100 Pedals

Recovery for Parents Dealing with Addiction in their Families

## Be The Leader You Are

January 28, 2026 by Dave Cooke Leave a Comment

“There are leaders and there are those who lead. Leaders hold a position of a power or authority, but those who lead inspire us… we follow those who lead not because we have to, but because we want to.” ~ Simon Sinek

My perspective: We do not need permission or approval to lead. Our ability to lead is defined by our humble, passionate commitment to what inspires, drives, and guides us. People follow us because of our contagious, loving enthusiasm for what we believe in and for what we desire in our life and in the lives of those we touch. Leadership can occur anywhere and at anytime. Leadership is not defined by how big, strong, powerful or even how influential you are. Rather, it occurs when your excitement, your energy, and your inner peace is attractive, engaging, and inspiring to others. When you live in humble, committed and authentic passion to what drives, inspires, and guides you on a daily basis – you are living the life of a leader!

A commitment for your consideration: I will embrace the opportunity be a humble and passionate leader, consistent to the values that drives, guides, and inspires me, and in complete commitment to the vision I have defined for my life.

Filed Under: Practice Humility Tagged With: being a leader, committed to leadership, inspired leadership, inspiring leadership, leadership, leading, leading others, leading through your passion, leading yourself, simon sinek, the leader in you

## Ultimately, it is up to You!

January 21, 2026 by Dave Cooke Leave a Comment

100Pedals ISM #3: Our dreams are only interrupted by our belief that we cannot get there.

- We are responsible for the outcomes of our commitment to our mission, vision, values, and passion.
- The outcomes we pursue are often dependent upon the involvement, participation, and engagement of others.
- Even though we possess the ability to influence, guide and inspire those around us, we have no control over them.
- We leverage the enthusiasm of our vision to coach, educate, and encourage others to join and support us.
- Engagement and participation is never a guarantee — for everyone is driven by their own needs, values, attitudes, and dreams.
- Achievement is completely dependent upon our commitment to our vision.
- Our successes are defined by the two behaviors you can truly control:
  - The enthusiasm, passion, energy and joy we bring to the mission - attitude;
  - The willingness to drive, push through, engage, and persevere — effort.

As I reflect upon my failures and my successes all outcomes can be defined by these assessments — I gave up or I persevered. It is true that nothing accomplished in life is achieved without the engagement or involvement of others. Even though we rely on the skills, talents, and experiences of others to facilitate successful outcomes, maintaining the momentum, the energy, and the focus to get there is completely ours. I am reminded of this challenge as I work on the 100PedalsRide. This is a massive undertaking that is reliant upon the skills, time, support, and experiences of many. While I continue to engage others to assist me in this venture, I am ultimately the only person truly vested in this outcome. This my dream, my vision, and my passion. When all is said and done, I am the only person responsible for pulling or pushing the 100PedalsRide across the finish line. My attitude is what inspire others and energizes me. My effort is where my commitment and the focus live. My successes are ultimately defined by my attitude and my effort. When I have been successful I stayed engaged to the desired outcome. When I have not succeeded it is because I became discouraged and eventually gave up.

Stay committed and focused. Be inspired and inspiring. Live and love the journey and you will celebrate a successful outcome. All you can truly control is your attitude and your effort. Embracing this is the key to all your future endeavors!

Over the next few weeks I will sharing 100Pedals ISM‘s. An ISM is an “Inspiring, Simple Mantra.” It has been two years since I began my personal transformational journey known as 100Pedals. Over that period, I have shared over 200 perspectives, thoughts, and experiences through articles or blogs on this site. Yet, I am not completely confident that I have succeeded in clearly defining what 100Pedals is. In order to more clearly define 100Pedals, I am going to share some of my core beliefs and experiences in an organized manner. Hopefully this will more clearly define the beliefs, values, and philosophies behind 100Pedals.

