Do you have an ultimate goal in life? How will you achieve it?

After recently completing my 6^th full marathon, I discovered something about myself that I never knew.... I can set a lofty goal, work towards it religiously and accomplish it! All of those kilometers to discover that?! Well not totally. See there was a time when I stopped playing competitive sports and thought to myself “I’m glad I don’t have to stick to a schedule or commit lengths of time to traveling to some place where I probably wouldn’t otherwise go”. But soon (maybe the week after I stopped) I realized that I truly missed the travel, schedule, and most of all, the friendships that were formed. Without many of my teammates I wouldn’t have become who I am today. Without them I wouldn’t have the confidence in myself to be creative, disciplined and responsible for my actions. My team was more like an extension of my family. I also needed a goal, an end to some set period of time, which is why I chose to start running marathons. It was simple, sign up for the marathon and train as much as possible until that date arrived. Then what? Well the only logical thing to do was sign up for another marathon and start over again!

What is the point of telling you my progression of participating in sports? Because I feel that active living and sports, when introduced at an early age, build a foundation for all of us to become successful in whatever we decide to direct our energy towards in the future (i.e. jobs, family life, professional sports, and so on). It also gives us a sense to be human beings at the basic levels of our existence. We often drive to the store instead of biking, drive to the gym instead of running or walking, and often choose to drive alone rather than carpooling and getting to know others. These were probably actions built into our brains by observing our parents or friends. Our population’s health has seemed to decline even though many people say they are active. We need to consider our health when performing every day actions in our lives.

Also, the environment is almost always an afterthought in our daily activities. There has to be a better way to take care of the environment that we so desperately need! Running every day, outside has made me realize the amount of cars on the road on average is high and increasing. Try it some time. Take a walk to the local store and see how many cars are on the road. The amount of cars, noise and smell of exhaust will most likely make you feel sick, both literally and figuratively.

We set goals in life and often don’t realize what we need do to get to that goal. We also try to take on accomplishing those goals alone. Without others helping you achieve a goal through support or achieving it with you, goals often become set aside or even abandoned. Support to travel a more sustainable and active way can really grow and mature with the help of others. We need to support each other in finding ways to improve and preserve our environment.

Please consider the following every day:

• Your health and the environment before leaving the house!
• Being an active role model for our youth!
• Being an active role model for adults!

This past weekend Clean Air Champions was at the OPHEA conference held in Alliston, Ontario (just north of Toronto). The 2011 conference was held from October 13-15th and Clean Air Champions was one of the very lucky exhibitors.

We had a great time talking with coaches, physical and health educators, and health unit representatives from across the province and informing them of the incredible opportunity that they have to book a Clean Air Champion to talk to their students and young athletes for FREE! 

The conference launched with a very powerful keynote speaker - three-time Olympian, five-time Paralympian, and six-time World Champion, Jeff Adams, who shared his compelling story of how the power of focus can make a winner out of anybody. His message fit perfectly with Clean Air Champions' goals of sending Olympic, Paralympic and National Team athletes into schools to educate and inspire students. 

Thank you to all the individuals who told us that they loved what Clean Air Champions is doing, who wanted to book a Champion and who were wanting more information to share with their colleagues.

Any teacher or coach who missed this conference will surely want to be there next year.  I know we'll be back. Congratulations to the OPHEA event organizers for putting on such a great event.

Can't wait for next year!

Sustainable happiness is a relatively new concept. We all want to be happy and think about being happy and wish we were happy and wish others were happier, but the concept of sustainable happiness, created by Dr. Catherine O’Brien, Associate Professor at Cape Breton University, goes much bigger than that.  This is about happiness that contributes to individual, community, and/or global well-being and does not exploit other people, the environment or future generations. The concept merges happiness with sustainability and the definition underscores the integral relationship between happiness, well-being and the natural environment. It reinforces the fact that our lives touch, and are touched, by other people, other species and the natural environment every day. The choices we make can have a positive, or adverse, impact on ourselves, other people and the world around us.

Sustainable Happiness is a powerful idea, vision and way of approaching life that offers each one of us real, practical tools for creating happier and more sustainable lives. Sustainable Happiness offers all of us a powerful portal into realizing "genuine wealth" - an inner and enduring kind of wealth that enables us to be the best we can be.  Big thanks to Catherine O'Brien, Rick Foster and Greg Hicks for making this course a reality!

Ingrid Liepa, Clean Air Champion and two-time speed skating Olympian is compelled to share the joy! “After enjoying the innovative Sustainable Happiness online course released in September 2011, I recognized that one of the ways I wanted to "pay it forward" was to make the course available to my fellow Clean Air Champions who also are passionate about building more sustainable, healthy and vibrant communities wherever they find themselves. “  

We are happy to announce that we have filled the 10 spots for the Sustainable Happiness Course from Ingrid's donation.  The Champions participating in the course are:

Ashley McKilligan - Wrestling - Saskatoon, SK

Bill Trayling - Kayak - Barrie, ON

Catherine Bruhwiler - Surfing - Tofino, BC

Crystal Phillips - Speed Skating - Calgary, AB

Jenna Marks - Canoe - Dartmouth, NS

Jessica Sedlock - Athletics - Victoria, BC

Kara Zakrzewski - Beach Volleyball - Toronto, ON

Kari Ferlatte - Cycling - Ottawa, ON

Miana Griffiths - Athletics - Oakville, ON

Ryan Johnson - Freestyle Skiing - Squamish, BC

Check out the online learning program here.  We think it is great. The entire Clean Air Champions management team has signed up for the program. We get a kick out of recognizing ourselves in the lessons and learning how to make meaningful and sustainable changes in our daily actions. 

Cheers!