideas in our minds that attempt to make us feel like we are a success. But what really does it mean to have success? Is it achievement of a goal? Money? Our health? What? Success if defined as the achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted. That could mean something different for all of us. But deep down, what is success to you? For me, I would feel like a success if I were a good Dad/Husband. I am always trying to be successful with my health, and staying active. I am always trying to be a better doctor. But deep down, I would feel like a failure if I would not be considered a good Dad/Husband. We all get busy. We all feel like we get pulled in multiple directions. This is where you have to start making a plan, and figuring out the direction you are taking.
This is where it is important to sit down and think, and come up with a plan. Organize it. Write it down…it will be more concrete for you. Keep looking back at your plan, and it is OK to make modifications, just don’t veer way off of your original plan. Somewhere in that plan will be the reason you want to be successful. Somewhere in there is how you will become a better you. That deep down desire! Never lose site of that.
How much more true could this be? Focus all your power on your burning desire of what you want to accomplish…what it will take for you to be a success…a better you!
For me it will always focus back to my family. My kids are all off to college, so now it is just Sarah and I…and of course Zeus. Zeus is like having another kid at home! But for all of us, over time we keep evolving, growing, maturing…changing! True success will be discovering who you really are!
Family will always be a focal point. It you don’t have a true focal point, you will find yourself struggling, floundering, and not really feeling like you have a purpose. Exercise helps me stay focused on this aspect of it. Now when we all get together, it really is something special. I see this only growing stronger as time goes on. That same evolving, maturing, growing process for the kids as well.
I would like to think that that focal point for my family is with Sarah and I…that we are the rock…the stabilizing forces for this family. Exercising together keeps us healthier, and also allows both of us to lead by example, for not only our patients, but our kids! Now that is true success!
Believe what you are doing will make a difference, not only for you, but for others. That is being a success…becoming a better version of you, which will help others become a better version of themselves. Enjoy life to its fullest while we are here. We are not guaranteed tomorrow. Don’t waste what time you do have. Stay healthy, keep moving, and enjoy life, with all of its ups and down. Enjoy the ride of this roller coaster life. You will learn from it, and become better for it…you will be successful! Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 3327
by Dan | Oct 30, 2016 | Exercise, Family, Motivation, Wellness/Health
We all have challenges that come up during our days, during our lives. We all need that extra support from family and/or friends. Your spouse can be your best advocate, cheerleader, support system, crying shoulder…all around everything. Utilize this source if available to you. If not, then other family members, or friends. People who you can count on for support for you. Just remember it goes both ways!
These are all people who can help provide advice, tips, give support, help, offer assistance, and give guidance. These are all things that you can also provide to someone else…a way that will complete the circle of helping you become a better you.
One of the greatest things I’ve learned from running is the importance of having amazing friends…and spouse! It is no different for anybody. There are times when you need to be “picked up” in regards to your mood/attitude, and times when those people around also need the same thing.
Here is just a sampling of some of the people involved in the Watertown Run Club. Many of these same people were the ones I was training with for the Twin Cities Marathon that was on Sunday Oct. 9. The motto of the run club is “we leave no one behind!” It was a great source of support for each of us. I found myself enjoying the Sunday runs more than any other run. We all had the same goal of completing and competing in the marathon, but the training runs were a time for all of us to discover who we are, and who the people we were running with were. My shirt on the back of the marathon shirt has the quotation: Success…A Journey, not a Destination! One of the things that I discovered is that we may have started out as a group of people who got together because we all like to run, but something more was developing…
…we were going to finish our training as a group of friends! Friends who developed out of running! There were struggles each of us had during those 4+ months of training for the marathon. We all had times when we needed help. A quote by past president Ronald Reagan sums is up well: “We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone!” Direct hit! This applies to us…this applies to all of us!
We all need support at times, but to me, nothing is more rewarding, more amazing, than to be able to support someone else when they need it. When you do this, it comes back to you as rewards that you were not really expecting. A feeling that goes to the core of who you are, and who you want to be…to become a better you!
Sarah has been my biggest support person. I can’t tell you how good it made me feel when she was waiting at the finish line for me! (and cheering me on when I saw her at mile 17!) Because of Sarah, because of her support, assistance, guidance, advice, help, tips…love…I become better. All of us can become better, but it will take work. Work just like we have to do when we are watching our diet, trying to do more exercise, trying to take care of ourselves. Never turn your back on those people important to you. You become better, and they in turn, also become better. Amazing how this works out! Try it! Continue to work at becoming a better you! Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 3320
by Dan | Oct 23, 2016 | Exercise, Goals, Motivation, Wellness/Health
What do we want to “finish” in our lives? What is it we want to accomplish? We all have our bucket list ideas, those things we would really like to do, or go see, or accomplish. But what are we doing as individuals to help that process? Are we working at it diligently, or are we waiting for it to fall into our laps? What risks are we willing to take? Clearly, something has to happen.
