Thursday 6/19/2008

Chicago, IL. This was my first stint in Chicago since my decision to start the Take The Stairs World Tour. I was visiting our Success Starts Now! sales team that is living in Wrigleyville and after a tiring day of selling and leading I figured I should take advantage of adding a new city to the growing list of places where I’ve climbed some tall buildings. I did however lack the energy to take the 35 minute train ride to downtown where the real exciting staircases are (isn’t that funny that certain staircases are really exciting to me?) so I instead chose the 17 floored – Golden Estates Living Center in Wrigleyville. They had security but quickly printed me a pass and I was in.

This staircase was unique though. I’ve noticed that most staircases average about 11-13 steps in a floor and sometimes do 1 “wrap” on the way to the next level. While this one did have 12 steps in a floor it “wrapped” 4 times, forming a kind of perfect square, on the way up to the next floor. The impact was that my climbing rhythm was “3 steps, and turn. 3 steps, and turn.” as opposed to “12 more. Then 12 more.” What I noticed is that it was somehow mentally easier for me to climb that way because as I got tired it was just “3 more steps” instead of “12 more steps”.

The same is true in our lives when it comes to any goal. It’s so much easier to break things into small manageable pieces. And there is a certain satisfaction that comes from accomplishing the little things even if they are far from us accomplishing our giant overall goal. Success Starts Now! calls this concept “crystallizing” your goal or breaking it down into smaller more “bite size” pieces. What goals are you pursuing right now in your life? As you pursue them think about dividing them into small chunks in order that you may get that certain sense of gratification that keeps you going to the next step.

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Sunday 6/15/2008 Real mission. Real sacrifice.

Being at home in Longmont for a weekend presented a new but simple challenge for the Take The Stairs World Tour; finding a building that actually had a lot of stairs I could climb. LOL. Longmont, which is a Denver suburb has no really tall buildings. In fact as I was driving through town I didn’t see one that even looked higher than 10 floors. (Things you never notice until your perspective changes by doing something weird like climbing the 10 tallest buildings in the world.) So I headed over to the 6 story Longmont United Hospital thinking that maybe they would let me in the stairs as supporters of good health.

Upon arriving I went to the front desk to request permission and I found a real legitimate example of discipline and of sacrifice. I met Claire and Stan Davies who were behind the welcome counter. They were glad to let me do whatever I wanted in the stairs but the real lesson here came from learning about them. Claire and Stan sat behind the counter smiling for no apparent reason; other than just being happy about life. Their lightly grayed hair and soft skin was overpowered by an exuding spirit of service and warmth. Claire and Stan have sat in those same seats virtually every single Saturday since 1987. They’ve sat there without pay and have worked throughout the hospital tirelessly at least once per week for over 20 years. I’d be willing to bet that their presence often times goes overlooked and unnoticed by the average person that walks into that hospital. Sadly, I probably would’ve overlooked them myself on a regular non-stair climbing training day.

And with all of the other possible ways to spend a Saturday, with all the other activities that could bring one couple recognition, and all the other more relaxing options, Stan and Claire choose sacrifice. They choose discipline. They choose serving others before serving themselves. They are an inspiration to me and a reminder that there really are people out there who have real missions and make real sacrifices.

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Friday 6/13/2008

Given last week’s episode at the Atlanta airport and my nearly forced escalator compromise of my commitment to Take The Stairs, I was quite nervous heading into Denver International Airport on my way home for a Father’s Day family reunion. Because I grew up in Denver I am very familiar with the airport and I know that I had never seen easily accessible stairs. And so the entire flight from Milwaukee to Denver I was worrying, stressing, thinking, about how in the world I was going to get out of DIA without having to use an elevator or escalator. I kept thinking back to Atlanta and how lucky I had gotten with the help that I received and also how if I was faced with same situation that I might not get so lucky.

Mulling through the options and scenarios in my head had created a pretty decent sized stress and anxiety as I got off the plane at about 10 pm. When I got to the train that takes you back to the terminal, it was exactly as I remembered it, with no stairs. I found what looked to be a stairwell but it was armed with an emergency exit. Too much risk for me to just open it. Immediately my story in my head began playing over and over about how I wasn’t going to find a way out of this place and how I was going to have to compromise my commitment to Take The Stairs everywhere. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed and information booth. As a last option I figured that I might as well ask if they could take me down a secret set of stairs somewhere although I was sure they’d say no. John Camba was behind the desk and he loved the Take The Stairs tour. And without barely thinking twice he said “well I could just shut off the escalators for you. Would that help?” YES! It would help! I was thinking to myself “boy that was easy.”

