Monday, November 9, 2009

To get where you are

Consider how very far you’ve come. Think of all the value you’ve created and all the progress you’ve made.

Through the minutes and the hours, with all the days, months and years, there is so much you’ve already done. There can be no doubt that you’ve made it this far.

Now, you have the opportunity to keep going. Now, you can build upon the positive momentum that you’ve worked so hard to establish.

You are well experienced at getting things done. Imagine what you can now do with that valuable experience.

Though the challenges may be great, you’ve proved that you have the strength and ability to move successfully through them all. And as you have already experienced, there are great rewards on the other side of those challenges.

You’ve done much to get where you are. Now those same skills of achievement will take you wherever you wish to go.

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Saturday, November 7, 2009 

Empowering focus 

From the same exact situation, two different people can achieve two remarkably different results. Why is that? 

Because the results you achieve are not determined by the situation itself. 

The results you achieve are determined by what you choose to focus on. 

If you focus on all the things that could go wrong, your mind will find a way to make those things really happen. 

But that's not what you want, is it? Instead, give yourself an empowering focus. 

Lock your focus solidly on the positive possibilities. 

Think in great detail about the good and valuable and desirable outcomes. Without question or hesitation, your mind will begin finding realistic, workable ways to make those good things happen. 

Carefully and intentionally guide your focus to the best place you can imagine. Then your focus will, in turn, take you there.

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Friday, November 6, 2009

Skip the need

Whatever you need, you do not have. Take your focus off needing, and start doing, start creating, start being what you seek.

Don’t waste your time and energy languishing in a state of need. The moment you have the thought to add something to your life or your world, get busy making it happen.

Skip the need and go straight to the achievement. Dive into the effort, and keep making the effort until your objective is reached.

Instead of constantly thinking that you need something, experience yourself achieving it. Instead of dwelling in excuses and lamentations, celebrate positive and valuable results.

There is nothing that you need to need. That’s because you are fully capable of setting goals and of finding effective ways to reach them.

So get busy, get going and express life’s grand abundance in your own very special way.

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Thursday, November 5, 2009

Committed to make it work

Do you hesitate to take action because you’re not sure if you’ll be effective? Remember that achievement is built on efforts that work as well as efforts that don’t work.

Some of your individual efforts may not bring the desired results. Yet when you are committed to keep doing whatever is necessary, you are sure to find a way.

The important thing is to focus on the goal, and put your energy into doing your best to reach that goal. Accept that you may not get the result you desire, then step forward anyway, and do everything within your power to achieve that result.

At the very least, you’ll gain valuable experience. And with enough experience, you’ll eventually be able to get it right.

It’s true that there are no guarantees. After all, if it were a sure thing, someone else, far less capable than you, would have already claimed the prize.

Go ahead and make the effort. It will work when you’re committed to make it work.

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We have added this Daily Motivator to this website for many reasons. First of all the tens of thousands great golfers and hundreds of champions I have been blessed to be associated and to be a mentor along the way, are not as successful as they are just because I taught them how to hit a golf ball.

We all need to have a wide variety of skills to play the game. Their skills need to encompass more than just hitting a golf ball in Championships, the meeting of individual goals and high levels of success and achievement are going to be possible.

My students have played and won every type of Major Championship that has been held in Iowa on the Men’s, Women’s and Youth Tours. These students have succeeded beyond the borders of the State of Iowa as well.

My younger sister Beth is a former professional golfer who played college golf and played in a US Open at Colonial in Forth Worth in her professional career. Beth started sending these motivators my way almost everyday and they have been a major source of inspiration, which made it so I never allowed myself to have the feeling of self pity or doubt. That I could succeed in the direst of situations!

My world was turned apart the last few years with a few natural disasters and a few of life’s unexpected twists. My daily motivators go far beyond Beth’s daily notes. I have a great family and each member has been there supporting my life.

When things were tough, I didn’t have a loving supporting spouse, but instead I had my family and great friends like, Dr Tom Davis, PGA professional Sean McCarty, Greg Mason and other golf pros calling or stopping by to see me almost daily and to lend a helping hand and give support.

After reading these daily motivators, I hope each of you reaches out. Reaching out for help if you need it or by seeing someone you know who may need yours and others support then extending a helping hand to them!

