Motivational Story – Anna’s half marathon success!

Okay, some of you may or may not know that I really don’t like to use the F -word, but there are exceptions….and this is one of them. I F***** DID IT…; I did it AGAIN and shaved 15 minutes off my Toronto run in 2007!! I finished the half marathon in 2 hours and 43 minutes (I know, some of you were told it was 2:17; then 2:27; but because I am new to this – the time I saw was 2:27 (and I did see it; even asked a fellow runner if that was the right time and he said “Mais, Oui madame!”)so thought this was the marathon time – anyway it’s a funny story one - that I have to tell you in person – it involves one of the Kenyan runners; things that can only happen to your one and only ANNA. And remind me to tell you the story about Montreal’s version of a cheering squad!

 What a feeling to be running the streets of Montreal – I have never even driven on some of those streets let alone run them!

The ones that I did recognize brought me back to my youth – To park Pere Marquette, where as a kid I would feel self conscious to get on the teeter-totter because I was heavier than the other kids; and here I was running past it! Then, running by my old high school – where my gym teacher would constantly point me out as being the slowest to finish the “participaction exercises” – Well, here I was running a half marathon. I tell you my bladder was very close to my eyes because I think I cried most of the run! My parents and sister Connie came to cheer us on; my cousin Gaspare and Nelson were there in full force –they made me cry too!

My last 300 meters running into the Stade Olympique – on my borrowed ipod listening to  “A Moment Like This” by Kelly Clarkson – and what a moment it was when I saw 00:2:27:38….I was in shock….and even more shocked when my name was announced Anna Iacono, from Toronto, finishing in at 2:27!! I know it’s not about the time – but this is a huge deal for me. At that moment it meant a lot.

As I sit here and write this – it really does not matter what the time was; or how much faster I was than the last time. What matters is that I did it – again.  As my good friend Junia tells me  “Anna when you make it to the START LINE, that’s what really matters.” I could not have done it without ALL OF YOU.

 A special thank you to my sister Rosie; what an honour she gave me for being able to cheer her into that stadium – she ran her first half marathon and she did amazing. It was awesome to see my sister cross that finish line – after a year of training and after losing 125 lbs!! Her determination and drive are a true inspiration.

 THANK YOU for all of your good wishes; your notes, your text messages, your phone calls, your e-mails and some of you even dropped by our house and some of you at my parents’ house! I want you to know that I kept all your notes and messages in whatever form they came with me as I ran – seriously, I printed and pasted them all on a word document and I RAN WITH THEM…you were all very close by. The closest was my husband ROSS – what can I say? He makes me laugh when I want to cry; and cry when I want to laugh (he basically had me qualifying for the Boston Marathon with the 2:17 time!! – he’s new at this too! ).  I love him for that and he pushed me forward…..and to think it all started at the Loretto Abbey Hill…..Ross, you know exactly what I am referring to.

 So, my friends and family – I love you all very much – THANK YOU- THANK YOU– THANK YOU for allowing me to “vacuum you” into my every whim – whether it be the Turkey Challenges; the Zumba Parties and yes – even these runs that I do. I could have NOT done it WITHOUT YOU.

Anna Iacono

Jo’s Motivational Thursday – Part 6

Welcome to the last chapter in this series:

How to have more fun and stay present – the ultimate gift in having a happy and motivated journey in life.

Next time you are driving in your car and someone cuts you off try this plan of attack to reduce your stress – ask yourself a few quick questions:

1/ Did they deliberately cut you off?
2/ Was this a personal attack?
3/ Are they by any chance running late for an important event?
4/ Is it really worth getting so steamed up about it?

If after asking these few questions you are still angry, upset and stressed then you need to ask yourself why.

Are you stressed because you have not been managing your time effectively?  You are now running late and most probably cutting other people off in the traffic!  Now how ironic is that?

Quite simply you need to try to look at life differently.  Things just happen and really… does it make things any better by stressing about them? 

Another great way to get the most out of every moment of every day is to stay present 100% of the time.

How often in a day do you find yourself wandering off and thinking about other things other than what you should be doing at that moment? 

A great quote comes to mind, “where ever you are be there”.  In other words if you are having a shower then focus on the task at hand, feel the water running over your body, enjoy having a wash and ‘be’ in that moment.

Thinking about what ‘should’ or ‘could’ have been is a wasted thought process because it is in the past.  Worrying about what ‘might’ happen is also wasted energy – what if it never happens?  You have just wasted an opportunity to enjoy the moment you were in by thinking about something that may never occur…why would you do that?

Learning to be present 100% of the time is the key to enjoying life.  Looking for opportunities to laugh, smile and have fun will appear to you more often when your mind is not pre-occupied with the things that are not in that moment.

Let me leave you with a wonderful saying:

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift that is why they call it the present.”

Have a happy and in the moment week.

Jo

Jo’s Motivational Thursday – Part 4

Welcome to another week … how did you go with last week’s challenge?

