Not sure about you, but after watching this, I will for sure be pushing in the cork from my next vanquished wine bottle, just so I can pull it back out again.

Michael Phelps has won more gold medals (8) in a single Olympics than anyone in history. In honor of his inspiring week in Beijing, we’ve assembled a list of 8 secrets to Michael’s Olympic success:

1. Rap Music: Michael gets focused and pumped up to crush world records with the help of Outkast, Eminem, Twista, and Lil Wayne. When asked what he was listening to before medal #4 he responded,  “What did I have on today? I think I had “I’m Me, by Lil Wayne.” Swimmers regularly ‘psyche’ each other out by talking smack in the Olympic ready room, rap on his iPod keeps Michael focused and in the zone before each race.   More on Michael’s iPod selection, at: What’s on Michael’s iPod
   
2. Hating to lose: It may go without saying, but you can hate to lose and still be a good sport. Michael has said he looks for motivation in everything he can find, including losing. “Four years ago I wanted to race and I hated to lose, getting third in the 200m freestyle, and when I do lose in races like that it motivates me to swim faster.” Learn more about how Michael turns losing into winning, here.
   
3. Eating 12,000 calories per day: Phelps consumes 6x the normal adult male diet every day while maintaining 4% bodyfat. That’s a testament to an incredibly high metabolism and an insane training regimen. He says he spends most of his time eating, sleeping and swimming, but with all that food moving through him, he’s clearly leaving out pooping! See this article in The Telegraph to see the full breakdown of Michael’s diet.
   
4. Being an X-Man: There’s no getting around the fact that Michael Phelps is a real-life mutant with genetics on his side. Size 12 feet may as well be flippers, extra-long arms and a torso with short, powerful legs and a heart that pumps twice as much blood as the average man gives him the perfect design for blazing through the water. See Michael’s mutant proportions broken down in this cool video from NBC: Michael Phelps: Perfect Body
5. Using criticism as motivation: Probably the most famous quote of the ‘08 Olympics was from Frenchman, Alain Bernard  who, referring to his matchup with Phelps’ relay team said, “The Americans? We’re going to smash them. That’s what we came here for.” These, of course, turned out to be famous last words. Phelps explains how he used Bernard’s statement to his advantage, “This morning, Bob (Bowman) had said the French were saying some stuff, talking a little bit of trash. It fired me up more than anything else.” Knowing how Michael uses critique and trash-talk as fuel, Coach Bowman often takes newspaper clippings of competitors talking smack and puts them up in Phelps’ locker to motivate him, which leads us to #6…
6. A Coach who keeps pushing: Bob Bowman first saw Michael Phelps swim when he was 11 years old and immediately told Phelps’ mother that her son could be an Olympic champion if he chose to. Since then, Phelps’ path has been meticulously planned by his infamously intense swim coach. Michael so completely trusts Bob Bowman with his career path that at times he doesn’t even ask where it’s going. Before the U.S. Olympic trials, Phelps said, he didn’t know which events he was swimming.  “I just swim,” Phelps has said regularly. And it’s true. Bowman handles everything else. Read more about Coach Bowman in: Intense? Insane? Maybe, but Bowman is the architect of Phelps’ quest
   
7. The Speedo LZR: Many have wondered how 20 world records were set in the pool at the 2008 Olympics this year. Besides the ‘fastest’ pool ever built (waveless gutters and an unusually deep bottom). Another piece of technology that only a few swimmers had the advantage of clearly made a difference. The Speedo LZR is a revolutionary suit that decreases drag by 10%, and reduces the amount of oxygen needed by athletes by 5%. In a competition where several races were one by hundredths of a second, that’s a significant advantage. Michael was one of the few athletes to put this new supersuit to good use, see: “Debate about LZR Racer causes sizable ripple effect”
8. Heart: Even with great genes, an unforgiving coach, advanced super-fast swimsuit and a winning attitude, you can’t become the greatest Olympic champion of all time without a big heart…and I’m not talking about its blood capacity. Michael quotes his ‘imagination’ as his ability to believe what might be possible and reach for it. It’s that, combined with his insatiable passion that helps push his body beyond its natural limits and inspire his teammates to follow. Namely Jason Lezak, the 32-year-old who swam the fastest relay split in history in the above video to help Michael on his quest for 8 gold medals…it also inspired millions worldwide…we know that 66 million Americans watched Michael’s nailbiting 100 butterfly final on Friday and I know that the pool where I swim laps each day is considerably more crowded lately…people are fired up…congratulations Michael!