If you don’t play golf, start playing! Why? You’ll meet a great PGA Professional who will most likely become a friend and introduce you to a number of great people who will become friends which will lead you to meeting a large number of great people in a great environment for the rest of your life!

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NUTRITION FOR ALL – NOT JUST GOLFERS AND ATHLETES

TOPIC 2 – Obesity – 11/4/2009 by; Bill Roach

A new study published in the journal Health Affairs has some important news about obesity in America.

*    America’s obesity rate rose 37 percent between 1998 and 2006.

*    The cost of obesity averages $1,400 more a year for an obese person than someone who’s normal weight.

*    Overall obesity-related health spending in the U.S. is $147 billion, double what it was about a decade ago.

*    Obesity-related conditions now account for 9 percent of all medical spending, up from 6.5 percent in 1998.

This research has been reported as big news for the health care system, but in my opinion, it is also one more wake up call for us to honor the needs of our primitive bodies.   I will explain.

In America, about a third of us are obese, and another third are overweight. The word “epidemic” is overused but it does seem to describe the situation where there has been a twofold increase in the cases of obesity in the United States in just over the past two decades.

My take is that, in evolutionary terms, our bodies aren’t built for the sedentary lives they live today. It has only been in the last hundred years or so that large numbers of us have been able to lead lives of physical inactivity. Our still-primitive bodies have not had time to catch up.  Our physical-selves have not had time to evolve to survive this inactivity.  Instead, our bodies crave action – demand it, in fact.  And our modern society works to defeat that at every turn.

Every day I go to work I note the apparently healthy people who park close to the door, use the handicapped button instead of their arms to open the door, and take the elevator to their offices. These are all choices we make, but those choices are killing us.  In evolutionary terms, our bodies still want to be chasing an antelope across the savannah but instead they are reduced to pushing buttons on a computer – or opening doors electronically.  We are killing ourselves with our conveniences.  In parallel fashion, we are also killing ourselves with bad food choices.

Obesity is one of the leading health problems in America and what’s so especially troublesome about obesity is it closely related to almost thirty medical conditions including heart attack, hypertension, glaucoma, various cancers, sleep apnea, respiratory problems, depression, type 2 diabetes, gallbladder disease, stroke, osteoarthritis, and more.

What to do? It’s really not so hard.  My advice:

1) Do something physically hard nearly every day of your life.

2) Make every bite you put in your mouth, an informed and conscious decision.

Other than not smoking, I can’t think of simpler or more important health advice.

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Improve the quality of your training by using imagery techniques from Sports Psychology.  Imagery works best as a way of practicing and improving known skills, with known feelings and body positions.  By vividly imagining a sequence of movements, you activate the same series of neural pathways that would be activated if you actually executed the movements, thereby strengthening these associations.    

By performing your swing in your mind before you execute it, you can focus on all the important parts of your technique.  If a golfer imagines a perfect golf swing before he actually carries one out, he is more likely to remember all the points that go into making a good swing, and maintain focus throughout it.

Here’s why it works:

• It forces focus and concentration on all the aspects of your swing when you might otherwise be distracted by daily stressors or something in the environment.
• It reinforces the neural pathways the impulse travels during perfect execution of your technique, making this sequence more likely to fire without resistance or interference in the future.  

Here’s How to Do It:

• Make your image vivid.  Use ALL your senses in creating your image. Touch, sound, smell, taste and body position should all be be brought to mind.
• Imagine the feeling of the grip, the texture, the smell of sweat, the feeling of solidly connecting with the ball, the sound of contact. 
• Visualize yourself within your body executing your swing, feeling and sensing all going on around you rather than looking on at yourself from outside.
• Bring your complete image to mind, every time, before stepping up to the tee.

