Working Out - I felt the need to go work out. With my new job I am on the road a lot sitting in my car and I live at Starbucks. If you let me know what you current location is I can probably tell you were the closest Starbucks is and what the Coffee of the Day is at that location. I am sitting and driving a lot for my job, and there is not much physical activity throughout the week. I am also working into the evenings and by the time I get off most nights it is too late to make it to the gym for a good work out. I am not in the peek physical condition right now so I went to the gym the other day to get buff. My plan was to run for a while and then do an intense circuit of weight training. I left having only run for ten minutes and done three sets on two machines. I then remembered why I do better when I am at the gym with someone else. In school I would sometimes dare go workout with my strength-training roommates. It was scary for me because I am not the hangout in the gym and watch my veins pop out of my neck type guy. They were always set up with the right equipment and apparel to let everyone know they were the intense ones. As I walked in and began to lift whatever the first machine that was in my path was, they went into a crazy routine of stretches and warm ups that would make an NFL player cry. I once participated and was so loose for the couple of days that walking was a chore. I would like to say that I am as disciplined guy that finds working out and running to be second nature, but that would just not be true. I like to engage in competitive activities and I am a good team player. I am not going to be the all star of any team, unless I get selected for the elementary school thumb-wrestling championship, then I’d kill ‘em. But when I did go to the gym with my roommates I always left with a sense that what I had managed to accomplish, though not as impressive as them, was impressive for me and my standards. When I went this weekend I wimped out after just a few laps on the track and only two machines. If I had the accountability to go and get it done and someone there to not let me give up, I am confident that I would have had a better workout. Having someone to force you to be your best and to stretch you to be better is important. I have two roommates that I would workout with. One is better at working out and really knows his stuff; he doesn’t let me get away with anything. The other one is more dedicated to working out than I am, but when he and I workout together we let each other get away with more. I think that this is also applicable to life and our personal goals and ambitions. It is scary to write out your goals and plans. It is even scarier to give them to someone else and ask them to hold you to them. When someone else knows what you have purposed to do and is diligent to ask you if you have keep your promise, it makes it tough to not do them. It is equally tough to be the person responsible for asking the tough questions and pushing the buttons that remind the other person that they aren’t living up to their potential. Having a solid friend that is willing to do that is a treasure. Having the guts to write out your goals and dreams is the first step toward completing them. The second is finding someone that will make you do it and not let you walk out of the gym with only a few drops of sweat but will ask of you to live up to your own standards and stick it out through the hard part. My goal is to surround myself with others that are goal oriented and that will keep me in line. If I am willing to live a complacent and moderately boring life without dreams or ambitions, then I can do that on my own. But if I want to take it to the next level and live life to the fullest, I am going to have to have some people there to push me and keep me going even when it is tough.