(more videos after the jump)

To learn more about Derren, check out his website. He’s also a painter. The prices are steep, and based on these videos I wouldn’t try to negotiate him down…

Are you a pro at buying a car? Know how to negotiate, evaluate a car’s value, and choose the right time of the month to make a purchase (the end, when salespeople have to hit their quotas!)? If so, this video’s not for you, for the rest of us who dread the idea of haggling with a salesperson or even used-car owner and figuring out whether we’re being screwed or walking away with a steal, Rob Gruhl gives a quick five-minute lesson on what to look for, and how to buy a car without the drama.

According to two research studies, one in 1988 and one in 2002, just smiling can help accentuate a positive experience.

And since it’s Monday, we thought you should know.

Read the full article on Cognitive Daily

“I have to ask,” I said. “You doing that crossfit thing?”

He gave met the lowdown. Every day you go the crossfit site:

www.crossfit.com/

Get your workout for the day which ranges from running a 5k for time to something a bit more sophisticated like the below:

10 GHD Sit-ups
10 Hip & Back Extensions
95 pound Thrusters, 30 reps
50 Pull-ups

30 GHD Sit-ups
30 Hip & Back Extensions
95 pound Thrusters, 20 reps
35 Pull-ups

50 GHD Sit-ups
50 Hip & Back Extensions
95 pound Thrusters, 10 reps
20 Pull-ups

Apparently people regularly throw up during or shortly after workouts, but it’s got a loyal following of crossfit addicts and there are apparently over 500 Crossfit gyms across the country. Participants get their workouts and then post their times in the comments section of the site, or in online forums. It’s like having a virtual training team. Love the idea. But won’t be doing it.

The Top 10 Delusions of Personal Growth
By Carl Buchheit

1. That you can get somewhere positive by defeating something negative.

When we act to improve our lives by defeating some aspect of ourselves (for example, “an old, unwanted behavior pattern,” or a recurring issue of “self-sabotage”) who is it, exactly, who wins?

One of the most enduring and unfortunate delusions to come out of the personal growth movement (especially the “monster power growth” version of it) is the idea that we all contain a “strong self” that can be trained to compel the subjugation of our “weak self.” It is completely understandable that almost all of us develop this impression. Human beings have been trying to make meaning out of their internal conflicts, their affinity with the light or dark sides of things, with their distresses related to virtue and guilt, for tens of thousands of years-long before the invention of the personal growth weekend seminar, as far as we know.

The easiest way to allow personal change and growth is to include-not to exclude or defeat-whatever it is that is not working in our lives. We can recognize that unwanted patterns of behavior are simply old solutions that have unwittingly outlasted their usefulness. Actually, when we go beyond this-when we seek to actively respect whatever it is that seems to be causing us the most pain and frustration-the experience of including and changing even long-standing patterns becomes safe, fun, and rewarding. Our old patterns are much more available for easy, comfortable change when we do not fight against them. In fact, when they are respected properly, we find that old, unwanted behaviors usually seek to change themselves. It’s as if they want to catch up with the rest of us, and that makes for a wonderful, and defeat-free, reunion.

2. That people who take the “path of least resistance” in life are weak.

Everything in the Universe is coordinated to move and change along paths of least resistance. Everything-electrons, inter-galactic clouds of hydrogen gas, white mice, and melting ice. There are no exceptions. So, it is curious and weird that, for humans, the words “taking the path of least resistance” are usually tossed out as in insult. Now, we are all getting gradually better about this. One is rarely congratulated about the pointlessness and intensity of one’s struggle any more. Still, who do we think we are, anyway?

