This past Saturday was my son Andrew’s fifth birthday. My wife and I had special day planned for him and I gotta admit I was probably more excited about it than he was.
And yesterday, Sunday, my wife and I went to party in Manhattan beach at the 90210 house. Looking back on the weekend I realize there are a ton of lessons in it and so I thought I’d share it with here (plus, hopefully years down the road my son might come to my blog as a teen or young adult and see his dad’s perspective of his 5th birthday weekend).
Saturday morning started off at 7:30 with Andrew and Chloe storming our bedroom and asking if it’s “wake time” yet.The night before Di and I set up Andrew’s gifts and pimped out the kitchen table to surprise him…
Like we do every Saturday morning, we had to get our father and son workout in before starting the day of birthday surprises. So Andrew unwrapped his gifts, ate the breakfast of champions (a birthday cupcake), kissed his mommy and sister goodby and it was man time.
But first the birthday boy had to choose from the stable of cars and decide which one he wanted to take to the gym (“White Stallion” “Grease Lightning” or “Big Pimp’in”)
I had a feeling he’d choose the GT-R (Grease Lightning)…
I gotta tell you, Andrew is a champion in the gym. I’ve never seen a four year old (dang, now five) workout with such discipline…
Prisoner squats…
A crafty bosu ball move I’ve never seen before…
Since it was Andrew’s birthday and all, the post workout meal was a little different than normal. He wanted waffles and waffles he got (and Chloe got hooked up too)…
The next stop was the Discovery Science Center in Orange County. It’s a really cool place where kids get to be hands on with, well…. science.
After a few hours of exploring dinosaurs, climbing walls, and learning about hurricanes, body parts, and how water boils we caught a 3D movie about turtles or was it wolves… honestly, I don’t rememeber much of the movie (but I know Andrew and Chloe liked it), because I was too busy looking for pin holes in the back of my eye lids.
The day ended with dinner across the street at the mall and then they topped it off with cotton candy – this may have been the first time in 2010 that my kids had any high fructose corn syrup in their diet. (Gotta do that from time to time to keep the immune system alert 😉
The next day Di and I were invited to a really cool beach party at the 90210 house in Manhattan Beach which was thinly veiled as a DVD and personal training studio launch for the “Tone it Up Girls” (Katrina Hodgson and Karena Dawn).
Seriously though, Katrina and Karena put on a killer party complete with DJ, two open bars and ton of awesome people including Jane Fonda.
I bumped into celebrity trainer Valerie Waters at the part. She spoke at my Fitness Business Summit last year and killed it!
I think I even saw TMZ there too…
And did I mention the organic wine bar? Here’s my wife Di in line for another glass… good times! 🙂
And while there I met this awesome woman named Lynn who owns ” boku super food“, a company where they make killer vegan protein powder (way better than hemp protein cuz it has a LOT less carbs) and we’re gonna start using it in our morning green smoothies.
And my favorite guest at the party had to be this 11 pound mascot Jazz. She was such a chill dog and everyone gave her tons of love (she needed it since she was rescued from an abusive home).
All in all an awesome weekend hanging out with the people that mean the most to me, and friends, colleagues and clients who are equally driven and success minded.
And that’s the lesson I want to share with you becuase it took me a long time to “get it”.
We’re all given a certain number time on this planet (days and weekends) and that’s it.
What you do with that time is up to you. The people you surround yourself with. The people you help. The lives that you add value to and the people that add value to your life… those are the peeps I prefer to hang out with.
I’ve built my business and life on these three principals.
1. To have a business and lifestyle that give’s me ultimate freedom to be with my family as often as I want and to work from any corner of the world without sacrificing income.
2. To help the industry and people that I’m most passionate about – the fitness industry and the fitness trainers in it. It’s my CALLING and PASSION.
3. To surround myself with people who add value to my life, who are like minded, driven, and passionate about what they do and who they serve.
For me, this past weekend was the perfect example of planning what you want out of life and getting it. So I’ll continue to set new goals for what I want out of life and when I focus on it and work hard towards it, it’ll manifest… it always does.