by Greg Habstritt (original article here)

To be honest, I hesitated to even write about this story, because it literally caused me to weep at how horrible and tragic it is.

But it touched me so deeply, I felt I should share it and my thoughts about it, because if nothing else, it might help you learn a powerful lesson – I know that it’s caused me to think very seriously about how I approach each day.

Yesterday in Houston, Texas, a 2 year old little boy was accidentally left in his carseat by his parents in the midst of a heatwave, for over 2 hours.  His parents had arrived at the home of some relatives, and their older child who is autistic had a seizure as they were driving.  They had rushed into the relative’s home to deal with that — and completely forgot about their little boy in the SUV.

2 hours later, the father realized their son was not in the house, and discovered his baby boy unconscious in the vehicle.  The temperature inside had reached over 125 degrees.

The boy was rushed to hospital but had passed away due to the blistering heat.  You can read the full story here.

I can’t even imagine how the parents must feel. Not only do they have a child who has autism, which provides it’s own set of challenges, but they’ve now lost their younger son.

As you likely know, I have a 2 year old little boy named Cooper, and of course this explains why this story touched me so deeply and traumatically.  It made me think of him, and how unimaginable it is for me to contemplate something happening to him.

My heart goes out to these parents because of the circumstances.  You hear about situations where a parent leaves their child in the car to go shopping, or to the casino, and then forget about them.  Those parents should be shot if you ask me.

However, in this case, they were tending to their older child’s needs in an emergency situation.  Charges are not going to be laid, which I think is the right outcome for this particular situation.  But where do they go from here?

Whenever I hear about something sad or tragic that happens, I always try to find the lesson, or the message, that’s hidden within the story. Not only does it make it easier to accept, but I also believe that it is within tragedies where we can learn life’s greatest lessons.

I think this story is a sad example of what happens when you are not fully engaged in the moment, and 100% present.

Most people are stumbling through life, almost like a zombie, and very rarely – if ever – actually are “living in the moment”.  It’s so easy to get carried away with our to-do list, and all the pressures around us.  But it’s only when you stop and actually live in the moment when you truly live!

Spending your life in the past or the future doesn’t provide you any sense of fulfillment and being alive.

Think about the last time you were in your car — whether it was coming to the office today, or coming back to your home.  Do you remember the path that you took?  Do you remember seeing ANYTHING along the way?  Or did you just operate purely on auto-pilot, because you completely tuned out what was happening in the moment?

While this story is an extreme example of what can happen when you’re not paying attention in the present, I think everyone has examples in their own life where they’ve missed opportunities or created problems for themselves because they were operating on auto-pilot.

My challenge to you is that if this story touched or affected you in any way, that you take a few minutes this weekend to TRULY stop and live in the moment.

Get ENGAGED in your life, and what’s happening around you!

Go outside and sit on the park bench and watch people go by.  Grab your children, give them a huge hug and ask them what’s their biggest dream in the world.  Pick up your infant and look into their eyes.. and think about what you want for them in their life.

For God’s sake, take a minute to live your life – and do it as often as you can.  The more you do, the more it becomes a habit, and you’ll find yourself not only feeling less guilty about the past and less pressured about the future .. but you’ll actually be a human BEING instead of a human DOING.

This horrible story really made me think about what matters to me in my life, and you can bet that I’m going to be spending a LOT of minutes fully present with Cooper and Raylene this weekend.  I hope it inspires you to do the same.

by Dave Crenshaw

President, National Association of Productivity Coaches

I’d like to share a valuable principle with you. It’s something I’ve taught to many business owners and executives I’ve worked with. This principle may go against the grain of some of your beliefs about time and the best way to get things done. Because of that, I ask you to keep an open mind.

Multitasking is a myth. It just plain doesn’t exist.

Does that shock you? Multitasking has become something of a heroic word in our vocabulary. Many executives pride themselves on their ability to “multitask””. Recent job descriptions that I have seen even ask that potential employees have the ability to multitask. A current national commercial sings the praises of multitasking. However, multitasking, as most people understand it, is deceptively counterproductive. Multitasking is tremendously costly. Multitasking hurts us every time we attempt to engage in it.

I should clarify a few definitions. When I speak of multitasking as most people understand it, I am not referring to doing something completely mindless and mundane in the background such as exercising while listening to this CD, eating dinner and watching a show, or having the copy machine operate in the background while you answer e-mails. For clarity’s sake, I call this “background tasking”.

