This week goes down as "the week of the tea party". Anyone for a spot 'oTetley ?

The use of the phraseology "tea party" in this context is annoying. Once again, a fine use of "symbolism" with little to no context - other than people taking the time to protest. What about using the symbolism of other great civil protests from our era? I didn't see anyone running off to use "the silent majority" and dressing like hippies! I guess it's just another load of political fodder and compost over the past few weeks.

But here's an even bigger question ... where were all these people, oh, 8 years ago? Back in the days when Bush signed the Patriot Act? Or when the number of illegal wiretaps went through the roof? Or when they spent hundreds of billions of un-budgeted money on the war in Iraq? Where were all the "protesters" when former President Bush wanted to make constitutional change (yes, constitutional change) to oppose same sex marriages? And how about that little economic decline we've experienced as big business got it's piece of the pie, then ran off to hide on a beach in Tahiti?

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Do you train your brain as often or as intensely as training your body?

Traditionally, training focuses on any number of workouts to develop the physical mechanisms of performance. They focus on the perceived physical limiters to success.

But what if the primary limiter to success isn’t physical? What if it is mental?

Many may think that mental training is only necessary for an elite athlete, that it is just the difference between winning a gold medal or a silver medal at the Olympics. Most people don’t even think about training their brain, but will spend countless hours training their body. How am I supposed to "train my brain" ... and why bother? My brain works just fine as it is – or does it?

The primary limiter to success – in sport training, in injury recovery, and in life, is the brain. So why not focus our efforts on this organ?

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So the NCAA basketball season is now officially over. We were officially blessed with perhaps the most boring and uneventful tournament in memory.  The final between North Carolina and Michigan State was, well ... a yawner to say the least. With that said though, congratulations to UNC for a well-coached and well-played game. It was the next closest thing to a modern-day hoops clinic.

March Madness is almost always just that - madness. It has, over the years, served us with some fine examples of sportsmanship, camaraderie, "shining moments", humanity, and, oh yes, great basketball. But this year - just wasn't the same. Perhaps there is no coincidence that this year gave us the fewest mid-major teams in the tournament in the past 4 or 5 years. We didn't really have a Davidson to remind us that the Big Dance can be a modern day David-vs-Goliath on the hardwood. There were certainly some upsets, and some great games. But in general, all was a little disappointing. The Beasts from the Big East ...

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In my last post, I outlined the current need for a health revolution. Cost, lack of evidence-based practices, and perhaps greatest of all, cultural change, are the issues preventing a system of health from being sustainable and effective.

We are in need of a change in our approach to health. Over time, we’ve seen the attempts at incremental change. We’ve witnessed this in our recent health care reform debates. But at this point in time, if you continue to do what you’ve done, you will get what you’ve got thus far. And that is a “system” that is broken in many places.

A system of health needs to be seamless along the continuum of health – from disease to the absence of disease. It needs to focus on the mechanisms of health and on optimizing human performance within all contexts of health. It needs to be truly client-focused. It needs to be built on a foundation of learning and transformation at the level of the individual, in order to then foster cultural change socially and politically.

We are in need of a Revolution – and it starts today with the unveiling of the Smart Life Project.

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