Coach Kip

So this will be a reboot in more than one ways.  First why I decided on a reboot and what I am rebooting.

Why the reboot?

I started to read The 4-Hour Chef at 5 am this morning.

Tim Ferris.  Yep I will blame it all on him.  I got his first book ordering it before it was released at a Boarders Book Store.  The Four Hour Work Week turned my life upside down.  I was totally not ready for it.  I implemented some things and believe that I have become very good at activity management.  I have found time where time was needed.  I expertly applied the ideals and techniques in teaching, which became very dangerous.

I experienced new things as a teacher that I had never experienced before.  Time.  Lots of extra time.  I developed a classroom that would run on its own.  I felt useless as if I should be doing something.  Fortunately our new evaluation system gave high praise to teachers who were facilitators in their classroom.  That was me and I quickly rose to the top of the evaluation system and busted right through the top scores of evaluation and student growth.

But now what.  I said my life was turned upside down.  That sounds really great.  The part that got me turned upside down was that I realized, like a giant light bulb exploding in a fiery death, I was better than many teachers who were getting paid way more than me just because they were older.  And I had no chance to increase my pay without getting another degree and getting older.  The system was flawed.

THE TEACHING PAY SYSTEM DOES NOT REWARD SUCCESS.  IT IS OLD AND ANTIQUATED AND MAKES NO SENSE IF WE ARE TO GET BETTER.

I had a great leadership training session recently where this great old gentleman with a grandfatherly voice told us that we knew what we were getting into when we started so there was no reason to grip about it.  And he is absolutely correct.  However when we receive new information we can make better decisions and we may have to change our thought patterns because we find out that they were wrong.  I was wrong.

The Reboot.

So with new information we can make new decisions.  For me it is like installing new software.  I am a Microsoft guy.  Not because I think that Microsoft is wonderful and can never be better but because it works (usually).  It is compatible with the world, it is usable because that is what I have always used, and it is widely available.  Not the best reasons but it is the reasons that we have.  I would love to be a Linux guy but it is another thing to learn and it is down the list a little bit.  So…the reboot.  We who use Microsoft equipment know all about the reboot.  But why do we do it?  Two reasons.

Things are running slowly.

Sometimes when our computers are running very slowly we do a reboot.  It clears out the temporary memory, stops ghost programs from running, and generally cleans things up.

We have Installed New Software

After we install new software most of the time the software calls for a reboot.  It does this to organize itself from a clean slate.

So now I am doing this with my brain.  I am rebooting it.  I am cleaning out all the old thought patterns that have gotten me to where I am and I am creating new ones so that I can go where I want to go.  The old thought patterns were great.  They allowed me to get to where I am and I am grateful for them.  Now it is time to move on, and move on I will.

I cracked open the 4 Hour Chef  this morning.  It inspired this post.  Another Tim Ferris book, this one on how to learn.  So another piece of this blog will be me marking my progress on learning something new.

I will apply the things I have learned in the 4 Hour Chef to learning how to trade and invest my hard earned money.  The goal is to retire at age 50 with enough investments giving me a steady income to live the way I want.  Yes the FU money.  A simple calculation tells us that I need $6,250,000 in assets that produce an average yearly rate of return of 8%.  That gives me $500,000 a year income to do with what I please.  I don’t know how I can possibly spend all that money but I will do my best to achieve it.

February always seems to be the beginning of new years for me.  It takes all of January to get organized and ready for a change.  It is February 10th, time for a new year of change.

Two goals this year.  Become a confident investor with a winning record and a 8% return on my investments.  Weight 170 pounds by my 40th birthday.  That is a half a pound loss every week.  I can do this.

Believing in oneself, in a goal, in a dream, in anything is the most important and most overlooked step toward success.  Belief creates everything.

If you do not believe there is no motivation.

If you do not believe there is no vision.

If you do not believe there is no reason to set a goal.

Believe in yourself.

Believe in your abilities.

Believe that anything is possible.

Creating belief changes everything around you.  When people see that you believe in a cause, or in a goal, they rally around you.  Things begin to change for you with belief.  You begin to notice differences in your actions.  You begin to notice differences in your thoughts.  You begin to notice differences in the people around you.  Everything changes.

Ok I can get off tangent and go for a long time like this.  It truly is amazing when you understand the power of simply believing in something.  But how is it done?

Fake it.  When you are first starting and you are not sure what to do, or how to act, or you have some doubts yourself.  Fake it.  Act as if you have total belief that something is going to happen.  Act as if you completely believe with all your body, soul, and actions that it is going to happen.

