100 Pedals

Significant Outcomes in the Face of Adversity

## Five simple steps to creating change in your life

December 2, 2025 by Dave Cooke Leave a Comment

When you find yourself at that place where you are not celebrating the outcomes you desire in your life, you have two choices — do something or do nothing. Ultimately the situation will not change until you decide it must. The easy part is knowing what to do; the hard part is making the commitment.

Rather than getting all hung up on an overworked action plan, here are five steps you can take to change your future outcomes:

1. Declare: “I am not satisfied with where I am.”
2. Inquire: “What can I do differently?” or “What can I do better?”
3. Explore: “How will this change the outcome I am experiencing?”
4. Confirm: “This is what I need to do!”
5. Act: “I will…” Make the commitment, challenge yourself, do the work!

Whatever the situation, there is a solution. Everything begins with embracing personal responsibility for the outcomes in your life. Once you openly, honestly, and receptively explore the options you will find the answer. Armed with the solution, the only step remaining is taking action and making it happen.

The answer is usually quite obvious. What holds us back is not the solution; it is the work, the risk, and the task of implementation. Have the courage to trust your path and embrace the challenge. Successful and incredible outcomes to change are just around the corner.

On Sunday, December 1, I challenged myself to step up and make some changes in my life. This challenge reflects behaviors and activities that I were once part of my life routine and that I had fallen out of. I have challenged myself to actively focus on making the necessary changes in my life to get back into those routines for the next 100Days. I will be sharing comments from my daily experiences on my 100Day Challenge Facebook Group. Please join me and follow along with my experiences and thoughts on this journey.

Filed Under: Make A Commitment, The Four Wheels of Personal Leadership Tagged With: change, change behaviors, commitment, creating change, embracing change, focus, personal responsibility, The 100Day Challenge

## Have the courage to stay on course

October 14, 2025 by Dave Cooke Leave a Comment

Yesterday, the pastor spoke about cognitive dissonance — when what we are experiencing conflicts with what we expected or believe is correct. It is that moment of discomfort or doubt that may cause us to interrupt the path we are on because the expectations of our past experiences challenges the course. Instead of trusting the directions of our vision and mission, our fears and expectations disrupt our progress.

Succeeding in the face of this conflict required us to remain resolute, trusting the path. Stay on course and don’t stray despite the conflicts in your head. Have the strength and the courage to keep moving forward on the path you are on.

This talked triggered an experience I had when I was on a quest to complete a marathon in 1990. My first marathon attempt was in Detroit in early October. I had high expectations, had trained well, and had an aggressive finishing time in mind. I was ready. Early in the race, things didn’t go as I had envisioned. The more my mind struggled, the more by body complied with the chaos. Eventually, I gave up my pursuit at around mile 19. Convinced I couldn’t finish, I dropped out of the race.

I found my family at around mile 21. I could see the surprise and disappointment in their eyes. I always was a pretty powerful, strong, and determined individual — they were shocked I bailed on my mission. It was hard to explain to them the struggle. Mainly, because I knew I had let my mind win the war of the race.

With a little encouragement from a training partner, I decided to revisit my quest and entered the Columbus Marathon that November. I treated my Detroit experience as both a training run and as a reminder that success doesn’t come from quitting.

The night before the race, I was having dinner with my family at my Dad’s house in Columbus when my daughter declared that “knowing my dad, he will probably quit again.” Ouch!! I never saw myself as a quitter; but, Sami appropriately called me on my last big failing.

Though I was already determined to cross that finish line, Sami’s challenge certainly raised the intensity of that commitment.

I had a lot of support through the race. My family caught up to me at mile 6, mile 11, and mile 16. I knew they would be at the finishing line. My sister-in-law, four months pregnant, found me at mile 15 and ran with me until mile 19. (If you knew her at all, she has never missed out on any opportunity to get in a workout — ever!)

Around mile 20 I hit the wall as all runners do. The pain, the doubt, the painfully sluggish pace of each step started to take its toll. This time I reminded myself that no matter how difficult the journey, I was going to finish. The last stretch of the race was one long three mile straightaway into a fifteen mile per hour headwind on a very cool 35 degree day. I was struggling to keep it moving. My body had started to tell my head that I was done. But, I persevered.

I looked at the skyline of distant downtown Columbus and picked out a building. I declared that I was going to get there. Somehow, someway, without stopping that was my spot. I kept moving — one very slow, difficult step at a time. The buildings got closer. My building got bigger. I could finally see the finish line. It was right in front of the building I was running towards! After three hours and fifty five minutes of non-stop running (I didn’t even stop when I grabbed water along the route), I crossed the finish line.

Immediately upon completion the exhilaration and euphoria moving through my body was competing directly with the pain that was moving up from my feet through the rest of my system. I did it! I stayed on course! I stayed focused! I kept moving!!

It isn’t always easy, especially when we are battling very loud voices from within. The key to it all — stay focused, stay committed, and keep moving on the path you have chosen despite the obstacles and the surprises and you will cross the finish line.

Filed Under: Celebrating Accomplishment, Learning From Experience, Make A Commitment, Managing Adversity, The Four Wheels of Personal Leadership, Uncategorized Tagged With: accomplishment, celebration, cognitive dissonance, conflict, determination, doubt, focus, managing adversity, perseverance, victory

## The Path To Accomplishment

May 20, 2025 by Dave Cooke Leave a Comment

Far too many years ago, I attended a workshop focused around self-development. The workshop taught me how to take myself past the limits of what I believed possible. I loved the lesson and the experience of that workshop. It was the first time I was exposed to the notion that anything is possible if I do not allow myself to put limits on the quest or outcome.

