Being Yourself At Work

Throughout our lives we find ourselves being asked to act in a particular manner in order to conform to some sort of preconceived notions of what constitutes “correct” behavior. When we are young, our families sometimes demand things of us that we may not necessarily agree with. When we get to school there are many rules, dress codes, schedules, deadlines and behavioral parameters. Even recreational activities like sports and clubs have a lot of rules and hierarchical structures associated with them. To succeed, for the most part, you have to conform.

“Success, recognition, and conformity are the bywords of the modern world where everyone seems to crave the anesthetizing security of being identified with the majority.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

It may just be a coincidence, but learning to conform with rules that you may not agree with while suppressing your own individuality prepares you for what is required at many jobs. Progressive companies like Fit Fuel encourage individuality, but traditionally, many companies tend to either explicitly or tacitly require conformity to a particular rather narrow set of possibilities.

I am not saying that families, schools, teams, clubs, and jobs should have no structure at all. I just think that they all go past the practical necessities of order, planning, instruction and coordination toward a shared goal and wind up intruding into the ability of people to truly be themselves.

It can sometimes be hard to even know who you are., and I know that saying that sounds like psychobabble, but I say it because we are forced to conform on so many levels from such an early age that many of us become sort of an amalgam of all of these things that have been expected of us rather than a truly unique individual.

It’s interesting because if you were to start a company, you may be tempted to hire people that you perceive as being a lot like you. But I think that true synergy requires people of various backgrounds and personalities who bring different strengths to the table finding a collective resonance that is held in place by a shared value of respect for people’s personal differences coupled with a mutuality of intent.

It seems logical to me that many if not most of the “best and brightest” would be nonconformists by nature because their creativity and intelligence is squashed when they try to fit it into a tiny box of conformity. And the people who wind up being their supervisors got to that level by being good at conforming to whatever they are told. To get ahead, their primary asset was a total lack of any courage, creativity or intellectual curiosity. They asked no questions and never challenged their superiors intellectually, so they were never seen as a threat by those who were above them. That is how you get ahead in most companies that I have been involved with.

The progressive employer should encourage their leadership to welcome and respect those employees who challenge the status quo and present ideas that may be able to improve the company. The type of person who can accept this type of “challenge” is truly qualified to be a leader because he or she is not personally threatened when somebody has a good idea that they didn’t think of. If your culture is built on the suppression of individuality, intellectual curiosity, and creative thinking, what kind of staff will you build as you look for candidates that are a “culture fit?”

If you look for people who have a good work ethic, allowing them the freedom to be an individual will result in maximum retention and productivity beyond the wildest dreams of these old guard companies staffed by a group of stale yes-men and women who have “risen to their level of incompetence.”

Are You Ready For Some Football?

It is that time of year again, and NFL training camps are opening up while the first game of the college football season is just four weeks away. Football season is highly anticipated by fans everywhere, but here in Las Vegas it is especially exciting because, well, because we get to bet on the games and participate in season-long contests at the various sportsbooks. Football season is by far the most lucrative for the books, and there is a lot of intense fan interest, making for an electric atmosphere here in Vegas during the football months.

Without question the biggest story surrounding the NFL right now is the Brett Favre saga. Everyone has their own opinion on the matter, and I can understand all points of view. We watched as Favre tearfully retired after last season, choking up as he thanked the Packers organization for all that they had done for him. Indeed, they made Brett a wealthy man over the years, but Favre transformed a fallen dynasty into a consistent winner. Favre’s record as a starter is 160-93. In sixteen seasons as the Packers starting quarterback, he led the team to 11 playoff appearances, seven Division titles, and one Super Bowl victory in two appearances. He is the all time NFL leader in passing yards and passing touchdowns (and interceptions, by the way).

I think that if you read between the lines, the Packers pressured Favre to retire after last season, in spite of the fact that he had a very good year. At the time, his loyalty to the Packers coupled with the aches, pains, and fatigue that a player feels after his 17th season playing in the NFL tipped the scales toward a decision to retire, and he did so, but very reluctantly.

My perspective on the situation as it stands right now is that Favre has been excited about the beginning of the new football season since he played Pop Warner. There are athletes that play in the NFL strictly for the money, but Favre is a guy who genuinely loves to play the game of football. I don’t think that he wants to play this year because of money. I don’t even think he is motivated by some kind of burning desire to win the Super Bowl again. I think he just loves to play, he feels healthy, and he knows that he is still better than most of the starting quarterbacks in the NFL.

