So, I am trying something a little new this week and I would love your feedback. I am going to post something new each day (Monday to Friday).
Here is what I am thinking.
- Motivation Monday-2 minutes of motivation
This will be some lesson done in a way to motivate and inspire you to act and hopefully make you smile when I do something completely stupid on camera.
- Underground Tuesday
I will take you behind the scenes of some stuff that I am either struggling with (no sobbing or all out blubbering, I promise), or things I use or have created to make life easier for myself as I continue to be primal and develop a program that is unique to my needs.
- Exercise Wednesday
I will profile a new exercise for you that will really help create massive transformation with how your body looks and really help launch the fat burning process.
- Interview Thursday
Each week I am hoping to have one interview with someone doing something that we can all learn from.
Warning: I should state here that the people I interview will not necessarily be from the primal/paleo world. In fact, most will not be. My personal philosophy is that each of use needs to build our own personal program "stealing" as many great ideas from other people and other programs as we can.
A such, my first interview is with a guy who is a bit of a big wig on the internet. In this post, he was cited as one of 57 Living Legends in the online world. (Footnote: I am blatantly misleading people by telling them I was number 58 
His name is David Siteman Garland, who is the creator of the wildly popular, The Rise To The Top. This dude is pretty huge in fact. He has interviewed some really big people including Tim Ferris. Check out his stuff if you get a chance. It's really good!
He has currently embarked on a body transformation program and I have invited him on to tell his story. I'm excited to see what I can learn from him so stay tuned for that.
- Community Friday
Here I will give a much deserved shout-out to some awesome community members who go above and beyond the call of duty. And I will also answer any questions people have for me (I will probably will pick 3 to answer...why 3...because I can't count to four).
What do you think about that? Let me know in the comments below.
So on to today's video...
I had to work my a$$ off to get this bad boy to come in at exactly 2 minutes.
Today's lesson: Why (physical and emotional) innovation is an invitation for failure. ENJOY! I sure did.
FAVOUR: if you like this bad boy I ask that you share the link, embed the video on your site, hit that Facebook like button (that is a big help) and tweet this baby!
To being primal,
DD
This meme appies everywhere:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1CWHEKNrBig/TjHxBTsXo8I/AAAAAAAAAWk/NyXKQKotTKs/s1600/The+gap.jpg
Fail fast!
BIlly frickin’ Traynor…your first dude! That was a great link. I came across a story about Jackson Pollack, the artist (not sure if there was one who was like a fire fighter??). Apparently he was awful at his craft when he started..but he was in love with art and the making of it…and continued failure after failure (although he didn’t see it as failure). The trick is for us to see this when we are in the midst of failure me thinks.
Nice hair Dean
You’re right. It’s important to not beat ourselves up and to have a response when we fail. When we try something that’s contrary to conventional wisdom or is “out of the box”, the chances for failure are bigger, but the payoff can also be bigger. Looking forward to your posts this week.
Take care
I like that…the payoff can be bigger. The trick is putting ourselves in the position to receive the payoff…dang if only life were easier
Thanks…so am I in fact. Lots of work to do.
I think I saw some DVD’s that I lent you years ago on that shelf behind you!
Gotta run,
Vince
What is this…a Seinfeld episode…you some sort of DVD cop. he he! Vinny Charbs I have returned all that I have borrowed…if of course I didn’t lose it…which is quite possible. Gotta go, DD
I think a fail only makes you a Failure when you fail to recognize and move forward from it. Infact who is better to teach someone the effects of a fail then someone who has experienced it first hand. Oh and the hair cut looks great.. Did you get it done the primal way with an axe ?
LOL! Great line Patricia…no it was not done with an axe…it only looks like it was done with an axe. And yeah failure is such a tricky thing. It’s weird because in some areas of my life I deal with it well, in this area, less so…well actually must better now than before.
I think these are all great ideas, but they may need more than 2 minutes.
I’m particularly interested in Tuesday and Wednesday’s topics, especially if you know anything about exercise for those with severe recovery issues.