While you are faking it something will happen.  You will begin to believe it yourself.  You will begin to take action.  You will begin to subconsciously take control of your actions and begin to move toward your goals.

Don’t believe me?  Try it, take control, begin Believing, strange things will happen.  You will find yourself acting in different ways.  How bad do you want success?

Believe in yourself, you may just surprise yourself with what you can do.

Believe It!

Coach Kip

I have found, and I now teach to my students, players, and clients, that all processes can be broken down into three easy parts.  You can handle three things right?  Of course, we all can.  So if we break everything down into just three parts then it makes everything just a little easier.

What I have found is that the key to true life happiness is Healthy – Wealthy – Wise.  Further explained: Healthy; take care of your body, Wealthy; not just rich but having time and money, Wise; always learning, always growing.

In my own education I found that every part of the three step process can be broken down even further.  Then each individual step can be broken down even further and so fourth.   Healthy – Wealthy – Wise can be broken into Conceive It – Believe It – Achieve It.  That can be broken down into Define – Learn – Do and so on.

For example lets say that we want to work on our Health.  Here is how it would work:

Step 1 Conceive It – The first step would be to decide what your goals are going to be, what your time line is, and just what it is that you want to gain with your health. You Define what you want.
Next you figure out just how you are going to do it.  You need to do the research and Learn how it is done.  Finally you just Do it.

Step 2 Believe It – Nothing comes easy, and absolutely nothing comes without belief.  You must know for sure that you are going to get what you want.  You must Define that belief.  How are you going to trust yourself that you will achieve what you want.  You then need to Learn how to get that belief deep seeded not just in your mind, but in your body and soul.  Finally you just have to Do it.  It may seem like you are faking it at first, but eventually you will become that.  You will Believe.

Step 3 Achieve It – Now you are beginning to get to your goals.  You have to be ready to Achieve what you want.  If you are not ready the slightest misstep can change your results.  You must Define exactly what it is to have reached your goal.  You them must Learn about how to make that happen.  Learning is a continuous process.  Keep Doing.  That is the final part.  As you get close do not quit.  Keep going, keep trying, keep Achieving.

It may be kind of vague but this post is just a bridge to get to where we want to go.  To get to defining the Conceive It – Believe It – Achieve It.

More to come

Coach Kip.

As most of you know I frequently sign my posts with Conceive It, Believe It, Achieve It. It begs the question; so what is it? It is a mantra or a motto that I learned way back in high school, I just did not understand it until recently. Now that I know what it is and how to use it, it is something that I repeat frequently, hence signing at the end of my posts.

Let me give a little history of how it came to be. My first big mentor was my High School Football Coach Jim Ooley. He was at the time of his retirement the greatest high school football coach in Michigan. Anyone who followed high school football in Michigan from the early 1970′s to the early 1990′s knew of Jim Ooley and Traverse City Football. I played for him during his final year. Err, I was on the team. I did not play much at all my Senior year compared to my Junior year. Maybe it was due to some nagging minor injuries or maybe it was because I was 145 pounds trying to play for the biggest school in Michigan and the #1 ranked team in the State.

I can’t recall how many times I heard Conceive It, Believe It, Achieve It, while I was playing for him. I did not completely understand it then. At the time I knew that the reason we were told that is because we were small, slow, and weak. We were frequently over matched athletically on the football field, but we rarely lost. Actually we only lost three games my entire Junior and Senior years, two in the semi finals, and one to our rival where we completely overlooked them. I knew that we needed to play as a team, and we needed to believe that we could win. I don’t remember a time that we did not think that we could win, and except for that one game. At the same time there was no time that we thought we could just walk in and beat anyone with ease. We knew we would win if we played as a team and played as close to mistake free as possible.

We simply had great coaching, and an undying belief that we could do it. It was not the X’s and O’s as we football coaches call it. In laymen terms it was not due to the plays that we won. It was how we were coached. I understood that part. What I did not understand was the rest.

While my wife and I were transforming our lives we kept running into things that were grouped in threes.

Be – Do – Have
Define – Learn – Do
Healthy – Wealthy – Wise
Ask – Believe – Receive
Conceive It – Believe It – Achieve It

and many more. It was then that suddenly I knew exactly what it was. It is a process for life.

Everything that you ever want to do, ever want to have, ever want to achieve can be broken down into a three step process. All those steps can be broken down even further, and further, and so on.

So what is next? First I will break down the different steps and what exactly they mean, then I will give some examples of how they can be used.

Until Then

Conceive It, Believe It, Achieve It

Coach Kip