The time has come. A year of hard work is going to be tested next Sunday. Two dozen Canadian athletes are traveling with me to Frankfurt, Germany to do the July 10th Ironman for a personal challenge. Our group includes some 35-50 year old mothers, two husband a wife combinations, a few doctors, a couple of engineers and a financial planner. What is consistent among the entire group is that next Sunday morning they have to dive into a small lake and cover 2.4 miles before starting on a 112 mile bike ride through the hills of Frankfurt and finally end the day with a 26.2 mile marathon. My wife Caron and some of her best friends in the world are a part of this traveling circus. All winter, when it would have been easier to sit inside and read a book, our group put on three layers of warm clothing and went outside to run. On Saturdays, when some people slept in, they would be on their wind-trainers improving their cycling fitness.

One of the things I love about endurance sport is that you are rewarded for your effort and past training. Regardless of how rich your parents were (or how poor they were), regardless of how many business contacts you have in the world, you still have to cover every inch of the event in 10-16 hours to officially finish. Each year I have a few interesting "projects" in my training group and this year was no different. Susan my St. Thomas mother has lost a tonne of weight in the last year and achieved things she never believed were possible. Now she is going to have to put that incredible improvement to work against the toughest judge (the ticking clock). Susan and I know she has a 50/50 chance of hitting the cut-off time after the swim-bike portion of the event. Get off the bike under 10hours (you get to start the marathon). Miss the 10hr cut off and your day is over. Dermot, my Toronto Engineer, has been a busy guy and made his first official workout with me last weekend. I have never seen anyone work harder in the water. Dermot did the entire 2km freestyle swim with his head above water the entire way (think of keeping your head above water for 1 full hour). Too busy to get out to my swim sessions, I only got to see Dermot in the last 5 days. Many people would say it's impossible and simply give up. Instead Dermot and I sat down to re-focus on the huge task and he is tripling his efforts this week with remedial open water swim lessons every day. In just three days, he has learned how to put his face in the water and slow down his erratic breathing. Even though Dermot is a great cyclist and runner, he has to get out of the 2.4 mile swim in just over 2 hours to even be allowed to start the 112 mile bike section and 26.2 mile run. I learn more from my athletes then they ever learn from me. With no guarantee of a hitting the finishing line, these two athletes are going to give everything they have next Sunday.

Sunday will be a long and energizing day for me. In just over 9 hours I expect to see Caledon's Lisa Bentley hit the finishing tape (hopefully as the pro women's champion). With minutes to go before the 16 hour cut-off, I expect to be still out on the course cheering on our last finishers. In between I will see normal - everyday Canadian heroes challenging themselves and learning much about their mental strength and determination. If you would like to follow Lisa, Caron and our two dozen other Canadians next Sunday, you can tune in anytime during the day to www.ironmanlive.com and hit the Ironman Germany Icon. The updated results and stories about these truly amazing busy people will be told as the day goes on. Those of you who are still interested, and have not yet contacted me about a trip to next year's Ironman in Nice, France should do so soon. Spots will be gone within the next few weeks.

I would like to welcome readers to our 247th consecutive week of the Personal Best Update. We all have days when we need some positive reinforcement - a lost job, broken relationship, or family member who becomes ill. My goal is to be one small source of positive energy each week. The world is filled with too many great stories that never get told. I hope you will enjoy this week's newsletter and keep contributing with your own stories and ideas. Send them to barrie@personalbest.ca and check out our website at www.personalbest.ca

JULY 4th PB HIGHLIGHTS:

* RICHARD E. BYRD'S QUOTE ON INTERNAL POWER OF THE MIND
* WHAT WE LEARN FROM "FAILURE"
* THE PROPER TEACHING MOMENT
* THE OLD POODLE

RICHARD E. BYRD'S QUOTE ON INTERNAL POWER:

"Few men during their lifetime comes anywhere near exhausting the resources dwelling within them. There are deep wells of strength that are never used."

(Dedicated to my 2 dozen Ironman Germany competitors).

FAILURE IS REQUIRED:

by Steve Goodier

Nobody stood and walked the first time her weight was put down on wobbly legs at a few months old. Nobody got his ABCs or counting to 10 right the first time he tried to imitate someone with that series of sounds. Nobody spelled "rendezvous" correctly upon first hearing the word. Everybody fails at something.

If it is true of things so basic as walking, counting, or writing, why should we be so surprised that we fail at things when we get older? A first job may not turn out to be a career. A sure-fire investment may not be. Some relationships don't work out. The real question isn't "Will I ever fail at anything?" but "What is the best way to deal with my mistakes and failures?" Nobody wants to mess up. Nobody sets out to fail. But fallibility is another name for humanity.

