It has been over 4 months since I have meaningfully sat in front of a keyboard and written a training blog.  Some of you suspect that I am another “dead blogger” on the Internet.

Jeff and Linda Gaura, starting Threshold Academy. Sitting on the front porch of 5101 Sugar and Wine Rd, with their chicken Goldilocks.
From the front porch…chicken included!

Anything but true!  Linda and I have decided to grow to find and reach new audiences.  We think we have a lot more to share than a few written stories that hit the inbox of a few thousand people each month.  We needed a better way to answer the question, “how,” so we created a plan and attached it to a new company. 

Step 1 was to be rid of my day job.  No, I didn’t just quit.  Instead, my wife and I sold the business and we asked some folks whom we trust to spend a day with us sorting out answers to the tougher questions about what we really want to do with the remainder of our days.  We asked people who had been in our lives whose decision making and guidance we trusted.  We made sure to pick folks who we thought had accomplished something both professionally and personally, and we wanted to incorporate their success, either with people or with professions, into our new identity.  For one day, we made a forum to merge their thinking into ours.   

#1 on the list of things we wanted to do was to reach you more.  That meant that I needed to stop blogging for a time.  I needed to make an infrastructure to allow for more than what I was doing. 

What did that transition look like?  It started with a deep dive into our strengths.  Here are the action items that exited that exploration

  1. I made time to start writing a book, and I have poured my creative efforts in that direction.  I have a publisher and marketeer who will help me get the word out.  I anticipate a speaking circuit on the radio and TV, and you should be able to find a few links as to how I am going to do that later.
  2. I committed to teaching athletes at all levels go above their threshold and improve.  We formed a corporation called “Threshold Academy, Inc,” and I decided that I can handle perhaps 6 to 8 paying athletes at a time.  I already have 3.  We made some professional grade videos.  I will share them with you on this training blog, soon. 
  3. My wife committed to teaching what it means to be the significant other of a serious athlete.  She is world class at these tasks.  Our oldest son played college football, and our youngest son is doing Triathlon at Arizona State.  She knew all about nutrition, recovery, social planning and the requirements of a successful athletic family.  We are going to offer up to 8 immersion experiences a year for an athlete and their plus 1.  We will invite them into our home for 4 days and we will teach the athlete and their Sherpa everything they need to be successful.  However, we don’t do the work for them. 
  4. We are going to migrate towards video blogs and add them to our repertoire.  I will continue to write, but video will allow us to add the element of body language and visual stimulation to attract the crowd that claims, “I don’t like to read.”  We know that they are a growing community, and we will make allowances for them.  We didn’t choose to follow a God who picks and chooses who can come to him; if all we do is write, we are missing a big community.  Go to any airport, and you don’t see people reading as you did 10 years ago.  They are scrolling and stopping at what is important to them.  We are going to feed that group what they are yearning to learn. 
  5. I am going to Nepal and taking a group of folks with me, once a year, every year that I am able.  These trips will include a visit to the high Himalaya and a trip to the Dang Valley.  I am working with a long-time friend and associate to market these trips.  Trip 1 has sold out.  Our next one will be in the fall of 2020. 

Too often, this “space” called halftime is deemed to be a time when we exit from the need for alarm clocks, retirement planning and child rearing and we focus on us.  Visions of beach houses, RVs and random trips to see children and grandchildren canvas the American Dream. 

That painting of retirement is not for Linda nor me. 

We asked the question, “what are we really good at, and how do we want to use that to make this world a better place than we found it?”

That is the point of Threshold Academy and this training blog. 

Behind it all is the story of Jesus.  That needs to be told and lived out.  Our lessons learned help us teach from experience.  Our hunger to keep learning allows us to set the example.  Our desire to share what we have learned is directing us. 

Stay tuned.  More is coming.

First offer is a free one.  We are offering our Faith, Food and Fitness class at the end of April.  The course centers on two questions.

  1. What did God say to us in the Bible regarding our body and our food.
  2. How do you do what he said in the 21st century. 

This course has already impacted a lot of people.  For those who can’t come to our class that we teach locally, we shall record it and offer the ability to download it.

This is the last time I will publish on thoughtsintraining.com, my training blog.  All the content will be moving over to thresholdacademy.com.  For you that follow me, you will get an invitation to join the page. 

Peace and Love.

Jeff and Linda