This will just be a quick update to let you all know that I have just launched my new website today. Thanks so much to my good friend Tina for all her help putting it together. My blog postings will now be via the website at:
www.carolcooke.com.au
If you have subscribed to this blog you can go to the new website and subscribe to my blog there, would love to have you continue to follow my journey! Thank you to all those that have followed me and I look forward to having you on the new site.
My first blog on the new site is "The Year That Was", hope you enjoy it.
I would also like to hear from you about what you think of the new site and anything that may not be there that you would like to see. For now enjoy the Christmas season and the New Year and thanks for your patronage.
Regards
Carol
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Saturday, December 15, 2012
A Very Sad World Today
Today I was going to sit down and write about how my training has been going, how the camp in Bright was and how I feel like things are back on track. But then I woke to the news that there was yet another shooting in the United States, in another school, with more deaths and my training, camp and being back on track really don't seem to matter.
In the small town of Newtown, Connecticut, a town of about 2000 people, at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, which caters to grades Kindergarten to grade 4, so 5-10 year olds, the morning became one of sheer horror. I can't imagine what the parents of every student in that school went through when they heard that there was trouble at the school. What we do know now is that 20 children have lost their lives along with 7 adults. This is such a sad, horrible incident no matter when it happens, but at this time of year when children are looking forward to the holidays and excited about seeing the fat man in a red suit, it seems to make it even worse!
As adults we all know that life is short, but how many of us ever live life to the fullest. We are always saying "I'll take care of it tomorrow" or "Tomorrow I'll call my...mom, dad, sister, brother, friend". These children who have been taken from the world way to early had their whole lives to live for, growing up, graduation, university, work, falling in love, becoming parents themselves and raising their own children. The adults who were killed had lots of living to do, most of them being teachers who devoted their lives to the children.
A lot of people want to jump up and down today about the gun law's in the States and no doubt there will be lots of arguments and debates in the coming days. But today we should just take a moment to mourn the loss of 27 people who all had so much to live for. We should also learn a huge lesson from today, go home and hug your kids, tell those that you love exactly that, "you love them" and realise that life really is short so it's time to live like it matters and experience the fullness of what life really feels like.
In the small town of Newtown, Connecticut, a town of about 2000 people, at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, which caters to grades Kindergarten to grade 4, so 5-10 year olds, the morning became one of sheer horror. I can't imagine what the parents of every student in that school went through when they heard that there was trouble at the school. What we do know now is that 20 children have lost their lives along with 7 adults. This is such a sad, horrible incident no matter when it happens, but at this time of year when children are looking forward to the holidays and excited about seeing the fat man in a red suit, it seems to make it even worse!
As adults we all know that life is short, but how many of us ever live life to the fullest. We are always saying "I'll take care of it tomorrow" or "Tomorrow I'll call my...mom, dad, sister, brother, friend". These children who have been taken from the world way to early had their whole lives to live for, growing up, graduation, university, work, falling in love, becoming parents themselves and raising their own children. The adults who were killed had lots of living to do, most of them being teachers who devoted their lives to the children.
A lot of people want to jump up and down today about the gun law's in the States and no doubt there will be lots of arguments and debates in the coming days. But today we should just take a moment to mourn the loss of 27 people who all had so much to live for. We should also learn a huge lesson from today, go home and hug your kids, tell those that you love exactly that, "you love them" and realise that life really is short so it's time to live like it matters and experience the fullness of what life really feels like.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Motivation vs. Commitment
I've been finding it hard to find motivation lately. I seem to target a date to really get back into the swing of things training wise and then something invariably comes up and gets in the way. Then I seem to find something to spur me on and then again the motivation is gone.
I subscribe to a motivational speaker's website Craig Harper and the other day received an email, one like I regularly get from him, but this one really hit home. It was titled "Motivation is Not the Answer", so I read on with great interest! These following lines certainly made me think " Motivation (on its own) rarely leads to any kind of lasting positive transformation. Commitment, on the other hand, is a non-negotiable mindset. It's absolute. It's a force. Unwavering. Constant. Powerful. Unlike motivation, it's not a day to day proposition; it's your default setting. It's not a 'sometimes' emotion but rather, an 'all-the-time' habit. Committed people make things happen, even in the absence of motivation."