Hair looks great!
Hey Melissa,
Yes I agree…I will be talking about some of these things in more detail. Just wanted to put the idea out there with this one…and I capped myself at 2 minutes. Curious to see what the response is.
DD
Gosh how will we manage with you in our inbox every day! I am just coming off a 24hr fast and now it’s 24 hours and 2 minutes because I had to hear what you had to say before I made my eggs and bacon mashup. And I think it’s a good point to reframe failure like that. I hadn’t really looked at it that way before. Kind of like designing a new product which goes through many permutations before you come up with the final thing.
2 minutes was too quick. I can’t think that fast. One more minute would have been fine. And I’m glad you got a new bowl even if you did cut your hair with it. Judging by the photo of the one you had in your food diary post, you needed one, matey. Anyway, I’m starving. See you tomorrow, I hope!
Back from my mashup (3 rashers Black Forest, 3 eggs, a shedload of veggies, orange and yoghurt – the orange and yoghurt were separate in case you were wondering.) Anyhow, I got to thinking about the message on your whiteboard. It is awesome! Are they your original words? Women, especially, need to hear that.
Oh and the message. No I totally ripped that off from Seth Godin. I was flipping through my highlighted parts in his book, Linchpin and saw that and thought it was appropriate for what we are all trying to do here.
I was wondering if anyone would notice it!!!
Wowzers! 24 hours without food. YIKES! Haven’t tried that yet…eggs and bacon mash up…tell me more gurl. Sounds delicious.
Actually I can’t even talk that fast. LOL! Yes my bowls do need upgrading but as a minimalist (re: read that as too lazy to buy new ones) I will use it until it perishes (re: read that as when i drop it and break it)
Awesome hair cut!
I find that the one nice thing about the Paleo/Primal community is that failure is something we all know happens, and we support each other through it. I was talking to the intern at my CrossFit gym, and we were discussing how hard it can be, but that it’s totally worth it for us to try to follow this lifestyle the best we can. Failure happens, and your Primal friends will always be there to pick you up after
.
Two minutes is also way too little of you, hehehehe. Now I’m off to have a lovely swim!
Very nice way to put it Veronica. But be careful gurl. Dangerously close to making me look dumb and that is a violation of rule #2
…and have a great swim…
I will do all I can to avoid making you look dumb
. The swim was awesome! Swimming is like a rest day with the added bonus of a workout for me 
. Can’t wait to see what else this week has in store for us, your viewers, from you 
.
Wanna talk about failure? I just started training at a boxing gym yesterday. My body failed so many times it was scary. It’s still failing me today actually, like when I tried to get out of bed and fell to my knees. I’m walking everywhere like some 80 year old with arthritis.
BUT, I will keep at it, as this is the only way to transform my body to the uber-fit new version of itself.
Keep up the good work Dean.
Yay on the haricut for me. ;D
You know it makes me laugh when I think about some of my body failures…I have had a bad shoulder of late and in the morning I can’t push off it to get out of bed so I log roll my way out…looks like of ridiculous…but it is very effective.
Hey that is the first offical Yay…on the hair…love the phrase “Uber-fit new version”
It’s not the failure itself, it’s the response to failure. OK, I need to think about that for a bit. That is resonating with me. And I like the idea that we should expect to fail (i.e. slip up) once in a while. Just know its gonna happen. Another thoughtful post/message…thanks!
Two minutes…too short. Another minute or so would be cool. And your daily roll-out ideas all sould great. And the haircut? Dude, that ain’t a bowl cut. Want to see a bowl cut, I’ll show you a picture of my two-year old daughter. She looks like Moe from the Three Stooges right now.
I’m going to share an example tomorrow of a failure I had and my response…and of course it’s important to note that we walk a bit of a tight rope with the whole failure thing…we will fail…but that doesn’t mean we should give ourselves permission to fail…I wrote something about that somewhere on this blog-a-mathingy.
Just playin around with time…what I do like about 2 minutes is it makes me get right to the point…it’s kinda fun actually.
