003: BenGreenfield|How to Achieve Success in Family, Fitness and Career

Ben Greenfield, triathlete, Spartan Racer, fitness guru, father and author of Beyond Training is equally driven by his passions as well as his family. The whole idea, he says, is to remember the important things in life. To achieve that balance, instead of forgoing one thing or another, he combines both. His family stays together while they play together. It started when he began running triathlons together with his wife eight years ago, and continues to this day even if it means doing hill sprints with a toddler on his back.

 
Watch the video episode at http://spartanuppodcast.com

Lessons:
1. It’s okay to push the limits in life.  But be when your activities take you away from your family, friends, relationships, love, etc., you have gone too far.
2. The best way to stay active and motivated is to sign up for something – 5K, Spartan Race, etc.
3. Expose your kids at a young age to fitness and an active lifestyle.

Panel Notes:
Joe Desena: Ben Greenfield is the ultimate body hack. He is always experimenting and trying to find ways to do it faster while requiring less work, and at the same time he’s an incredibly smart and thoughtful guy. As I was interviewing him I kept thinking,  “I need to meet his parents. I need to find out how they forged him.”

Col. Nye:  He’s a renaissance athlete, tennis player and a body builder turned triathlete with an admirable philosophy of balancing fitness with family.  Don’t be an “Invisible Athlete.” Teach, mold, lead the next generation through your actions and lifestyle.
 
Sefra Alexandra: When you build a community around your training you have the opportunity to maximize the work-play-life ethos. Ben brilliantly involves his wife and children creating a baseline of physicality and togetherness in his family’s ecology. Interested in increasing your situational awareness, your wilderness skills know-how and having the most fun possible with your family/ community or on solo adventures? See if one of these schools are near you: http://wildernessawareness.org/associates/usa/

Johnny Waite: When is it too much? When it becomes more important to you than the things that actually are important. Train with your kids, not invisibly. Let them learn the lifestyle by is osmosis. Stand as much as possible and sit as little! Sign up for something -- you always need something just ahead on your calendar.