Happy Thursday!
I hope you are all enjoying your life and have found time to positively connect with the members of your Dream Team.
Thursdays are like Friday’s for me since that typically is my day off. I’m looking forward to a massage with Mark Haskins at the Encinitas Massage Center (he also does good deep work if you are ever in Encinitas) and a nice steam tomorrow morning.
I’ve been doing a lot of rock lifting lately and that creates a much deeper muscle activation in general than gym work does. I’ll take the day off Friday and relax, hang out in my garden, and work on some new diagrams I’m creating to help people better understand how to master body-mind functions.
My Workout Yesterday
Jeff Brion and I collected some big rocks and put them in a safe place to do heavy rock-work. Since then, I’ve been using some of my workout days to go into the brush and fish out more big ones.
Getting them to the big stone area is harder than stacking them. I have to walk across rough terrain that is full of sharp objects, and all sorts of creatures that seem to enjoy eating human flesh.
Here you can see some of my collection being put to work. At this point, I’m about 30min into my workout. Yes, I know my shorts are very out of style and my mother may send me an email telling me to toss these shorts ☺, but they will be destroyed soon enough out among the stones!
Here you can see me putting on the second to last stone. To get that high, I do my very best to avoid using a ladder. I like to go all natural as much as possible.
Once I’m unable to safely and effectively reach the level I want the next stone(s) to go, I find big rocks that I can use as steps.
Some of my stacks are so tall that I have to stack multiple big stones into a stair column; building the steps can be as much work as building the stack!
Here you can see me finishing the removal of the steps.
Notice that I’m keeping a keen eye on that top stone. I often have to lean the steps up against the base stones to stabilize them.
When you are standing on wobbly steps with big stones in your arms, things can go south very quickly and dangerously so they must be stabilized effectively. When it is time to remove them, I have to be very careful not to shake the stack.
The top stone is always the most fragile and likely to fall and a stone on the head isn’t my idea of a great way to finish my workout! I’ve had some very close calls that left me with an adrenaline buzz for an hour or so while I celebrated being alive ☺.
Here she is! My new stone Buddha.
I have to be careful out here. The sun is much hotter than it is at my home – just ten miles due west where we get a nice ocean breeze – so my skin burns more easily.
I also have to be careful because I get cut up a lot from big stones and they can carry organisms and things that really irritate the skin if cut.
So, it was nice to finish my workout and strip off my hot, sweaty shirt and celebrate this great workout with you.
I hope you feel inspired to get out in nature and do something fun (and safe for your level of athleticism).
Next weekend, March 9, I’ll be sharing these amazing outdoor experiences and many more with my students in the zen In The Garden workshop. There’s still a couple spots left if any of you are interested. You can click here to learn more: www.ppssuccess.com
BUILDING YOUR DREAM TEAM (Pt. 4 Final)
There are two additional elements to developing your dream team that I’d like to share today to finish our series on building your dream team. They are:
1. Motivational Strategy, and
2. Common Gains.
Motivational Strategy: Inevitably, there is a lot to get done when building dreams, and there can be anywhere from a couple, to many people on any given dream team.
Each person tends to have their own motivational strategy.
In general, motivational strategies can be broken down into two groups:
A) Positive Motivators: These are people that respond better to positive rewards for completion of tasks, and typically do well with positive motivational strategies and rewards.
B) Negative Motivators: These people tend to respond better to negative motivation.
While the positive motivators respond best to making some kind of perceived gain for their participation, the negative motivators generally respond best to some kind of self-determined negative, punishment, or detractor factor.
An example of the different strategies would look something like this: Bob says, “If I finish my part of the project on time or early, I’d like a 10% bonus commission for my work – positive motivation. Jane says, “If I don’t finish my work on time, I’ll accept a 10% late fee, but I need the money so don’t worry about me being late! – negative motivation.
Most of us would suspect that everyone would respond to positive motivation, but I can assure you, that’s not the case.
It’s important to establish clear lines of communication, have a structured overview and specific lists with action items for each member of the team.
Then, by establishing a clear vision of each member’s motivational strategy, the team leader can be confident in how to best motivate each member in a way that works for their unique mindset.
Common Gains: Whenever you are building a Dream Team, it is wise to find ways that each person on the team will benefit from the process, and completion of the dream building process.
Even if you are paying for the services of any given dream team member’s participation, finding some common gain or reward each person can enjoy goes a long way to enhancing the quality of work completed.
When everyone feels like there’s something specific and unique that they can contribute and know that others on the team will benefit from and enjoy their involvement, motivation is much higher and there are more smiles and a better sense of humor in the process.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my little series on building your Dream Team.
Next week, I’ll begin a series titled, “What Is Balance?”
OK, time to move, clients this morning and later this afternoon I’ll be catching up with Danimal Rawbrah for some quality time together.
I’ll share a Tao-Te-zen lesson with you tomorrow as I rest at home. I hope you all have a lovely weekend!
Love and chi,
Paul Chek
