When asked, I love to share books with friends. In my “top 4″ books are: The Shack, The Five Love Languages, The Go-Giver, and The Dream Giver. Although each has resonated me at different seasons of my life, my personal favorite is The Go-Giver. In this book the main character (Joe) has been told all his life that to be successful you have to be a “Go-Getter”.  Sound familiar? Work hard, be aggressive, and you will be successful. Hmmmm? The book takes Joe on a journey where each day for a week he meets an individual that on the surface is wildly successful. Each day Joe learns that these individuals have one  common characteristic; you can be successful by being a “Go-Getter” but you can reach stratospheric success by being a “Go-Giver”.

There is a saying that goes, “it is better to give than receive”. Giving can be of your time (volunteer), of your talents (what you are gifted to do), or of your treasures (money, property, etc). Like it or not, if you give you must be willing to receive. Well, you might be saying to yourself, “I don’t give in order to receive”. That is an awesome approach, but by giving you will receive. What you receive may be relationships, money, wisdom….Just as plants give off oxygen that we as humans desperately need to survive, we as humans give off carbon dioxide that plants desperately need to survive. Neither party really thinks about giving & receiving but if either party becomes selfish then both die. Get the point?

Want to learn more? Go buy the book the The Go-Giver by Bob Burg. Otherwise, I will be sharing the “5 Laws to Reaching Stratospheric Success” in blogs the remainder of the week. Just as in the book, you will have homework each night before reading the next day’s blog. Are you up for the challenge?

My Dad was an amazing man, I may not have always thought that way as a young boy, teenager, or young adult. Adopted from an orphanage during the Great Depression and raised by staunch German parents made him an emotionally hard man. He did the best he could raising me and my two siblings with the “tools he had in his toolbox”. He showed his love for me by teaching me perseverance. Nobody could outwork my Dad; plain and simple he was a workhorse. Our weekend projects were spent building garages and stuff that required getting up at 6am on Saturday and finishing after dark on Sundays, with the only break being a trip to church.

Two weeks after getting my driver’s license I rolled his truck, for two summers I was “leased” worker to friends and neighbors. I worked hard but saw no pay for my efforts. His truck was slowly re-built over two summers with my sweat. I remember vividly one hot & humid summer night  I was out with some friends having some “barley pops”, I was responsible, I was of legal drinking age, and did everything right; I didn’t drive, and had friends bring me home early. Guess what was waiting for me the next morning? Yep, great day for my Dad and I to blow some insulation into the attic with me being the guy in the hot & humid attic. Needless to say, more was blown into the attic than just insulation!

On the other hand, my Dad taught me a lot of life things that I did not fully appreciate until I had a son of my own. My Dad was amazing at little things as well, he ALWAYS held and opened doors for my Mom. Car doors, restaurant doors, you name it he held it open until my Mom passed through. He was ALWAYS giving of himself, if a friend was in need you could count on Roy Storts. He ALWAYS took great care of his clients, no one could out-service him as a professional.

Why all this history? Well, my son Noah is 8 years old, enough said, he needs to be taught, or given “tools” to be a man of significance. I want him to have the best of his grandfather and the best of me impacting his life, which should be a colossal sized adventure for the both of us. Horrible lead-in but here it is…Seven years ago I was introduced to a study called “Men’s Fraternity” by our church. There are four different studies within Men’s Fraternity; defining manhood, how to win at work & home, pursuing the Great Adventure, and my favorite “Raising A Modern-Day Knight” or RMDK. Each study has changed my life, but none greater than the impact of RMDK (http://rmdk.com/).

RMDK is a six-week study done with other men that have sons. Each week you discuss in your group the joys & challenges of raising boys into men. Each week you have a Father/Son Challenge that needs to be completed. These challenges vary but basically it is time spent with your son, asking questions and listening. At the end of the six week study all the fathers collectively take their sons on a weekend get-away. Fishing, climbing rock walls, shooting guns, golf, horseback riding, bonfires, and laughter are all part of the weekend. We have held our past two weekends at the Boone YMCA Camp, great venue as there is no cell phone coverage!

What this study has done for me is given me more “tools” in my toolbox. I know that I am going to make mistakes, I am going to do & say things that came out wrong, but my son will always know these three things; he is loved by me, I am proud of him, and he is good at_____ (fill in the blank).

For whatever reason, I have been a little complacent getting another round of RMDK going. Work has been busy, my wife needs me, my kids need me, blah,blah,blah. This week in three separate conversations I was asked, “hey, when is the next RMDK session?” Another friend said, “I want to introduce you to a friend that would really like to lead a RMDK session”. And another friend sent me an email with the new RMDK app for smart phones. OK, again I am not the smartest man and sometimes it takes 3-4 whacks in the head for me to get it, but I got it….It is time to fire-up the RMDK engine.

