Author: Luis Velasquez

Just this morning, I was returning a rental car at LAX. I didn’t have much time before my flight was scheduled to depart to SFO. As I stepped out of the rental car, the attendant asked me what time my flight was. I told her and she said, “You have less than an hour.” Then she told me to put my bags back in the car and said, “I will drive you to the airport.” I just couldn’t believe it. She took me to the airport and I made my flight. I was truly grateful to the attendant for...

Do not believe that external forces control your destiny. I have the strong belief that we control our own lives. Granted, there are many events we have no control over, but we sure can control how we react to those events. If we have a strong belief that we can control our destiny, we can deal with whatever life throws at us. As a child I was pretty small in size. I really didn’t grow much in my early years. When I entered elementary school, I was pretty much the smallest kid in the class and, unfortunately, the easiest...

The three-legged stool of strength is made up of three parts: exercise your body, exercise your mind (read), and exercise your spirit (be thankful). If we want to become stronger and be ready for anything, working on our body is a leg that we can’t afford to ignore. In the summer of 2012 I ran the Western States Endurance Run, one of the most difficult 100-mile trail races in the U.S. I was in the best shape of my life. I had to be if I wanted to succeed in tackling the race and finishing within the 30-hour time...