Stanley F. Bronstein – Personal Development BlogPersonal Development Blog of the Founder of the Achievement IQ Movement and Creator of the Laws of Positioning

This is proving to be an interesting week for me.

In 2 days, I will be turning 50 years old.  As I’m telling people, the first 25% of my life is about to be over (yes, I do want to live for 200 years – provided I’m healthy and the the world is okay).

In that regard, I have taken the entire week off from work to visit a health spa in Tucson, Arizona, known as Canyon Ranch.  This is actually not a new experience for me, as I’ve been here 5 other times over the past 20 years.  In fact, the very first time I came here was to celebrate my 20th birthday.

For those of you unfamiliar with this place, it is very “spiritual” in nature.  It’s an absolutely gorgeous, first class property that is run in a first class manner.  The accomodations are fantastic;  the food is incredible and the people you meet are nice.

It’s also an excellent place to try new experiences (more on that a little bit later).

As this birthday milestone has approached, I have been spending the past 3 to 4 months working on really getting in shape.  I’ve been eating much better and I’ve been exercising quite a bit.  Over that time period, I’ve built up to where I’m exercising 3 or more hours a day at least 25 days out of each month.

The 2 main exercises I’ve been undertaking are pool walking and walking on a treadmill.  Personally, I enjoy pool walking a lot more, as it is a highly aerobic exercise that is easier on the legs and joints than regular walking or running.  The water provides great resistance, but because of the flotation aspects of walking in the pool, it puts less stress on the body and you’re able to recover faster.

However, the treadmill is much more convenient, as I have a treadmill at my house.  While I also have a pool at my house, it is too small to do a lot of walking, so I wind up going to one of the local gyms in town.  Anyone who has ever spent much time in a community pool knows how much fun those can be.  Let’s just say you meet some interesting people.  I’ve seen these people do some pretty crazy things, some of which make me wonder about whether or not they’re “totally there” or if they’re just walking around in an unconscious state.  However, it works out to be okay in the long run if you’re willing to be a little tolerant of other people’s “habits”.

When I started my pool walking, I put together my own campaign that I have titled”  A Million Steps To Health.

Basically, I figured that if I take at least a million steps in the pool over a 3 to 5 month period, that my personal health and overall well being would improve immensely.     I started on March 17, 2009 and since then, I’ve covered approximately 372,000 steps.  The bright side is that I’ve been GREATLY increasing the duration of my workouts as I’ve started to get much stronger.

In fact, this morning, I walked for 4 hours in the outdoor pool here at Canyon Ranch.  What a beautiful morning it was.  In fact, I’m outside by the pool right now writing this post.  That walk was almost 15,000 steps in and of itself.  In fact, over the past 2 weeks, I’ve had 3 walks of 3 hours each, one for 3 1/2 hours and today’s for 4 hours.  All of this was to build up to doing a 5 hour pool walk on my 50th birthday.

At first, I was a little bit skeptical as to whether or not I’d be able to get in good enough shape fast enough to do it, but after doing 4 hours this morning, I now have no doubt about being able to do it.  In fact, I could have easily made today’s walk last for 5 hours, but I don’t want to spoil Thursday’s planned fun.

One of the things I do each time when I visit Canyon Ranch is that I make it a point to try something new.  This year, I’m going to get a chance to do something I’ve been wanting to do for probably at least 10 years.  On Thursday, after finishing my workout and having lunch with my wife, I’m going to participate in a group spirituality session in a Sweat Lodge.  I’m greatly looking forward to the experience and I will definitely blog about it afterwards.   We have a “prep” session tomorrow night where they tell us how to prepare in advance for the experience and it takes place on Thursday.

At first I wasn’t sure whether or not I should participate in the sweat lodge experience, but the fact that it happened to correspond EXACTLY with my 50th birthday and the fact that sweat lodge experiences are known for “marking transitions”, I KNEW WITH 100% CERTAINTY that I’m supposed to do it.
Stay tuned and I’ll keep you posted.

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