To learn more about the RMDK that will take place in the Des Moines area, email me at coachloran@gmail.com. In the meantime take a peek at the website. Even better, download the free RMDK app and get started. Here is this month’s challenge…

Challenge Accepted: “Loving Mom”. It is never too early to teach your son how to treat a woman rightly. This month, I commit to teaching my son how to use a sticky note to bless his mom with loving encouragement.  I will also have my son surprise his mom with an act of kindness and volunteer to clear the table and clean the kitchen (with my help) after a family meal. By doing so I am planting seeds that one day will help my son be successful with the woman God brings into his life.

Raising a Modern-Day Knight (RMDK.com) is an excellent tool providing dads with a clear vision and practical how-to’s that will release the life-changing father power you have with your son. Get the RMDK App today!

No long blog today…just relaxing and enjoying a beautiful day. It’s not like I do not have anything to do today as it is quite a busy day. For whatever reason this day/month/year is different. As long as I can remember each and every season I have had some type of athletic goal. It dates back to my early memories of  little league baseball and the drive to make the city-wide All Star team. If you made the team you showcased your talent during the Riverboat Days in Clinton, IA over the 4th of July weekend. Big stuff! That drive followed in the pursuit of winning State Championships, then National Championships, then competing at World Championships, then chasing the “Kona Dream”.

Again, this year is different, I can not quite sure if it is relaxing or stressful to not have an athletic goal. There are several events on the calendar like the brutally tough Double Triple By-Pass in Colorado. In year’s past I would have 5 hour bike rides in my legs by this point in the season, this season maybe 2 hours at most. Yesterday was an awesome beautiful day for working out… but instead I sat on a client’s deck and drank coffee.  We discussed much more important things like the next great adventure God has in store for her. Now that beats a workout any day!

Have a great Wednesday!

In Friday’s blog the topic of Happiness vs. Joy was raised. This weekend I kept thinking about how I was going to explain or define what joyed looked like in someone’s life. Several examples of joy-filled people came to mind; doctors, school teachers, human resource professionals, but none seemed more fitting than Tebow. Yep, there is a guy that plays quarterback in the NFL that seems Joyful but I am talking about a different Tebow, my chocolate lab Tebow.

Every Sunday morning before church Tebow joins my wife and I for a leisurely 4 mile run. She, yes Tebow is a girl dog, knows what our running clothes look like, she can sniff out when we put on running shoes vs normal tennis shoes, and she knows our pre-run routine. Running makes us, and Tebow HAPPY.  Yesterday’s run started just like all the others until Tebow spotted some geese on a pond. These geese were taunting her, if I understood their honking correctly it went something like this, “hey dog, did you bring your ‘A’ game today?” The combination of geese, taunting and water was too much for Tebow. Her innate feeling of JOY kicked in to high gear. My wife Jenny had a hold of Tebow’s leash, the harder Tebow pulled the more my wife resisted letting go, until the power of Tebow’s Joy was too much for Jenny so she let go of the leash.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner! In my simple brain there it was, “the essence of joy”. Food makes a lab happy, walks make a lab happy, playing fetch makes a lab happy, but geese & water brings out the JOY. I yelled and yelled some more for Tebow to stop swimming but  she was on her own schedule at this point. So Jenny and I sat on the edge of the pond and just watched, we watched a great example of someone that was full of Joy.

Please excuse my somewhat simple analogy of Joy, but sometimes simple is better! What is your definition of Joy? Are your Joyful? Where do you find Joy? In what do you find Joy? Is that joy in temporary things or eternal things? My style is to not give you answers…I would rather have you think, ask questions, and seek out your own answers.

Have a JOYful week!

I love a big hearty breakfast so yesterday morning I took my kids to my favorite breakfast spot, The Cozy Cafe in Clive. For $2.95 you get their breakfast special of two eggs, toast, hash browns, and meat. It is an unbeatable deal! Conversation topics varied from school, play, home, friends, vacation….I am a pretty random kind of guy. We landed on the topic of gifts & talents and for whatever reason I looked down at my plate, looked up at my kids, asked them, “who is more committed to me having a great breakfast this morning, the chicken or the pig?” To which I received some blank stares, my 11 year old daughter Libby responded, “neither, they are not here.” She did not get the rhetorical message behind the question.

