It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to our powers, but for powers equal to our tasks, to go forward with a great desire forever beating at the door of our hearts as we travel toward our distant goal.
-Helen Keller

There is an old saying that says, "[i]f you can lift a calf every day, when you become an adult you can lift a cow. But don’t ever stop." This saying can be traced back to the legendary wrestler Milo of Croton, who introduced the “calf” workout in the 6^th 20century B.C.

The Calf Workout

It was said that, as a boy, Milo trained for the Olympics by daily lifting a baby calf above his shoulders and carrying it. As the calf grew, so did Milo. By his teens, Milo was carrying a fully grown bull on his shoulders, and he purportedly entered his first Olympic event carrying a bull across the Olympic track.

Although it is quite possible to lift a newborn calf, and strongmen such as H. Mann have been known to lift full-grown bulls, the story of Milo is questionable. Here’s a story that’s not…

Technorati Tags: confidence, confident goal setting, digit span, Ericsson, goal setting, goal velocity, lift a cow, Milo, pick Up a cow, S. F., strength training

Editor’s Rating: 7.9

Editor’s Note: This review is a fourth entry in a series of weekly e-book reviews.  The review is a guest post by Thursday Bram of ThursdayBram.com.

David Bohl’s ebook, “Your Life in Balance,” is part one of Bohl’s three-part Slow Down Fast Happiness Trilogy which collectively sells for $37.60.  The book is ideal for those of us who need a details than many self-help gurus seem able to offer up. Beyond describing the sorts of changes that a person might make in order to balance his or her life, Bohl provides exercises as well as questions for readers to ask themselves in order to focus their efforts in the parts of their lives where the most change is necessary.

Bohl left a career that was successful on the surface but was becoming a problem in his life. He was very successful financially by his mid-30s, but he had no time for his family and was mentally exhausted. He took a drastic approach to finding his own life balance — he essentially quit and became a consultant.

Copyblogger just hit publish on a post that that would never make an appearance here.  If you’re a blogger (and even if you’re not), you may still find it interesting.  It’s called:

6 Ways That Bloggers are Like Rappers

Be sure to check out the commentz, they’re hilarious-izzle.

-Clay

Yesterday I submitted a guest post to Dumb Little Man called How to Score Free Airline Vouchers by Reserving Overbooked Flights.  The article describes how to leverage airline overbooking — the practice of selling more tickets than available seats on a given flight — to gain free travel vouchers and roundtrip tickets.  If you’re a frequent traveler it might help out.

Because it hit Digg’s front page, the article received a lot of comments.  So if you want to see a real smackdown, as opposed to yesterday’s fake one, I’d head there (I was on the receiving end of the “smack”).

Fight Promotion

What do Steven Covey, David Allen, and Timothy Ferriss have in common?  They’re dudes.  Let’s face it, getting off on productivity is often a male thing.  Here’s another thing men like: kicking the crap out of each other.  Men have been perfecting that art longer than they’ve been tinkering with PDAs and other work fidgets. So when you think about it, combining productivity with kicking the crap out of each other makes good sense, especially since two of last year’s best selling productivity authors are also martial artists (I’m referring to Timothy Ferriss, author of The Four Hour Work Week, and David Allen, author of Getting Things Done).

Two shots of testosterone, coming up. . .

STATS	STATS
Name: David Allen Inbox: Zero (finished) Motto: Do it, delegate it, or defer it.   Age: 62 Fighting Style: Getting Things Done (GTD)   Experience: Former karate instructor. Religion: Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness Strengthes: Stress-free productivity.   Weakness: GTD can be unrealistically complex.	Name: Timothy Ferriss Inbox: Outsourced to Bangalore, India. Motto: Do less of it.  Outsource it, automate it, or selectively ignore it. Age: 29 Fighting Style: Four-Hour Work Week (4HWW) Experience: Championship cage fighter. Religion: Agnostic   Strengthes: Effectiveness, lifestyle design, purposeful unrealism. Weaknesses: 4HWW can be unrealistic.

I launched The Growing Life two weeks ago and the reception has me enthusiastic and grateful.  I’m glad that you’re here.  And given recent friendships and the humbling generosity of people I’ve never met, I think it’s time to introduce myself.

About one year ago, Unitarian Universalist minister Kate Tucker related some thoughts on identification that hit home.  While boarding a train, Reverend Tucker was asked to show her ID; in that situation, the criterion for train boarding was simple: who you were, and who you said you were, had to be the same.  On this page I’ve hopefully honored this criterion and her remarks.

So let’s get to introductions.  I’m Clay.  Pleased to meet you.  I’ll say a bit about myself and am all ears to responses.  Here goes . . .

Some of my favorite things are Quetzals, food prepared in a campfire (or a Dutch oven), the outdoors, backpacking, and human rights. Like a mutual fund, I seem to grow up more than down over a five-year period, but the key is to hold on, not sell