Author Archive
Peak Performance in Work and Play
Posted by: | CommentsIs Peak Performance the same as ultimate joy? In terms of flow and being in the zone where we are operating at our maximum capability. These zones trip our dopamine and serotonin which create happiness.
So operating at Peak Performance could be said to be joyful. Operating at our optimum is not always easy. At the least, it requires engaging in an activity we have practiced extensively. In fact, we are so practiced, we no longer have to think of the mechanics for performing the activity.
A second criteria is we are participating by barring distractions. Outside noises and worldly concerns have left the room. We are working or playing without concern for judgement or reward. We are in the peace zone.
These activities are our passions. We can be passionate about work or play and while engaged we lose track of time. The activity is a challenge but we don’t consider it to be over whelming. We have the feeling we can play at this level.
Setting up to play in the zone should be a goal. We can aim for it in single activities and we can aim for a life that flows. Some basic criteria would be to achieve optimal health and minimize distractions
What are some good basics:
- Healthy Eating and Fitness
- Financial Responsibility
- Managing Relationships
- Eliminating Procrastination
- Reducing Negative Influences
- Reducing Brain Enervating Activities
Each of the above is a topic in and of itself which I will address in various formats and make them available to you. As I consolidate other writings, I will make them first available as Website Pages and then as a Download.
Find your passions and give them wings.
How Much is a Good Immunity System Worth?
Posted by: | CommentsRight now it seems there is a new flu that is at epidemic proportions. Several people around me are sick and my daughter says everyone at her work in Los Angeles is sick.
This flu knocks you flat for a few days and then leaves you coughing for weeks. It robs you of your energy. It certainly would make it difficult to feel inspired and creative. This is why I don’t like being sick. So far I have escaped.
My sick neighbor attributes my “luck” to a better diet. My diet is mostly raw food from natural sources. I have fruit, vegetables, oat meal, and then some chicken and hamburger for the protein I need. I prepare everything so there are no harmful additives, fats, or salting.
I also drink alkaline based water. I am fortunate to be near the famous waters of an aquifer in Carlsbad and I can get the water delivered. The supplements I take are mostly anti oxidants. They neutralize free radicals and allow healthy cells to remain energetic.
The quality of life and creative energy are worth protecting. Giving up unhealthy foods even though they taste good is worth the trade to me. Exercise that burns muscle also replaces inflammation in the body which would lead to sickness and disease.
It isn’t just a matter of living longer, it is a matter of being happy more days.
How do you feel about being healthy?
**
Are We More Afraid of Success or Failure?
Posted by: | CommentsI first heard it when I was a real estate office manager and one of my agents posted the dilemma. With success comes responsibility. You have to live up to expectations, become more accountable because you are known, and have a long way to fall if you don’t continue to succeed.
Professional tennis players say the pressure of being number one in the world is more than most can handle. Only a few seem to ride the wave. It would appear that a lot of entertainers and even athletes can’t manage their lives once they break through to that world in the spot light.
Fear of failure is ingrained from the day people start telling us “good boy” “bad boy”. We realize we are born into a world of judgment. We may want to go in one direction, but know there are expectations we go a different path. We are often living with the need or demands to please others.
Following our passions is a path of escape. When a person feels a passion, there is very little you can do to dissuade them. They have found their purpose and they know to their core it is right. Engaging in passions can take us into the zone where there is no judgment and no concern for reward; no worries about the outcome and who is being pleased.
Getting your life into flow where you are pursuing your passions and not being distracted by the world around you feels like success. It has little to do with money. When you are pursuing activities for the love, you will attract followers. If you are lucky enough to love something, be good at it, and get paid for it, have we arrived?
Which do you fear more, success or failure?
**
If you would like to help some people who are on the bottom of the ladder and are trying to get above the level of survival to become more, consider the billion people in the world who wake up without clean water. It is amazing what you cannot do when you can’t meet this basic requirement.
Most of the water collecting responsibilities fall on the shoulders of the girls and women. It keeps them from going to school and getting jobs.
