Empty the TANK!

"Take nothing but memories...leave nothing but footprints!" 

In 100 years...unless some remarkable advancements in human longevity....NOT one person reading this will be around to tell their story! 

Your fancy car, your expensive timepiece, your powerful job and most possessions and achievements will be done! 

EVERYTHING WILL BE GONE in the physical form! 

HOWEVER...what will remain is...YOUR ACTIONS....TODAY!

Those close to me know that each and everyday I LOVE to empty my tank! 

I have friends who train for endurance events and their version is ER or PR! Which basically means they will go as deep as possible to chase the dreams that push them each day to show up! They are willing to make the journey so incredibly painful that the only option is either the ER (emergency room) or a PR (personal record)! Some may frown upon this...I don't really give a shit if you are personally holding back on your potential...I admire anyone who wakes up each day willing to go all in...or...as I like to call it...EMPTY THE TANK! 

Why do I train every single day? Why do I push myself to the limits each chance I get? Why when I am extremely passionate about something does it consume me every single second? 

The very, simple answer is...TIME! Second answer is (my oldest and I watch World War Z) to run from the ZOMBIES!

I have ZERO guesses on when my time will come...the only thing I know is that it will come at some point and I never want to have regret that I left something in the tank! 

Some may assume that this picture is me exhausted and DONE! 

It's actually very much the opposite. This was the second time on a run in my life that I GAVE UP! The workout was too hard. I failed to engage my drive for mental toughness because I felt I had nothing left! I took the picture at the time...not because it deserved a...WHOA look how tough I am...I took it to remind myself that WE ONLY GET ONE CHANCE and STOP holding back!

The other time I sat on a curb was when I was 10 and my incredible step dad had us run the ELGIN FOX TROT 10 miler....

It felt like the end of the world that day and the difficulty level in my 10 year old mind was level ONE MILLION! 

I remember around mile 5...walking over to a curb...sitting down...and QUITTING! 

That's right...37 years later I remember that day like it was yesterday! 

I fully understand that I was only 10 and I should have been presented a free pass to be exempt from that struggle...HOWEVER...as you can see! 

I hold onto that regret to this day! It has fueled me to consistently and constantly EMPTY MY TANK for everything that matters the most to me! 

RACING IRONMAN TRIATHLONS! 

STARTING A COUPLE AMAZING MULTISPORT ENDURANCE GROUPS!

BEING ONE OF THE FIRST INTERNS FOR A WORLD LEADING SPORTS FIRM!

WORKING FOR THE #1 SPORTS MARKETING FIRM IN THE WORLD!

TREATING EVERY SINGLE PATIENT HOW THEY DESERVE TO BE TREATED!

ALWAYS STRIVING TO SHOW MY WIFE HOW INCREDIBLE SHE IS!

WRITING A BOOK GEARED AT CHANGING SOMEONES LIFE!

SPEAKING TO GROUPS WITH THE GOAL OF CHANGING GOAL STRUCTURES!

HAVING THE ULTIMATE PRIVILEDGE OF BEING A DAD (I am crying as I type)!

HAVING FAMILY AND FRIENDS WHO UNCONDITIONALLY SHOW UP!

TRAINGING FOR A MARATHON SWIM WITH BUTTERFLIES IN MY BELLY!

BUT...AS THIS BLOG GOES...

HAVING A STEP-FATHER WHO FOR 32 YEARS HAS LOVED ME LIKE ONE OF HIS OWN!

ER or PR...Empty the TANK...Live Life to the FULLEST...Leave nothing uncovered...

Whatever your reminder each day needs to be to allow you to show up...TATTOO that concept on your mind and LET's GO! 

Your actions today have more power and more meaning that anything you can purchase...

What we do right now...will have ripples and hopefully positive effects for long after your TIME comes! 

EMPTY THE TANK! 

ALWAYS CRUSH LIFE!

MAKE IT COUNT! 

Power of WORDS!

 

                                                "FEAR has two meanings:

                                                  Face Everything And Run

                                                                    OR

                                                  Face Everything And Rise

                                                  The Choice Is YOURS!"   - Zig Ziglar

Todays lesson should you choose to continue to read...has nothing to do with FEAR...I just love almost every Zig Ziglar quote and that one doesn't disappoint and hits the nail on the head of todays topic..