 Hopefully you are a little closer to finding out what is really important to you and why.

 This week the focus will be on how to set yourself up for success every time you set a goal regardless of the outcome.

 The secret to this is one very simple word – Attitude!  An easy word to say and an easy word to spell but not always as easy to implement the right one!

 It has been noted that most of us suffer from a very serious disease called “procrastination”.  The best excuse for procrastinating is that we may not be sure if making a decision will take us closer to what we ultimately want to achieve.

 Newsbreak:  Everything you do will take you closer to what you want – even if it is the realization that it is not the right way for you!

 “What?” I hear you ask…. please bear with me as I explain.

 I once had someone describe making a decision to take action as if they were standing at a fork in the road.  They could see two possible paths and did not know which one to take.  They thought either path could take them towards their goal but were not completely convinced which path was the best to take.  Here is my advice – just pick one and try! 

 What is the worst that will happen? You will discover this is not the path for you and then you can journey back to the fork in the road and try the other.

 Question:  Will you have still learnt valuable things on the way down the 1^st path? 

Of course you will have and better still you could later on be able to assist someone else to take that path if it is in line with what they want to achieve? 

 Every thing that happens in your life can be seen as a positive regardless of the outcome.  It is up to you how you choose to perceive things – this is a conscious process.

 Here is a quick list of questions to help you stay on track with your goals no matter what life is throwing at you:

 1/ What can I learn from what is happening right now?

 2/ How many times have I felt like this before and can now look back at those times and    

    see the life lesson I learnt and even laugh about it?

 3/ Will this make me stronger? Wiser? A better person?

 A positive attitude goes a very long way to helping us deal with challenges and let’s be honest, it is not difficult to have a positive attitude when everything is going the way that we want.

 The true measure of a person is how they deal with adversity and tough times.

 Here is to you being a ‘glass half full’ person as opposed to a ‘glass half empty’ person.

 Have a great week.

 Jo

Jo’s Motivational Thursday – Part 3

Welcome back to another Thursday addition:

 How did you go with last week’s challenges? 

 Remember, Rome was not built in a day so any small steps forward are in the right direction.

 Incidentally I took my own advice and contacted a friend I have not seen for 6 months, we had breakfast on Saturday morning and it was great to catch up and chat.

 Here goes with Step 2:

 What are your core values? 

 How do you know what they are?

 Are your beliefs and core values aligned?

Or 

Are you sabotaging your goals because they are not aligned?

 Here are a couple of ways to find out what lies beneath the goals and dreams you have.

 1/  When thinking about something you are aiming to achieve ask yourself why this is important to you.

 When you can answer that question then ask yourself again the question why and apply it to that answer.

 Ask yourself the question ‘why’ as many times as you need to until you find out the reason that is buried within your sub conscious thoughts and then you will find out what one of your values are.

 2/  Once you have identified all of your goals and dreams and have worked your way through to the real reasons that you want these things you now have a list of your core values.

Now sit down with a piece of paper and put in order which value is the most important to you through to the least important.

 You have now been able to identify not only why your goals are important to you but also what drives your belief systems as to what will make you feel happy and fulfilled.

 Only now can you decide if you are always acting in a way that helps you stay aligned with your goals and dreams or if you are sabotaging these things because you do not truly believe that they will happen or that you deserve them.

 Have fun over the next week thinking over what things are important to you and then ensure that you set some short term goals to satisfy these things for yourself.  You will be amazed at how good it makes you feel.

 

Jo’s Motivational Thursday – Part 1

Welcome to Motivational Thursday! Over the next few weeks I will introduce you to some of the simple concepts of human thought processes and how you can use these to help yourself and those around you.

Step 1:

It’s all about you – how do you treat yourself? 

Questions:

If you spoke to your best friend the way you speak to yourself, how long would they be your best friend?

How can you expect to achieve the things in your life that you value when you are self sabotaging through your daily self talk?

Did you know that everyone has days where they doubt their abilities? 

You can use this to your advantage to realize that you are not any different to anyone else and that your doubts and fears are normal. 

The key is to use these moments to make you stronger and determined to achieve what it is that is important to you. 

Step 2:

Identifying appropriate goals – ask yourself, ‘what are my core values?’

Keep reading over the next few weeks to determine what your true motivators are.

Goals set without connecting to your core value systems will either be unfulfilling when achieved or may never be completed as you will lose motivation before reaching the goal.

Step 3:

Setting yourself up for a successful outcome every time.

This will be a series of successful methods to help you deal with success and failure.

Step 4:

How to stay focused when life gets in the way.

The next step will focus on time management and how to prioritise your hour, day, week, month and year.

Step 5:

The last step will be how to have more fun and enjoy every moment – learning the skill of staying present and how this will reduce the stress in your life plus help you achieve the things you value and desire.

See you again next week for more on step 1.

Till then try this fun challenge:

Smile at every person you walk past – the gift you are sharing will make them feel better and costs you nothing (and the best part is it makes you feel better too!).