Pushing physical and mental limitations when you are responsible for saving your life is difficult without the right support system in place.

How hard will you work to save your financial and business life?  How hard would you work to save your physical life?  Now is the time to bring all your emotional and physical strength into your business and personal life.  Leave the fear behind.  The intensity you would express to save your life or the life of a loved one is tantamount to surviving and thriving in this changing market.  I am going to share a true story about myself that reinforced just how strong and clear we need to be right now.  How efficiently we need to work and how focused we need to stay to achieve our goals.  Having solid coaches and people who push us beyond our limitations is vitally important.  Being open and responsive to that coaching and guidance is required.  As you read my story, relay it to your daily business life and what you need to survive this moment.

It is evident to me that most of us would work much harder to save our physical life than we do to save our financial, business and family lives.  Reality is, the stress created by all these survival situations takes the same toll on the body.   Your adrenals rev up and send  adrenaline and cortisol flowing through your veins while your thyroid works overtime to try to shut it down.  This is the reason we have so many people experiencing burn out, exhaustion, depression, anxiety, insomnia, and so many other physical manifestations that stress creates….including death.  Stress is stress.  The body can’t distinguish between you being held at gunpoint or you stressing over a real estate deal gone bad.

Yesterday I did something that changed my life and view on working hard and smart and how intense fear can break a person down from the inside out if you don’t recognize it and beat it down with all your might by finding the right support and truly seeing that a transaction going bad is not life threatening.

Yesterday I kayaked 12 miles on a white water river atop an ocean kayak for the first time in my life.  For those of you who don’t know what I am talking about… just know it was the biggest challenge I have experienced in many years.  I am an extreme person and love physical and mental challenges but I also know I am not 25yrs old anymore.  I am thankful that I have remained physically fit and was well hydrated and fed to meet the challenges I experienced.

I agreed to a kayak adventure down the upper Salt River in AZ with a very experienced kayaker so I figured I would be just fine with his instruction.  Yes, his coaching was amazing and he helped me get down alive but the work was all mine.  The water that swirled and leapt around my “sit-atop” kayak was mine and mine alone.   I had never white water kayaked on a sit-atop kayak in my life.  I was enthralled by how he instinctively read the river.  Traversing the obstacles was amazing and scared me silly.  My heart raced the entire time and there were moments when I actually shook uncontrollably.  Adrenalin at work.  I followed his lead and headed my kayak in any direction he was headed.  Having never been a good “follower,” this time, I was most attentive.  Was I stupid to do this adventure???  Probably, but it was still something that I would do again if given the chance.  

I have done some extreme skiing, but snow stays still for the most part. The water on a high flow river does not.  Respecting the water is something that is branded in my brain now.  When I ended up upside down, trapped by a strap and carried down the river, my heart raced.  Every loved one went through my mind.  My adrenaline flowed and I pushed past the fear so I could survive and conquer this moment.  Was I graceful… no, did I get to shore?  Yes!  Obviously I did, or I probably wouldn’t be writing this now.  Girlfriend is a fighter but I have to tell you, I had some serious doubts about my ability to make it through that situation.

Good thing I had the strength to right myself because I don’t think I would have made it. I swam to the river bank. There was no option except to get back on the kayak. Rock cliffs on both sides of the river made it impossible to get out. Down river was the only way out.

I didn’t want to be beaten by my fear.  Many people traverse these types of waters and make it to their destinations.  I just needed to experience more of “how it feels,” work the water and listen to my guide.  My guide pushed me passed my fears (probably because, as he later confessed, he was afraid for me too…lol). 

My kayak coach was commanding which I normally don’t take well.  Funny how we shift to heed advice when our life is at stake.  He didn’t let me feel sorry for myself or let me allow the fear to take over.  I remember when I capsized (for the second time) and was standing on the shore with my kayak in front of me; he robustly said “Get back on the boat now!  You can do this!”  (which translated to me “get back on the f**cking boat b**ch!  lol. However it was translated, it worked.)  His commands were vital for my success.  I followed him and learned so much by watching his movements.   I followed him with growing confidence and started to “feel” the river beneath me and what I needed to do to avoid being swept away vs being in control of my kayak and destination.

It was challenging but real and made me feel so much.   Feelings that had been put on hold just trying to survive the changes and challenges of the business and financial situations we have faced over the past 2 years.  Adrenal burnout due to intense stress and an overload of adrenaline is not good for the body or mind.  We should only have those surges when our life is in peril not when we are trying to get a short sale closed.

As an added bonus to my day, when I returned home to delivered Chinese food, my fortune cookie read  “ The odds of hitting your target go up dramatically when you aim at it.”