Dear PB Reader,

More and more people are choosing to take activity based vacations. Instead of the old days where you sat on a warm sandy beach drinking exotic drinks from 10am until evening supper, more people are picking vacations where they are active and learn new skills. For the past eight days my wife and I coordinated an active living warm weather training camp in Clermont, Florida. Our thirty campers ranged from fourteen year olds, on their March Break, to a retired sixty-four year old learning new tricks. While the training was fantastic, my favorite part of the camp was the long evening suppers where the diverse group got to discuss many of life's complex issues. My fifty year olds learned as much from my teenage campers as the teenage campers did from their elders. Life is about perspective and our far too busy society often doesn't take (or make) time to just talk and listen. Our sixty-plus year old grandmother camper wowed the teenagers with her daily enthusiasm and zest for life. I had the chance to spend a private hour with the energized grandmother and saw once again the importance of positive attitude. Instead of sitting at home crying over the recent death of her husband to Alzheimer disease, she was getting up each day to hop into a swimming pool and learning how to bike with kids 1/2 and 1/4 of her age. While active living camps may not be for everyone, the ever growing number of mountain biking, running, triathlon, hiking, climbing and golfing vacations indicate that more people are looking to get off the lounge chairs when they do get time away from the office! People who are interested in joining our Personal Best team for a warm weather week still have April 16-23rd and April 23rd-30th to consider for 2005. More details at www.personalbest.ca

Welcome to our new PB readers. Our goal each week is to motivate and challenge you to look at the world and its challenges in a different way. Having been in a very motivating training camp this past week, I was repeatedly asked questions about achieving excellence. Flying home from the camp, I couldn't get the concept of achieving excellence out of my head. Is their one formula for success or is it unique to each person or family? Later in this our 232nd consecutive issue, I start what I hope will be an open dialogue for the next few weeks on what characteristics are required to achieve excellence. Please take time to respond with your own personal ideas and keep your contributions coming in at barrie@personalbest.ca or sign up your friends and family at www.personalbest.ca Have a great week.

MARCH 21st PB HIGHLIGHTS

* ALEXANDER DUMAS QUOTE ON FRIENDSHIP
* NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS (TRUE STORY OF JIM POLING SR)
* BARRIE'S FORMULA FOR ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE - A FOUR WEEK PROJECT
* CARON SHEPLEY'S POWER YOGA FOR ENDURANCE ATHLETES DVD
* FREE COACHING SESSION AND RESOURCES FOR ALL COACHES IN ONTARIO

ALEXANDER DUMAS QUOTE ON FRIENDSHIP

"Friendship consists in forgetting what one gives and remembering what one receives."

NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS

Some of us dream about owning our own house, starting up our own business or running a marathon. Canadian Jim Poling Senior dreamed about being a pilot. Flying high above the clouds and controlling the panel of a small bush airplane. In 1958 the teenager won an Air Cadet flying scholarship and it appeared that his childhood dream was under way. Passing a medical assessment is mandatory to fly and a local doctor found a defective heart in the teenager (an aortic stenosis). The narrowing of the aorta proved too risky to allow the motivated teenager the chance to learn to fly and Jim's dreams were extinguished. We each have set backs in life and Jim became a successful journalist with a heart that would one day require surgery. In 2001, Jim's heart problems deteriorated to the point that the risk of surgery out weighed the reduced quality of life. Jim's new surgeon thoroughly went over his past medical records and read a forty-three year old notation turning him down for a pilot's license. "The good news is you will be able to fly after the operation" said his doctor. Jim's excitement was quickly squashed when the heart operation ended with the loss of eye site in his right eye. After a long rehabilitation and support of many people, Jim started the arduous process of trying to convince Transport Canada to allow a senior citizen, with impaired eye site and a newly reconstructed aorta to be allowed to take his pilots test.

"At times I saw myself as a foolish old man with a stupidly expensive dream. What sense did it make to take up flying at an age when most commercial pilots are retiring?" But then my wife, Diane, would look at me and say "Jim it's your dream, follow your dreams." Finally Dr. Robert Flood at Transport Canada called and said they had concluded he was okay to fly. In Oct 2003 at Lake Simcoe Regional Airport (north of Barrie Ontario) Jim finally made his first solo flight. In his log book later that day he wrote "First solo- 45 years 5 months after being told I would never ever fly. Jim's story has merit for all of us. Why can't you learn to swim, climb a mountain or ride your bike across your town, county or country? If it's your personal dream, don't simply put it away in a box just because you haven't gotten around to it early in your life!

FORMULA FOR EXCELLENCE

Virtually everybody I meet would love to achieve personal excellence, yet they often lack the road map to achieve it. This past week I had the chance to meet many new unique people at my Florida training camp. Not knowing they were human guinea pigs, I casually asked the campers questions to better understand their perspective on what it takes to achieve excellence. My goal over the next 3 weeks is to have you help me discuss this interesting topic and add your own personal perspective.