Consider contributing a latte in value for someone else. Charity Water.org has over 6100 projects in place drilling or filtering water. 80% of disease on the planet is water born. http://mycharitywater.org/kaalmmediagroup.
How Do We Get Into Flow Everyday?
Posted by: | CommentsFlow or the Zone is where man reaches his level of Peak Performance. It is also the state in which he can be happiest. The body is hard wired to tap into the dopamine and serotonin with the right activities and mental attitude.
Gratitude taps into dopamine instantly. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, giving is also a rewarding activity that our brain seems to enjoy. We can also tap our happiness juices by engaging in activities we enjoy and where we can bar distractions.
Our organism has the ability to sense and evaluate thousands of stimuli. At one time, it was necessary to be aware of danger and potential food. Now we take in too much news and it tends to over whelm our senses and dilute our focus.
Getting into the zone to tap our happiness requires we get back into the state of isolation. Engaging in activities in which we have competence from practice and in which we enjoy can allow us to bar outside noise.
Getting into this zone everyday to make our lives productive at a higher level requires better skills and attitudes about minimizing distractions. We allow too much into our periphery. Listening to the news, gossip, text messages, TV, radio, and so forth creates the loud jungle where the brain refuses to focus.
Meditating is one way to center ourselves. Running or other aerobics is useful in getting our brain on a solitary track. Listening to music or reading can also bring our sense of self back to center. After finishing any of these exercises, if we were to do something we like, we might be able to focus and enter our zone.
The trick is to eliminate the distractions on a daily basis without having to get into a centering exercise first. Can you do it? What do you do to get centered?
**
My new comment section allows your comment to hit the page immediately.
Gratitude and Giving are Happiness’s Secrets
Posted by: | CommentsThe well known line that “everyday I wake up and I am above ground, I am happy” is a good start. Life is good. If you subtract all the negative thoughts you might have, you are left with appreciation. To reverse it, the more positive thoughts you have, the less room you have for negative thoughts.
When people visit my little town in Oceanside, they always comment about how friendly people are. That has a lot to do with being close to nature and feeling very connected to the ocean. Nature makes people feel good.
When I lived in the interior, I hiked and mountain biked in the hills as often as possible which was several times a week. We feel natural when we are connected to the outdoors and get cut off from these feelings when we spend too much time indoors.
Secondly, giving is a way to open ourselves up. I have always been in the practice of handing out dollars to street people. I don’t do it for them, I do it for me. I am now actively writing for my Charity Water program because I want to keep the flow going out. I regularly give $5 to people looking to raise money for causes, just to support their efforts. They often give me $5 back.
When people need a little of your time for listening or need to borrow or if you could give someone something that would help them, your spirit is elevated. Being too judgmental and finding fault with everything, keeps your spirit dark.
I like to earn money from my enterprises but I have to admit, I also pick money up left on the ground. I put it in my can and it is all flow back to me. Good feelings, giving, and money should just keep circulating in your world. Because I give very freely, I don’t have a problem asking for favors.
I also find that my persona is trusted by others and I make acquaintances easily. When you are open and free flowing with few blocks, the world works much better. People can feel you long before they understand you.
Generosity becomes who you are and is also very becoming.
**
I continue to write on behalf of the less fortunate that don’t have the choices we have. Most of our problems are first world problems like I don’t feel like cooking. In the third world they don’t have water or nutritious food. They don’t even have wood for a fire and have to collect it everyday. 
A few dollars would help provide clean water for the billion people who wake up with out it. Charity Water.org has over 6185 projects in place to help those that need us. They want to have first world problems but were born into desperate straits.
Give up a latte to help the girls and women charged with collecting the family water in buckets with long walks. Visit Writing for Water and contribute the cost of an ice cream.
Do We Fear Self Expression?
Posted by: | CommentsStatistics show that 55% of websites on the internet are from Word Press. Since there were 300 million new websites in 2011, that is a lot of Word Press sites. The essence of Word Press is to create your own content and propel your expertise, opinions, or talent onto the world stage.
