SAFUN

As noted in my previous blog entry, I have been trying out Alamo CrossFit. I finished my introductory 3 classes and officially signed up as of last Friday! I am excited about this new journey of meeting new friends and establishing a level of fitness I haven’t yet met.

I met with Rick Martinez, RN, owner of Alamo CrossFit, to sign the paperwork. When I met with him, I asked him about his gym and how he got started. His story was so simple, yet inspirational that I have to share it.

If you visit his bio page on the Alamo CrossFit website, you will see that he is a graduate of the nursing school at The University of the Incarnate Word. He has been a registered nurse since 1995 working primarily in the emergency room and trauma settings in Texas and around the country.

Before returning to San Antonio, he served active duty tour as an Army nurse at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC. Here, he took care of wounded soldiers – our country’s heroes. These were men and women that put their life on the front lines to protect Americans, you and me.

Following his active duty, Rick could not return to the ER. He quotes:

“As an ER nurse I came face to face, day after day, with people who presented with problems that could have been avoided…maladies that they should not be suffering from…and all because we fail to take care of the number one thing…our health and bodies. I always asked myself, what if this person had the proper coaching, nutrition guidelines and fitness program toget fit and STAY fit?”

He has been active in sports his entire life – soccer, running, triathlons, adventure racing and martial arts- and has been involved in CrossFit for quite some time. So instead of going back to the ER, Rick followed his passion to become a professional trainer and help others live a more fit and healthier lifestyle. Along with his wife and children, he resides in San Antonio and owns and operates Alamo CrossFit.

He has started his own following in San Antonio creating a circle of family and friends that are passionate about staying healthy and fit through hard work and dedication. He only accepts people that are committed 110% and nothing shy of that.

I find his story to be so inspirational. The American culture gets so caught up with money – how much can I make and how fast? What about asking yourself what are you passionate about? How can you use that passion to help others follow their passion? This should come first. Once you ask yourself that question, success (and happiness) can only follow.

Get your butt off the couch and follow your passion! And remember there are people out there suffering more than you and they are still making the best out of their situation.

I challenge myself too because I know I haven’t yet reached my potential, not even a fourth.

I am sure everyone has already heard about this but I had to post about it because I just think it’s so cool. Google runs a contest called “Doodle 4 Google.” It’s a competition that invites K-12 grade students to reinvent Google’s homepage logo around a preselected theme.

Doodle 4 Google is a competition where we invite K-12 students to reinvent Google’s homepage logo. Both our country and our world are undergoing significant change and this year we invited students to doodle around the theme “What I Wish for the World”. At Google we believe in thinking big, and dreaming big, and we can’t think of anything more important than encouraging students to do the same.

And the winner? Christin Engelberth, a 6th grader from Bernard A. Harris Jr High School right here in San Antonio Texas. She titled her’s a “A New Beginning”:

My doodle, “A new beginning,” expresses my wish that in the current crisis discoveries will be made. That in these discoveries solutions will be found to help the Earth prosper once more. That those solutions will help the world get back on its feet, and create a better place for everyone.

The logo is being displayed today on Google’s homepage where millions of visitors come from all over the world. Christin will receive a $15,000 college scholarship, a laptop, and a $25,000 technology grant for her school.

She has been featured on many news websites including CNN:

A panel of independent judges and Google employees, along with close to 6 million online voters, disagreed, and chose her sketch as the overall winner from a field of over 28,000 other submissions.

Good job Christin! Way to represent San Antonio, your school and most importantly, yourself. This is awesome news and news we need to hear about more often. There are kids doing wonderful things out there and they need to be recognized.

I applaud Google for developing a program that recognizes our youth for their talent and creativity. We need more companies to be doing things like this. We also need to encourage our youth to search for competitions, programs and contests that challenge them to use their brains.

I am going to print this story and take it my class at Garner middle school, where I am a Junior Achievement volunteer. I want our kids to know that there are programs out there where they can get recognized for their talents. I hope this story will inspire them.

Erik Darmstetter from Salesby5 was interviewed today on the Kens 5 Great Day SA show. He talks about how you can start your own business and you don’t need a lot of money upfront, just a lot of creativity. You have to find what will be a true benefit to the end user. If the uniqueness is absent, you will be forced to compete on price.

You also have to be able to pitch your solution in less than 10 seconds. Nowadays, people are so consumed by so many various distractions – Blogs, iPhones, Blackberrys – you need to gain that interest right away for it to be worth their time.

I have personally met with Erik and my company, PEER 1, will actually be working with him and his company, Salesby5. How did I find out about Salesby5? Twitter! I was doing a search for something and came across the Salesby5 blog. I found the topic at hand interesting and I began to look at what Salesby5 offered. I was instantly impressed. I then come to find out that they are located right here in San Antonio; even more impressive!

I had the pleasure of meeting with Erik and his colleague, Nan Palmero, Chief Inspiration Officer. Nan is a strengths coach, a writer for Blackberry cool, and and an avid Twitterer (is that a word) with l775 followers as of today. I am looking forward to working with both of them.

I’d also like to add that in order for you to be successful, you not only need to have a creative idea but a creative way of getting your idea out there. It is imperative for start ups to embrace social networking. Traditional forms of advertising are expensive and not cost effective for start ups. Further, you need to rely on word of mouth, the best form of marketing, and what greater way then to use the free social networking tools out there. You’d be surprised by the power.

Below is Erik’s interview:
Erik Darmstetter Interview on Great Day SA

Love isn’t about the bouquets of flowers
or mushy love cards
It’s not about the chocolates
or about dinner and a movie

It’s about discovering beauty in someone you didn’t see before
It’s about opening your arms to someone that needs it more than you do
It’s about recognizing differences in others and appreciating them
It’s about seeing a piece of you in someone else and smiling

Love brings people together
Love is stronger than the force that tears people apart
Love isn’t easy because if it was, the world would be at peace

Love isn’t to be celebrated on one day of the year but rather everyday, every hour, every minute
In everything you do and say, there is always a way to spread love

You must love others in order to experience love and you must love yourself in order to receive love.

Happy Valentines Day

I had to share this video. It’s easy to get down on yourself if you fail yet harder to dust yourself off and learn from it.