Filed Under: Celebrating Accomplishment, Inspirational Perspectives, Live With Passion, Living Your Purpose, Maintaining Focus Tagged With: celebrating your passion, creating a vision, dealing with adversity, embracing your vision, honoring your commitments, inspiring others, inspiring yourself, visioning your success

## Responding to Life’s Adversities

January 14, 2026 by Dave Cooke Leave a Comment

100Pedals ISM #2: Life is a continuous series of challenges and opportunities — how we respond to them defines the progress, effectiveness and experiences of our journey.

- Life doesn’t happen to you, it happens with you.
- You are an active participant in life’s events — you are there, you have always been there, and you will always be there.
- When life shows up, your first thoughts and actions are emotionally based — this is your reaction to them.
- These are manifested in emotional behaviors such as pain, hurt, joy, betrayal, fear, excitement, love, happiness, loss, or more.
- There is a significant difference and result between a reaction and a response.
- A reaction is a physical or non-cognitive expression of your emotions at work.
- A response is a cognitive process for dealing with the situation from this point forward.
- There is little need spending time managing, understanding, or dealing with what cannot be changed.
- Your priority in adversity is organizing your thoughts in relation to your purpose, your vision, and your values.
- These are best defined by your commitment to who you are, where you are going and what you stand for.
- It is important to follow your heart provided you are following the heart that understands your purpose, vision, and values.

I am a highly, energized emotional individual. Throughout my life, I have been very effective at reacting to situations. Many times my emotions often got the best of me. Through the experiences of the past few years, I discovered that feeling, experiencing and connecting with my emotions is an important part of the learning process. I also learned that nothing is accomplished when I react emotionally to events. As I have developed more clarity and focus around my purpose and my values, I have discovered the power of responding to events rather than reacting to them. In this shift, I have found more peace, wasted less emotional energy, better understood my responsibilities in these situations, maintained better progress on my journey, and more successful in honoring my commitments. The first step in the process is to be more clear in who you are, where you are going and what you stand for. When you successfully and clearly define you, responding to live’s challenges become great learning experiences not distracting, emotional episodes.

Over the next few weeks I will sharing 100Pedals ISM‘s. An ISM is an “Inspiring, Simple Mantra.” It has been two years since I began my personal transformational journey known as 100Pedals. Over that period, I have shared over 200 perspectives, thoughts, and experiences through articles or blogs on this site. Yet, I am not completely confident that I have succeeded in clearly defining what 100Pedals is. In order to more clearly define 100Pedals, I am going to share some of my core beliefs and experiences in an organized manner. Hopefully this will more clearly define the beliefs, values, and philosophies behind 100Pedals.

Filed Under: Embrace Responsibility, Maintaining Focus, Managing Adversity Tagged With: dealing with adversity, dealing with conflict, dealing with obstacles, focusing on your vision, managing adversity, managing setbacks, responding to adversity, visioning your success

## Life is simple — Keep it that way!

January 7, 2026 by Dave Cooke 1 Comment

100Pedals ISM #1: Life is very simple; it is our mental gymnastics that complicates it.

- Life offers us tremendous opportunities to live, to learn, to grow, to experience, and to celebrate.
- Without the fear of failure, risk, loss, rejection, or inadequacy making decisions or taking action would be easy.
- Fear is the result of our experiences, our familial environment, our life education and our perceptions.
- Our head is the source for all fear as it is the great repository of all experiences historical or hysterical.
- Our head uses this knowledge to protect us from failure and justifies resistance to any actions toward unknown outcomes.
- Passion and opportunity is suppressed by the fears developed, created, and promoted by our historical perspectives.
- Our heart is where our passion, our inspiration, and our dreams live.
- Our heart is the expression of our authentic self — who we are.
- Because we often ask our mind for permission to approve the dreams developed in the heart, they often die in our head.
- Learning to simply listen to that inner voice in our heart creates opportunity and fosters change.
- Trusting what is not known, but desired by your inner self, is where innovation and discovery blossoms.
- Keep it simple — live your life by listening to the voice in your heart while letting your mind learn from the experience.

