Do You Know Jack ?

Sales Man Up

Do You Know Jack ?

The food you put in your body can be good or bad. It can be live, vital food that builds live vital bodies or it can be “junk food” that contributes to abuse, neglect, and decline of your physical condition. If you can put the proper fuel in your car, surely you can put the proper fuel in your body.” - Jack LaLanne

We are walking billboards...if you take care of your body by giving it proper nutrition and exercise, you will exude vitality and enthusiasm. - Jack LaLanne

Some of Jack’s amazing physical feats :

• Age 40: Swam the length of the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge under water with 140 pounds of equipment, including two air tanks...an undisputed world record.
• Age 45: Completed 1,000 push ups and 1,000 chin-ups in 1 hour and 22 minutes.
• Age 60: Swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman’s Wharf, handcuffed, shackled, and towing a 1,000-pound boat.
• Age 65: In Lake Ashinoko, Tokyo, Japan… handcuffed and shackled, towed sixty five boats filled with 6,500 pounds of Louisiana Pacific wood pulp .
• Age 70:  Handcuffed , shackled, and fighting strong winds and currents, towed seventy boats with seventy people from the Queen’s Way Bridge in Long Beach Harbor to The Queen Mary, 1 ½ miles.

   

( For a more complete list, check out Jack’s book, “ Revitalize Your Life After 50” on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Revitalize-Your-Life-After-50 )

Jack LaLanne was an amazing person, creator, motivator, trainer and athlete .  I recently finished one of his books, mentioned above, and found his life and story so inspiring, that I wanted to share it with my readers. Here’s his story : Jack was a mere teen when he was exposed to a Health lecture from Paul Bragg in Oakland California . Jack relates that , “ Not only was I inspired, but it changed my life completely. The lecturer, Paul Bragg, said that I could be reborn again, meaning that if I obeyed nature’s laws, improved my eating habits, and exercised, I could change my body. I stopped eating white flour and white sugar products and joined the local YMCA. I was inspired ! In fact, I was a strict vegetarian for six years. “ Jack was on fire, and he burned with the passion of good health and fitness. During his high school years, he played football and wrestled ; carrying out his mission during his off hours by setting up a gym in his backyard with dumbbells, barbells, and exercise machines that he designed.  ( This was sunny California in the 1930s folks… we know this wouldn’t work year round in NY or Vancouver ! ) Even the local Oakland firefighters and Police force recognized his talents, and worked out regularly in Jack’s backyard gym. Jack studied physiology and human anatomy arduously, becoming a skilled personal trainer. He was persecuted as a result, like many early innovators are. Some people said he was nuts. The coach from the local football team prohibited any team member from working out with weights in Jack’s gym, fearing that they would become “ muscle bound” ! At the age of 21, Jack opened one of nation’s first gyms in Oakland California ( Wikipedia ).

When Jack experienced a knee injury in high school football, he actually designed a leg machine using pulleys and cables , to fully rehabilitate his knee. I believe many of us have heard of the “ Leg Extension Machine “ ? Thank Jack Lalanne for his creativity. Whenever he experienced a challenge, he developed a solution that was outside the box. Jack is also recognized as the inventor of the “Smith Station machine’ , which many of us have used in the gym. In the 1950’s Jack went national with his exercise and fitness television show, aimed primarily at women staying at home who needed a manageable exercise regimen, which aired for decades. I remember my mom, setting up the chair in front of the TV in our living room, and spending that half hour doing body weight and resistance exercises with Jack and at times, his wife, Elaine.

Jack lived well into his 90s and was a walking billboard of the message that he preached. So what are some of my own takeaways from Jack’s example ? I am committed to stay active and be intentional about the foods that I eat. I can never use the excuse of getting older, for not living a healthy, vibrant and fulfilling life. If we can conceive it and believe it , we can achieve it - no matter our age or circumstances. You know Jack ! He is living proof of that !

Age is only a number, and with the mind and the body, anything is possible if you make it happen. - Jack LaLanne

Little Things Matter

Sales Man Up

Little Things Matter

Enjoy the satisfaction that comes from doing little things well. H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

“ Irma was a long-lived Cape Verde hurricane that reached category 5 intensity … and struck southwestern Florida at category 3 intensity. Irma caused widespread devastation across the affected areas and was one of the strongest and costliest hurricanes on record in the Atlantic basin.” - National Hurricane Center Report, June, 2018.

By the time Hurricane Irma reached central Florida, in early September of 2017, her intensity had ebbed a little. Now as a Cat 3, she still packed a formidable punch, with threatening winds boasting of gusts of over 100 mph. Like most Floridians, we tracked Irma’s approach ; and when the storm turned to head northward up the middle of the state, we all got a lot more serious about our preparations. On a last minute whim, I decided to use some zip ties on each of the three gates connected to the wooden fence that surrounds the perimeter of our back yard. I could envision these gates rattling in 90 mph wind, flying open, ripping off their hinges; and becoming airborne projectiles firing upon my neighbors. Yeah, I’m really sorry that your SUV was impaled by my wooden gate !

Irma showed up that night with a fury. The winds were howling with such intensity that our chimney was whistling. After buckets of rain and wind, and lots of prayers; the sun broke the horizon onto a changed neighborhood. No, all the houses remained intact, thank God, but trees were down, electricity was off ,and life began to stir again as each of us assessed our damage. As I rounded the corner on the west side of our property, I was amazed by what I saw- twenty feet of wooden fence along with a gate suspended by one single zip tie ! Small things do matter.

The little positive things that we do on a daily basis, sometimes even automatically, without thinking; become the zip ties that hold our lives together. Once these small habits become ingrained in us, we feel awkward or uncomfortable when they are not completed ; like not putting on our seatbelt in the car. The most successful people I have observed in life and in business, do a lot of little things right- and they do them consistently. AviationPro.com states that a Boeing 747 cargo jet is held together by roughly 850,000 rivets. Another source estimates that over 40,000 rivets are used in the construction of just one jumbo jet wing ! One rivet is not that impressive, but when you combine it with 39,000 others, you create a mode of transportation that defies gravity!

Conversely, the small things we do can have a negative impact on us - like not returning our phone calls or responding to our  emails. Responsiveness is vital for survival in any business. It is imperative that we all become mindful of the little actions that produce negative effects on our lives. We must overcome the bad with the good. Our good habits are the zip ties that anchor and ground us through the storms of life. Be aware of the little things in life and in business , because they really do matter!