This country was built on the First Amendment and the Freedom of Speech.
When my daughters were little they always wanted me to watch them dance and would take turns putting on their little self created routines. We don’t lose that desire, we just become fearful?
Even though I read a lot of blogs, very few people I know are able to blog. My daughters have graduated Universities as English majors and create new sites and stop blogging. Most people would call this phenomena writer’s block, but there is more.
There is fear of exposure. There is the inability to get into flow. There is intimidation from something that is really not life threatening. It’s also easy for me to say because I have been blogging most days for a few years.
The Lizard brain knows extremes; fight, flight, mate, eat or be eaten. The pre-frontal cortex of man has enabled him to moderate the dangers. However, we often see things like self expression in writing, singing, dancing, cooking, painting as near death experiences; for me its singing.
At the beginning I did not write well. Hopefully I am better now. You have to make the commitment to keep working at it and eventually your writing starts matching your thoughts. I wasn’t a surfer for months, but going in daily helped me become one. There are few short cuts to success.
Fear of judgment is big in our culture. Fear of creating a website that people won’t like is definitely part of it. In Finding Your Zone by Micheal Lardon, he has shown that athletes and others that perform in order to be famous cannot reach their peak performance because they are focusing on the external.
Tiger Woods didn’t play to become famous. He wanted to hit a golf ball as well as it could be hit. Focusing on the craft and not on the consequences is the key difference. Fear of judgment can keep you from ever being good. It is a main saboteur of getting into the zone or flow.
When I started, I also had a tough time putting the “I” in my work; fear of judgment. The break through starts when you say “petal to the medal, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead”.
You have to cross this line where you value your right to self expression more than you fear what people will say about you. Self expression is important. It takes courage. We watch vicariously as the James Bond types risk their lives and yet we are afraid of judgement.
Stephen Covey in The Eighth Habit says our purpose is to express ourselves and encourage others to do the same. Let’s go!
**
I have been blessed with many advantages and opportunities. I am most thankful for my two wonderful daughters. People in other parts of the world are not born in a country like the United States. It is hard to imagine the struggle others have for food, water, security, and freedom. They are fearful for their family’s welfare every moment.
We can’t cure the problems of the world nor are we responsible for them. I say if there is just one thing we can do, let’s do it. I have chosen to help raise awareness that a billion people don’t have access to clean water. It makes every day tough. People get sick every 19 seconds. Water is responsible for 80% of the planet’s sickness. I am especially sensitive that the girls and women are responsible for collecting water and it prevents them from having opportunities women have in developed countries.
$1 or $5 helps bring water and clean water to villages, schools, and clinics. Its the least we can do. Join me with a small contribution:
100% goes to provide wells and filtration plus water education.
See more at KaalmWaters.com
5 Ways to More Energy
Posted by: | CommentsEnergy maybe one of the most recession proof industries on earth other than the medical field. When you are sick, you need to see a doctor. When most people wake up, they need to boost their energy. Then they need to boost it several times a day. 
I wish I had a penny for every cup of coffee, every soda, every candy bar, every cigarette, and every energy drink sold. Is life too much for us? Do we feel the pressure of excessive demands? Are social pressures demanding we have more personality and the need to be perky?
There are lots of demands and I feel them too. I like my cup of coffee in the morning as I do my writing. But I don’t look to the other stimulants. I find all my work is creative and I need a lot of natural energy to get into flow.
When I use up my brain power on creating, I need to refresh. My schedule is different than people who report to a job. I can take breaks during the day, but I might also work a full day by the time I go to sleep.
Keeping creative brain waves working productively requires demand and then refreshing. To refresh, I engage in exercise or activities that are different. I might be productive in the morning until I burn out and then relax until I begin my next work session.
Pumping ourselves full of stimulants perpetuates a ragged routine of up and down energy patterns. At the end of the day, an over stimulated brain needs depressants to slow down. Bringing it down often has after affects the next morning. Then we need to bring it up again.
