How Usain Bolt got an "A": Academic Fuel For Performance

There's a reason athletes eat the way they do - because it gets them to the finish line fast. Food for performance makes sense. Just consider why Wheaties' entire marketing campaign relies on having the strongest Olympic athletes on the cover of the box.

 Usain Bolt doesn't eat a stick a butter before the gun goes off, lightning strikes, and he sets a new world record. More than likely, he eats a banana an hour beforehand. Or perhaps he eats oats or Wheaties. He most certainly does not eat McDonald's the morning before the big race.

The question is, how did society learn that fuel for athletic performance is normal? The answer: a billion-gazillian marketing dollars and a generation of Wheaties boxes and sports-related media. And, of course, anyone who has ran a 5k or marathon has learned his own lessons on what to eat before the run. Sorry to bring up any bad memories for my runner readers. 

It's natural for our digestive system to reject poor food choices for athletic performance. Just try to eat a stick of butter before your next race. I dare you. Please, of course, send in any pictures of your mistakes. They will make me laugh.

It's not very natural, however, for our brains to recognize poor food choices for academic performance. We just can't really feel the difference - what I call mushy-brain syndrome. When everyone else eats poorly and everyone has mushy-brain, we have mushy-brain society. Which explains this...

Have no fear, Alliance for a Healthier Generation is leading the movement on this and with great results to show for it. 

It's finally becoming normal to recognize that poor food choices lead to the current obesity epidemic and mushy-brain syndrome. 

Here are three quick tips on eating for academic performance:

1. Eat every few hours

Try to eat a small meal (smart choice, please) like an apple and a table spoon of almond butter or ants on a log or a handful of raw almonds between meals. This keeps the academic engine topped off.

FYI: No making fun of me for eating ants on a log. It's awesome.   

2. Eat as close to the ground as possible.

If you lay really close to the ground in your office kitchen while eating please send me a picture to make me laugh. Otherwise, try to eat something that hasn't been so overly processed that great-grandma wouldn't be able to make it for Sunday brunch. Think fruits, nuts, seeds, and veggies.

3. Drink high-quality H20 

What's up with the coke addiction (pun intended)? People are crazy about their soda-pop. I once witnessed a high-level VP in corporate America down ten cans of soda during a 10-hour shift (9-Diet, 1-Regular). Are you kidding me!?

Drink your water, people!  It hydrates the brain, keeps your body in an anti-inflammatory state, and lubes your academic engine. And it puts Coca-cola out of business, which may be a great thing for human evolution. 

These three food options keep your insulin from spiking and result in a stead-stream of energy. 

Be careful, though. Too much healthy food leads to Einstein-syndrome. You quickly become too smart for your britches and the next thing you know you are riding your bike in circles with your hair looking like you just got struck by lightning. 

What do you think? What food do you eat that keeps you in your academic prime? 

***FYI: As I write this blog post, I made the mistake of drinking coffee with dinner resulting in 3AM caffeine-induced insomnia. Smart choice? I'll find out when the household awakes in three hours and I run on three hours of sleep. Yikes!

Why Dr. Seuss....

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities. - Dr. Seuss

I smell the barbecue already - corn on the cob, BBQ chicken, and a game of

Kan-Jam. We can all hear the laughter, the congratulations, and the screams and shouts of seniors graduating, finally moving on from the dreary halls of school. Finally, he thinks - I've done it. On to the next rite of passage.

Move past the greasy fingers and ketchup-stained khakis and look deep in the eyes of the graduate and there lies fear. An abyss of fear. A holy crap, this is really happening kind of fear. An oh-boy, what am I going to do kind of fear. A crab-like retreat hoping to crawl back into the shell of childhood. 

Which is why every senior usually gets a book by Dr. Seuss for graduation. Oh, The Places You'll Go in the hands of every black-robed tassel-headed senior. 

How funny it is that you get a children's book at the point in time when you wish you had a few more years of childhood. 

Here's the reason: Take Dr. Seuss seriously. Really. As you walk into the "real world" don't forget to look through the telescope of reality through a kaleidoscope lens. Realize that reality is what you make of it. Remember, this is water. (Tweet this!)