The power of WORDS...

In the quote above you can see that if you just switch around a few words...you go from running away from the fire to running into the fire! 

Let me drop a couple of words/sayings on you...

Pulchritudinous...

Put hair on your chest a foot long...

Eat a pound of dirt before you die...

Out of here in a cloud of whale dung...

Honorificabilitudinitarian...

We will get back to those five in a few minutes but in the mean time...I want you to ponder the words you have used either so far today or yesterday! 

My 14 year old daughter is about to blast off to Florida this weekend for Cheerleading Worlds! In the past three days they have had 12 hours of practice, about 30 full-outs (doing the whole routine all the way through...its is more difficult than it sounds) and balancing all that with school and everything life has to throw at them...

I have been to half of those hours and you know what I notice the most out of these kids? 

Its not the amazing talent, its not the work ethic and its not the athletic tape trying to hold off any last minute injuries...

Its the words they use to lift up instead of break down! 

The word IMPOSSIBLE becomes POSSIBLE!

The word CAN'T becomes CAN! 

The word WON'T becomes WILL!

The words TOO HARD become TOO EASY!

The words I QUIT becomes LETS F'ING GO!

The word TIRED becomes I GOT ONE MORE IN ME!

All this demonstrates is the simple power of words! 

Trust me...I have done some crazy difficult, challenging events in my life and many times was on the verge of quitting or telling myself I can't go any further...

BUT...

I always and I mean always tell myself to just try a little harder, give a little more effort, make a final decision in 10 minutes...and guess what happens? 

The difficulty, obstacle, adversity or challenge can't handle my simple yet power vocabulary that is being thrown around in my head (similar to my daughter being thrown around in the air) and I typically come out on TOP! 

Nothing is truly TOO hard! 

What is TOO hard is when we tell ourselves and those around us that it is!

Negativity is extremely contagious mainly because it allows all of us a chance to quit and hopefully save face because, well, everyone else thought it was impossible also! 

So today when you want to use WORDS that don't push the needle forward...

Why not stir up your inner competitive cheerleader and give yourself some words of encouragement that you are capable of way more than you believe yourself to be! 

Now back to the words/sayings above..

Seeing that this blog is about memories, ALZHEIMER's and other neurodegenerative disease awareness and well just another avenue for me to share random musings...

The following are words that my step-dad used often when we were kids! All meant for positivity but more meant as a way to simply keep moving forward and hopefully ALWAYS with a smile!

Pulchritudinous...

Put hair on your chest a foot long...

Eat a pound of dirt before you die...

Out of here in a cloud of whale dung...

Honorificabilitudinitarian...

Will I eat a pound of dirt before I die? Who knows...but what I do know is that I will get as dirty as I need to be both externally and internally to never give up putting my best foot forward! 

The Oergel family has three sayings that are foundational to who we are and what we do...

Make It Count!

Always Crush Life!

FSU! (F*&K SH*T UP!)

Go be great and CHEER as loud as you can! 

Play where it lies...

                             "They call it golf because all the other four-letter words were taken!" 

In general I am an overall fan of sports for the incredible athletic achievements but to be honest...I am more of a fan of the deep seeded mindsets needed in order to advance to the next consistent level of where you want to go! 

There are two sports that at the end of the day are incredibly mental mindset driven...

The first is any long distance endurance sport...

Take Ironman for example...every Ironman I did and for that reason every Ironman that anyone partakes in starts with all of us being ready on the start line. 

We put in the time, we put in the effort, we advance through injuries and we typically show up physically ready to conquer our task.

Its that mental monster that stands in our way from start to our goal! 

We can be in the best shape of our life and fall way short not because of a lack of endurance training but more from a lack of mental preparation. 

The second sport and probably the most mental of sports there is these days...is...GOLF! 

I am not a huge fan but I have a complete and relentless appreciation for the mental fortitude needed to move through a round of GOLF! 

We tee off with hopes of playing well but...winds, rain, bunkers, ponds, lakes, gators (that's a thing..right?), hot streaks from other players, a bad shot and deep grass all have a say in how the round goes...

AND...THEN...

The biggest hurdle to overcome is...

You guessed it...

Our mind! 

When I was a kid trying to learn golf I would go out and play with my step-dad at times...