When most people refer to multitasking they mean simultaneously performing two or more things that require mental effort and attention. Examples would include saying we’re spending time with family while we’re researching stocks online, attempting to listen to a CD and answering e-mail at the same time, or pretending to listen to an employee while we are crunching the numbers. What most people refer to as multitasking, I refer to as “switchtasking.” Why?

Because the truth is we really cannot do two things at the same time — we are only one person with only one brain. Neurologically speaking, it has been proven to be impossible. What we are really doing is switching back and forth between two tasks rapidly, typing here, paying attention there, checking our “crackberry” here, answering voice email there, back and forth back and forth at a high rate. Keep this up over a long period of time and you have deeply ingrained habits that cause stress and anxiety and dropped responsibilities and a myriad of productivity & focus problems. It’s little wonder so many people complain of increasingly short attention spans!

When we speak of multitasking, what we really mean is that we are switchtasking: switching rapidly between one task and another. Yet, each time we switch, no matter how quickly that switch takes place in our mind, there is a cost associated with it. It’s an economic term called switching cost — and the switching cost is high.

When I shared this principle of switchtasking with a CEO of a respected national company, she was astounded. We did a budgeting exercise where we looked at how much time she was spending in a given week. In the process of budgeting her time and looking at how much time she was spending on each activity, we found that she was extremely over budget in what she thought she could accomplish in a week. The truth is, there are only 168 hours in a week, and yet she had put down that she was accomplishing 188 hours worth of work in that week!

As we went through the process, we realized where the extra time was coming from. It was from the fact that she was doing research at the same time that she was spending time with her family. When we came across this, I taught her how multitasking was a myth. She was spending time either with one or the other. She was switching rapidly between the two. In reality she was rarely spending any time with her family. She was really doing business research in the presence of her family. There’s a happy end to this story, however.

The next day we met she burst into the room, full of excitement. She exclaimed, “I’ll have you know that I spent time with my family last night and I didn’t multitask! I got home and said let’s go to dinner. My kids were surprised. But we went to the restaurant and I paid attention to them and I didn’t think about anything else but spending time with my family. At first I don’t think they took me seriously. After they realized that I was really spending time with them and paying attention to them they were excited and I could tell they really appreciated it.”

This CEO had come to understand that not only was switchtasking hurting her business, but it was taking a toll on her family. Once she clearly understood the truth and received some guidance on how to take action, she committed to making changes. Her business, her family, and she are all better because of it.

May I offer the following “beginning steps” to help slow down the switchtasking in your life?

1. Take control over technology.
Your cell phone ringer (even on vibrate) doesn’t need to be on all the time. You can turn off e-mail notification on your computer as well. Become master over the nagging beeps and buzzes by creating some silence.

2. Schedule what you can schedule.
Set regular times in the day and week to check your voice mail and e-mail. Let others know that you will be using that schedule so they know when to expect a reply.

3. Focus on the person.
When you switchtask when dealing with a computer, you simply lose efficiency. But if you switchtask on a human being, you additionally damage a relationship. Be present, listen carefully, and make sure everything has been taken care of before moving on.

Dave Crenshaw has appeared in TIME magazine, SIRIUS XM Radio, Forbes, and MSN Money. Dave has given fun and fascinating interviews on radio and TV stations worldwide. He is the President of the National Association of Productivity Coaches. His first book, The Myth of Multitasking: How ‘Doing It All’ Gets Nothing Done, has been published in six languages and is a time management best seller. His latest book, Invaluable: The Secret to Becoming Irreplaceable, is available in all major bookstores and is already a motivation and organizational behavior bestseller. www.InvaluableInc.com

Hey everyone,

It’s time to recognize some of the best people/companies around. These guys/gals have been helping me out a ton and they deserve your support. Next time you need a bike, a helmet, a pair of shoes, some food, or some fitness training these are the guys to contact.

So please click on My Sponsors Link, or check out their links below, and show your support to the ones who have helped me become who I am!

Cheers
Sean

Congratulations Rebecca on concurring the Leadville 100′s female record this year!!