In high school, my coach would always ask me before a hard workout or race, “Storts, are you going to be the chicken or the pig today?” Just as my daughter Libby fought with the meaning of the question, so did I. Chicken or pig, what? I would always have an answer but an answer without any meaning. It took me nearly 2 months to garner up the courage to ask my coach what he meant about being a chicken or a pig. To which he gave me this awesome explanation that has stuck with me 32 years later. However he knew, he knew I loved breakfast. His question was about my commitment level to that particular workout or race, was I fully committed to giving my very best effort or just giving an effort. Still confused about the chicken or the pig? Think about it, to enjoy my breakfast the chicken only had to give an effort (the egg) while the pig has to be fully committed. In poker terms, the pig is “all-in” for me to enjoy my breakfast.

So, as you approach your day, go to work, use your gifts & talents to serve others, ponder your next adventure, ask yourself, “Am I going to be the chicken or the pig?”

Have an awesome Wednesday!

Each week my wife and I have three separate dates… Date #1 we go shopping at Costco, who can pass up a yummy cinnamon churro? Date two is a marriage revival class at our church, we actually get 15 minutes of 1 x 1 time to chat without phones, kids, etc. winner, winner, chicken dinner. Date #3 is an easy 4 mile run on Sunday mornings before church, again winner for me! I am just saying, I love all three dates but the running date speaks my love language.

For years, I have coached all types of athletes; newbie runners to Leadville 100 mile trail runners, first-time triathletes to Kona qualifiers, but I have not crossed the sacred ground of coaching my wife. All men reading this know exactly why. This year my wife approached me and asked for my help getting ready for the Bolder Boulder 10k. At first I thought it was a trick question but she was persistent so I agreed to HER terms; she runs four times each week, two of her runs are with her girlfriends and those are off-limits, one run gets to be a speed workout of my choosing, and one run is miles/strides/running drills.

We are now three weeks into our running contract, she has done her hill speedwork per my instruction and we have been doing our Sunday miles/strides/running drills together. I am still not quite sure if she does them with the most joyful heart but she gets them done. During our run yesterday she said something that made my eyes tear up. Jenny said, “During my long run on Saturday, I ran longer & faster than I thought I could, I felt great!” Hmmm, time spent doing speedwork and running efficiency, it’s not magic.

Simple isn’t necessarily easy. If you want to run faster you need to run faster, if you want to run more efficient you need to run efficiently. So, how does this all tie back to Natural Running? Change takes time, practice, be consistent, and a commitment to improving. Their is an old saying that goes something like this, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results”. If you want different results with your running (faster times, less injuries) then practice new things (hill work, running drills, strides).

Happy Monday

Every morning my 8 year old son wakes up, gets dressed, and heads downstairs from his bedroom for what I can see in his eyes is a day full of fun & adventure. His first words normally go like this, “Dad, can we play basketball?”, “Dad, can I pitch some baseballs to you?”, “Dad, guess who won the _______ game last night?,” “Dad, will you ride your bike with me to school today?” “Dad, can we wrestle?”, “Dad, will you go swimming with me?” You get the picture, my son’s primary love language is Quality Time. Huh, love language? What is that? Each of us has a primary love language, basically it is how we feel that we are loved. There are five love languages that influence our “choice” to love and be loved; Acts of Service, Quality Time, Physical Touch, Words of Affirmation, and Gifts.   My primary love language is “words of affirmation”, my wife’s primary love language is “acts of service”, each of our three children have a different primary love language. Parenting is not easy! Ever wondered what your spouses/child/parents primary love language is? Here is a simple on-line survey, http://www.5lovelanguages.com/assessments/love/. Enjoy!

So, back to lessons learned from my 8 year old son. Yesterday was no different from any other day, I get home from work and Noah asks, “Dad, can we play home-run derby?”. Home-run derby is a baseball game we play in our neighborhood. Each batter gets 13 pitched balls, we have a home-run fence, and on the 13th ball we have the magical “running ball”. It’s a blast, I am the pitcher, and the kids always swing for the fence trying to hit as many home-runs as possible. Last night the wind was blowing in from the outfield so home-runs took a mighty swing to clear our neighbor’s fence. Samantha, Joe, and Noah were laughing at the near misses, slipped footings, and just the normal stuff that kids laugh at while playing.

Unfortunately, Dad (me) was trying to teach proper swing mechanics, timing, head-on-the-ball, balance…The more I taught the more I could see the frustration grow in Noah, he was there to have fun with his Dad & friends, I was there to help him be a better baseball player. Hmmm, his love language was not being spoken. Even though he was getting his time with Dad he wasn’t getting his “quality time” with Dad. It took courage for an 8 year old to tell his Dad (me) that he was getting frustrated with me. Wow! The more that I thought the situation the more I thought about, “Do not provoke your children to anger, instead raise them according to their bent”. Bent meaning gifts/talents/desires. Think about it. What is your child’s bent? Not your bent, not what you want his/her bent to be, but what is his/her bent?

I was squared-up last night by my son, thank you Noah for the lesson!