Hi all!

A very wise young man at a race not too long ago said: "To be a good runner, you have to suck at everything else." There is a lot of truth in that with every aspect of your life. If you want to be your best in any one area, you're going to have to accept the price of being less than stellar in other areas. With that, what grows in your life is what you feed. The amount and quality of the food determines the quality of what you reap.

The people I have always admired and are drawn to are the ones that have a crystal clear picture of what is important, and everything else doesn't really matter. You know the saying, "Don't sweat the small stuff............and its all small stuff"

Early in my health club career, I was literally consumed by numbers and sales. I poured everything I had into getting to "the top". I led the company in both, but everything else in my life SUCKED. I was the "Golden Boy" of the 7 club chain, but there was no room to be "golden" in any other area of my life. My District manager became a dear friend of mine and was also a member of the same church Tammi and I attended. He pulled me to the side one day and gave me some great advice I never forget. "Trent, your family is the most important thing in this world. After this company is long gone, what will you have if you haven't invested more of your time/energy in your family?" Guess what...... After 30 years in business, the largest privately owned chain of health clubs in N.C. merged with another chain and soon all of the clubs were out of business. The plaques I won, the big monthly bonuses, the employees I invested in were gone............What was there, was my family.

Since then, I've fought to "try" and maintain some sort of balance. I now am sad for people that put stuff, status, or titles ahead of the things that are truly important. I find these people "silly" and rarely take them seriously. I've been there, done that more than a few times. I didn't get it either, but there comes a time when you simply have to get past your own ignorance and pour your time/energy/resources into what you know in your heart to be truly important. Most people don't take the time alone to think about what is truly important and simply stay "busy". Take some time today. Go for a hike today by YOURSELF and don't come back until you have a clearer picture about what is important to you. Maybe we should all do that more and stop spinning our wheels so that we can actually catch traction and move in a direction that actually matters. The rest is small stuff...........