I am not a Packer fan, so I have never been a big fan of Brett Favre, but I do respect him immensely, and I am not one of the people who thinks he should just get out of the way. It’s true that his presence would be difficult for the Packers, who have already given the starting job to Aaron Rodgers, but if they did indeed pressure Favre to retire, they should have no compunction about trading him. I think they are clearly afraid that he will lead his new team past the Packers, and I think that Favre wants to have the opportunity to do just that.

Favre is just one of the storylines as the 2008-2009 NFL season approaches, and there is indeed football in the air here in Las Vegas. I look forward to watching the season unfold, and like every renewal it is a time of great hope and optimism for all 32 teams as they vie for a shot to play in Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa on February 1st, 2009.

Pets and Health

I have always been a big animal lover, and I especially like dogs. I had an Australian Shepherd, and when he was about eight years old I took in a Border Collie as well. The Aussie, who was named Max, died a couple of years ago, but he lived to be fifteen, so he had a good run. He was actually reasonably healthy, but he had hip dysplasia and it got so bad that he just couldn’t stand and had to be put to sleep.

So now I just have the Border Collie, and his name is Kevin. There are a lot of ways that Kevin keeps me healthy. The biggest thing is that, like all dogs, he loves to go for a walk, so we walk at least three miles a day. This keeps him in shape, and it also helps me get my daily aerobic exercise.

Studies have shown that pets can lower your blood pressure, boost your immune system, and lessen feelings of anxiety. I can relate to this because my dog has a calming influence on me. He is very sensitive to his surroundings, and he gets very agitated if I get upset in any way, and this helps me to keep my emotions in check.

Clearly the companionship that a pet provides is good for your health, and there are people who take their dogs to senior centers and hospitals because they have such a positive therapeutic effect.

Having a pet is a lot of responsibility, and it is a long term commitment. There are certain hassles and occasional challenges that accompany pet ownership, but the rewards far outweigh the sacrifices in my humble opinion.

Here at Fit Fuel we acknowledge the health benefits that pets provide to their owners, and we offer animal lovers a wide variety of pet products to help you to return the favor and keep your best friend healthy and happy.

Yesterday - A Test of “Fitness”

It started out like a normal day. I was at the pool at Green Valley Ranch hotel & casino thinking up new content ideas for Fit Fuel when I got a phone call that would flip my world on its head for the night.

The call was from a television producer I’d known tangentially in Los Angeles, where Fit Fuel was founded. (We actually began shipping our first orders out of a garage not far from a porn studio - it makes for a good entrepreneurial story, at least.) This producer and I had talked about producing media content for Fit Fuel - YouTube style - but we never had the budget for it. No, it was not porn.

He told me that I had to be to LA to talk - fast. And, as a side bonus, there was a party going on in the Hills later. He knew how to push my buttons.

“So just get here.”

I stopped drinking my margarita halfway through - something I never do - and headed home to change and get out to LA.

As I was driving through Baker past the Mad Greek pita stop, I got another phone call from him.

“Where are you? Are you here yet?” It hadn’t even been 2 hours since the first time I talked to him.

This had to be important. Clearly, I had to ‘just get there’ to find out.

When I got to LA, the producer, myself and some kid who looked like his intern (still don’t know what he does) got dinner at a steakhouse right across the street from my old gym. We had a window seat, and I couldn’t help but notice the same guys I used to work out with coming out the front door looking worse than the last time I saw them. ‘What the hell were they doing in there?’ I thought. Then I remembered that it was Beverly Hills. They had been socializing, of course.

The producer’s idea was simple - “extreme fitness”, a television show, which I would host. It would involve doing crazy things while traveling and *trying* to maintain a healthy lifestyle at the same time. It would be educational and entertaining.

“It’s a perfect fit, right?”

He had been following Fit Fuel since the day I left LA, when we’d talked about doing something similar. But I’d never pursued it.

Fit Fuel began to grow organically and blossom into something beautiful, something that represents the best of health - living, not healthy living or living to be healthy. Just living - better.

“It’s a done deal, we’ve already vetted it and have the resources to put together a season. No pilot is even needed. You know [anonymous name] has been wanting to do something like this for months and it was just too early before.”

And now it’s too late, I thought.

“I have to think about it” was my short answer. Having lived in Asia, it was an attempt to save their faces.

And that’s exactly what I did. I drove to Hermosa Beach - by now 11pm - and sat on the sand in my jeans and T-shirt in front of the old beach house I used to live in on 4th and the Strand when Fit Fuel was still a baby. It felt like there were ghosts around me. I thought about Sean and I sitting on the beach tossing rocks into the ocean thinking about our business plan, or coming home from Sharkies (bar) after two beers because we felt like working so much that we couldn’t enjoy ourselves surrounded by women in bikinis and rollerblades.