This race started a week before the actual race started…  We were racing in California and Claire, my teammate in SLO also to be my teammate for FMIJ, contracted some horrible rash from the poison oak.  This put the team in crisis mode and we sent out a bunch of emails in search of a female for FMIJ.  We found one three days before the race and her name was Alix.

Alix has raced an 18hr race before but that was the extent of her AR racing.  She had done support as well and she wanted to get more involved in the sport.  In the pre-race emails Tom through some sarcasm her way and she responded immediately with sarcasm right back.  We knew we had a keeper then.

We got to Castle Mountain Resort, checked our gear, ate a meal, got the maps done and actually had time for a 2+ hour nap.  It was awesome.  I crashed on a couch in the hostel and snoozed for 2hrs or so.

The race started at midnight and we were hiking up to Barnaby Lake.  We had talked about not running at all this race because of Mike’s legs but he said he wanted to run off the bat so we did.  We headed down the trail towards the Barnaby Lake trail.  We probably got to the junction in around 10th place and we powered our way up to the lake and CP1 arriving in 5th.  Alix and Tom were both Billy Goats on the mountain as the passed teams and forced Mike and I to follow.  The next part was a bushwhack over to CP2 down by the river.

We crashed down quite successfully finding several animal tracks and never really having to bushwhack in anything heinous.  We got down to the river just slightly South so we contoured the river down to the CP.  Little did we know but we hit a cliff section and walked in the river up to our crotches in some spots which was QUITE COLD.  Nevertheless, we contoured around and arrived at CP2 in 4th place.

It was a quick run down the road to a gear pickup where we gathered our snowshoes and headed back down to the river to CP3 and another river crossing.  Both river crossings were by boat as the crew felt it wasn’t safe enough to do a Tyrollean from the desired point.  So we ferried ourselves back across and were on our way to Grizzly Lake and CP4.

We crashed through the bush to find the great trail which took us all the way to CP4.  We ended up NOT needing our snowshoes and that irked us, but the trek was fabulous with absolutely amazing views at the top and through the valley.  To my surprise I couldn’t keep up with the team and Tom had to tow me up the valley.  Thanks Tom!  We arrived at CP4 to this gorgeous lake nestled in amongst some large cliffs and to our amazement we were in 3rd place.

Next up we went up and over a cliff face and bushcrashed back down to another road which lead us to TA1.  We made this transition super fast as we ate a ton of food on the way to the TA.  We got on our bikes for a 5km ride down to the boats at CP5.

We pumped up our boats and headed into the cold water.  We were warned of a couple sweepers and cautioned to be careful.  The water section proved to be scarey yet fun and maybe made me nervous a few times.  Nonetheless, despite two stops to empty our boats of water we arrived at CP6 intact and with huge smiles on our faces.  We trekked our boats into TA2 still in 3rd place.

We took our time at this TA, getting dry and getting a bunch of food in us.  The next bike section was going to be long and we’d need a bunch of food.

On our way to CP7 we got stuck looking for a trail marker rather than reading our map and making our way to the CP in a more “intuitive way” which resulted in us losing about 2 hours or more and dropped us down to 5th place.  However, our adventures away from CP7 allowed us to make up time and get to CP8 back in 4th place.  From CP8 to CP9 it was straight up this mountain which required a lot of pushing in the hottest time of the day.  We slogged up as we knew Team Pure was right behind us.  We rode real well into CP9 and noticed we were only now 15 minutes back of 3rd place again.

We decided to head to CP10A and the first advanced section.  Getting to 10A was easy, getting to CP11A up Whillaby Ridge was treacherous.  In my good days I could have ridden it, but in my “fatter” days it was not going to be ridden.  Alix had recently bonked and nailed herself in the clavicle and we needed to help her get up as well.  We managed to get to the top in good spirits and we headed up, up and up to the waypoint which took us down to TA3.  Unfortunately we didn’t check the maps close enough and we probably should have just headed back to CP10A and the road as we would have saved probably an hour.  However, the views from the top of the ridge were absolutely breathtaking!! Oh well, the treat at the end was 5km or more of sweet downhill single track and more than made up for the crazy climb to the top of the ridge!

At TA3 we were still in 3rd place and we “heard” that Pure had left CP8 at 9:30pm.  We arrived at TA3 at 9:35pm.  We were astonished and felt real comfortable and assured that we were going to get 3rd!  Only 45 minutes later though we discover that Team Pure actually left CP11A!! at 9:30pm and were right on our tails.  We busily got ready and just before we left Pure came into the TA.  The race for 3rd was on!

