Lindsey Vonn – Olympic example

February 17, 2010

Of the many champions at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver Canada, the story of Minnesota’s 26 year old Lindsey Vonn is one that inspires me.
Today Lindsey Vonn won the downhill gold on the 2,939-meter course at Whistler Creekside with a time of only 1:44.19, beating teammate Julia Mancuso by over half a second.
She did [...]

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There is beauty all around

February 17, 2010

Early this morning I was on the way to the gym, when I was suddenly turned the corner and stopped dead in my tracks.
There had been a light fog, and the sun had just broken through, casting beams of light that streamed down onto the neighborhood.
I quickly pulled over to enjoy the moment, and snapped [...]

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Seth Wescott – gold medalist, honorary life-engineer

February 16, 2010

Yesterday was an amazing day watching 33 year old Seth Wescott win the gold medal in the snowboardcross event at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
He’s a true example of life-engineering, for while he was the defending gold medalist, having won gold medal in the event in the last olympics (the first olympics to hold the [...]

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Sea shells and opportunities

February 15, 2010

Last week I was in Los Angeles California. My kids had made me promise to bring home some seashells, so at the end of the week I made it to the beach and began my search.
I was soon dissatisfied with the meager offering of common, broken, picked-over shells available on the mostly-deserted shoreline though. [...]

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The Pareto Principle

February 9, 2010

The Pareto Principle is also known as the 80/20 rule, which states generally that in most events, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.
The principle was named after the Italian Economist Vilfredo Pareto. In 1906 he found that 80% of the land was held by 20% of the population, and that [...]

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The principle of scarcity

February 8, 2010

The principle of scarcity is simple.  We tend to only value things that are rare.  Gold, diamonds, vacations, winning the lottery, you get the idea.
We tend to see far less value in things that are more common, or are readily available, but that may actually be substantially more valuable, especially in accumulation.
Perhaps not when held [...]

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What dealerships know about motivation

February 4, 2010
Car dealerships have perfected the art of motivation

A lot.
Car dealerships are experts in the art of motivation.  It’s an exact science for them.  They’ve invested tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars in perfecting the practice.  The whole experience from the moment you walk into the dealership door is architected to instill in you the maximum motivation to sign that paper [...]

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A Journey to the Center of the Earth

February 4, 2010

My oldest son loved the movie “Journey to the Center of the Earth”.  We watched that show many times with him.  This movie invoked a lot of questions from him as well.  We even experimented, to his satisfaction, by escaping to my father-in-law’s back yard to see if we could reach the center.  With shovel [...]

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The art of barrier-busting

February 3, 2010

Late last night I was at the gym working on my shoulders, and pondering an interesting aspect of weight lifting.
In weight lifting, you work and work to overcome a plateau, a particular weight barrier, only to be immediately confronted with another one.  And no sooner have you overcome that, when you hit yet another.
In fact, [...]

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The Z Back Trail & Our Personal Summit

February 3, 2010

I have found that some of the most rewarding things in life appear the most absurd at first glance.  While there are many examples in my life to explain this statement, I wish to share the following.

I have always tried to be a runner and enjoy it.  I have always thought that my body build [...]

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