This post is going out to chupacabra Dick Cheney: keep eating red meat dude.

And now, let's return to peak performance. It might be dark and cold, but that doesn't mean you can stay in bed. There is a revolution to plan, and these days you should be asking yourself "Do I have the upper body strength to scale the walls of the White House?" "Have I trained like a navy-seal to swim out to a Halliburton Oil Platform?"

You may want to incorporate these ideas into your vision statement. And if you are new to Lisablog you might not know what a vision statement is. I learned about vision statements from this dude named John DeRosalia who is a skydiving psychotherapist. He helps athletes to become world champions. So today let's make you a world champion too.

First you might want to check out John DeRosalia's Website

And here is a little excerpt from it:

What's the most powerful peak performance tool?

My 'miracle tool' is a Personal Vision Statement; a written description of the goal, its time-frame, the steps you'll take to achieve it, and a list of reasons that make it important to you. Writing this out can be time-consuming but it's worth the effort. Most people have thoughts, ideas and dreams of what they'd like to do. But thinking about something is only the first level. Putting your thoughts into words is a second, much more powerful level. A recent study revealed that over 90% of Olympic gold medal winners had their goals down in writing. The third level is taking action in the direction of your goals. The idea is to begin living your dreams and not just thinking about them. Thought, word, and deed are cornerstones in every major philosophy and religion throughout time. The idea in peak performance is to reach for the highest thought.

Writing a vision statement can be quite fun. Sometimes it helps to start with a list of stuff you want to do. Think of the small details, and think of big plans too. For instance, my vision statement ideas might look like this:

Drink 8 glasses of water a day. Eat greens every day.
Re-integrate running 5 days a week.
Have an excellent husband and have a good life with him.
Save money to get a sheep farm.
And health insurance.
Knit 100 Hats.
Knit a sweater.
Knit a blanket.
Translate the Iliad.
Finish the Duncan biography by June 1st.
Be good to my students.
Be a streamlined and cool gnosis seeker.
Stop the war machine.
Get a dog.
Publish my first novel.
Get a full-time teaching job.
Visit Greece.
Visit Scotland.
Visit Italy.
Visit Wales.
Learn Latin.
Study Middle Eastern archaeology.

The next step is to craft your ideas into a positive, enthusiastic, easy to read mantra. For instance, my vision statement could look like this:

Vision Statement
November 13, 2004

I eat well and I drink eight glasses of water every day, which means two in the morning before I leave the house and I eat greens every day and I eat clean protein like raw fish and I don't eat too much sugar and every morning for ten minutes I stretch and do yoga and I do 60 push ups and 25 stomach crunches and I reintegrate running into my life, especially after school ends, when I am in London where I can run through parks filled with foxes and I am a lean, mean fighting machine and I am the one.

I am good to my students and I learn as much as I can all the time and I work on major projects like the Duncan book, which becomes my life beginning in January, and my novel, which I finish over the summer, and my translation of the Iliad, which I work on for an hour every other day beginning in January as a way to take a break from the Duncan book, and I work on knitting and I make 100 hats for people all over the world and also I knit a long warm funky blanket for me and Thomas and the cats and I do what I can every day to stop the war machine and I dedicate some time to that in whatever way possible.

I look forward to the following things: finishing major projects so that I can study Latin and archaeology and wild flowers and astronomy, getting a big German Shepherd dog, saving money for a farm in the country, having a vegetable garden and chasing the pheasants away, visiting Scotland and Wales and Greece and Italy, learning more about whiskey and beer and tea, being a teacher of poetry and having health insurance, having a most excellent husband and sharing my life with him.

The next step:

Read your vision statement every morning, and read it at night before you go to sleep. It helps to dream about your imminent Olympic successes. See yourself doing these things. John DeRosalia says there are two possibilities with a vision statement: you read it every day and achieve your goals or you don't read it every day and you don't achieve your goals.

Set your goals realistically, and pace yourself. And you might find that it's really exciting to revise your vision statement in a few weeks or a month. Save your old vision statements and chart your progress. Be a champion! You are the One.