LOL! And I bet your daughter has no idea does she…but hey everyone loves the stooges so it ain’t all bad.
Oh and you should see my grade 13 pic…the complete opposite of bowl…it wasn’t pretty…will post it somewhere soon.
I love this thing about failure. It’s been slappin’ me in the face a lot lately. I mean, I’m seeing this topic everywhere I turn. Just this morning I saw that Winston Churchill quote “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm”. So I guess really, we need to expect failure. Embrace failure. Because that is how we achieve transformation.
Hey Melissa, I am making it sound easier than it really is…but I want people to understand that failure doesn’t mean you have failed…if you are living on the edges then you are definitely inviting failure into your world…and that is a good thing,,,
and hey don’t be afraid to punch failure right in the face either…
And this Churchill dude sounds pretty smart…is he a coworker? (I’m kidding…I know he is the guy who made those cigarettes right? kidding again
Excellent video Dean! I have a huge fear of failing that immobilizing me often (though less frequently as I recognize it and self-change).
I love the idea of embracing/accepting moments of failure as part of the process. Doing so removes the catastrophic feel of failure and makes it par for the course.
Definitely motivating
Btw, I LOVE the hair!
Glad you love the hair…my hair has informed me it loves you as well
Like I said a few times…I’m not trying to make this sound easy, but I have heard many a story now of people who tell me that had one set back and that was it…they abandoned everything.
And since I have done that myself I realized we need to reframe what this means…now the reaction and follow up is the real challenge.
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. Winston Churchill.
Cheri I am sorry but I am going to have to fine you for trying to hijack (aka: attempting to steal Melissa’s thunder) Melissa’s idea.
She has TM dibs on Winston Churchill. Please note Gandhi is still available as is Confucius and if you order now, you will get both bobble heads for free (ok that last part is just silly)
Melissa is obviously very clever.
uh, need you ask?? be like Nike, JUST DO IT! great idea!! I can’t watch the video because I must keep my sound on mute right now…but I’m sure it was awesome!!
Oh it was great Jill. Actually I’m much more tolerable on mute so you might be onto something.
Here is a one sentence summary.
Expect to fail when you are pushing the boundaries of personal and emotional innovation.
Damn…that message is better than the video.
Good stuff, Dean! Yeah, I noticed the whiteboard message too– does it say Matter? Do I need new glasses? Again?
I love the learning to fail idea. We can’t have anything too easy, or we won’t learn, right? Look at kids learning to ride a bike or skateboard? It takes a lot of falls and scraped knees and a lot of disappointment in self before they can reach that moment of success. And what a moment it is!
Looking forward to the rest– like how you’ve set up a weekly thing.
Hey SBB,
It does say matter…
TRAIN YOURSELF TO MATTER-seth godin (Linchpin).
Or me learning how to eat with a fork, use a broom, make my bed and keeping that damn toilet seat down. I can’t wait for my moment of success with those.
Thanks. It gives me some structure which I need.
ps…still haven’t forgotten to respond to both your emails.
Just watched the video … loved it, but have to agree with a few of your other viewers, 2 minutes is 2 short. As for the haircut, same thing. 2 short. There’s nothing left to run my virtual primal fingers through! Happy you are doing a dose of Dean video on a more daily basis though. A day without Dean is like … night!
Peace,
RatGurl
Wicked!
Great energy, great advice and can be applied to all aspects of life really.
You look great – short is yo style fo sho!
Dean,
Great motivational speech. My first thought is: Insanity = doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. BUT of course failing and learning from it is how you reap your rewards. And I do believe that we need to take the leap of faith and risk if we want the desired outcome! Try try again!
2 minutes is a bit short I agree with a few of the others. Your hair is FAB! I always like the “fuzzy” feel on men instead of running fingers through.
I am excited to see the rest of the videos this week! Keep it up!
I like the weekly layout. Very motivational video. I think Round 3minutes is the sweet spot for most videos!