Five things can start to help us even out our energy to be more productive. Avoid a lot of sugar. Have your treats, but don’t use it to pump you up. Eat more energy boosting foods which is everything that grows out of the ground.
Exercise daily until you have burned muscle. This creates a process of flushing inflammation from your body and bringing in a load of new chemicals that replenish burned cells and revitalize the body.
Drink lots of water. Our body at the most basic cell level combines hydrogen with oxygen to produce energy. ATP or Co Efficient One boosts this state. Water is obviously hydrogen and oxygen. It gets the body moving and stimulates the brain.
Start eliminating brain energy burning distractions like TV, the news, needless social media exercises. Each of these consume a lot of mental energy that could otherwise be preserved and focused on productive activities.
Flow is the most energetic process we can harness. Engaging in an activity that we have practiced and enjoy finds us barring distractions and losing track of time. Our brain produces dopamine and serotonin. We are happy. Happy is our most productive state. It makes us work and socialize more effectively.
**
I continue to write on behalf of the less fortunate that don’t have the choices we have. Most of our problems are first world problems like I don’t feel like cooking. In the third world they don’t have water or nutritious food. They don’t even have wood for a fire and have to collect it everyday.
A few dollars would help provide clean water for the billion people who wake up with out it. Charity Water.org has over 6185 projects in place to help those that need us. They want to have first world problems but were born into desperate straits.
Give up a latte to help the girls and women charged with collecting the family water in buckets with long walks. Visit Writing for Water and contribute the cost of an ice cream.
Eating Healthy Creates a Quality Life
Posted by: | CommentsEverything in the Universe is influenced by energy. It powers every living organism. Death is certainly the expiration of the bodies ability to sustain life. Our quality of life is often measured by our energy to enjoy and produce.
How do we get energy? Many people manipulate their energy to get more and to get it balanced. When brain waves are in perfect harmony we have flow which is our peak performance state.
When brain waves are too slow, we feel the need to pick them up with stimulants. When they are too fast and we feel anxious we feel the need to slow them down with depressants.
Nature provides the perfect energy tonics in natural food and exercise. Together they can provide maximum energy and mellowed nervous systems. Foods have vibrational qualities and natural food provides the highest energy. Processed foods have low vibrations and can dissipate energy.
Natural food builds the immune system so we don’t get sick. Healthy eating and exercise should prevent chronic illnesses that might arise from inflammation, nutrient starvation, or failure to eliminate free radicals.
Free radicals are short an electron and look to healthy cells to rob them of their balance and value. Foods high in anti oxidants throw extra electrons to the free radicals to neutralize them and preserve cell energy. Getting enough fruits and vegetables supports this process.
If you want a better life, work with what you’ve got. Feeling good beats most anything.
**
I continue to write on behalf of the less fortunate that don’t have the choices we have. Most of our problems are first world problems like I don’t feel like cooking. In the third world they don’t have water or nutritious food. They don’t even have wood for a fire and have to collect it everyday. 
A few dollars would help provide clean water for the billion people who wake up with out it. Charity Water.org has over 6185 projects in place to help those that need us. They want to have first world problems but were born into desperate straits.
Give up a latte to help the girls and women charged with collecting the family water in buckets with long walks. Visit Writing for Water and contribute the cost of an ice cream.
The Beach is a Favorite Connection to Nature
Posted by: | CommentsThere is something calming for most people about this large body of water. When you visit the beach it is an escape. You have civilization on one side with buildings and freeways. Then you have a massive body of water that goes further than the eye can see.
In the city, you really can’t feel the ocean breezes nor bask in the sun while sitting on the silica sand. In the city, you can’t hear the pounding of the waves and watch how each one is a different dance.
The ocean allows you to mingle with Mother Nature and let her take you for a little ride while body surfing or laugh when she knocks you down. Surfers get a much different feeling for they tempt her power in a more confrontational manner. http://surfboardsoceanside.com/do-surfers-know-god/
As I sat last evening at the beach with my shirt off in the warmth at 5 p.m. feeling the breezes and listening to the sounds, I couldn’t think of a place I would rather be.