As I reflect back on that experience, I am certain that one of my favorite quotes sums up one of the lessons best:

> You don’t know what you are capable of until you put yourself in a position to do something you have never done before.

How many times have we shared an idea or a big dream with someone and their first response is, “that is so cool, how are you going to do that?”

Far too many hopes, dreams, and ideas have been killed by that question — whether someone asked us or we asked that ourselves.

You do not need to know that answer. If your quest is beyond the scope of what you have already accomplished, it is impossible for you to know how to get there. Discovering how to get there is part of the process!

There only three things that you need to know in order for you to start and maintain an accomplished path on your journey - vision, commitment and awareness. If you are doing something you have never done before, how can you possibly know what it will take to get there. How other people did something similar is not important — for it was their vision, their quest, and their commitment that drove them.

Instead of looking for answers as to how to get where you desire to go, that this approach:

1. Clearly define your vision: Understand, embrace, and internalize why you are pursuing your dream. Be clear as to what your finish line looks like.

2. Make a commitment: Once you know what your vision is, all you need is that first step. From there, it is a matter of commitment and awareness. Inspired, driven, and supported by your desire to cross that finish line, do something every single day, without exception to push yourself forward in the direction of your dream.

3. Be aware: Pay attention on your journey. The next steps, actions, and opportunities present themselves as you go provided you are focused on your vision and committed to your dream. You will discover the answers as you go and learn as you move forward.

Remember, until you know how to accomplish something, you have to learn how to do it in the first place. You can only learn how to do something or to succeed at something is to put yourself in a position to accomplish it. Get started, get busy, and enjoy the journey!!

Filed Under: Maintaining Focus, Make A Commitment, Seizing Opportunity, The Four Wheels of Personal Leadership Tagged With: 100Pedals, awareness, awareness and learning, creating a vision, embracing your vision, focus, journey lessons, learning from awareness, The Four Wheels of Personal Leadership, vision

## Humbled in Joplin

July 30, 2025 by Dave Cooke Leave a Comment

As I headed across the Missouri state line on my journey to Detroit, the exits for Joplin, MO caught my attention. In May of last year Joplin was hit by one of the fiercest, deadliest tornadoes in history. Having heard and read the stories of the devastation and of the mindset of the community that this storm would not stop them, I decided to see what was going on in Joplin.

When I first headed down the business route of I-40, I was wondering if I would even be able to find what I was looking for. A mile or so off the interstate everything looked so normal for a small town — trees, old buildings, fast food stores, etc. Then, suddenly everything opened up. There were no trees, no buildings, only a wide open space of what was once a neighborhood. Off in the distance I could see the remains of the hospital that was destroyed by the tornado. Sadly, I had found the Joplin I was looking for.

At first I was uncomfortable being there. The people in this town had their lives turned upside town in a matter of tragic seconds. I didn’t want to be that gawking tourist disrespectfully driving through to view the devastation. However, I did want to see and experience what had happened here firsthand. I pulled over and quietly snapped two photos and prepared to drive out of town not wanting to be disruptive or rude in any way.

As I was preparing to leave, a sign in front of a house caught my attention. It said “this house is God’s miracle.” As I slowed to look at it, the owner of the home started walking to his car. I rolled my window down and asked him if his house was a miracle because it survived the tornado. He smiled and said, “no my house was destroyed; that the house is here now is the miracle.” I asked him if he had a moment to tell me the story and if it would be alright if I pulled over and parked my car. Again he smiled and said “go ahead.”

For the next thirty minutes he told me how the 350 MPH winds destroyed the houses in his neighborhood and all the one hundred year old oak trees that surrounded it. He told me a little about the four houses that had already been rebuilt in the immediate area. Finally, he shared with me the story of how his house — the one that had just had the roof replaced the day before the tornado — was rebuilt even though he did not have any insurance.

As I listened to his story of faith and trust, how every time he and his wife faced an obstacle and worked through it, I was touched by his “miracle.” His was an amazing story. The Notre Dame University drill corps framed the house, a builder came from Arkansas to mudded out the drywall, a woman from Oklahoma mailed him $100, and after having his claim rejected by FEMA they somehow sent him the money a week later. He pointed to a brick walkway that wasn’t there this past Friday when he and his wife went away for an overnight church event. At every turn what appeared as an obstacle, ended up presenting a solution.

I thanked him for his time and for sharing his incredible story. As I drove down the road, I was humbled by his experience. Here was a man who stayed focused and kept moving when everything he had was completely flattened and destroyed in a manner of seconds. In comparison, some of my challenges, concerns, and worries, my life are pretty simple and very manageable.

Everyone’s adversities are unique to them. Next time as you focus on your commitment and your challenge, I hope that this story will inspire you to keep moving, to trust in the direction of the path that you are on, and stay focused on the outcome of your vision. A home was re-built after a catastrophic event because someone believed there was a way. Each of us can accomplish a great deal if we believe, too.

Filed Under: Inspirational Perspectives, Maintaining Focus, Managing Adversity, Practice Humility Tagged With: believing, faith, focus, Joplin, Joplin tornado, MO, trust, trusting in the outcome, trusting the journey