This made me realize that I was looking at my training all wrong. I started thinking back to last October when I decided that I wanted to get fitter and stronger, it was commitment that kept me going. So it has made me think about what I need to do now that the new year is approaching. I am currently in country Victoria in the beautiful town of Bright on a cycling camp with my coach and the Kelly Cycle Coaching group. I have used this as a starting point for concentrating on my next goal, winning the World Cycling Championships in August 2013. So I have decided that I am not going to focus on motivation but commitment and I have started that process as of yesterday's ride!
My training partner Hannah and I were told to go for a ride between 3-4 hours, just to start building our endurance, so it was decided that we would ride to the town of Beechworth and back. There was a method in our madness and that was the famous Beechworth Bakery with all its lovely sandwiches, cakes, pastries and coffee! About 10 km from Beechworth we hit the biggest bloody hill that I have tackled in a while! It took almost 40 minutes to ride just over 5km due to the 12-14% grade of hill! I must say that there were definitely a few times that I kept thinking "this is nuts" and wanting to turn around. But then that word 'commitment' kept popping into my head, so I kept going. The reward for this was a lovely lunch at the bakery and then the massive downhill ride back to Bright!
All in all it was the longest ride I have ever accomplished, 118km for the day. We backed that ride up with a ride today of 65km and I honestly believe that I am well and truly back on track with my training. We have a week here of beautiful rides with amazing scenery to go along with them and I am looking forward to the commitment of getting ready to attain my next goal. So thanks to Craig Harper for his wise words of wisdom, I know that my motivation of attaining the status of "World Champion" is in my heart but without the commitment to the training needed, I will never be able to attain this goal.
I subscribe to a motivational speaker's website Craig Harper and the other day received an email, one like I regularly get from him, but this one really hit home. It was titled "Motivation is Not the Answer", so I read on with great interest! These following lines certainly made me think " Motivation (on its own) rarely leads to any kind of lasting positive transformation. Commitment, on the other hand, is a non-negotiable mindset. It's absolute. It's a force. Unwavering. Constant. Powerful. Unlike motivation, it's not a day to day proposition; it's your default setting. It's not a 'sometimes' emotion but rather, an 'all-the-time' habit. Committed people make things happen, even in the absence of motivation."
This made me realize that I was looking at my training all wrong. I started thinking back to last October when I decided that I wanted to get fitter and stronger, it was commitment that kept me going. So it has made me think about what I need to do now that the new year is approaching. I am currently in country Victoria in the beautiful town of Bright on a cycling camp with my coach and the Kelly Cycle Coaching group. I have used this as a starting point for concentrating on my next goal, winning the World Cycling Championships in August 2013. So I have decided that I am not going to focus on motivation but commitment and I have started that process as of yesterday's ride!
My training partner Hannah and I were told to go for a ride between 3-4 hours, just to start building our endurance, so it was decided that we would ride to the town of Beechworth and back. There was a method in our madness and that was the famous Beechworth Bakery with all its lovely sandwiches, cakes, pastries and coffee! About 10 km from Beechworth we hit the biggest bloody hill that I have tackled in a while! It took almost 40 minutes to ride just over 5km due to the 12-14% grade of hill! I must say that there were definitely a few times that I kept thinking "this is nuts" and wanting to turn around. But then that word 'commitment' kept popping into my head, so I kept going. The reward for this was a lovely lunch at the bakery and then the massive downhill ride back to Bright!
All in all it was the longest ride I have ever accomplished, 118km for the day. We backed that ride up with a ride today of 65km and I honestly believe that I am well and truly back on track with my training. We have a week here of beautiful rides with amazing scenery to go along with them and I am looking forward to the commitment of getting ready to attain my next goal. So thanks to Craig Harper for his wise words of wisdom, I know that my motivation of attaining the status of "World Champion" is in my heart but without the commitment to the training needed, I will never be able to attain this goal.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)