**
As thankful as I am about my opportunity to enjoy beach living, I am also empathetic to the billion people who wake each morning and do not have water in their abode. In fact the girls and women are charged with gathering enough for the family during the day.
They are lucky if they can get 5 gallons. The water they collect is polluted. The whole family suffers from dysentery, cholera, and other diseases not to mention a high mortality rate for infants.
The solution is drilling and filtering. $5,000 brings a well for up to 250 people in a village, school or clinic. $1 or $5 by enough people brings water, a most basic necessity.
We need to bring the bottom up for so many reasons. We are all connected. Their suffering is our suffering on a subconscious level. With water they can spend their time going to school and enter the work force.
Their governments are often trading the country’s resources and not concerned with people at the bottom. If we don’t care, who will?
I am Writing for Water and devoting time to raising small donations to bring water. My website Kaalm Waters tells more of the story and you can contribute to my campaign for CharityWater.org.
As of January 2012, they had 6185 projects in place serving 2, 545,000 people. A small start, but yet a beginning.
Visit MyCharity.org and give a latte for water.
What Surfing Teaches About Commitment
Posted by: | CommentsI only have to look at beginners struggling to get up on their boards in the foamy surf to realize how far I have come. It seems like the slowest process in which I have ever been involved. 
As a surf instructor, I hear my new students say they saw the surfers while watching on the pier or from the beach and imagined it was easy. Then in the water they say “this is no joke”.
I have read 10 books, watched innumerable videos, and watched surfers countless hours to learn what surfers were doing so that I could advance.
It seems the only way you can get it is to get it. No single source seems to explain how to do it or what you will experience and feel while you are doing it. This is reason I wrote my own book; to give more of the “how you feel while doing it” to the new surfer.
You have to love going in the water and taking what ever comes. Some find it difficult to love. You take a tremendous physical pounding while learning. Even after you have learned, you still get knocked into pre-concussed states while surfing big waves and often wonder how you came out of a bad tumble.
This is life. You can get really brutalized trying to make inroads, create influence, or accomplish goals. There is no better process than to commit to keep working. You can’t measure your over all goal in daily set backs. You have to have faith that if you keep chipping on the boulder with your hammer and chisel, you will split it.
You never fail if you never quit.
**
To my surfing and website creation activities I and my daughters are devoting time to raising awareness and hopefully money for the billion people who wake up with no water. When they go to collect it, it is polluted. They get sick and many babies die. Girls don’t go to school.
My daughter, Alex, right has been to Uganda and knows how these beautiful children need our help.
We need to get people off the bottom to make it a better world. The shadow economy of people struggling like in Bangladesh is actually the fastest growing part of the world economy. Its projected to be in the trillions. They borrow each others cell phones and pay a fee. They splice into electric lines and run their appliances. They live in tin and cardboard shacks. As people become consumers, it creates jobs all over the world.
But nothing progresses without water. Its responsible for 80% of the world’s sickness. It takes more time to gather water than to collect firewood and cook.
Even a $1 or $5 helps drill a well. A well gives up to 250 people clean water. Charity Water had 6185 projects in place as of January. People are helping. Every drop is precious.
Visit http://mycharitywater.org/kaalmmediagroup
Building KaalmWaters.com
The Zone is Between the Thoughts
Posted by: | CommentsWhen we are operating perfectly, our brain has taken control of the body without the need for the mind to tell it what to do. As we practice a skill, we develop neural pathways. You no longer need to concentrate as you brush your teeth.
The brain has plasticity which allows us to learn and our brain to grow until the day we die. If we practice a sport, an art, a vocation, our brain learns the routine. Then when we engage in the activity, if we can shut out the distractions, we drop into the zone.
In the zone, our brain pumps out dopamine. It likes being in the zone. Our brain waves are optimally balanced with just enough adrenaline to get us on edge but keep us from going over.