Thomas Edison was extraordinarily successful. He lit up the world with his incandescent bulb. He invented the phonograph, microphone, and movies. He conceived and created storage batteries. He worked with the inventions of others to make them commercially feasible - things like the typewriter, telegraph, and telephone. He patented a phenomenal 1,093 inventions during his lifetime. Those inventions literally changed the world. But failure was part of his creative process.

Most of us seem to fear failure so much that we avoid taking risks. We are reluctant to learn new things. We hesitate about anything unfamiliar that might make us look foolish or label us as failures. But where does one learn virtues such as perseverance and courage except from facing difficulties and setbacks?

During a frustrating series of experiments, Edison tried to buoy the spirits of a discouraged co-worker. "We haven't failed!" he told the man. "We now know things that won't work, so we are that much closer to finding what will."

Instead of fixating on the possibility of failure, it is better to understand that it is acceptable to try worthwhile things and fail. It is part of the learning process.

Think about the last time something came undone for you. Did you try to conceal it? Find someone to blame for it? Go into some dark place about your inadequacies as a person? Give up on the project or person?

Now think about a different strategy for your next setback. Admit that things didn't work out as you had hoped. Take responsibility for whatever part of the failure belongs to you. Then figure out what you can learn from the process. The point here is not simply to acknowledge but to learn from a reversal.

THE PROPER LEARNING MOMENT:

I often get calls from people after their brother has had a heart-attack or their best friend has past away from an illness. It is then that they become open to improving their own personal health. Last week I sat in my doctor's office awaiting some results from a biopsy he had extracted a few weeks before. With my family's history of cancer and heart attack, my doctor didn't want to be too casual with the unusual growth. Fortunately for me, my doctor caught my biopsy early and was able to ensure it doesn't grow into a larger problem. In talking with him I found out that many people could benefit dramatically by going in for early screening on a number of medical illnesses. Men are worse then women when it comes to visiting the doctor. I never noticed the small mole on my stomach and wouldn't have realized it was different in colour. Doctors are trained to do these kinds of assessments and should be used for preventative health problems as much as post-diseased states.

While doing my complete physical, I had my blood work fully completed and found my cholesterol ratio (bad cholesterol LDL - divided by my good cholesterol HDL) was much higher then is recommended. While my bad LDL cholesterol is not far off the "norm", my good cholesterol HDL is significantly lower then it should be (and as a result my ratio puts me at higher risk). You have two options when presented with a problem. Stick your head in the sand and hope it goes away, or choose to fully educate yourself and make an intervention. While medication is still an option, every medicine has a side-effects and I agreed with my doctor to take three months to see if I could alter my cholesterol ratio naturally. Two key things improve your cholesterol. A) More exercise and B) Improved nutritional intake. I must admit that I have been less then optimal on both scores. While my doctor did suggest my pattern of normal LDL and very low HDL usually occurs due to genetics (i.e. your parents), improvements can be made. I decided last week to commit to becoming my doctor's most motivated cholesterol patient over the next three months. Stay tuned for the three month update to see how much improvement can be made by a motivated patient! Experience from others who have been diagnosed with high cholesterol and how they have dealt with it (nutritionally, exercise and or use of drugs) is much appreciated and will be shared with our readers in the future. Send your ideas to barrie@personalbest.ca

THE OLD POODLE:

A wealthy old lady decides to go on a photo safari in Africa, taking her faithful aged poodle named Cuddles, along for the company. One day the poodle starts chasing butterflies and before long, Cuddles discovers that she's lost. Wandering about, she notices a leopard heading rapidly in her direction with the intention of having lunch. The old poodle thinks, "Oh, oh! I'm in deep doo-doo now!" Noticing some bones on the ground close by, she immediately settles down to chew on the bones with her back to the approaching cat. Just as the leopard is about to leap, the old poodle exclaims loudly, "Boy, that was one delicious leopard! I wonder if there are any more around here?" Hearing this, the young leopard halts his attack in mid-strike, a look of terror comes over him and he slinks away into the trees. "Whew!", says the leopard, "That was close! That old poodle nearly had me!"

Meanwhile, a monkey who had been watching the whole scene from a near by tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the leopard. So off he goes, but the old poodle sees him heading after the leopard with great speed, and figures that something must be up. The monkey soon catches up with the leopard, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself with the leopard. The young leopard is furious at being made a fool of and says, "Here, monkey, hop on my back and see what's going to happen to that conniving canine!" Now, the old poodle sees the leopard coming with the monkey on his back and thinks, "What am I going to do now?", but instead of running, the dog sits down with her back to her attackers, pretending she hasn't seen them yet, and just when they get close enough to hear, the old poodle says: "Where's that damn monkey? I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another leopard!"

Moral of this story… Don't mess with old farts...age and treachery will always overcome youth. Top of the week to all my "old-fart" readers I believe the week belongs to you!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK AND TRY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF AT LEAST ONE OTHER PERSON