The Dog Star: Exercising

June 9, 2013

(The Dog Star is a symbol of power, will, and steadfastness of purpose, and exemplifies the One who has succeeded in bridging the lower and higher consciousness. – Astrological Definition)

I’m a bachelor for the weekend—my wife and daughter and granddaughters went to a christening in New Jersey that neither my son-in-law nor I could rouse any energy for, despite the fact we both love to drive. Thus, I have great freedom.

I loaded the dogs into the truck yesterday and drove to the nearby, huge animal hospital to finally weight Bentley. (Buddy Beagle happily stays in the truck, he hates vets.) The lobby scale said “35” and I told the desk clerk it was broken until he pointed out I had it on kilograms. (Where was I, Lichtenstein?) With the adjustment, the truth was revealed: At 8.5 months, Bentley is 78 pounds. As an adult, Koufax was 85 all his life, so it looks as though Bentley will be somewhat bigger.

I awoke this morning at 6, decided I’d go to 7:30 Mass, and took the dogs for their morning yard jaunt. Bentley is self-exercising. He runs back and forth on his own—no fetching, no chasing Buddy—for several laps over a 100-yard distance. Shepherds need a lot of exercise, especially puppies, and he makes sure he gets his every day: He has his fetching regimen, his pool visits, stalking Buddy, indoor toys, and so on.

The point is, he has great discipline. We need that, too. Every working day we should be:

• Considering our top two results priorities that day.

• Moving along our highest potential prospects in some way toward becoming clients.

• Completing current projects as rapidly as possible.

• Asking for referrals.

• Creating new intellectual property.

• Contributing published pieces for yourself or other sources.

• Developing new value offerings.

You get the idea. You can’t wait for someone to tell you, or a mastermind group, or the muse in the night. This is part of your daily business exercise. I hire a personal trainer to enforce my physical exercise, but I still have to make that decision and see him three times a week. Some people hire me as a coach to enforce their mental exercise, but they still have to do what we agree upon themselves.

And, of course, if you can get a healthy start on all this before 7 in the morning, you can spend the rest of the day at the pool, as the boys and I intend to do with our current freedom.