CEO’s Blog

I’m a little late posting this, but I wanted to share this with everybody like I did last year. I do this for a few reasons:

1. I want to motivate you to create your own goal list (written, not just spoken) and share them with others. That’s the SECRET to actually achieving them, according to many studies on success.

2. I want YOU to hold me accountable to each of these things! I’ll feel like an idiot if I say that I have a certain goal and then you catch me not doing it. This is good motivation for me!

Below are my life goals for 2009. It’s similar in style to the ones I wrote in 2008. I reached most of my goals in 2008, and I’m taking things to another level in 2009! I’m posting this list on my wall in my office and on my mirror in my bathroom so I can read it while brushing my teeth (so that will be at least once a week… perfect!).

Please reply to this blog entry and post a link to yours. If you are serious about getting to where you want in life, you will do it. You will plan your life and write down your dreams and goals and the steps it will take to get there. You will share them with others. You will create action plans. Otherwise, you’ll be wandering aimlessly through life, wondering why you can’t seem to get anywhere, and making excuses. That’s a proven fact!

Ryan’s Goal Plan For 2009

Where will I be at the end of 2009?

Smarter, focusing on the long-term every day, in great shape, IFR-rated with more flying experience, having an even better relationship with my family, with kids that are smart, confident and growing in every way, and feeling good! Or will I waste my time and efforts? I only get one chance at 2009.

FAMILY/PERSONAL

1. Continue spending a ton of quality time with Bryna and kids

2. Do something romantic at least twice per month

3. More learning activities (social, emotional, physical, spiritual, educational) together with kids

4. Continue going to Church on Sundays

5. Continue Sunday BBQs with family and friends

6. Focus on building long-term relationships with close friends

7. Volunteer twice this year for the less fortunate, with the kids so they can learn from it

8. Read five nights a week to kids before bed

9. Have the kids watch learning DVDs in the car 80% of the time, instead of just Disney movies

10. Kyla: Successful in pre-school twice a week, three times a week in the fall. Gymnastics, dance class, more one on one time with only daddy without distractions (at least one fun activity a month), skiing next winter, saying her ABC’s and can recognize each written letter, can count to 100, focus on secure attachments, confidence, achievement motivation through positive reinforcement and scaffolding, feeling 110% loved

11. Raiden: Preschool in the spring three times a week; find a great school for kindergarten and prepare him for it; skiing by himself on green runs; gymnastics; karate class twice per week and earn his first new belt; swimming by himself by summer; motorcycling and four wheeling in the summer; more one on one time with daddy without distractions (at least one activity per month); t-ball in the spring with practice with daddy before it starts. Focus on secure attachments, confidence, achievement motivation through positive reinforcement and scaffolding, feeling 110% loved, comfortable in social situations with kids his age, reading simple books by year end

12. New Baby: Find a name for him, give him love without getting frustrated and showing it, give a lot of attention and time, teach him like I did with the first two, build securely attached relationship

13. Live in the now; appreciate it instead of just thinking about the future

14. Move to newly purchased house in February

15. Write a short daily journal - online

TRAVEL

1. Cross country flying "road trip" in the plane

2. Two weekend trips per month

3. Four weekend ski trips to different places

4. Go to the SuperBowl

5. Go to DisneyWorld

6. Take our whole extended family on our annual Thanksgiving trip for a week

7. Go to Paris with Bryna for a week for 10 year anniversary

8. Book my flight into space on Virgin Galactic

FITNESS/HEALTH

1. Gain five pounds of muscle, build arms to 16.5” flexed (from 16” flexed now); lose bodyfat as a percentage (currently 186 lbs.)

2. Stick to workout schedule - 2x per week weights, 3-5x per week cardio on non-weights days (read during cardio and in between sets at the gym)

3. At least 30 minutes for each cardio session

4. Play on company softball, basketball, and flag football city rec teams

5. Bench 255 for 10 reps (currently 225 for 9)

6. Eat less crap and especially less crap at night – nothing after 10 p.m.

7. Go to bed by 11:30 p.m. every single night and wake up at 7:30 a.m. every morning

8. Take my creatine/HMB supplements each day, along with my others on my daily plan

9. Run a 10k without walking once (or passing out)

10. Track everything I eat using a food diary on my phone. Not the details, just the “macro view”, and post to BodySpace with the meal tracker utility

11. Track bodyweight at least weekly when at the gym; progress photos and body measurements monthly; set dates for tracking in advance and put on calendar

FLYING

1. Fly 3 - 4 times per month

2. IFR Rating by summer (take cross country flying “road trip” as reward for finishing)

3. Fly to ten new airports (two out of state, not counting “road trip”)

4. Fly over the ocean

5. Fly my plane for more trips (at least 50%) instead of just flying commercial.

BUSINESS

1. Be a leader/visionary/strategizer/team builder/team motivator/educator

2. Hit our revenue target

3. Don’t take on ANY day to day type tasks that should be delegated. Stay focused on the long-term and work on important, big picture projects only

4. 2009 is the year of execution for all of the ideas we’ve had for the last few years, now that we have the IT capabilities… MAKE IT HAPPEN!