3. That fighting ourselves shows strength and builds character.

Some of the saddest words are, “At least I respect myself enough to despise myself.” Proper self-regard is always the most courteous way to be in life and the universe. It invites the best for and from others. Too little self-respect provokes other humans to want to withdraw their care and support. They can’t help but feel this at some level. It is an ancient instinct in our hunter-gatherer DNA, a not-quite-knowing designed to protect the well-being of the whole troupe. The instinct can be overridden, and it often is, but to do this requires some energy and work. Proper self-respect is never costly or inconvenient for anyone. And, it is hardly ever fatal.

4. That denying and disrespecting our parents is a good idea.

Almost all of western psychotherapy seeks, in one way or another, to separate clients from their parents. This movement is in exactly the wrong direction. If we want to know what would come out of the mix if we put our parents into a giant blender and then hit the frappè button, the answer is-we would exist. We are exactly, precisely that combination.

Our broadband connection to the flow of life-the cable sockets themselves, so to speak-happens to be them. Not personally, necessarily, but certainly energetically, the sockets are where they are. We can deny this, but then we have to live on dial-up. When we deny parents, we deny ourselves and cut ourselves off from the sources of strength in life. This never has a good effect.  If our parents are dangerous, crazy, or lethally boring, it is probably a good idea to stay away from them physically, but this is not the same as disrespecting them.

5. That you as an intelligent adult would never, ever mess your life up in order to prevent something really bad from happening to someone else 100 years ago (just to cite a round number).

As it turns out, this seems to be exactly what all of us humans value doing more than anything else. We are-all of us-driven to make sure that we experience some version of the tragedies and unresolved losses of the family members who came before us. As long as we experience their pain, or something closely like it, we have hope to provide our families with a better past, which, it follows very [il]logically, will allow us to experience a better present and future for ourselves. This is complicated business, and highly seductive. When our pain now signals us that we are on track toward past and future happiness, we go into a deep, deep trance of secure and loving family salvation. As crazy as this sounds, this is what we do, and are pretty much screwed until we start to catch on. Messing up our own life is never a good way to show respect for anyone.

6. That the past is a failed version of a better future.

The future is not a perfected or improved past. Our experiences as human beings, whatever this involves in the moment, always represent the very best life solutions that our systems have been able to achieve. We all deal with utterly mysterious and painful inherited patterns, which we then combine with the bafflingly elusive meanings and beliefs we invent for ourselves. However huge the resulting mess might seem to be, it is truly the most creative, positive, and loving solution we could find for ourselves (and for everyone else who was involved) at the time that the unwanted patterning became hyper-stabilized and hard to change.  Truly, we are all doing the best we can with what we have, and with what we had.

7. That now is the only time there is.

Being present in the present is wonderful and useful. It’s an indispensable art, an essential part of changing our relationship with ourselves and with life itself. However, for humans who live in time/space, the future and past are real too. Properly created, a good future activates our choosing of it, so that it comes into manifestation against a supportive backdrop called the past. There is no substitute for having a good relationship with our future and our past. After all now, we are now our future’s past, are we not?

8. That your brain is supposed to care about how you feel.

Our brain’s main function is to filter out everything that doesn’t fit its own ideas about what fits with its ideas. Consequently, it is always very busy not noticing things. However, the good result of this is that it provides us with a stable, more-or-less predictable world in which to live.

To make the experience of being human even more fun, the older, most reliable parts of our brains-our creature brains, which don’t even know that they are parts of human beings-have only one important success indicator, one way to tell if they are doing a good job. This part of the brain doesn’t think, analyze, create, synthesize or talk. It is simply there to establish and maintain associations between this and that. It doesn’t care what this and that are, as long as the associations are intact. Thus, it does not care about the content of our human experience; it only cares that that content (the associations between this and that) do not change. Consequently, its most important success indicator is the answer to the question, “Are we dead yet?” If the answer is no, it knows to keep on with whatever it has been doing. If this happens to involve our being miserable in life, at the human level, that is not its problem, nor even its concern.

Our brain is not supposed to care how we feel. We are supposed to care how we feel.

