Perseverance 10-09-13

Perseverance is a valuable key to success. No one can be successful without it. How many times have you been struggling with completing a task at work or felt like you were on the verge of giving up in a hard workout? What made the difference in that moment? Did you give in and then later regret quitting and selling yourself short, or did you dig deep into your soul and tell yourself "I Will NOT Quit!!!!". These are gut check moments that build our character in one way or another based on our choice to fail or succeed. I know for me, I always tell myself I will not quit; I am never out of the fight. No matter how hard the challenge, I will give it my all, and when I feel I am on that verge to give in, I dig in, even if I have to claw at the ground and keep driving my legs to keep going, my drive will always keep me moving forward. With that in mind, no matter what we do to overcome, failure is sometimes unavoidable. No one can ever say they have been a success at everything they have done, and I for sure have not. The key is having that perseverance to get back up when knocked down, to keep attacking when punched by life and to learn from our mistakes. Take full advantage of your failures and the failures of your team mates to learn and take those results to make yourself successful the next time you accept the challenge. Never fear the outcome of your efforts, as long as you know in your soul you have given your all every time, you are persevering. Keep up the hard work team. You have it in you to be great and to do great things. You only have to believe in yourself. I believe in YOU!!!! Persevere in all you do and you will not fail. Have a great day TEAM!!!! Never Give up!!!!

9-11 Remembered

Hello Team, 12 years ago today, our Nation was struck by a devastating blow. This attack left us devastated, broken, and in shock. I remember my thoughts when I was watching this take place. How could this happen??? How could we not have seen this coming. I remember watching those images of the towers coming down, the desperation of some as they jumped knowing full well it meant death. I was just sick to my stomach, my guts in knots. As a Nation we were stunned and dazed, we could not believe we were just blind sided like this. Then came the anger. The I want payback mentality. We all wanted to know who the hell would do this to US. Who would have the gall to do this to US. So as a Nation, we vowed to avenge the senseless killing of 9=11 and we have. Thanks to the selfless sacrifice of our brave men and women in uniform, we know they are making them pay. Lord knows we need them to do what most of us cannot. As a Gulf war veteran, the job they have done and continue to do will always be sacred to me. So I want to keep this post short and sweet, I just want us to always remember the tragic loss of life that we all suffered on 9-11. Keep those families in your hearts and prayers, and Let us also keep praying for and supporting our troops as they continue to selflessly sacrifice to ensure our safety and our continued way of life. Remember, we may not always agree with our government leaders, but we must ALWAYS have support for our warriors that sacrifice, bleed, & die for us. GOD Bless you all, GOD bless the UNITED STATES of AMERICA!!!! HOOYAH!!!! Never Give up!!!!

Focus - 090313

Hello Team. I hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day Holiday weekend. I know I sure did, got in some great workouts. 5K on Saturday, 5K on Sunday did not meet my 4 mile goal, the heat just beat me down, but still pleased with my 5K time, and a great WOD on Monday morning at Helotes Crossfit. The rest of my weekend was spent enjoying quality time at home relaxing with my wife. So let's talk FOCUS today. We all have those moments in our lives where we feel pulled in many directions at once. It is human nature to want to control every aspect in our lives, but we all have that breaking point of when we take on so much that some things begin to suffer. What is it for you? Does your home life suffer? Does your work suffer? Does your health and fitness suffer? What is it, at some point we all feel like we are losing control. So how do we change this? How do we take a step back and bring those things back into balance? The answer is through focusing on what is important. In this day and age of multi-tasking we are so used to keeping many tasks going at once. It is like the spinning plates acts you have seen. The down side to this is we run the risk of having so many spinning plates that we are trying to balance that we start to falter and our plates start to crash and break. We must develop and maintain focus and prioritize what is important in our lives in order to achieve success. We all set goals. Part of setting goals is to establish a checklist. This checklist is a tool to keep you on task and not only identify accomplishments, but also identify what is still needed to be accomplished. This can apply to all aspects in our lives, such as completing projects at work, or helping our children succeed in school. Your checklist should also include resources that are needed to complete your goals. For instance if you are trying to help your children in school, many of us don't remember how to do many of the math equations that are assigned in the homework, so some resources could be books for you to learn, the internet for examples or tutors for both you and your child. Resources are not just material things but people we may know that can help us in areas we are weak. These are people that we should engage and add to our TEAM. Remember, in life, there is nothing that we accomplish on our own. We are all guided at some point by someone who has accomplished the task before and in turn we provide that knowledge to assist others when they need guidance. Remember that your knowledge, guidance and focus are valuable tools to others as well, so we should all do our part to pass on our experiences through our successes and failures. All of your experience is valuable. Finally, It is important to also help your teammates maintain their focus. When you see your friends, family, coworkers and children faltering, it is our responsibility to call them out and help get them back on track. We are all accountable not only to ourselves, but to our teammates as well. So carry on, stay focused, stay motivated and as always, Never Give Up!!!