Here's three more tips that extraordinary leaders know and keep secret:

1. Keep that sense of childhood wonder. Entrepreneurship and following your dreams can be lonely and filled with negativity, unless you choose to see the positive and laugh and play a little. (Tweet this!)

2. Your dog is the best role model. Dogs have all the best qualities of man, without any of the vices. Be happy and eager to please everyone, including yourself (even if that means rolling in the grass). (Tweet this!)

3. Keep a sense of play in your work. Work doesn't have to be work. Work can be fun and fun can be difficult. The last few minutes of the Super Bowl before a major win is difficult fun, just like the last few minutes before a Van Gogh or the last few minutes before publishing your work. 

I would write more, but I am off to jump on the slip-n-slide. Party time. Who doesn't love a good barbecue?

Start Dancing or Vroom Vroom

Nobody can settle for ordinary anymore. You have to stand out. You have to go the extra mile. The only way to do this is to find your passion.

Take the lonely doctor for example.

I recently learned of a doctor who went through med school, achieved top honors, and landed a high-paying job at a prestigious hospital. The only problem? She was robbing herself and robbing her patients. 

She noticed her quality of work waned downward to the simple punch-in, punch-out mentality. Not the quality of work that will take a doctor and make her Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. This mentality leads people to count the days to retirement then buy a sports car and fly to Aruba during a mid-life crisis. 

This doctor wanted to be extraordinary and soon learned a major lesson. She didn't choose her own path. She followed her parents' orders, grew the yes man, yes sir mentality and lost autonomy in her career. When you lose choice, you lose action and you lose purpose. 

Then work becomes work. The chance to be extraordinary becomes a fight to hold a smile. 

The takeaway from this story is that you have to choose the path you are on even if it scares the bejesus out of you. Dance with this fear and embrace your true path in life. This is the only way to stand out. 

What path can you envision that makes you so excited you actually tear up thinking about it? Don't know, yet? That's fine. Start writing down all your possibilities and then once you get to a possible career path that makes you shake with excitement and makes you sweat a tear, choose that one. Start dancing.

The truth is, it's possible to define your own path. It's possible to make a hobby your career. You just have to see it.

Building your Ethos - Do You Need More than a Degree?

Let's face it. That slip of paper means something. 

This spring, high school students receive acceptance letters and mothers and fathers gleefully tell friends and family about young Timmy's launch into college then career stardom over a delicious bar-b-que party.

Timmy will go on to gain credibility. Proof that he is good. He is smart. He is worth hiring.

In fact, this is my story and I'm proud to have been the first college graduate in my entire family - extended family included.

Why do so many students go to college? After the Vietnam War, middle-class Americans were finally able to do what the rich did and go to college. The purpose? To get a high quality education and then successful job. The American Dream. It's really a beautiful thing.

College would take a student beyond the skills a student learned in high school (that of a factory worker in the Industrial Age) and catapult him into a higher-paying position - typically white-collar or one more distinguished. 

And college is hard (well, if you're anyone but John Belushi in College). It's years of diligent study and fear-induced testing. But it's worth it. Or, at least, it used to be.

We all know now that a college degree isn't what it used to mean. Simple rules in economics clearly point out that with the market is saturated with students donning college degrees. And they don't have a job. Do you see the ironic paradox here? You need a degree to compete with others who also don't have a job. 

I've even heard a CEO say that degrees have become like toilet paper. He said 1 ply TP = no name college, 2 play TP = Okay college w/ good GPA and luxury TP w/ cashmere lining = ivy league, but I'll stop there.

I disagree. College is completely worthwhile if you own your education. Take charge over what classes you take and clearly forsee how each class will benefit your career. Network with classmates, professors and squeeze the academia bubble for all it's worth. 

College can be what you make of it. It need not be bricks and mortar if online schooling is better for you. It can even be a gap year and internships with lot of suggested reading. So, let's replace the term college for what it really is - betterment. Because isn't college really just a way for one to better themselves? Call it achieving the American Dream or what you will, but college really is just a medium for the average joe to not be so average. 

It's a chance to be extraordinary.