Being a super competitive kid I would get so frustrated that every shot was not a shot of brilliance...but really, who did I think I was...practice makes perfect and perfect practice makes things even better! 

I remember one day hitting a shot into the tall grass and getting so hot headed and angry at myself.

Then my step-dad stepped in and said, "Oh, I see your stuck in the rough! Every player lands in the rough. It's how you get out of the rough that counts!" 

I am sure as a kid I whispered some four letter word under my breath absolute oblivious to the message being delivered to my immature mind! 

I did tune into the Master's last weekend for a hot second and what makes these players such incredible human athletes is how they can muster through adversity on a course and move on to the next shot in the blink of an eye without hesitation, visible doubt and limited frustration. 

One shot into the rough for them leads to the next shot being a picture of incredible domination. 

So why can't we do the same in life? 

Last time I looked, went through an obstacle or had a conversation with adversity I realized that with every challenge is a great opportunity in life. 

Life is not won by living a lifetime free of mistakes, free of obstacles and free of adversity. 

Life is won by those who respond to the mistakes, obstacles and adversity that is littered in ones path. 

Life will give you everything you need and more in order to have a life full of memories! 

Life doesn't happen to you...life happens FOR you!

Cancer will happen, ACL tears will happen, Alzheimer's diagnosis's will happen, being fired will happen, having an injury before a race...WILL happen, break ups will happen, missing the winning shot...most definitely will happen and a million other crazy scenarios will happen! 

Not to sound like an asshole or one that is not compassionate to some of the tougher obstacles but my meaning is genuine in that just because something happens doesn't mean we need to throw in the towel. 

Like my incredibly brilliant step dad said...its what you do next that matters!

When you land in the rough of life...TRY...and ask yourself the following questions...

What's something good that could come from this?

What's life trying to teach me?

What's the opportunity in front of me?

What can I do right now to help what's next? 

Remember...Life doesn't happen to you...life happens FOR you!

We need to go all in on protecting our mindset....just like a professional golfer! 

My answer for most of those questions is gratitude in the sense that there could always be worse obstacles, harder adversities and I could be ignorant to the beauty of what I still have!

Control the controllables and...

Master the NEXT SHOT! 

Always Crush Life! 

Make It Count! 

Nothing Works Unless You DO!

"Hard work betrays none!" 

This picture to you may just look like a broken down, falling apart, barely mobile, ALMOST 40 year old lawn mower! 

And...

For the most part...you would be partially correct! 

However as of yesterday...after one single pull on the fraying pull cord...SHE started right up and purrs like a baby kitten! 

Well...maybe doesn't purr but SHE definitely still does the trick! 

You see this lawn mover was my grandfathers and then my stepdads and then was basically left for dead until I grabbed it at the age of 25 and for almost 22 years has never let me down! 

I haven't put oil in the engine EVER and at this point I am terrified that if I change up anything...it might be time to put her out into the machine parts graveyard.

OK Jake...what does this have to do with anything! 

One thing my mom taught me at a young age and my step-dad reconfirmed right behind her was...nothing worth achieving ever comes without hard work! 

At some point in time the hard work ethos shifted to lets find the easy way out! 

How can we get faster running without working hard?

How can we get the promotion without working hard?

How can I raise three kids without working hard?

How can we write a best seller without working hard?

How can we lose all that weight without working hard?

How can we get a college scholarship without working hard?

How can we fall in love without working hard?

The list goes on but what never changes is...to accomplish any dream, to score any goal, to cross an ocean swimming...TAKES HARD WORK! 

In the last 5 years we have bought three fridges, two dishwashers, two weed eaters, three grills and probably a few other disappointing purchases. 

Where a few of those cheap purchases? SURE!

The main problem I see though is...things are just not made the way they use to be made! 

Same goes with work ethic...work hard...get results or learn! 

Take the easy way out...typically get let down and quit! 

Scroll through social media and you will see five dozen ways to lose weight, run faster, increase your testosterone or become an overnight success! Typically all lies and just an eye catch for you to buy something! 

When if you just shut your phone down and got dirty in the realm you are pursuing...

Success will eventually come knocking on your door and it won't be a flash in the pan! 

If you find yourself succeeding without much effort...

Either...

Your GOAL was too small...

Or...

Your results will be gone tomorrow...

Always Crush Life!

Go be great and MAKE IT COUNT!