In the zone, you are not thinking about what you have to do today. It is your freedom from strife. It is you self actualizing. It is you being as perfect as you can be.
To get your life more in the zone, start eliminating distractions that drain your energy. Peak Performance demands the maximum energy you can deliver. What are the drains? Worrying about your financial security, of course, concern about relationships, and stressing about world peace.
Start small in eliminating distractions. Eliminate watching TV, reading the news, and negative people. Then hone in on the other things you do that drain emotion and energy like social media, texting, pointless conversations, destructive personal habits.
Focus on the activities that are most important to you and bring all the creative energy you can muster to pushing the envelope. Find the right times when you can concentrate on improving your skills and challenging your self to make progress.
When you start getting to the zone regularly, you will realize that all the other distractions you engage in are really pretty tasteless by comparison.
**
Read Finding Your Zone, by Michael Lardon, M.D. He says you have to adopt 10 practices to get there. I have read them and have no argument.
How to Achieve “Zone” Living
Posted by: | CommentsPeak Performance occurs, by most authors and researchers, while in “the zone”. We have to recognize that expressing our life experiences are limited by our vocabulary and secondly by the popular terms that people recognize.
What is really “Living” and what is “Peak Performance”? Imagine feeling really healthy and vibrating with energy. Imagine being free of stress, anxiety, worry, and fear of judgement. Imagine performing tasks with amazing results and without having to think about them as you go.
Being in “the zone” is a state where all distractions disappear. You are performing at the perfect state of adrenaline and brain functioning. The mind is not even involved because the brain has formed neural pathways that make accomplishing the task automatic. The mind can just sit back and enjoy.
Eliminate the stress and worry of living and life can be the same as being in the zone. Focus and practice are the key to Zone Living. You have to eliminate as many distractions as possible. You have to be focused on accomplishing tasks that you have practiced and have competence or expertise. You have to surrender to the outcome that you could succeed or fail. You can’t be consumed by the past nor worried about the future.
It can’t be done you say! I feel you. I focus on several things and have creative energy depending on how many distractions I can eliminate. I have eliminated TV, reading the news, and now watching movies on Netflix. I have more creative energy to focus on my blogs, my websites, my books, my research, and pleasure reading. I have not turned off my mind to the world. I am trying to raise money to bring water to the developing nations.
Instead of worrying about everything, I am trying to contribute all the energy I can muster to causes about which I care. I am eliminating all the distractions that would take my mind off purpose. That includes negative people.
Michael Lardon, M.D. has devoted his practice and his life to studying people performing in the zone such as professional athletes. These professional athletes are also capable of getting into the zone with their personal lives because they understand how to focus and bar distractions.
The zone produces dopamine which is our happiness chemical. Anyone not want to be happy? We are hardwired to focus and perform at our optimum. To do less creates frustration and unhappiness. You make the choice.
**
Read Finding Your Zone, by Michael Lardon, M.D. He says you have to adopt 10 practices to get there. I have read them and have no argument.
**
To my surfing and website creation activities I and my daughters are devoting time to raising awareness and hopefully money for the billion people who wake up with no water. When they go to collect it, it is polluted. They get sick and many babies die. Girls don’t go to school.
My daughter, Alex, right has been to Uganda and knows how these beautiful children need our help.
We need to get people off the bottom to make it a better world. The shadow economy of people struggling like in Bangladesh is actually the fastest growing part of the world economy. Its projected to be in the trillions. They borrow each others cell phones and pay a fee. They splice into electric lines and run their appliances. They live in tin and cardboard shacks. As people become consumers, it creates jobs all over the world.
But nothing progresses without water. Its responsible for 80% of the world’s sickness. It takes more time to gather water than to collect firewood and cook.
Even a $1 or $5 helps drill a well. A well gives up to 250 people clean water. Charity Water had 6185 projects in place as of January. People are helping. Every drop is precious.
