“The only disability in life is a bad attitude.” ~ Blake Leeper, Gold Medalist 400m Relay, 2012 Paralympian, soon-to-be first double-amputee American Olympian, and yogi. He amazes, inspires, and motivates me.
Inspired: The Only Disability in Life
Category: sports
Inspired: Life is Like Pool; You Have to Look Where You Want to Go
When you play pool, you don’t look at the cue ball. You look at the ball you want to hit with an eye on where you want that ball to go, and plan your actions backward from there. The same is true for life. Begin at the ending and work your way back to where you are. Then you’ll know where to start so you can get where you ultimately want to go.
Inspired: Don’t Just Remember the Boston Marathon. Honor Boston and Its Residents.
In exactly two months the media will turn its attention to Boston to commemorate the one year anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing. My friend, Mary, a runner and proud Bostonian, is in the midst of some incredible work that I want to share with you.
Many of the Boston Marathon bombing survivors were treated at Spaulding Rehab Hospital. Mary ran the 2009 Boston Marathon for Spaulding Rehab as a mobility impaired runner and this year was at the Mandarin preparing to celebrate the Race for Rehab Team’s triumphant crossing of the finish line when the bombs went off.
As Boston and the world count down the days until the start of the 2014 Boston Marathon, Mary is honored and proud to co-host two phenomenal fun(d)raising events to benefit Karis Antokal and Greg Gordon who are running with Spaulding Rehab’s Race for Rehab Team in Boston 2014:
Karis’ Karaoke for a Kause happening on 2/20/14 from 8:00-10:00 pm at the Limelight Stage and Studios at 204 Tremont Street Boston. Suggested minimum donation is $20 and you receive a Take a Chance ticket to be entered to win an autographed Tom Brady Jersey. And don’t worry if you’re too shy to step up to the mic. They’ll have plenty of people singing strong. Cash bar and appetizers will be available. Read Karis’ story on her fundraising page. Silent auction items include autographed books by Bob and Lee Woodruff, a Cape Getaway Weekend, Celtics and Red Sox tickets, and gift certificates to Stapleton Floral Design and Marathon Sports.
An Evening of A Cappella to Benefit Spaulding Rehab will take place on April 4th at Boston University. Terpsichore, Boston University’s all-female a cappella group, will be your host from 7:00pm – 9:00 pm at Sleeper Auditorium located at 871 Commonwealth Avenue. The evening features performances by Terpsichore, the BU Dear Abbeys, BU’s In Achord and Bostonality, a post-collegiate a cappella group. Minimum suggested donation is $10. Make your donation to Greg Gordon’s fundraising page and in the comments section note that it is for the benefit concert.
No matter where we call home, let’s show Boston and the city’s residents the love they need to heal and get through this difficult milestone.
Inspired: Russell Wilson Shows Us All That We Are Enough
Russell Wilson, the quarterback for the champion Seattle Seahawks, was told he wasn’t tall enough, fast enough, talented enough, nor capable enough to play professional football. The people who told him that are feeling pretty foolish right now that he is basking in the glow of his Super Bowl win only two years after he joined the NFL. There are a lot of things we could learn from him and the most important lesson is this: You. Are. Enough. No matter what you want to do, where you want to go, or who you want to be, know that everything you want is within your grasp. You just need to work like hell and reach for it. Get after it!
Leap: Join Me Tonight for a Free Yoga Class – Yoga for Cyclists (and Aspiring Cyclists!) at Eastern Mountain Sports
Tonight at 7pm I’ll be helping cyclists (and aspiring cyclists) work out the kinks caused by logging long miles on their bikes. If you’re active, you’ll benefit from this class! Come on down to Eastern Mountain Sports Upper West Side location in Manhattan, 2152 Broadway between 75th and 76th Streets. The class is free and open to the public.
Yoga is an effective way to prevent injuries and shorten recovery times for cyclists. I will lead you through a sequence of yoga poses specifically crafted to benefit cyclists to improve posture, increase flexibility, and build strength. You will also learn several breathing techniques as well as a meditation technique that will enhance focus and endurance.
In addition to the free class, you will be able to take advantage of an exclusive shopping deal that night: 20% off Eastern Mountain Sports merchandise and 15% of all other brands.
I’d love to see your smiling faces so I hope you’ll join me!
Leap: I’ll Be Teaching Yoga for Cyclists at Eastern Mountain Sports
One of my goals for my yoga teaching is to work with more athletes of all levels.
To that end, I’m very excited to share the news that I will be teaching a Yoga for Cyclists (and aspiring cyclists!) clinic at Eastern Mountain Sports Upper West Side location in Manhattan, 2152 Broadway between 75th and 76th Streets. The clinic will take place on Wednesday, November 14th at 7pm. The class is free and open to the public.