I have discovered the key to successful living is in learning to listen to and follow my passion. Quite honestly, the practice of this commitment is work. However, I am more at peace, more energized, more clear, and more focused when I allow my dreams to blossom in my life. When I work at defining the outcome, making certain I know how I will be successful, or seek internal or external affirmation of my dreams, I struggle to get moving. When I simply embrace an idea for what it is — a message from the heart — I have more energy, passion, and excitement. And, it is easier for me to simply commit to staying in action because I know it is being driven by the authentic me. The outcomes of these behaviors have been incredible and they are at the core of the transformation most everyone around me has witnessed.

Over the next few weeks I will sharing 100Pedals ISM‘s. An ISM is an “Inspiring, Simple Mantra.” It has been two years since I began my personal transformational journey known as 100Pedals. Over that period, I have shared over 200 perspectives, thoughts, and experiences through articles or blogs on this site. Yet, I am not completely confident that I have succeeded in clearly defining what 100Pedals is. In order to more clearly define 100Pedals, I am going to share some of my core beliefs and experiences in an organized manner. Hopefully this will more clearly define the beliefs, values, and philosophies behind 100Pedals.

Filed Under: Celebrating Accomplishment, Inspirational Perspectives, Make A Commitment Tagged With: finding inspiration in simplicity, keeping things simple, life is simple, simple ispirations, the simple life

## Celebrate New Successes in Seven Simple Steps

January 2, 2026 by Dave Cooke Leave a Comment

### Happy New Year! Happy 2013!!

I wish each of you a successful, happy, peaceful, prosperous, and enjoyable year!

May it be filled with growth, discovery, celebration, accomplishment and love!!

As you work on implementing your personal development plan for 2013, I would encourage each of you to undue the clutter you may have already created for yourself. Every year, it is incredibly easy to make a very long list of all the things that we could, should, and must do to make our lives better and ourselves more successful in the coming year. Unfortunately, all that does is burden us with a long list of failures, shortcomings, challenges, and tasks.

If you have made a list and vowed to do better , congratulations on successfully being honest with yourself.

It is now time to be realistic with yourself — burn the list!

Instead, go to a quiet place, close your eyes, and relax.

Allow your mind, body, and spirit to completely relax. In this moment of peaceful tranquility follow these steps — which start with two simple questions:

1. REFLECT: If I were to celebrate peace, joy, happiness and accomplishment in my life what would that celebration look like?
2. FOCUS: What is the ONE thing I need to do today and everyday to make certain I start in the direction of fulfillment?
3. LISTEN: Listen carefully and be extremely sensitive to the very first answer that pops in your head.
4. TRUST: Trust that you have identified the most important, yet simple activity you can engage in this year.
5. COMMIT: Make that activity the most important component of your life for the next 100Days without excuse, exception, or compromise.
6. CELEBRATE: Celebrate the accomplishment of your commitment every single day in the reality that you have successfully continued that forward march towards your vision for this year.
7. DISCOVER: As you build momentum, confidence, and experience along the way, allow yourself to discover the next step on your journey to a successful year. This will not happen early; but, it will occur once you have created a habit of honoring your commitment and celebrating your daily accomplishments.

Over 80% of all new year’s goals are unsuccessful. There are a variety of theories and reasons for this and I have no intention to debate the science, the philosophy or the process associated with new year’s resolutions. From my personal experience and research the bigger component of these failings is the complexity of our goals, how we confuse them with our vision, and the lack of commitment that is tangibly connected to our intentions.

Do yourself and your life a favor. Relax, focus, listen to your heart and make a 100Day commitment to honoring the advice. Let me know how that works out — I am confident you will be amazed, inspired, and successful!!

Filed Under: Focusing On Your Vision, Giving Love, Learning From Experience, Make A Commitment Tagged With: celebrating accomplishments, celebrating progress, celebrating success, creating a vision, embracing your vision, honoring commitments, honoring your commitments, visioning your success