Thanks buddy. How are things going over at http://www.primaltoad.com? And yes I will be testing out optimal video lengths for sure..
The hair – nice attempt at the George Strombo look, just let it grow 1/2″ and you’re there! Ah, failure….yes it’s part of life, and you’re right, change will not happen without it. Thanks for the reminder Dean. It’s just hard to take sometimes when you keep experiencing it. I’ve been in the process of transforming my eating and my body, doing crossfit, for about 4 months now and have yet to see big changes…. my big problem is cutting out sugar……..if anyone has advice on how I can control cravings, please let me know…….
Looking forward to the week Dean – great topics ahead!
Today I am going to share my experience with failure and I how I put the pieces back together (i’m being a bit of a drama queen here to build the suspense).
Oh and cutting out sugar….yeah that is a tough one for sure….I have thinking about how I would go about cutting out my treats….actually what I am thinking about is what it would take to ween myself off them.
My thinking is if I can do it, then I can teach others how to do it.
I do have an idea on this that I am going to test on myself first and then see what happens. Will keep you posted.
Hey Dean! Love the haircut!:)
We learn from our mistakes, so making them is good for us…very educational. If and when I slip off being primal it is extremely momentary and small and I never beat myself up, ever! I just remember how far I’ve come and remind myself by looking at old photos that it’s a slippery slope if I give into my former food addictions…so I chalk it up to not being perfect and move on!
I hear many people say, “I’ll start tomorrow” or “I’ll pig out this weekend and then get back on plan monday”…I tend to make the food mistake, and then get right back, immediately on track. Works for me!
You know Laurie Anne I hope people read your comment [READ LAURIE'S COMMENT] because their is a lot of brilliance in what you wrote.
First, taking a picture of yourself at the beginning of the journey is HUGE even if you have no idea what you are doing or if you think you not are going to be successful.
It gives you something to refer back to. Our memories don’t do this justice.
More importantly, you have revealed a VERY IMPORTANT stragegy…looking at those past photos.
That is brilliant thinking…and that’s what people who succeed with body transformation do…they find ways to motivate themselves when things don’t go as planned.
It’s the whole tool box principle I talked about. The reason most of us give up after a single failure is we have no tools to put it in perspective.
Thanks so much for sharing that. I hope more people start doing this. (I did this in fact when I started…which was the first time I had ever taken a pic of myself…i’m glad I did because like you I have perspective now…I have come so far that this failure is small in comparison.)
I managed to find a web site dedicated to quotes on failure:
http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/failure/
One of my favorites:
Don’t be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid.
John Keats
English lyric poet (1795 – 1821)
The daily format seems interesting enough. Two minutes seems a little short but we will have to see how it plays out.
As for the hair, Yay for low maintenance.
Ah Johnny Keats…the dude knew what he was talking about. And thanks for the other feedback. Today’s video is 7 minutes so there will be a bit of variety for everyone.
And big thumbs up for low maintenance.
short and sweet. i liked. what i like more is the organization you are bringing to your site and how you are setting up the expectations for your viewers. I really like knowing what I can expect to find from Being Primal M-F. Furthermore your message resinated loud and clear with me. I used to think one slip was reason to jump head first into a binge but now I am comfortable with it’s all part of the process and with each bump in the road I recognize it and allow it to help make me stronger.
Hey Sarah..and yeah the structure actually helps me out a lot as well in terms of 1. how to group my ideas 2. How to seek out ideas.
Failure is a funny thing…it’s weird because in some parts of my life it doesn’t bother me at all, in others it paralyses me.
Two minutes is too short. By the time I decided if I liked your hair or not it was over. lol The video would be perfect if it were a little longer just like your hair.
Ha ha! Perhaps the video will grow in length over time!!!
I know some people including me, get all caught up in the failure. When we reach that point of failure, the guilt set in and we become hard on ourselves. ” I shouldn’t have done that” or ” why did I eat that” and other negative sayings like that are on the forefront of the mind and that’s when people( again including me) just give up and go bak to our old ways.