It’s cold in Hermosa when you’re sitting by the water, even in summer. I forgot how cold it got, but I kept on sitting there. An hour, two hours, three hours went by.

Doing anything like a TV show would require putting Fit Fuel on the backburner for 6-12 months. The total pay - if it lasted longer than a season - would be in the millions. But was it really going to satisfy me? The answer was clear from the start - this was not something I could do. But it was the after-thoughts that really hit home. It raised a question which had an obvious answer, yet the answer was not as valuable as the questions the answer raised, like a good book that makes you connect lines and dots that weren’t even in the book. It made me ‘renew my vows’ to Fit Fuel.

I looked back at the beach house behind me many times. I thought about the early days. Entrepreneurship, especially with a business partner, is like birthing a child. The company ends up sharing some of the characteristics of both parents, and it ends up growing into an individual, an individual with its own emotions, wants and desires…employees, stakeholders, customers - everyone who has ever come in contact with it.

By the time it was time to hit the Hollywood party, I’d killed whatever beast they’d planted in my head. I showed up, met a few people, ran into a girl who used to be beautiful, and then headed back to Vegas for a morning golf date and phone interview. If I ever wanted it, I knew the opportunity would be there.

On the way home, I hopped off the 10 and went back to Hermosa Beach and bought a Red Bull from the same guy at the convenience store that I used to pick up Coors Lights from for our beach BBQ’s. He remembered my name and was happy to see me. I was even happier to see him.

The drive back to Vegas was refreshing. The only thing on my mind was beating Cody in ping pong the next day and making sure I was there at 7 to unlock the door.

Using Resources Wisely

I think that one of the primary reasons why businesses fail is that they do not use the resources that are available to them efficiently enough. There is something that is very elegant about doing more with less. When you take pause and consider strategies for utilizing existing resources to meet a challenge, you develop a can-do culture of efficiency that is resourceful enough to get things done without habitually and immediately adding layers of manpower and/or equipment.

Maximization of resources is primarily a matter of developing good habits and accepting the challenge to achieve your goals in the most efficient way possible. There are many positives that result from incorporating this value into your culture, but the one that comes to mind first is that your staff will become stronger and more creative when they have adopted a “do for self” ethos. From my perspective, it is fun to be empowered and encouraged to “find a way.” There is such a thing as asking the impossible, of course, but some healthy brainstorming usually results in a solution that makes the company more profitable.

If you work for a company that values their employees and rewards them when goals are met, everyone has incentive to do more with less. Most of us are motivated by money, but being presented with a challenge that calls for a creative solution is motivating in and of itself. Few us are willing to admit defeat without putting up a fight, and you wouldn’t want those few on your team anyway, so when you are building your staff it is wise to look for people who welcome the challenge to do more with less and find it to be fun and mentally stimulating to innovate in the name of efficiency.

It has been suggested by Major D.K. Crooch that “job enrichment” is a good way to do more with less, and this makes sense to me. If you want increased productivity, make people’s jobs more interesting and fulfilling. I think this is a great concept. The ability to make decisions and see tasks followed though to completion are a couple of the factors that make a job enriching. Another aspect cited in Crooch’s article “Do More With Less” is that the work itself should provide the worker with feedback concerning how well they are doing; it should be evident by the ultimate results and not something that a supervisor would have to tell you.

Of course there are times when you need to add to your staff or purchase some truly necessary equipment, but many people are too quick to spend and too slow to innovate. Doing more with less is one of the keys to the long term success of any business.

Payday Is A Beautiful Thing

We have all experienced it. You walk past a coworker and you see that she looks different on this day. She has kind of a permanent smile going on, and she laughs really easily. She looks happy, buoyant, and you’re like, “What happened to you, girl?”

She looks at you and says, “Hey, it’s Friday, and it’s payday.”

I love my job, but a lot of people are not fortunate enough to be able do something that they enjoy doing for a living, and for them, work is all about payday and I can understand that. But whether you like your job or not, it is a great feeling to get to the end of the week, wake up on Friday, and have a nice direct deposit waiting for you in your bank account.

I know that you can make a lot of money in sales, but I have never been drawn to selling for a few different reasons. One of them is that I like a consistent flow of income that I can count on. It would be extremely stressful to me if I was to go to work every day and not know when, if, or how much I was going to be paid.

For me, there are credit card companies, a car loan company, and an anxious landlord looking forward to my payday just about as much as I am, but there is still something left over to have some fun with, and that is what payday is all about.