Happy Sunday 090113

Good afternoon Peeps. I hope you are all enjoying the fantastic Labor Day Holiday weekend. Just got done getting my run in. Got another 5K distance. A little short of what I wanted, but I was a bit tired from yesterday. It was good and Hot temp was right around 100 degrees. So I hope you are all making progress towards your goals. So for me, I have two immediate goals. First to drop more weight and get stronger and more endurance in my crossfit workouts. Man do they kick my ass. But that is what keeps bringing me back. My second goal is to be ready to complete my second Rock N roll half marathon in November. Not alot of time to get ready. I know my self, I tend to push and push sometimes beyond my breaking point. I hope I am smarter this time. I just got released from Physical Therapy for my right foot injury. (from running. LOL) so I am starting all over again. Ok, so my point to all of this is persistence. Persistence is key in achieving ones goals. Having the where with all to stick to your training or process in order to ensure success. there is a saying used in the service over and over again, and it is that we bleed in training to ensure we do not on our mission. Persistence is a trait that I believe we all posses. Some of us never realize it until we have to dig deep give ourselves a massive gut check in order to achieve success. Others choose to ignore this trait, and yes, it is a choice. When we are mired in the pit is suffering and self doubt, we all have the choice to succeed or to fail. When the stress at home gets tough, when your spouse or partner are just laying into you for whatever it is they feel you did wrong, or did not do, or when the stress at work becomes unbearable, or when you are gasping for air on a 10 mile run or 2 mile swim, we all have that CHOICE. We all have the voices in our head competing. one saying QUIT, you don't have to suffer like this. Why do you put your self through this? Then the other voice kicks in, Yes I am suffering, Yes I am hurting, Yes I want this to end, but I want it to end on my terms. We all know and we have all been there. That point when you get knocked down by life. Persistence is where we have the courage to get back up, face our fears with a steadfast conviction to ensure we give 100 percent towards success. Now even though we do this, success is not guaranteed. We may still fail, but if we do, we do so knowing we gave it our all and there is never shame in that, because there is success in failure as well. That success comes from what we learn, and how we adapt to tackle the problems next time. So keep digging deep Peeps. you do have it in you, I know you do. Persist!!! Never Give Up!!! HOOYAH!!!!!!

The Weekend Is Here

Good Morning Peeps. You have made it to the end of another glorious week. For some it may have been easy for others it may have been a difficult one. Regardless, the weekend is upon us. For those of us who are lucky and don't have to work, it is a much loved break. WE work hard and my belief has always been, "Work Hard, Play Hard". Well it is time to play. What do you enjoy in your down time? as for me, I try to ensure that my weekends are filled with the 3 F's, (Family, Friends, & Fitness). All essential for me to stay foucued, Possitive and grounded. Although I know we all love to try and sleep in and hate the thought of getting out of a comfortable bed, for me, since I usually can't sleep past 6 or 7 any way, I love to get outside and Go for a run, or to the pool ans swim laps. There is nothing better than this, because it is quiet, peaceful and I just loose all of the stress from the work week and just let go of any negative thoughts or feeling that may be lingering in my soul. I have been focused on trying to live a more possitive life for the past few years and have come along way in my journey. Of course we all know that in life, no one can be that way 100% of the time. We all have our moments where the negativity is just sucking us down and sucking the motivation and life out of us. As we progress you will see me focus on TEAM. Team is the term used for your support system. Your team can be family, friends, coworkers, anyone who you can count on to have your back when times get tough. IF you are also interested in a great motivational person who I follow daily, please check out David B. Rutherford Navy Seal on Face Book, or you can listen to him on Navy Seal Blog Talk Radio every saturday. Well worth checking out. I bring this up, because David being a Seal, and I also served in the Navy, I was a Second Class Petty Officer DP2(SW), I feel it is our background through the service that has forged us in ways that we will alsways be greatful to our time and service. And it is these lessons and failures that I want to pass on that I hope can help someone, anyone get through whatever struggles they may be going through, or simply share success stories as well. So back on point for this weekend, I hope you all take the time to get out. Get out and enjoy the outdoors, get out of your head and clear all of the negativity from you life. Take an hour of your day and work out, and most importantly spend time with the people that are important to you. Foster those possitive relationships in your life. Let those people know what they mean to you and that you have their backs in times of need as well. David B Rutherford, I hope you do not mind me mentioning you in my blog, you are an inspiration and want to share you and your good work areound to all who are interested. If so, please let me know and I will not in future, shipmate. I hope you all have a great weekend Stay focused on your goals, stay possitive, and Have fun. HOOYAH!!!!! Never Give Up!!!!

Team - Motivation

Good Morning Peeps!!!! Hope you are all having a fantastic morning. Slept through my alarm this morning. Hate when that happens. LOL. So I had the best TEAM push yesterday that I have had in a while. I was at the end of my Work Out of the Day (WOD) and ending with burpees. to the point of gasping to catch my breath. My mind is SCREAMING. NEED MORE AIR!!!! the doubt starts to set in can I ...do this? I know I can. when My HCF team starts pushing and encourageing and just going all out with me to get me to the end. Thanks a million HCF team. You Guys rock!!! That is what I mean when we do not do it alone. We all have moments when we need that extra push. So like my team is there for me, I am always here for you all. You are all my TEAM MATES, my swim buddies. So when you think you are failing and all alone, You are not. Your TEAM has your back. Go out today and stay fired up and motivated to keep reaching for your goals. You do have it in you. HOOYAH!!!! Never Give Up!!!

Starting Over

Hello Peeps.  I am completely starting over here.  I hope this can be an interactive conversation between like minded people who are looking to be possitive, goal oriented, motivated inspiration and provide the same.

I will try to post something everyday to inspire your thoughts and I encourage your feedback and feel free to suggest subject matter for discussion.  So let's give this a whirl and see how this turns out and evolves.

                                                                                                        Your TEAM Mate,
                                                                                                         Frank Salinas