Visit http://mycharitywater.org/kaalmmediagroup
Building KaalmWaters.com
Selecting the Right Foods for Energy and Health
Posted by: | CommentsIt seems that in most situations if we were given the opportunity for pleasure or pain, we would choose pleasure. The problem with food is the devil is at work. He masquerades the pain foods to look like pleasure. We eat all those fast foods, sugars, fried foods, fats, and refined products thinking how great they taste.
Then we buy larger clothes, get sick often, die if we run a quarter mile, have stomach problems and always need more energy. Later we start taking lots of pills to fend off the body process of dying from heart disease, cancer and other maladies.
To live long and healthy we can look at some of the cultures on earth that are living past 100 and not ever suffering disease. They eat what comes out of the ground and their food does not go to a factory and come back in a box, can, package, or dispenser. If your food comes from one of these containers, there is a problem already.
Food has a vibrational quality that transfers the energy from the natural process of eating plant life or sea life to sustain human functioning. The closer you get to the basic life forms, the more energy and health you get.
As soon as a factory gets in between, you lose the basic nutritional value. So think of your next meal and ask yourself whether the ingredients are Natural or did they go someplace for processing first?
**
To my surfing and website creation activities I and my daughters are devoting time to raising awareness and hopefully money for the billion people who wake up with no water. When they go to collect it, it is polluted. They get sick and many babies die. Girls don’t go to school.
My daughter, Alex, right has been to Uganda and knows how these beautiful children need our help.
We need to get people off the bottom to make it a better world. The shadow economy of people struggling like in Bangladesh is actually the fastest growing part of the world economy. Its projected to be in the trillions. They borrow each others cell phones and pay a fee. They splice into electric lines and run their appliances. They live in tin and cardboard shacks. As people become consumers, it creates jobs all over the world.
But nothing progresses without water. Its responsible for 80% of the world’s sickness. It takes more time to gather water than to collect firewood and cook.
Even a $1 or $5 helps drill a well. A well gives up to 250 people clean water. Charity Water had 6185 projects in place as of January. People are helping. Every drop is precious.
Visit http://mycharitywater.org/kaalmmediagroup
Building KaalmWaters.com
Interview of 500 Mile Paddle Boarder
Posted by: | CommentsI recently met Tim Warner in the water at the Oceanside Pier. He was paddle boarding and I was surfing. I found out he was planning a June launch of a 
500 mile paddle from the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge to the San Diego Coronado Bridge with two friends. He is doing it to high light the need for Clean Water to a billion people on Earth.
His Charity Website and Newsletter is at http://BridgetoBridgeFilm.com. Because this is an extraordinary undertaking I asked him for an interview to discuss the physical and mental aspects of this journey which he generously granted. He will be filming it as a documentary which hopefully we will see upon its completion.
The 500 miles you are contemplating paddle boarding is more than most people would ever contemplate. What kind of beginning condition were you in to make you think you could complete it? I was actually in no place to even attempt it. We knew we needed to train before the long paddle. Before we were able to get paddle boards we just ran and did pushups. It’s funny because when I started this project I was 160lb and now I’m 190lb.
What is your normal workout routine?
The most important form of training for us is getting in the water and doing long paddles over ten miles. When we started we were doing 10, 15 and 20 mile paddles to try and get in shape and get our bodies used to the long paddles. When we first started, our training was all about swimming, running, weight lifting and long paddles. Now we are focusing more on getting as much time out on the water and occasional cross training. Paddling 5 days a week is the best form of training for us.
What do you feel you have to be able to do in your training in order to complete this event? Paddling 20 miles once is a feat, but to do it every day for days is of a different magnitude? You are exactly right. We try get out in the water as much as possible. We have done long back to back paddles and have felt the pain in our bodies. We are going into this with an attitude of positivity. We want to get out in the water and start paddling. We know that this is a challenge and that is why we are doing it. This challenge gives us a platform to raise awareness for the water crisis in the world. We are not super athletes, just ordinary people who only started paddle boarding 5 months ago. We feel that in order to complete this event, we need a positive perspective and we have to encourage one another. We will put as much time in to train as we can and hopefully we complete the journey.
