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personal planningSatisfaction
#1 - I'm responsible for my life, and my feelings, right now. #2 - If something bothers me then consider if I am willing to change. If I am not willing to change then get over it. I'm still working through my endurance "hangover" from the 100-odd hours of training I did over in New Zealand. One of the effects of endorphin withdrawal is that I can feel dissatisfied with things. It is a common post-camp, or post-race, experience to feel dissatisfaction with some aspect of our lives. I didn't do myself any favors as I picked of a few bad habits both at the camp, and after. It all stems from getting "too tired" and "too stressed". I can fall into the trap of tell myself "it's OK" and giving myself "treats" that are the EXACT recipe for screwing myself up further. How I Spent My Summer Vacation
Robbie travels with a Sport Kilt so that he can INSTANTLY change out of his bike shorts once his ride is done. I found the man-skirt pretty funny (it was 100F in the Valley of Fire) and wanted a photo to remember the moment... Nothing like dehydration, afternoon lighting and a full body shave to make a guy look shredded. I know all the tricks... It's been about a year since I watched the bottom fall out of my personal P&L and I consider myself very lucky to have gone through that experience. In 2009, I have seen people fall into bankruptcy, lose their houses, their jobs... I'm blessed to be able to handle my challenges. In the end, I didn't need to implement my total-disaster-survival plan. I do have it on file though... For what its worth, I expect that we will see a major shock in the next two years that's going to knock us back into recession. Goldman has never been representative of the financial sector (they are different, and smarter, than the rest). Dig a little deeper and you'll see a huge overhang of debts in all levels of our society. More on that in a future piece. We've achieved a lot in the last year. Enough that I decided to take a vacation two weeks ago. Last winter, I made a deal with myself that I wouldn't take a vacation until this website was up and running. After I made that promise, my financial life continued to fall so quickly that a two month delay turned into a year of sustained effort to rebalance my family's financial health. My vacations are different than most and (like it or not) provide a clear indication of my values as well as what truly motivates me. Similar to my personal workouts... I have two main types... me-vacations and monsy-vacations. I'm not on vacation unless I can completely pull the plug on email -- taking a break from the world provides me with some benefits: Questions & Actions
When deciding priorities in my life, I ask myself... Will this change my life if it happens? I also ask myself the opposite... Will this change my life if it doesn't happen? There are very, very few things in life where the answer to both questions is "yes". The only Double-Yes I can think about is my marriage and the birth of my daughter. What I Learned This Year
That's Chris in the photo - I did my first race in a year (!) last weekend and Chris dropped by (after riding 190K in the Rockies the day before). I took one look at his TT set-up and figured that he'd ride 17 minutes into me! Turned out that I was a bit more fit than I thought - you can read my race report here (click Summary for text). I will be sharing our internal analysis in my XTri column next week. September is the month where I take the time to do a detailed personal inventory of my life. Before I look forward, I like to look back and see how I did over the last year. Here is September's writing from last year. First point... you might be able to predict the future but I am totally clueless! Creating Your Day Job
The advice, "don't quit your day job" is a common refrain, this week I share ideas about creating the life you want to live. The photos this week are from our most recent training camp. I'd like to get a few more sign ups for our St George Ironman Weekend in November. If you know an athlete that might benefit then please have them contact me. Three days of training, including hotel/breakfast/dinner for $475. That price includes hotel/meals. A bit of advice on making-it-happen. Know what you want, specifically. First... Which camp? With whom? Be specific. Second... Observe the people that are living the life you (think you) want to lead. What have they done over the last TEN years and are you will to make the changes required in your own life to replicate their long term work. Understand the long term habits of successful people. The second point is one that Marilyn made at the camp. She was asked what the difference was between success and failure in athletes - I'll paraphrase - Successful people are the ones that are willing to change their approach to achieve their goals. Greg Bennett made a similar point - When I realized that I was competing against athletes with superior genetics, I realized that I had to be willing to do the work that others find too hard. These themes return to me in all areas of my life. Revisting The Game
You will be able to find Part Four of my Understanding Intensity series over on the Training Peaks Blog from Tuesday. This week saw a big event in the Byrn Household. I lifted my self-imposed travel ban. I had eliminated all travel that had a net negative cash impact on the family. Banning my own travel didn't change the quality of my life but it did impair my cycling fitness! So... to get ready for Epic Camp New Zealand (sold out), Team MonGo will head down to Australia this winter. Three camps that I'll be doing to prepare for Epic:
The first two camps are open to experienced athletes at all ability levels. The final camp (in Oz) will be pretty peppy in nature. Contact me for more info. The Ghost of Christmas Future
By the way... if you get to Aspen then two things to check out... Independence Pass and Maroon Bells. You can drive, or bike, to both locations are they are really neat! Our photo this week is "Ultra G" after a long run spent chasing Mrs. Byrn uphill at 10,000 feet. I'll tell you more about the socks in a future article. Ten years ago, I had a major change in my life. Over the course of 18 months, I resigned my job, ended my marriage, sold as many of my possessions as possible and left the country where I had lived for seven years. Thirty is a bit young to have a mid-life crisis but, I suppose, that's the best description of what happened. The changes I made were triggered from an evening spent alone, in a beautiful house, surrounded by all the comforts available to a self-assured finance guy. When Monica reads that sentence she might never leave me alone again... That night, I realized that I'd be sitting on that EXACT couch ten years later and the only thing that would have changed would be the size of my bank account. When I left Hong Kong in 2000, nobody would buy the couch (!) so I've carted it around the world with me. Since my decision to leave ten years ago... I have: remarried, become a Dad, lived in five countries, started nine businesses, exited most my deals successfully, and watched a couple deals die. If you'd asked me in my late 20s what I was working towards, I probably would have said residences in Phuket, London and San Francisco. I was very asset focused and liked the concept of being able to travel the world with a toothbrush. It wasn't until I travelled the world that I discovered that the reality of travel is quite different. 
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My personal outlook is influenced by two lessons that I have learned.
Fatigue intoxication is showing through in this week's photo. 
The last two weeks have looked backwards and FAR forwards. This week, I will outline my thoughts for what I want to get done over the next year.
I'm happy to announce that multiple Ironman Champions, Chris and Marilyn McDonald, will be coaching at our 
This past week I was re-visited by the Ghost of Christmas Future. I thought that I had shaken him years ago but he returned during a three-day visit to Aspen, Colorado.