However, I have been reading a book called CHI Running and there was a passage in the book where the author was describing how we should enjoy the PROCESS of becoming a better runner, along the end results. I think that applies here also. Instead of getting so caught up in the failure, we should think that it’s just part of the process as you said it our body transformation. We keep going on our journey, but with the mistakes or failures that we faced in the past, we can handle the next situation better in the future.
Oh, and LOVE THE HAIRCUT!!!!!
Yeah that’s a great point Steph and I love it even more because it comes from a book not on failure but about running…but the concept is the same in all areas of our life.
The challenge of course is to see it that way when it happens. Sometimes I am good at it, others time I get caught up in the emotions of the failure.
and you rock gurl…that message came directly from my hair.
I like the shorter videos. The long ones were just too long- but 2 is great! Since it is 2 minute tuesday. = )
Thanks for the reminder that failure is part of the game. I have been beating myself up a bit for my failures with food. But that just means I am trying to change. Yeah me! Thanks for that.
Well you will like Monday for sure Taryn…those are going to be 2 minutes (maybe 3 max). And your welcome. Glad this was helpful.
this is massive! 2 min videos are sooooo much better for me personally. I prefer the shorter videos just beacuse its bite size chunks and easier to fit in 5 mins before work etc. keep on!
Thanks Emma!! You wont’ like today’s though…it’s…GASP…7 minutes…but I did cut it down from the 14 minutes of video I did have
balance is good though! 7 mins for the days off!
this is so insightful! i have had many failures (nutrition, discipline, whatever), and so often i end up beating myself up about them. BUT each one teaches me a bit about myself and what i should do differently next time. it’s so easy to lose sight of that.
i’ve set a short term goal for myself of doing the hundredpushups.com thing, and i’m now halfway through. i’ve had a couple of hiccups, where i wasn’t able to successfully finish a certain workout, and after each “failure” i would feel a bit of disappointment… but two days later i try again and succeed. and now i can do at least 30 full not-on-my-knees pushups, and probably more than that. for years i have been doing pushups on my knees, in part because i felt like that was good enough – i wasn’t innovating! it feels so good to make progress, and that is inspiring me to seek progress in other areas.
Hey Bk…glad you found it freaking awesome (Ok i may have put words in your mouth).
One of my indicators is to be able to do 100 push ups in one shot…I actually haven’t done a test yet to see home many I can do in one shot…perhaps Sunday I will try.
I liked what you said about doing them for years on your knees.
I had the same revelation with Pull ups. At first I was doing them with a chair and then I thought screw it. If I can only do 2 in a set..than I do 2…at least I went to failure…my thinking was I had to get used to pulling my own body weight.
Great job!!!
Yikes!!! I’m so behind this week!!!! LOVE the haircut!
thanks gurlfriend
I was listening to someone from the NY Phil give a talk once about auditioning for a professional orchestra. “You want to be as perfect as possible, but mistakes are inevitable,” she said. “What is important to us is not that you’re perfect. If you make a mistake, what is important to us is what you do after you’ve made it.” The idea is much the same: how we react, recover, and learn from our failures is how we achieve true growth and personal evolution. Coming off of a few failures myself this week, I’m glad I stopped by to read/watch this post! At least I know I’m growing!
That story reminds me of a book I read called The Art of Possibility. Ben Zander and his wife wrote it…he is a Conductor of the Boston Philharmonic…his thoughts are much the same on this and other tops that require us to stretch…
I too am coming off a few failures this weekend…more imaginary than anything else…that heckler within has been bashing a few of my ideas pretty good the past few days…I have decided to out him though…he seems to shut up once I point out what an ass he is
I too am glad you stop by to share S.
I chuckled all through the comments and answers. My husband wants to know what’s so funny.
“Oh, him again.”
So thanks for the information and the laughs. So much to look forward to.
Yeah I am a big hit with the husbands…ha ha! I was thrilled you are reading the comments…there are some great ones that people have left…and yeah…mine are pretty darn good as well.
And I look forward to having you.