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NUTRITION FOR ALL – NOT JUST GOLFERS AND ATHLETES
TOPIC 1 – BROCCOLI – 11/3/2009 by; Mark Egly
This is my first entry in my health and fitness section on my golf website. I’m picking a vegetable to discuss today because of it’s relevance in so many areas of good health. If were going to discuss a vegetable, we might as well discuss the one that is considered the miracle of all vegetables, broccoli! Health organizations have singled out cruciferous vegetables as must-have foods; broccoli is the leader of all cruciferous vegetables.
In the 1980’s and 90’s when I was fortunate enough to play in a few PGA Tour events, the locker room was always filled with every type of candy, chip, cracker and snack you could imagine. In the 90’s I noticed some of those snacks were still in the locker room and the appearance of apples, bananas and other fruits along with bottled water and sport drinks showed up regularly in the locker room and on a many of the tees.

Bananas have always been known for their potassium value in the diet and could be found in many tour players’ bags along with apples and granola bars. Potassium is found in broccoli also and aids those battling high blood pressure, while containing a large amount of calcium that helps combat osteoporosis, but not a likely item to be found in a players bag any time in the near future.

Health Benefits of Broccoli

Broccoli’s noteworthy nutrients include vitamin C, vitamin A (mostly as beta-carotene), folic acid, calcium, and fiber. Calcium does more than build strong bones. Research shows that this mineral may play a role in the control of high blood pressure, and it may work to prevent colon cancer. The calcium content of one serving doesn’t equal that of a glass of milk, but broccoli is an important calcium source for those who don’t consume dairy products and for those who have milk allergies

Beta-carotene and vitamin C are important antioxidants that have been linked to a reduced risk of numerous conditions,

Broccoli provides a high amount of vitamin C, which aids iron absorption in the body, prevents the development of cataracts, and also eases the symptoms of the common cold.

Broccoli is also fiber-rich, which enhances the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, as well as assisting the body in reducing blood cholesterol levels.

Additionally, the health benefits of broccoli have been linked to preventing and controlling other medical concerns like Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, calcium deficiencies, stomach and colon cancer, malignant tumors, lung cancer, heart disease, arthritis, and even the aging process. The vitamin C and beta-carotene (Vitamin A) in broccoli are important antioxidants that help support a healthy immune system and are also linked to reducing cataracts, heart disease and even some other types of cancers. Broccoli is rich in isothiocyanates which stimulate the body to produce its own cancer-fighting substances called “phase two enzymes.”
In recent years, broccoli has made the headlines regarding three components found in the vegetable. For instance, indole-3-carbinol has captured the attention of those looking to prevent hormone-related cancers, such as breast- and prostate cancer. A study published in the journal of the American Cancer Society looked at the benefits of indole-3-carbinol (I3C) which has potential in the blocking and reproduction of tumor cells. I3C promotes “good” hormones, while working against destructive ones. The sulforaphane in broccoli also helps to increase the level of enzymes that block cancer, while the beta-carotene in broccoli transforms into vitamin A within the body, providing an effective antioxidant that destroys free radicals (responsible for weakening the defense of cells).

Ways to serve/eat Broccoli

My children eat broccoli raw with ranch dressing, you can eat broccoli plain or with your favorite dip. You can shred up the stems and prepare like cole slaw without cabbage.

The stems of broccoli taste better raw when the stems are peeled away, simply slicing then into small pieces, or cooking them whole works. Broccoli tastes great as well with different sauces, like teriyaki and soy sauces (just watch the salt content of your sauces). Overall, to get the health benefits of broccoli avoid over cooking and cooking out many of the vital nutrients (especially when boiling in water). Including broccoli in different soups is always an option, as is stir frying for Chinese and other similar type dishes. Steaming and microwaving are easy options as well

Broccoli with tops that are purple in color possess a higher level of carotenoids and are a great plus for your health, so don’t shy away from because of the unique color.

Summary
No other vegetable I have ever read about or researched has so many possible benefits and so many functions that can be linked to having it added as a regular component of a diet. As we grow older and concerns of aging start entering our minds, this “not so favorite” vegetable of mine is one worth looking into whether you’re a man or a woman, young or old. The benefits are there for most all of us and worth doing a little research on to see if it has a place in your diet. With fears of H1N1 virus so prevalent in the thoughts of everyone these days, take a look and do a little research on broccoli and see if it’s worthy of making your dinner or snack table these days and a food that may improve your health.

Next up will be healthier drinks and my feelings against high fructose corn syrup

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test post for Mark

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Welcome to our blog. Feel free to look around.

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