While it may be difficult to turn excellence into a strictly mathematical formula, I started asking myself what I perceived were the key parameters to achieving excellence in most aspects of life (sport, business, politics, music, arts). Bear with me on my first draft of this topic as I may likely forget an element that you will suggest is critical to achieving excellence. I begin today's topic with the suggestion that EXCELLENCE = GENETICS * LUCK * DISCIPLINE * PASSION. Take a few seconds to ask yourself if there is another key area that is required to achieve excellence in virtually anything in life?

Let's start with Genetics. I believe you have it or you don't. You either picked the right parents or you didn't. You are either fast twitch muscle fiber or you aren't. Your score out of one hundred on genetics may be the easiest one to quantify because it's a gift at birth. While being given the genetic tools at birth is no guarantee of achieving excellence, it does give a person a head start. A great ear for music, fast-twitch fibers to help you sprint, or a large natural heart helps runners perform more optimally without having to put much extra effort into initial training. Because we can't change genetics, I believe it's a part of the excellence formula, but the one we have the least control over. Ironically, my experience is that the most successful people are rarely the most genetically talented. Take time to note your genetic gifts and then figure out how to manipulate the other three areas that you can control.

Luck is exactly what it sounds like. Being born in a war torn village without water doesn't prevent you from becoming an Olympic gold medal wrestler, but it does dramatically reduce the chances (making Daniel Igali's gold medal in Sydney all the more phenomenal). Being an incredibly talented female solo singer forty-years ago likely meant a tougher road to a successful recording career than it does for today's Canadian superstar female singers. Timing and location are two very important aspects of a person's luck. While I agree that the harder one works, the luckier they get (see discipline and passion), one cannot completely rule out luck as a part of the formula in achieving excellence. I know of an Olympic fencer whose bus was lost at the Atlanta Olympic Games and never made it to their competition on time!

Passion and discipline are the last two parameters I have included in achieving excellence. These two elements have a tremendous amount of cross over between them. I think of discipline as the ability to consistently do the right thing. The athlete that continues to stretch or work on boring skills on their own long after their coach or manager has left the building. The guitar player who continues to work on mastering small cords that they will not often use (but will distinguish them from their peers). The sales agent that takes the time to send out a follow-up thank you note to an old client even though they are busy. In my mind, discipline is the parameter that we have the most control over (and interesting the one that most people score the lowest on). While you can't change the fact you are not 6 feet 10 inches tall, you can ensure you take 100 free throws every day all summer to become an 80% free thrower. The discipline of consistently doing the right thing (sometimes boring) is guaranteed to take you along way toward achieving excellence.

My final major element of achieving excellence is passion: The inner drive and will to succeed. The thing that drives you to stay up late into the night studying or to get up early in the morning to swim when it's still snowing outside. Can you alter your passion or are you born with it? Can passion be strengthened or reduced simply by the personality of your boss, coach, training partner or parent? How important is passion to success and what can you to do to enhance it?

In future weeks, we will discuss methods of how to improve each of the four parameters (genetics, luck, discipline and passion). My question to you this week is to ask for your feedback on whether you believe these four parameters are important in achieving success. Are we forgetting some key area you believe is critical in the process or perhaps you don't believe one or more of these parameters are important at all? Lastly, reflect for a few seconds on people you know who have achieved excellence. How would you score them out of 100 on each of the four areas listed? Is one area consistently more important in achieving excellence? I hope you are as interested in the group's feedback to this interesting topic as I am. Please email me your thoughts at barrie@personalbest.ca

POWER YOGA FOR ATHLETES

Three years ago, I started seeing motivated athletes in many sports calling me because of injuries. Intuitively they knew that training harder would lead to better sport performances. What they didn't realize was that training harder also led to increased soft tissue injuries (knees, hips, shoulders and ankles). I asked my wife Caron Shepley if she could use her 5000 year old Yoga World to create a program for athletes. Three years and many guinea pigs later (thanks to all the PB and C3 athletes) Caron's DVD and VHS tape debuted this past week. While I may be biased, I have seen the direct benefits in the many hundreds who personally take her classes each week. While you may not live close enough to take Caron's classes in person, I strongly encourage you to make a video purchase for your own home use. Perfect for anyone who wants to improve their own fitness OR athletes of any sport who want to stay away from injuries. See more information at www.bluedogyoga.com

FREE COACHING SESSIONS WITH BARRIE AND THE COACHING ASSOCIATION OF ONTARIO

Coaches are incredible people who make lifelong contributions to society. Often they are forgotten and not properly supported and recognized. The Coaching Association of Ontario (CAO) and Barrie Shepley are hosting three free evening sessions across Ontario. Each session will include a free coaching goody bag and a seminar highlighting the newest strategies, techniques and knowledge. Sessions are open to coaches or future coaches, in any sport. Basically if you do coach, or would like to coach, this is a perfect opportunity to enhance your knowledge at no personal cost. Talk 1 is Wed March 30th at Robert F. Hall High School in Caledon. Talk 2 will be at New Liskard Ontario at Timikaming High School Thursday March 31st. Talk 3 will be in southern Ontario at Harrow High School Friday April 1st. All three talks will occur from 6-9pm. If you are interested register by contacting the CAO office at events@coachesontario.ca or call Tanya at (416) 426-7427.