When you have friends at work and that day rolls around, you all know that you can afford to chill at happy hour or go out to eat, and payday is often a time for coworkers to get together, let off some steam, and do some bonding. Our employers take on a lot of responsibility knowing that their employees, and their employees’ families, depend so much on that check, but it also must be rewarding for them to realize that they are providing families with a means of supporting themselves.

It’s good to work hard, and in my opinion, it’s good to play hard, too. Payday is playday, and that is why payday is a beautiful thing.

Aging, Learning, and Perspective

Dr. John C. Lilly, the medical doctor whose research inspired the films The Day Of The Dolphin and Altered States, posited this postulate in his book The Center of the Cyclone:

“In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the mind, there are no limits… In the province of connected minds, what the network believes to be true, either is true or becomes true within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the network’s mind there are no limits.”

I have always found this passage to be extremely profound and I can almost remember it by heart, though I first read it many years ago. Since Lilly wrote this, the discoveries of quantum physicists have gone on to give the idea more and more credence.

I have a proper amount of respect for academics and empirical research, but I must say that I trust myself and my own personal observations and experiences more than anything. One thing that I have noticed about aging is that people tend to fall in line with their beliefs about how they should behave when they reach particular age plateaus. And more often than not, they emulate their parents’ behavior, whether they realize it or not. And indeed, their parents did the same thing, as did their parents’ parents.

One of the beliefs we assign to people who enter middle age and onward is that they are not as capable of learning as they once were. I am suggesting that if one believes this to be true (and there is societal pressure to do so) it will indeed be so. You can conduct empirical studies that prove that learning processes slow down as we age. But is that inevitably etched into our genes, or is it a belief that can be transcended?

Diseases tend to be hereditary, and we assume that there are biological reasons for this, but when you consider Sheldrake’s theories of biology and the fact that reality is affected by observation according to quantum physics, perhaps “heredity” is not what we think it is. Maybe it is a belief that can be transcended.

If we act according to what is expected of us to keep in line with the shared beliefs of the society in which we live, we severely limit what is truly possible. My observations have indicated to me that people start to become “old,” as it were, when they decide to stop learning. I see people who are 20 years my junior who, to me, seem older than I am, because they have become rigid in their beliefs. They stop learning, so they never see things anew as they gain knowledge and the evolving perspective that accompanies it.

A very wise Fit Fueler recently told me that “…the easiest way to change something is just to change your perception of it.” Changing the perception of what your age implies is probably the single most profound anti aging technique that there is, and you’re never too young, or too old, to give it a try.

Cognitive Function and Morphic Fields

There is a biologist by the name of Rupert Sheldrake who has posited the theories of morphic fields and morphic resonance, and I have been interested in his work for almost ten years now. Sheldrake holds a Ph.D in biochemistry from Cambridge, and he served as the Director of Studies in biochemistry and cell biology at Clare College in Cambridge. He has written ten books and authored dozens of scientific papers.

Sheldrake contends that nature is shaped by shared fields of memory and not by the implacable laws of a machine-like universe.

The concept of morphogenetic fields has been around mainstream biology since the 1920’s, described as “that collection of cells by whose interactions a particular organ formed.” Sheldrake’s morphic fields are different:

“The term [morphic fields] is more general in its meaning than morphogenetic fields, and includes other kinds of organizing fields in addition to those of morphogenesis; the organizing fields of animal and human behaviour, of social and cultural systems, and of mental activity can all be regarded as morphic fields which contain an inherent memory.” — Sheldrake, The Presence of the Past

(Source: Wikipedia)

What he is saying is that organizing fields, not the genes themselves, hold the information that instructs living forms:

“The instructors [at university] said that all morphogenesis is genetically programmed. They said different species just follow the instruction in their genes. But a few moments’ reflection show that this reply is inadequate. All the cells of the body contain the same genes. In your body, the same genetic program is present in your eye cells, liver cells and the cells in your arms. The ones in your legs. But if they are all programmed identically, how do they develop so differently?”

The hundredth monkey phenomena puts this into some sort of practical perspective. Monkeys on the Japanese island of Koshima were eating sweet potatoes back in the 1950’s that were covered in sand. They ate them, sand and all, until one young female monkey had the bright idea of washing hers. The behavior spread locally by observation and imitation, but when the “hundredth monkey” began the practice, a critical mass was reached, and instantly the behavior was adopted by monkeys on nearby islands who had not observed it. This would be one example of a non local morphic field holding sharable genetic information, information that is dynamic and flexible.

