April 1st will mark the third birthday of Endurance Corner LLC. This week I’m going to outline the decisions that cost us the most money in our start up phase. These themes pop up in many areas of my life so, I hope, you can learn from our experience.

The original concept for starting EC was to help people. I'm not sure if I've ever told you but a personal goal is, over my lifetime, to reach one million people with a message about using personal athletics to change the direction of their life (one article at a time).

In wanting to help people, I need constant reminders that making things "easy" isn't a help! Most of the money that I have wasted so far (I'm sure that more mistakes are to come) is due to a misunderstanding of human nature.

A bit of a departure this week from my regular focus on high performance athletics to discuss the level of fitness required to complete an Ironman race in under 17hours.

Before I whip out the scalpel and start dissecting, a couple of quick observations on the psychology of the Ironman finish…

Having the chance to coach some first time IMers has been an interesting experience. Not so much from the physical side of things, as I point out below, the physical equation for an Ironman finish is quite simple – get the athlete fit, strong, and teach appropriate pacing. But the psychology of an athlete’s first attack on the Ironman distance is a thing of pure beauty.

In my experience, a first time Ironman has a perspective that often fades as the athlete morphs into a ‘mid-packer’. The magnitude of an Ironman finish is not lost on the first timer and the accompanying fear offers real, pure, motivation.

I'm leaving Australia today and the way my schedule worked out, I'm probably going to take a "zero" in the training log. Not a big fan of zeros as I do best with a dose of exercise every 12 hours, or so.

Earlier this month, my buddy, Tony D, flew half way around the world to train with me and see what he could pick up in terms of training secrets. I did what I could for the guy and I think he learned quite a bit from the experience. Tony doesn't have a blog so this article is a summary of what I hope he picked up!

It's fashionable to say "there are no secrets" and "there is no easy". We should all HTFU and JFT...

That's true but it is also an over-simplification. There is a tremendous amount of experience, and knowledge, that goes into what's required to perform at a high level. This week, I'll highlight four key concepts that have helped me in academics, finance and athletics.

It's been a while since I wrote about personal finances. We completed our quarterly financial review this week so a number of topics are fresh in my mind.

A few weeks back I wrote about a split society. So far, the Great Unwinding has crushed a few over-leveraged companies, banks and persons but it has not fundamentally altered the behavior of my peers. Our balance sheets, took a hit, we trimmed wasteful habits, we all had a collective freak-out... ...then... nothing, really.

It takes about three years for our collective memory about the "past" to shift. Do you remember the date of the sub-prime "shock"? August 2008 -- we are 18 months along our path with the New Normal.

Ask yourself:

• How have your attitudes to investment return, risk, spending and leverage changed in the last 18 months?
• If your attitudes continue their current trend then where will you be by August 2011?
• Are the fundamentals of our economy supporting where your financial life is likely to be in August 2011?

This has been a tough winter. Especially for my UK athletes. It seems that the UK has been hit by a perpetual winter storm that has lasted most of the season. Needless to say, they are ready for this winter to be over and to get out of the gym and back on the roads.

On the upside, the indoor time has allowed us to really hone in on 2 critical abilities to Ironman racing – steady (trainer) cycling and pure strength. Many of my athletes are at or on the verge of life best strength numbers at the moment. As we emerge from the cold, it will be my job to transfer this potential ‘gym strength’ to real ‘rubber meets the road’ strength....

I had a wake-up call last week while engaging in self-congratulatory backslapping!

I was talking to Monica and observing how well I handled a recent (but pre-inbox-zero) day of work, email and errands.

G - You know, I really handled that day of work well.
M - You sure, you seemed pretty miserable and stressed.

G - Hmmmm.

G - Maybe I should have said that looking back it wasn't as bad as it seemed at the time...

If I am internally calm but projecting outward stress then am I calm, or stressed?

I'm not sure of the answer but I know which person I would prefer to hang out with.

This week, I write about three steps I am taking to improve my life "right now".

1. Declutter
2. No to non-core
3. Love something

In my clearer moments, I see the hazards of having a job that is focused on providing answers.

Every answer I give can reinforce my thought patterns and biases. In one sense, having a wide range of clients provides me with an opportunity to work through a coherent picture. However, without caution and effort, I can dig deeper and deeper into creating my personal athletic dogma.

I have a few tactics that I use to balance consistency bias. This week I'll share them - you can apply them to sport, specifically, or life, generally.