From TA3 to CP12 it seemed to be a fairly straightforward hike along some ATV tracks.  Little did we know that the one track didn’t get us where we thought it would.  We concentrated too hard on the various creeks and being tired weren’t thinking properly.  We hunkered down for a 30 minute snooze and awoke to more frustration, but still a lot of determination.  We met other teams, we tried many things and then finally after nearly 4 or 5 hours we found CP12.  We felt for sure that Pure would have passed us and we trudged along to TA4, deciding to skip CP13A.  We got to TA4 over 2 hours behind Pure and all of Mike, Alix and Tom passed out in their chairs…

The race for 3rd was over and we were a bit unmotivated as we knew we had wrapped up 4th place.  So, I let them sleep for 15 minutes and then finally had enough waiting and lit a fire under their butts.  We got out of the TA and started on our bikes over to CP14.  CP14 was up a fire road and led to another awesome highlight of the race.  The downhill from CP14 to the cutline below was amazing.

Tom and I giggled as we would let Alix and Mike go ahead and then catch them.  We had so much fun and the smiles on our faces completely outweighed the fact that we had just raced for the past 30hrs.  We hit the cutline, went down a few fire roads, cut across a couple of fences and ended up at the finish line in 4th place overall!!

We proved yet again how important having a good navigator was this race.  We made two errors, but were able to remedy them and move on.  Despite being nowhere near our fittest physically, mentally we were on our game and we really succeeded.  I have to give a strong kudos to Mike for being an awesome navigator, to Tom for being a horse as always, to Alix for exceeding every expectation we had, and to the entire team for having so much fun, so much laughter and still being competitive.  Of course, I have to thank our support crew, Aaron, Jackson and Stephanie for making everything possible for us in every TA!

Now onto Vancouver!!

So I was out for a run last night on the Baden Powell trail on the North Shore. I was with Tanya and a friend of ours who had lived on the North Shore for two years or more. He’s fit, likes various outdoor activities, yet had never EVER been on the Baden Powell Trail or really in the trails at all that were literally minutes from his door step. He said to me, “I had no idea this was here and I can’t believe how quiet and peaceful it is.” I was, needless to say, astonished. Perhaps I was astonished because the reason we moved to North Vancouver was due to the trails, the easy access to them and everything else associated with being close to the mountains and the ocean and we just assumed that everyone living here took advantage of their surroundings and their backyard. Or, perhaps I was astonished because I would have never expected to hear something like this from my friend…

But, then I started to think about how many people I’ve met who live in amazing places in the world yet know nothing about the city, town, village or hamlet that they live in. They get caught up in the day to day and don’t explore what is literally minutes from their door step. Of course there are also those couch potatoes that would never leave their door for anything and just drain their mind by watching endless TV shows and even worse the “news”, but that’s a whole different blog…

So this is my plea to everyone out there to please explore, please be adventurous, get out of those ruts and daily routines that have defined you for the last years or even decades. Explore your backyard, you’ll be amazed at what you might find in the shadows… We truly are thankful that we have, and will continue to!

Who do you want to be? If you know great, if not well that’s a problem to be looked at another day in another post. But for those out there who know who they want to be, or, what they want to do, but don’t know how to do it, here’s a real quick tip. Start hanging out with those who are like you want to be! It’s that simple.

I wanted to adventure race. I started hanging around adventure racers, and sure enough became an adventure racer. I wanted to be an accomplished mountain biker. I found some high-level athletes who were first class mountain bikers and sure enough I became a World Champion mountain biker. Etc. etc. the list goes on and on.

They say that you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. So who are you hanging out with? Because that’s EXACTLY who you are! I took a couple of years off of the hard core training and the rigorous fitness routine and it shows. I’ve added an inch to my belly and when I race now in the short events I’m in the middle of the pack. I want to be in the front of the pack! So what have I done. Time again to start hanging out with front of the packers. So I hang out with my new buddy John. He’s super fit and kicks my ass around the corner in any type of physical activity. It’s humbling, but it’s also motivating. I know that by hanging around guys like John I’ll become who I want to be! So thank you John for letting me be a straggler, though it won’t be for long.

So the question is, who are you hanging around with?