I just read one of Sheldrake’s books a couple of months ago, The Sense of Being Stared At. In it he explores the fact that people seem to have some innate means of recognizing when they are being stared at, even when their backs are turned to the person doing the staring. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence in the book, but he also conducted many experiments that provide proof that there is indeed something to this phenomena. You can try some of these experiments yourself.

The sense of being stared at implies that our field of awareness extends outside of our bodies and is not confined to the brain’s interpretation of input from the five senses.

I have done a lot of research into the physics of consciousness as well as the various schools of psychology, and a lot of that stuff is rather esoteric and hard to swallow if you are a left brained materialist. But the interesting thing about Sheldrake’s work is that he is a biologist, not a quantum physicist or a psychologist. He studies living, animate things, not mathematical formulas or philosophical concepts.

Did you ever feel a “vibe” before you saw the cause of it? I know I have. There is no doubt in my mind that we have a field that extends beyond our bodies. Think about our own solar system, and the way that electromagnetic fields inform incredibly complicated interrelated simultaneous rotations and high velocity orbital trajectories. According to Sheldrake, that shared informative resonance is present throughout all of biology.

Sheldrake’s research is fascinating, and his perspectives on biology resonate with my own experiences. Skeptics can and do dismiss his views, but he has endeavored to explain very genuine phenomena that the material realists avoid altogether, and I highly recommend his work to anyone who is interested in broadening their understanding of cognitive function.

Workplace Communication

There is nothing that is more important than having open lines of communication in any relationship. In fact, it is open and honest communication that builds strong relationships. It has been my experience that when I listen respectfully and hear what the other person is saying, two-way communication becomes effortless. People appreciate a good listener, and when you listen to them, they are more likely to return the favor.

In the workplace, open and honest communication is extremely vital because without it you have misunderstandings, inefficiency, duplication of effort and a paucity of free flowing idea exchange. I use the words “open and honest” communication because most workplaces claim to value communication, but it is often more of a platitude than a firmly embedded dynamic value that permeates the culture. If communication is “encouraged,” but it is clear that you can’t say what you really think and maintain your good standing, that is not a culture of “open and honest” communication. It is possible to be totally respectful and show your co-workers and leaders the proper amount of deference while being simultaneously open and honest, and that is the goal that the progressive business should be striving toward.

Cliques and gossip are an impediment to good across-the-board workplace communication. Though it is natural that we may have more in common with some people that we work with than others on a personal level, from a work perspective, talking behind people’s back is never a good idea. When you do this you often wind up with separate teams within the team with possibly competing agendas, and it was Abraham Lincoln that said “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Your workplace may stay standing while you and your peeps are dissing someone in the lunchroom, but honest and open communication will suffer. I try not to say anything about someone that I wouldn’t say to their face, and I’ve found that the practice has made me a better person and changed my perspective on communication.

Communication is good for business, and it is good for relationships, but it also makes you feel good. There are few things more satisfying than getting something off your chest with someone and coming away feeling as though the two of you have reached an understanding. A bond is forged, and future communication becomes easier. When that happens consistently over time in the workplace, a strong and healthy culture emerges.

Healthy Weight Loss

Few things have been discussed more often than the subject of weight loss, but the funny thing is, in spite of all of this talk, people aren’t getting any thinner. When all is said and done, I guess it’s safe to say that more gets said than done, and it takes exercise, supplementation and dietary changes to lose weight and keep it off.

I agree with the experts who say that “diets” never really work out in the long run because people stick to them long enough to lose some weight, but then they invariably go back to their old habits and put the weight back on. Maintaining an active, healthy lifestyle and altering your approach to eating is the only long term solution, but, you may feel like you want to lose some weight quickly and go on a crash diet of some kind to get the weight down, and then make an effort to maintain your weight loss while eating a more balanced diet. I have done this in three different ways.

I have found that eating a very low carb diet is effective for quick weight loss. When I eat a diet that is stingy in terms of carbohydrates I lose about ten pounds a month. I have also lost weight eating a low fat diet coupled with a lot of aerobic exercise. And I have lost a significant amount of weight by eating a raw food diet as well. It has been my experience that all three of these approaches work if you stick with them long enough.

Everyone has different tastes and different weaknesses, so from my perspective, there is no “best way” to lose weight. A lot of health problems stem from obesity, so I do think that it is extremely important to keep your weight down, not just to look good, but to keep yourself healthy. We carry many well researched and clinically tested supplements that support healthy weight loss, and I invite you to visit our main site and explore the wealth of comprehensive information that we offer on the subject.

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