5. Prep for PR blitz in 2010

6. Spend more time with individual employees and teams; listen

7. Create overall/3month/1month strategies and plans with all departments

8. Concentrate on finding the right people to do the job; focus on people before anything else

9. Get a Bodybuilding.com tattoo

LEARNING

1. Read 30 - 60 minutes per weekday and during cardio

2. Read 2 full books per month

3. Read 2-3 relevant magazines per month, including Harvard Business Review and Inc.

4. Listen to relevant audio books during all alone driving time; finish four per month minimum

PLANNING

1. Create full goal plans at the beginning of each month

2. Audit previous month’s goal plan

3. Create plans/strategies from 9 – 10:20 a.m. Tuesday through Friday.

4. Review monthly goals every day, put goals in front of me on my desk and on mirror at home

I’m a proud daddy…

Every morning my son and daughter start their day making a protein shake with daddy. They love it!  And whey protein is great for their growth and their immune systems.

We all know how hard it is to get in shape and stay in shape. That’s why so many of our friends, family and neighbors are obese. There are temptations everywhere to do the wrong thing!  

Imagine a recovering meth addict that is trying hard not to relapse. Would it be a good idea for them to be around people that are doing drugs? Selling drugs? Obviously not. That’s the wrong environment and it will most likely cause them to relapse quickly.

For a person that deals with health and/or weight issues, you can see what the environment is for them in our society on a daily basis… fast food restaurants on every corner, candy in every gas station and supermarket checkout line, donuts in every break room, candy and pop machines in every building, and MUCH more. And it’s all super cheap and super fast.

For example, I took a picture of this sign that was hanging up at a Chevron today:

Break Your Resolution!

No wonder it is so tough!  That’s why what we are all doing as members of BodySpace is so important. We are helping each other to avoid temptation so we will live better, longer, and healthier lives with our families.

Over the last few years, I’ve been frustrated. No matter how much I worked out, it seemed like I was always getting out of breath before everybody else.

I’m on a few city rec sports leagues, and I’d always be the first one to have to take a break during basketball games. I’d listen to other guys complain about being tired and out of breath too, but not at the same level as me… and some of them never worked out.

When working out with weights, I’d almost feel like throwing up after each hard set. I’d get a little dizzy. I still pushed through, but it was tough.

So I finally researched it online and found others talking about the same breathing problems, and found articles about deviated septums.

I then remembered the time I was at a golf driving range with a friend a few years ago. I was standing about 10 feet from him, and he said "watch this!", you know, like people say right before doing something really stupid. I turned and looked at him, and he swung as hard as he could. The ball went directly sideways at 100 mph and hit me square in the nose. My nose bled like it was a hose that was turned on full blast. Argh!

It was sore for awhile after that, but it seemed like it healed perfectly. I never saw a doctor about it.

So what’s a deviated septum? Well, I think this picture pretty much explains it. The septum is the middle, hard part of the nose, and when it leans to one side, and it can make it harder to breathe out of BOTH sides:

Deviated Septum

I went to talk to an Ear/Nose/Throat doctor and he confirmed that I had a deviated septum. What a relief! I wasn’t going crazy. I booked my surgery that day.

I won’t lie. The surgery SUCKED. Well, the surgery process itself was painless (they knocked me out and then pumped me full of pain meds… mmm…), but the week afterwards was not fun. I had these big tubes up my nose, going all the way down my throat for draining. I couldn’t smell anything, couldn’t easily eat or drink, couldn’t really move around and definitely couldn’t exercise, and couldn’t breathe very well. Sleeping was almost impossible. I didn’t really have a lot of pain in my nose, but those big freakin’ tubes in my nose really made life MISERABLE. I had to keep them in for over a week… the longest week of my life.

Post-Surgery

Once they removed the tubes, I felt like a new man. Wow! I could breathe!

Now I am breathing much better and enjoying my workouts again. I’m not exactly an endurance athlete, but I can play basketball without feeling like I am about to die. I’m hitting new lifting records and I overall just FEEL better.

So if you feel the same, do some research and see if you might have the same problem.

How many companies have a Director Of Marketing that looks like this?

John Shumate

He knows about fitness and lives it everyday. That’s one of the reasons we wanted him to join the Bodybuilding.com team… he knows what you want and need for your bodybuilding and fitness goals. He’s dedicated to helping you through our marketing and branding.

Check out his latest BodyBlog entries to learn more about John:

John Shumate’s BodyBlog