Yoga is an effective way to prevent injuries and shorten recovery times for cyclists. I will lead you through a sequence of yoga poses specifically crafted to benefit cyclists to improve posture, increase flexibility, and build strength. You will also learn several breathing techniques as well as a meditation technique that will enhance focus and endurance.
In addition to the free class, you will be able to take advantage of an exclusive shopping deal that night: 20% off Eastern Mountain Sports merchandise and 15% of all other brands.
I hope you’ll join me for this wonderful event!
Leap: What Corporate America Could Learn from Moneyball
In business schools, Moneyball is revered as a classic case in making use of old data in new ways that drive innovative management techniques. I finally saw the movie last week and was blown away by the performances as well as the underlying message: marginalize people, relegate them to being followers rather than leaders in your organization, and you’re missing out on their true value. Plus, it makes you a jackass.
Billy Beane, General Manager of the Oakland A’s, needs a better way of doing business. He needs to recruit a wining team with a fraction of the budget that other baseball franchises have. Embedded in the low-level management rungs of a rival team, Beane meets Peter Brand, a Harvard-educated economist, who is a master with numerical data and passionate about the game. Beane plucks him from that unappreciative crowd and brings him to Oakland to stage a turnaround for the A’s.
I won’t spoil the outcome for anyone who has yet to see it – it’s so good that it needs to be at the top of your queue if for no other reason than to see Jonah Hill’s incredible performance as Peter Brand. Beane recognized that Brand was special, that he had a gift and a vision that wasn’t being recognized and rewarded. Beane’s not a saint. I’m not even sure that he’s a nice guy. But he has a nose for talent and he will not watch it go to waste. He’s observant, decisive, hard-working, and unrelenting in his vision. And he pays a lot more homage to skill in any form than he does to politics and tradition.
Corporations need their own Bill Beane. There are plenty of Peter Brands inside their walls; most executives are just too dumb, jealous, and / or egotistical to recognize them. Boxes on org charts are not chess pieces to be moved around a corporate game board. They’re people who deserve respect, who have a right to their dignity. They day is coming when all the Peter Brands will no longer sit idly by, keep their heads down, and their mouths shut. They will find the Billy Beanes of the world, roll up their sleeves, and get to work to beat their former employers at their own game.
I for one am ready to see Moneyball’s lessons expanded beyond the field. Let’s play ball!
Leap: The New York Giants Take Up Yoga in Preparation for the Super Bowl
That’s right – the Giants are getting in their Warriors, Down Dogs, and a few Sun Salutations as they prepare for their victory today in Indiana. Actually, they’ve been getting their yoga on all season long thanks to their yoga teacher, Gwen Lawrence. Building strength, gaining flexibility, and honing focus – all benefits of yoga, all needed by pro football players under a tremendous amount of pressure to perform.
So today as you watch Eli Manning pull that football back by his ear in search of the perfect pass to lead his team to victory, you can be sure he’s in that zone of pure concentration and his yoga practice helped him get. See what it can do for you, too, by heading to a free Compass Yoga class. We’d love to share the gift of the practice that help Eli and his teammates perform so well.
Go Giants!
Step 170: Going Platinum
I love all things pithy and witty. Quotes fill that bill. I used to keep a running list of them on my Blogger blog. Once I moved over to my new WordPress design, I let that be a piece that fell away, though I use quotes all the time in my posts. I love to go back and review my list of quotes – they give me inspiration, counsel, and comfort.
Kevin Kelley writes a fantastic uber-blog of all of his writing called Lifestream. He’s a tech guru who has a knack for making technology applicable to a wide variety of people. He’s also a killer writer, funny, and a fan of quotes. Yesterday, he put up a post with some of his favorite quotes. My favorite comes from Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s 2007 TED speech: “With 300 million people in America, you can fail to impress 299 million of them and still go platinum.” The power of perspective. With that bent, having an idea go platinum seems more probable and possible.
Step 48: Just Enough is Enough
I am addicted to the Winter Olympics coverage. I am staying up way past my bedtime on a regular basis, cheering for the athletes as if I know them personally. It’s getting a bit out of hand. Thank goodness that the Olympic Games (winter or summer) only run for a handful of days every two years.
I just watched Apolo Ohno skate for the trials of the 1000 meter on the speed skating short track. He stayed in 3rd place for a good amount of time in his heat, and then made his move along the inside of the track to secure a first place finish. The commentator remarked that Ohno only pushed as much as he needed to so that he was assured a spot in the final race. “Remember,” the commentator said, “he’s got a relay leg to do tonight.”
Pacing. It’s all about the pacing. Doing what you have to do to get where you need to be. It’s a concept I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. It’s easy to wear ourselves out in the pursuit of perfection. Luckily we rarely, if ever, need to be perfect. Follow Apolo Ohno. Know what you need to do in the moment and get it done.
The photo above depicts Apolo Ohno at the head of the pack. It was taken by Wolfgang Rattay of REUTERS.
Christa Avampato 