The GREATEST gift!

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July 13-17, I attended the 5th Annual TFW Summit. It was AMAZING! But the best part was not the entire TFW network coming together to take on physical & mental challenges together, or to spend 4 days with the most incredible motivator I know, Martin Rooney.  No, the BEST part was I was able to be part of something that would change someone’s life forever. For the last 6 months, my TFW network has been secretly raising money for a coach in our network battling cancer.  The money went to four college funds for her four daughters.  To see the emotion of the entire group when we revealed the big surprise to her (on the video below you will see we raised over $92,000 dollars has been raised so far!) I was reminded how much I have personally grown since becoming a fitness coach nearly twenty years ago. Nothing feels better than giving. NOTHING! Especially when you know the impact it will leave behind forever.

The following is a post from TFW founder, Martin Rooney, explaining this amazing thing we did for our friend & FAMILIA, Alicia Saldivar. You will want to read this, and for sure watch the video attached below:

This email is my attempt to outline the stages I have experienced as both a lesson and guideline to take you to a higher level.

As you mature as a human being, there are a number of natural stages through which you will pass.  As your life experience expands, the world will force you to understand what it means to be a better person.

In the beginning, you will naturally start off as selfish.  When I started Training For Warriors 19 years ago, although I am not proud to say it, I was mostly concerned with combining “cool” exercises into challenging workouts.  Yes, I cared about the fighters and athletes that were utilizing the program, but I have to admit I was greedy in terms of the results they achieved.  I took pride in their victories and kept the TFW program to myself and my small team in the hopes we had some competitive advantage.

The first step from selfishness starts with your ability to share.  At TFW, instead of keeping the information “secret,” my team and I started to give.  Giving without expecting anything in return is not easy at first.  It started with fighters at first, but then I began to realize TFW could help anyone looking to “bring out the warrior within.”  This giving lead to more people being positively affected and the more I shared, more people were starting to “win” his or her battle with fitness.

Sharing will remind you that when you give, you also receive.  Instead of worrying about what I could take and hide from others, I put my focus into how much I could contribute. From the feedback I received, I realized that championship belts and rings were no more important an achievement than using my program to be a better parent, worker or person.  With my books, blogs, podcasts and posts, I gave all I had, but started to receive much more of value in return.  The stories of how TFW was helping people and businesses got me to realize contribution was the key.

Contribution doesn’t make you weaker, it makes you stronger. As my contribution grew, so did my TFW organization and my connections with more people.  This zest for giving lead me around the world to grow my TFW organization bigger than I could have imagined. The amazing people of my TFW network helped me to reach the level that led to the video below: I started to worry more about how I would be remembered.

Instead of what you have out front, you will eventually worry about what you will leave behind.  When you live a life of contribution, a word that will start to pop up is “legacy.” Instead of measuring what you are achieving, you will become more concerned with the wake you are leaving.  For me, the driving force is now to positively impact as many people as possible. This mindset led to my “Top Secret” $90,000 idea mentioned above. Instead of asking, “what do I get?” the bigger question became, “how can I help?”

When you start to ask big questions, you get big answers.  Last year, I promised my network we would do something big toward cancer awareness.  After months of deliberating, I asked bigger questions than “what’s in it for me?” and got the big answer that would change me forever.  For the last 6 months, hundreds of people have kept that idea a big “secret.”  This is the revealing video that had over 110,000 views in the last two days:

https://www.facebook.com/TrainingForWarriorsHQ/videos/1631531156865968/

I hope this blog forces you to identify the stage you are currently at in your life.  Are you still living a little selfishly?  Are you giving or contributing as much as you can?  Have you started to think about your legacy?  If not, Alicia’s story is the perfect catalyst to raise you to another level.  I challenge you to come up with your big idea that can help make the world a better place…and then do something about it.

Yours In Strength,

Martin

P.S. please share the video and if you would like to contribute to Alicia’s daughters, here are the individual links to each of their college accounts:

To Contribute To Hailey’s College Fund

To Contribute To Emily’s College Fund

To Contribute to Libby’s College Fund

To Contribute To Chloe’s College Fund