All posts filed under: Health & Wellness

Unsung Hero

Published by Colin Nanka

Picture from USA Today If you only watched the US Open Tennis final on Sunday, you would have seen the coronation of Rafael Nadal winning his second of four major championships. That story in itself is incredible, keeping in mind over the last couple years Nadal had major injuries that kept him from competing at a high level.   In a similar timeline, South African Kevin Anderson, an athlete Nadal played against his youth, was up against a major hip injury and looked to not compete again in 2017. He worked his way back from injury, being ranked #80 to having the best tournament of his life and making the US Open final. Unfortunately, he ran into a mack truck in one of the greatest tennis players of all time.  However, as I went to the semi-final I can tell you he made many South African’s who attended very happy and gained many new local fans with his high octane offense. Sometimes when it you don’t see the end of the tunnel in site, you …

What do you focus on when suffering the most?

Published by Colin Nanka

98 Percent of the way through a workout, exhausted, my trainers guidance came in.  “Head up, lock in the core and focus on a point straight ahead of me.” What you do in practice comes out when you compete. It was only 5 min of my training session but I know from experience I will leverage it come race day. How can you apply 5 minutes of dedicated focus when exhausted in your work week? Colin

I lost 9 out of 10 games

Published by Colin Nanka

  I started out my squash career winning 1 in 10 games.    I had squash opponents younger, same age and older than me. Similar age and younger we played longer competitive points moving around the court. The older guys and gals would finish points faster and more efficiently, knowing that they could not run as long as I could.   My advantage = endurance.  However, I lost the first game every time! I was slow out of the gate and always behind before the match even got going.   Then one day, I decided to run to the squash court instead of driving. A nice easy 20-min run with my racket strapped to my back and away I went.  I showed up a sweating mess! It was pretty warm outside. I thought I burned myself out. Oh well, I had been on a losing streak anyway!   What happened?   I won 3-0 in games!  What??   I was in the game immediately and ran an opponent with not as much endurance as I …

4 Ways to Develop Authentic Leadership

Published by Colin Nanka

Authentic Leadership starts in your own back yard. It starts before you start managing people. I was having a conversation with another leader last week and we were discussing authentic leadership in the workplace. It’s easy to say, you need to be an authentic leader but no one really teaches you how. Here are four pathways to developing your authentic leadership. 1. Know your own strengths Many people don’t know what their own strengths are. They don’t have the awareness of why they have been successful to date or not…even before they start leading people. In sales rep survey’s I have conducted over the years, “my manager doesn’t help coach my strengths and weaknesses” was a constant area of feedback. It’s hard to coach others if you don’t know your own. Strength finder test is a good one to steer building awareness. Find the link here in addition to other tips on How Leaders should spend their first 30 days. 2. People don’t know what their “term”s are. What are non negotiable’s that you will not …

Consistent and Calm

Published by Colin Nanka

Some of the best advice I have received in my career was to be patient and calm and weather the storm. It can be applied to your week, day and even an hour. I went out for an hour+ run in the heat. It was 90 F and pretty humid here in NYC on Saturday. I like to feel like I am making progress and often run hard in shorter runs of 30-40 min and sometimes up to an hour. I’m just starting to get my mileage back up. As I was getting ready for my run, I started thinking about the goal for it. Sometimes I don’t! What would success look like today? My goal was to be consistent. No need to push hard. I was building volume. It was hot. When hot, it’s easy to get anxious. Just like a race. I visualized myself in the hot Atacama desert in Chile. Practicing deep breaths and keeping calm. In past races I have gone out hard to early from excitement and burned out the …

Honor Your Teacher

Published by Colin Nanka

I had a moment this morning while working out with my trainer. Halfway through a taxing workout and he was going for a quick bathroom break. “Two more of exercise A and one more of B,” he said. As I went into that 4th set of one legged Romanian dead lifts, this thought bubbled up in my head. Honor my teacher. It got me thinking after. What we do while no one is watching (which I have talked about recently) is the mark of true champions. Is that a thought that can keep us connected to our mentors, teachers and those we ultimately respect? It does for me, how about you? What about respect, time given, life experience and raising our standards? I could let off in my work profession, sport, meditation…but does it honor those who have invested in me? Colin

#PayingITForward

Published by Colin Nanka

  I had the good fortune of spending time with a young, bright and energetic Salesforce small business team this week, sharing some words of wisdom from my 12 years at Salesforce and lessons learned in my climb up Kilimanjaro in 2009 and in taking on a number of adventure races.   If I can share three quick thoughts to end the week.   1. Normalize failure – don’t strive for failure but be ok skinning your knee, learning and growing.   2. Accept the Obstacles in front of you.  Visualize the crappy set of circumstances you are about to entail, see yourself over and through them.  In this way you will be half way to your goal before you start.   3. Camaraderie can take you to great heights. What seems challenging alone is less daunting when you partner and team. Get the creativity you need to get the momentum to get started.   Have an amazing weekend!   Colin  

Flash the Trail

Published by Colin Nanka

Look for obstacles ahead!   I was running the trails in Ottawa last year with my running mentor and he shared a couple good tips. I’ve been running for 30 years and really haven’t modified the stride much from track to trail. One area we focused: Flash the trail.  Not as in pants off, but with your eyes. You need to watch your feet when running in the trails or you’ll face plant tripping over roots and such. However, flashing your eyes up the trail every few seconds capturing images of the terrain ahead helps you navigate future obstacles. We often get so focused on what is at our feet, we lose sight of speed bumps that could derail your long term plan. Flash the trail this week. Colin  

Stretching your limits

Published by Colin Nanka

I had a workout with my trainer early yesterday morning. We are focused on posture, core and doing exercises functionally perfect to increase joint mobility. As we worked through squats today, something bubbled up for me. A template. One exercise was focused on feeling muscles that have not been accessed. We used a band keeping the muscle engaged on all the way through. The second exercise built upon the first using the new range of motion without the band, going after the same goal. The third was a stretch, appreciating the progress made, while actively pushing farther on the range. Here is what it made me think of in sales: The band is your trainer, mentor or coach showing you what’s possible. The 2nd is you putting into practice the new growth areas, getting feedback as you go. The 3rd is building awareness and journaling how it went putting the new skill in place. What learning can you take forward the next time you use that new skill? What helped me work through the new …