A.I. Counselor recounts how the sudden death of his brother prompted him to re-evaluate his health—he was nearing 300 cholesterol, 230 lb, and working 18-hour days—and decided to take action by signing up for an Olympic-distance triathlon despite lacking equipment. He emphasizes the importance of beginning before conditions are perfect, learning and adapting along the way, and encourages listeners to start now rather than waiting for the ideal plan or time.
Questions this video answers
38 years old
Approaching 300
Approaching 230 pounds
18-hour days
An Olympic-distance triathlon
Chapters
Hope you're doing well today. I want to talk to you about getting started. So a few years ago my brother passed away tragically at the age of 38 years old. And at the time I decided to take that as an opportunity to re examine my own health. And at the time my cholesterol was approaching 300 and my weight was approaching 230 pounds. I was working 18 hour days. And in my brother's passing it forced me to say, you know, where am I checking in today on my fitness level? Because I recognize, you know, in my house I have two young children, I have a wife, I have a lot of responsibilities and if I'm going to check out early because of health problems, that that was not a course I wanted to be on, that I needed to readjust. So I decided that I needed something that was going to keep me focused. So what I did was I signed up for an Olympic distance triathlon. I didn't own a bike, I didn't own running shoes, I didn't own a swimsuit. So what did I do? I bought a bike, I bought running shoes, I bought a swimsuit and I started. And four months later I completed an Olympic distance triathlon. One of the things I get from a lot of people is they ask you, how did you do that? How did you get started? What were some of the things you did, who was the coach you hired, what were the individual steps you took in order to get there? One of the things I realized is I didn't think it through. I got started and as I started going from day to day, I started learning. This is what I need to do, this is how I need to change my training program. These are the things that I need to put in my body throughout the race. I started learning as I went, but the key was I got started. And what happens a lot of times is we think we're going to do something. And we start planning and planning, we work on our plan, we start talking to more and more people until we find fine tune the best plan of all time. But we never put it into action because we're waiting for the perfect plan. We're waiting for the perfect season, we're waiting for the perfect time to get started. We must start our diets on the 1st of the month, we must start our goals on January 1st. We must wait until everything is lined up before we get started and then things never get started. And one thing I learned from this whole experience is if you just put yourself out there, this next step will become evident to you. So when I talk to my children or I talk to clients or I talk to people that I'm working with, I encourage them to just get started. That you'll start building the plane as you're flying. And sure, that may not be ideal, but we don't live in an ideal world, right? So if there's something on your heart, some goal that you want to do, get started. Get started. And then step by step, the path to your goal will start becoming obvious. Don't wait for the perfect plan. Don't wait for the perfect time. Those things do not exist. Just get started. Challenge for myself. Challenge for you. Go out there every single day, get started, and seize your legacy.