When you begin, you start. Just like entering a race, or walk, the first thing you have to do is get to the starting line. Once you get there, then how you continue defines your goal. Are you going to give up before you finish? Are there going to be obstacles along the way? Sure there are! When it is something you truly want, you have to work for it. But you also have to keep focused, and to remember one major principle…
Our minds are our own worst enemy. If we can get past our negative thoughts, and doubts, we can accomplish anything we want to!
You will have to push yourself…persist until success happens! Keep repeating this to yourself. How else are you going to become a better you if you don’t believe success will happen. But you have to work for it. Nothing worth having just happens. That is what makes your accomplishments that much more rewarding too…you earned it! You pushed yourself into that success. You kept your focus on your dreams and visions, and you never let them out of your sight!
You give it all you got to accomplish those goals, all of which help to make you become a better you. When you believe in yourself, amazing things happen!
Bottom line, you become unstoppable. You become a better version of you! What more could you ask for. Before too long, you will start finishing things you never thought you could, or even more, you start finishing things that previously you would have never thought you would have even started!
If you try, you are a winner! When you finish what you set out to do, you become better…not better than anybody else, that is not the goal. You become a better you, which is, after all, what you are trying to do. Keep working on you…there is no better investment. There is no better return on your investment! Believe in you! Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 3313
by Dan | Oct 10, 2016 | Exercise, Goals, Motivation, Wellness/Health
It was a busy, but fun weekend. 18 weeks of training together over the Summer to get ready for this marathon culminated in one day. One day of fun, work…heartbreak! We all had a goal we wanted to accomplish…first, we all finished. Many did not get the time we were shooting for. But, it is disappointment for a short time. Until you are in the marathon, you have no idea what it takes to finish, much less achieve a time you had in mind. We already achieved more than everybody who did not run the marathon. Here is the reward for finishing…waiting for us at the finish line!
Nothing makes you more proud than to have this hanging across your chest! The people along the way were incredible for cheering you on, and helping you to get to the finish line. I had this printed on the front of my shirt, and had people calling out my name from start to finish.
This came into even more help when I began struggling at mile 24. My legs were doing ok, but my stomach was not. I started cramping, and then starting throwing up! 4 times from mile 24 1/2 to 25 1/2. I would keep walking, but as soon as I started running, I would get sick again. I did not know how I was going to get in. Jen and I were running together until mile 19, and then when I looked to my side, then behind, I could not see her. What happened? She was just beside me. I put my head down and tried to keep going. When I was really struggling at this point, the people were literally screaming at me to keep going…”You can do this”; “You are tougher than this race”; somebody waved a sign at me that said: “If this were easy, I would be doing it. You are almost there! Don’t quit now”. I tried to keep going, and then I heard a familiar voice behind me. It was Jen, and she was screaming out “don’t you walk now, we are almost there!” I told her I could not stop throwing up, and she told me she could not feel her legs anymore. Go! I started running again, and then felt a surge because I saw a flag hanging down, and looked back at her and said “there is the finish…let’s go!” Only to find out the finish line was still 0.2 miles from there! But now people were jammed packed on both sides…there was no place to go off and try to hide if I had to throw up, so I told myself “just get across”! And then it was there! We had finished, and Jen was just behind me. We endured. We made it. We dug down deep, just like everybody in that race did yesterday!
I also kept thinking of one of my patients throughout this whole run, and a good friend of mine…Don Hauck. He was suffering from pulmonary fibrosis, and had been put on hospice last week. His son Steve was one of my training partners. I kept thinking of him, and when I was getting short of breath, I thought of him. I was choosing to be short of breath then, he had no choice. It helped give me some motivation to keep going. Things had gotten worse over the weekend, and I am glad I did not know it. I received a text message at 5:45 Sunday afternoon from Steve telling me his Dad had just passed away! The marathon no longer had any meaning for me at that moment…I had run with Don on my mind the whole race. You will be missed Don.
Jen received a bracelet from one of the spectators during the time she was struggling…I think it now has more meaning to her than anything of this race!
“You got this”…and it kept her going!
The marathon will always remain a mystery to me. This was now number 13 for me, and I learn something different every time…not just on how to do this race, but about myself. You put yourself through a lot during the training time, and then the actual race. You figure out how to become a better you! You find out what you are made of, and what you can accomplish. You become unstoppable!
You also begin to realize that anything you do in life becomes possible!
And after all is said and done, you realize that is was all worth while…even if we fall a little short of our specific time goal. Jen and I were trying to break 4 hours…I came across in 4:02:24, and she was just over 4:03. Owen came across in 3:10,and needed a 3:05 to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Jill cut 35 minutes off of her personal best, and Paula finished here first Marathon ever! And Jim signed up Monday last week to run the marathon with Paula! I have to say, it was still quite an accomplishment for the Watertown Area Run Club! The back of my shirt I ran in sums it up…
It was a successful training time, and a successful marathon day. This marathon will teach us a lot about ourselves going forward, and again, what we are made of. Don’t ever lose sight of what you can achieve. Never lose sight of your dreams and visions. Ever! Work at becoming a better you!
Keep moving everybody!
Dr. Dan
Consecutive Exercise Day #: 3300