What is your nutrition program? The first thing we do is try to eat healthy. We try to eat a good amount of protein and stay away from processed foods. Whole natural foods are the best thing for us. We like to eat raw foods like fruits and vegetables as well as lean meats. We are sponsored by MRM and so we are taking protein powder and muscle recovery products to help us keep healthy and to support our muscles during strenuous exercise.
How does it differ from before you began training? Before training, I ate whatever my wife cooked fortunately for me we ate healthily before starting this project. I never took protein powder or muscle recovery products before starting this project.
Do you have preferences for vegan, meat, supplements, special foods? Not really, I eat just about anything. I love fish and sushi is my favorite after a workout.
Do you consciously avoid certain foods? YES. I avoid eating fast food and when I do eat fast food I try and get something from the menu to suit my nutritional style. If I had to choose between grilled chicken and a hamburger, I would do the grilled chicken.
Do you have days you don’t feel like training, and what do you do to overcome? Yes, I do have those days. If I don’t feel like going out I try and make it up in the next paddle. But like I said, just getting out in the water for 2-4 hours about 4-5 times a week keeps us in decent shape. That’s close to 20 hours a week.
What do you feel is your biggest physical challenge? For me it’s a back injury I have been working through. I also am very aware of the magnitude of this trip. We did a 27 mile paddle in the ocean and at mile 20 I was ready to stop. I was tired and hurting and that was a very big physical challenge for me. I was so excited about finishing the paddle that I just kept going. .
What might be your biggest mental challenge? The biggest mental challenge for me is going to be thinking about how far away San Diego is or about how I miss my wife and two kids.
I understand you are afraid of sharks. Most of us don’t like sharks, but I know it can be worse for some. What are you doing mentally about that? I am accepting the fact that we will probably see them. I realize that I am not what they want to eat. I am going to stay close to the other two guys on the trip It helps that I am standing up on a board, you somehow feel a little safer. I’m more afraid of the pain I will feel from paddle boarding such a long distance.
Anything you would like to say that I left out? This project is for others. We are going to set foot in the San Francisco bay after about 6 months of hard work and training. We are going to paddle to raise awareness for the water crisis in the world, make a documentary and have fun. Hopefully others will be inspired to help fight against the water problem in the world. Thanks Mark.
Thanks Tim. And I am sure we all wish him luck and success in this endeavor.
I also caught Tim in Video riding a wave and posted it to You Tube
Who Said Money Was Happiness?
Posted by: | CommentsSure, I love getting a check in the mail. Maybe its an acknowledgment of something worthwhile I have produced. Achievement is a real high. The more I achieve, generally, the more checks I receive. That leaves me high for a few days and then I need to get another check. 
Happiness doesn’t need to be fleeting. Happiness is about contentment with the present circumstances.
That requires gratitude. Gratitude is real happiness because it means you are happy with things the way they are.
Building this happiness, however, might be a different track than the one you are on when you go to the office. Happiness can be the result of dopamine and serotonin being released in your brain. Happiness can be the result of feeling good from eating healthy and exercising. Happiness can be the result of expressing yourself. It can be the result of helping others and making a difference.
Going to the office takes care of Maslow’s lowest orders on the pyramid to self actualization. If you want the rocket ship ride to the top, start thinking of taking care of yourself and helping others do the same.
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I feel life has rewarded me and now I want to help others get some benefits. For some reason I have been drawn to those who have the fewest opportunities. In fact, a billion people wake up everyday and don’t even have water. Water is the beginning of life. You can live awhile without food, but in a hot climate, you cannot live long without water.
100% of contributions go to drilling and processing polluted water. When there is clean water little girls can go to school and moms can join the work force. Every drop is precious. Learn more…
My daughters and I have a campaign “Writing for Water” and 100% of the contributions go to CharityWater.org. $1 or $5 helps bring water to people who need survival before they can find happiness. Donate a cup of coffee
