Got Time For One More Leadership Example From jeff noel?

So in 1999, the Doc says, “With your Family  history of heart disease, you need to exercise and diet to lower your cholesterol out of the danger zone, okay? You don’t want to die of a heart attack like your grandfather or have debilitating strokes like your grandmother.”

Next day I ran to our neighbor’s mailbox. Did that each day for a week. Then 2 mailboxes a day for a week, then 3… Ten years later.

Here’s jeff noel in Lahti, Finland – 5,300 Masters athletes representing 80 countries at the 2009 Masters Track & Field World Championships.

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jungle jeff – The Wellness Fanatic?

Masters World Championships, Finland
Masters World Championships, Finland

jungle jeff is absolutely a wellness fanatic.  Most don’t realize this.  Why would they realize it?  Why should they?

I started with one push-up per day for a week and then each new week, add one more push-up per day.  After six weeks, that’s six push-ups per day.

Also started running one mailbox per day for a week and then each new week added another mailbox.  After six weeks, I was running past six mailboxes.  Then walked back.

Through continuous improvement techniques learned at work (fortune 100 company), managed my boredom, injuries, motivation and goals – and after a decade, guess what happened this past Summer?

From one push-up per day ten years ago, to representing the USA at the WMA Master’s Track & Field World Championships in Lahti, Finland.  Men’s 400 meters, 50 – 54 age group.

So, excellence can be attained in virtually anything, but you have to be willing to set an impossible goal, work incredibly hard and never give up.  Ya with me?

St Thomas Aquinas Said….

St Thomas Aquinas said….:

“We must love them both – those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject.  For both have labored in search for truth, and both have helped us in the finding of it”.

Great quote. Great thought.  Great perspective.

To a point, then I must agree to disagree.

Following the status quo, or “That’s the way we’ve always done it”, doesn’t seem to require as much laboring as does challenging the status quo.

Challenging the status quo is a lonely place.  A very lonely place.

Take exercise.  And to my dismay, we don’t see pictures of or hear stories of Walt Disney making exercise a priority. Sure, he played polo as far as we know.

However, Disney has taught me to eat, drink, sleep and breath excellence. Take Alfred Prokschin.  At age 100, he won a Gold medal two weeks ago at the WMA Masters Tarck & Field World Championships in Lahti, Finland:

If not you, who? If not today, when?  Carpe diem, jungle jeff 🙂

Excellence Is Not A Risk Free Journey

Excellence is not a risk free journey.  Nor is excellence guaranteed, even if you work desperately hard.

I know first hand.

And what I have learned, and in many cases, relearned, is that the road to excellence has no finish line.

We are never at a place where we are finished.

These are lessons Walt Disney learned and worked to his advantage.

Now, I’m teaching our son the key insights of a brilliant man – Walt Disney.

Walt Disney’s ideology taught me how to go from one push up a day ten years ago to the 2009 WMA Masters Track and Field World Championships last week.

My son has seen me apply so many Disney strategies to getting and staying healthy, that he is also inspired to be excellent.

Who wouldn’t want that for a child?

Carpe diem, jungle jeff 🙂

PS.  Tomorrow, an insight on the recent change in direction here at jungle jeff.  Some of you have commented and I’ll share a sneak peek tomorrow.

It’s What You Learn After You Think You…

“It’s what you learn after you think you know it all that counts”.

That quote belongs to John Wooden, former UCLA Men’s Basketball Coach, and ESPN’s recipient of “Coach of the Century”.

Not the basketball coach of the century.  THE Coach of the century, any sport.

Our son is pretty certain I know just about everything.  Maybe that will last another year or two.  Maybe not.

I can’t wait to tell him stories and show him pictures and videos of all that is the same and all that is different here in Lahti, Finland.

In fact, it seems everything is the same here.  And still, everything is different.

Everything Disney does is the same as every other company.  And yet, everything Disney does is different.

If there are young children in your life, and this doesn’t mean only parents, have you ever stopped to contemplate your role in their learning about similarities and differences?

Or are you like me – tempted to think I know it all?

Carpe diem, jungle jeff 🙂