9. That positive change will inevitably lead to more positive change.

Most really wonderful, positive change can eventually lead to feeling bad again. There are some beautiful ways of working with this unfortunate aspect of being human, so that it is not actually always true good change leads to feeling bad. However, for most of us, learning to allow wonderful change to stay positive takes a little practice. This is what we call “the ecology of personal growth.” It is quite an art form, and an extremely valuable thing to learn.

10. That our private thoughts and feelings do not affect the experience of other people.

Everything we think and feel affects all the space, all the time. We really do have this kind of huge effect. Having power like this is never a bad thing. Learning to recognize and use this power is a many lifetimes’ respectfully creative journey. Overall, this is pretty good news.

A Summary:

Method 1: Symbolize the next action

Using notepaper or a simple text file on your laptop or tablet, indent the pages of your notes in from the left margin. Then, use a simple system of symbols to mark off 4 different information types in the column space left in the margin.

* [ ] A square checkbox denotes a to do item
* ( ) A circle indicates a task to be assigned to someone else
* * An asterisk is an important fact
* ? A question mark goes next to items to research or ask about

After the meeting, a quick vertical scan of the margin area makes it easy to add tasks to your to do list and calendar, send out requests to others, and further research questions. (This method is the brainchild of Michael Hyatt, someone who clearly has mastered the art of attending meetings.)

Method 2: Split your page into quadrants

Another way to visually separate information types is to split your note-taking page into quadrants and record different kinds of information - like questions, reference and todo’s - into the separate areas on the page. Rumor has it this is how Bill Gates - someone known for taking amazingly detailed meeting notes - gets it done.

Method 3: Record and summarize - Use The Cornell Note-taking Method to divide your notes into independent sections to make information retrieval easy.

From Covey:

If you remember nothing else from this blog remember this: leadership has nothing to do with formal authority, it has everything to do with influence.

Read Stephen Covey’s full article here.

If NLP usually turns you off, or you find it gimmicky, manipulative, or overblown, then I would recommend this course as a breath of fresh air for beginners and those with more experience as well.

Description: NLP Marin teaches a set of skills and perceptual frames that combine some core skills and techniques of NLP with a variety of other modalities, such as neo-Rechiean childhood development, Bert Hellinger’s family constellations, and other interesting and useful ideas they have integrated into their work.

I find their particular flavor of NLP is incredibly effective, respectful, and honoring of all aspects of a human being. It is very much in contrast to the feel I get from some other forms of NLP, which occur to me as gimmicky, manipulative, or overblown.

The main trainer/instructor is Carl Buchheit, who I really enjoy learning from. He’s been doing NLP since the late 70s, and is incredibly good at what he does. He’s incredibly sharp, knowledgeable, and has a really quirky sense of humor. I respect him a lot, and I’ve enjoyed every weekend I’ve gone to.

Anecdote: As a result of this training, I quit my job as a software engineer, and chose to start a career as a coach. The model and set of tools here integrated a lot of the other work I had learned elsewhere, and had me realize “Wow, I’m actually damn good at working with people, and have something very real to offer them.” It gave me the confidence to go after what I want, even though it’s a bit scary to do so.

Potential Turn-Offs: If you’re experienced as a coach/therapist, or done a lot of personal work with people, the first course may seem a little basic, and you may get impatient.

You also practice what you learn on other classmates. Sometimes that can be a great experience, and sometimes a difficult one, depending on the skill and competence of the classmate in question.

What I Got out of it: I have trained with them quite a bit, and am nearly complete with my Master’s Certification. (Which requires a total of 16 weekends of training.)

My experience of learning there has been an interesting combination of learning skills, and doing personal growth/development work. A lot of what I have learned has subtly (or dramatically) shifted my experience of people, the world, and especially myself. It’s not as dramatic and concentrated as an Arete circle, but has consistently worked to shift and revise a lot inside of me.

At this point, I feel *way* more acceptance and liking of myself, as well as having a really strong set of techniques I can use to work with people, and make a difference in their lives.

Learn more about NLP Marin