The other issue weighing on my mind involved my father, a retired family physician who developed Alzheimer’s. Here was a medical man with a sharp mind and healthy habits who was laid low by an insidious disease. I remember thinking, "I can’t control whether or not I get Alzheimer’s, but I can control the quality of my life." That’s when I finally stopped to take a good hard look at my life and my health. I realized I had to do something, right then.

On Yer Bike!
Fortunately, I knew the steps to taking control of my life because I’d been helping Lance do it for years. Because of his involvement with his cancer foundation, his growing family and his intercontinental training and racing schedule, we had created a more holistic approach to his training. If we didn’t, he’d have burned out because of the overwhelming pressure of his obligations. We optimized his nutrition to minimize his low-energy and lethargic days. We monitored his moods carefully for signs of exhaustion and burnout, and because he wasn’t yet out of the woods with cancer, we were vigilant about tracking his health. His success on the bike relied on the thousands of miles he rode, but it also depended heavily on us taking control of every aspect of his time.

"I wasn’t a happy guy. Funny, no one told me success was going to feel like this."

I started paying attention to the same things I had Lance follow: nutrition, health, fitness, career and relationships. As a result, I finally started to feel like a success. I dedicated more time to family vacations and started seeing my doctor regularly for checkups. I scheduled time to ride my Specialized road bike, and I restructured my business to build a team I could trust. Life was, and still is, very good.

My transformation made me realize that the same concepts we use to produce champion athletes also work to guide driven people to live what I call a "high-performance" life. This is the level at which everything is going smoothly—you’re efficient and accomplishing more than most people thought possible. I recognized that the achievers, those who commit to goals in their careers and succeed, share the same mind-set as the athletes we train. And, like every successful athlete, they can fall into the trap of sacrificing everything around them for those goals.

Spencer Aronfeld, an attorney we work with in Florida, is a great case study. He had a flourishing law practice, a fast car, big house and a regular steak house and cigar habit. But his health was awful. He developed asthma, abdominal bleeding and hives, and he kept gaining weight. The final straw was when his wife took their two kids to Europe for the summer against his wishes.

Aronfeld called us to see about joining a tour we were running in France, and ended up becoming a serious recreational cyclist working with a coach. He lost weight, his doctor took him off several medications and he reconnected with his wife and kids. At the office, Aronfeld actually started to work less, but ended up getting more done because he now had more energy and greater focus.