John took me over to the escalator, blocked them off to everyone else, and then with a quick turn of the key just shut it down. I then walked the stairs and was off. How many times in our lives do we worry? Worry about things that may never come to pass? And how much easier is it to simply ask others for help rather than wallowing in our own negative stories that play over and over in our head. With that the tour continues, at least for now…

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Sunday 6/8/2008

As mentioned in my previous blog it sometimes takes an act of God to be granted permission into the stair wells. One place that I thought I would’ve had more trouble so far is at airports. Yet fortunately every airport that I’ve been to has had easily accessible stairs; every airport except Atlanta. After a long weekend in Vegas, I was connecting through Atlanta on my way to my current home in Milwaukee but little did I know that Milwaukee airport got buried yesterday with rain that turned the runways into giant slip and slides. So my connecting flight late Saturday night to Milwaukee was cancelled (3 hours after the fact) and I was stranded in Atlanta for the night. This morning everything seemed to be going pretty well considering I slept 4 hours last night in a crummy hotel (not my fault) and only 5 hours the night before from hanging out in Las Vegas at the Tryst nightclub in the Wynn Hotel (obviously my fault).

Everything was going well except that the main terminal and concourse C that I was flying out of are both only accessible by escalators or elevators. That’s right ladies and gentleman, no stairs. Now what? My commitment level was again being tested. Elevators are definitely not an option but for the last 3 months I’ve also never had to be on an escalator. But no stairs? A police officer, a security official, and a TSA agent shut me down and although I had arrived an hour before my 6 am flight with no luggage to check, time was running out to where I’d have to choose between the escalator or missing yet another flight home. But then I was passed off to a man with a smile, a man with a heart for the cause, and a man with a commitment to go beyond the call of his duty as an operations person. A man named Jerome Woodard. Him and his buddy Matthew Owens, who work for The City of Atlanta, are the two studs who helped me out this morning at the last minute. They were able to contact and convince Nate Crenshaw from Atlanta Airlines Terminal Corporation to come and block off the escalator, shut it off just for me, let me climb up the 47 steps and then turn it back on! Yes. The tour continues! I was able to race to my gate just in the “Nate” of time to hear that my flight was delayed another hour and a half.

Who would’ve imagined that our society would’ve reached a point where we’d build buildings that only have elevators and escalators and that the one outsider causing all the ruckus is the person trying to take the stairs? A growing theme of this World Tour is how much HELP FROM OTHERS it is taking to reinforce my commitment to take the stairs. Everyday I’m met with new frustrations and obstacles but up to this point have always been rescued by some willing individual. Thank you City of Atlanta, and AATC. In the past 7 years I’ve lived in 12 different major cities, stayed in dozens of others, and met 10s of thousands of people and I can still say with certainty that people are good. People are kind. And people are willing to help you when you need it most.

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Friday 6/6/2008

When most people think about Las Vegas they think about lights, shows, shopping, gambling, and any other host of interesting experiences but for me Las Vegas means one thing: stairs. Lots and lots of stairs. I was in Vegas this last weekend because I was keynoting a conference for the Young Insurance Brokers and Agents Conference, YBAC. As part of my preparation for the world tour I’ve made it common practice to request a room on the highest floor possible everywhere that I go. I wondered if I should maybe think twice about that policy as I was pulling up to my stay that the 51-floored Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino right off the strip. If I was ever going to be in an environment that doesn’t place a real high value on self-discipline where I might be tempted to cheat on my Take The Stairs tour it would be in Las Vegas. Something about being in that city just gives you a reason to indulge because our mind is constantly going “I’m in Vegas baby!”

The temptation to slide started right away when the man behind the check-in counter asked me “do you have any special room preferences?” I was proud of myself for at least requesting a room on the highest available floor. But when I explained that I was the “stairs guy” I immediately had another reason to cheat because he shared that there “is no public access to the stairs sir.” By this point in my journey I’m pretty used to hearing that objection and I’ve found that it’s mostly a matter or polite persistence that will get me around it. Yet the question for me was whether or not I should persist or simply use it as a reason to take the elevators. In some buildings, airports, and hotels it takes “an act of God” to get me in the stair wells but this time it only took an act of German – Hotel Manager German W. Brizuela that is. German’s genuine smile and legitimate concern for customer satisfaction had him on his walkie talkie pulling strings for me in no time. I was totally impressed with the Rio’s willingness to help me as part of their commitment to customer service. So fortunately (or unfortunately for my indulgent side) I once again was climbing up and down to my room on the 35th floor for 2 days in Vegas.

All weekend long I watched closely at how people responded to the different temptations Vegas has to offer. And while I definitely believe in having fun, staying balanced and kicking back on a regular basis, it’s important for us to have certain unconditional commitments in our life. What reasons do you have in your life to break your commitments? In any endeavor or pursuit there are always reasons why we can’t do something or why it’s okay for us to “let it slide this time”. Which I guess is why being disciplined and being successful causes us to learn to be "unreasonable".

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