I bought a new pair of Brooks Adrenaline ASR 9 trail running shoes this week at a local running shoe store.
I love running shoes.
And I love running shoe stores.
In addition to picking up a pair of sneaks from owners who really dig running, I get to see all the latest gadgets I didn't know I needed: heart rate monitors, Garmin GPS devices, compression socks, compression pants, power bars, power drinks, power gels as well as the latest clothing--including plaid running skirts for men--I'm not kidding!
But despite the hype of all the gadgets, gus and gels, when I lace up and head out for a 20-miler, by mile 17, I am always reminded and HUMBLED by the running gods that when it comes to distance training, even the best gus, gadgets and plaid skirts are no substitute for great training. No amount of logos, no amount of power gu, and not even the brightest and tightest polka dot compression tights will let you cheat the training gods when the goal is 26.2.
In other words...
Technology is no substitute for good training.
The same week I bought my Brooks, my wife and I learned that many of my son's high school classes no longer use textbooks--including his foreign language class.
I was appalled.
I know I am going to receive hate mail and be accused of being closed minded to the benefits of technology.
I apologize in advance.
As an instructor who has taught Principles of Accounting for three years I know that attempting to pass an accounting class without a textbook is akin to changing a flat tire without a jack--it can't be done--or at least done well.
I expressed my reservations and skepticism of the lack of a textbook to his teacher. She assured me that the use of the smart board, lesson inserts and a workbook (which accompanies the textbook NOT being used) would be an adequate substitute for the textbook. With this reliance on technology, is it a wonder the remedial reading and writing classes in community colleges are always full?
Technology is no substitute for good teaching.
The entertainment industry constantly makes the mistake of using technology as a substitute for content. How often have you walked out of a sci-fi flick with dazzling CGI special effects but felt emotionally flat because the acting and script were non-existent.
The best movies use great technology as a COMPLEMENT to a great story--not as a SUBSTITUTE.
So here is my summary when it comes to gadgets, gimmicks, gus and gels and other "smart" technology:
Technology should be a COMPLEMENT, not a SUBSTITUTE for great training.
Technology should be a COMPLEMENT, not a SUBSTITUTE for great teaching.
How about one more...
Technology should be a COMPLEMENT, not a SUBSTITUTE for great parenting.
Again, sorry if I offended all you techies out there.
Feel free to write me a letter.
Just don't send it to my smart phone.
AMJ
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Victory Letter
Below is a letter I haphazardly penned to my Change through Challenge students a few hours after they all completed the Estes Park Marathon June 16, 2013.
Hello Friends-
The victory
today made the long drive from home from Estes Park one of the most pleasant
drives ever—I trust this was true for all of you as well.
As it may
take several days to mentally process the enormity of the accomplishment each and
every one of you has achieved today and over the past 21 weeks, I would like to
leave you with a few final thoughts.
First of
all, I hope you will all display your race medals in a conspicuous place at
work or home—perhaps adorning your future college degree. For this medal is more than just a token of a
well-fought race, it will serve as a reminder—a reminder to squash the times of
self-doubt and illustrate that anything, ANYTHING is possible with courage, effort
and determination.
Second, your
academic careers mainly focus on learning about the world and the technical
skills to survive in this world. I hope this
class experience has taught you something about YOURSELF and the PERSONAL
SKILLS to prosper in this world –skills such as: discipline, determination, persistence,
leadership, goal-setting and old-fashioned GRIT—skills which, in my opinion,
will prove far more valuable to you personally and in the marketplace.
Third, many
of you have expressed disappointment that the training is over. I would argue that this past semester is only
a FIRST step. For the life skills you
have established in this class have infinite potential for development and
refinement—not just for a better race, but for a better life. So I say continue to build your library—and sign
up for another race—a scary race! Go
farther, go faster but do something that continues to keep you outside your
comfort zone--for this is where true improvement comes and what the marketplace
is craving for. As business author Seth
Godin writes, “the marketplace wants
people who would rather be sorry, than safe.”
One final
thought. In my opinion, the only thing better
than DOING what you love, is SHARING what you love. So here is the last (extra credit) assignment
I hope you will consider: share this
experience with others--share it with your friends, share it with your family,
share it with your neighbors—share the joy that can only be derived from the
satisfaction of self-knowledge and personal achievement. Instead of taking a
friend out to lunch—take them out for a RUN.
Take them to Waterton Canyon at sunrise or Washington Park on a cool
Fall morning. Show them that life is far
richer than TV sitcoms and shopping malls.
As Zig Ziglar once opined, demonstrate to the world that happiness does
not derive from PLEASURE…but from VICTORY.
Friends, I wish you the best in your
careers. And as your lives fill up with
work, mortgages, and kid’s soccer games, I hope you will remember to find a
little time for yourself each day—and run.
Your friends, families, and the marketplace need the creative things
from you that can only be created from lacing up and heading outside.
So lace
up…I’ll be looking for you.
AMJ
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Comfortably Numb
Why are we great STARTERS?
But lousy FINISHERS?
Great at dreaming?
Poor at executing?
Whether it's completing a diet, finishing a college degree, saving for retirement, or implementing a big project at work.
Why is it so hard to make big dreams like these actually HAPPEN?
I have a theory.
It's not that our life is too HARD.
It's that life is too easy...too COMFORTABLE.
Change--real change--requires a REASON for change.
A big, hairy and UNCOMFORTABLE reason.
Uncomfortable enough to get us off the couch, away from the refrigerator, out of the meeting and dreaming rooms and catapult us into ACTION.
Action that is consistent and resilient to keep us going when complacency creeps back in to stop our forward motion.
To paraphrase the Pink Floyd song, I think we have become "comfortably numb."
We're not happy with our jobs, our training, our weight, our finances and countless other things...
But we're not UN-happy enough to take action.
We are comfortably numb in mediocrity.
But here is the rub....
By staying comfortably numb, we tell ourselves that we may not be moving forward but at least we're not moving BACKWARDS.
But that would be wrong.
Being comfortably numb causes us do something far worse than make the conscious, and perhaps heroic, decision to quit.
It enables us to make the cowardly "non-decision" of INACTION.
To drift away...
To go out with a whisper...
So I say it's time for ACTION.
In our training, in our work, in our homes and in everything else we hold dear.
Let's stop being "comfortably numb."
And start playing a different tune.
AMJ
But lousy FINISHERS?
Great at dreaming?
Poor at executing?
Whether it's completing a diet, finishing a college degree, saving for retirement, or implementing a big project at work.
Why is it so hard to make big dreams like these actually HAPPEN?
I have a theory.
It's not that our life is too HARD.
It's that life is too easy...too COMFORTABLE.
Change--real change--requires a REASON for change.
A big, hairy and UNCOMFORTABLE reason.
Uncomfortable enough to get us off the couch, away from the refrigerator, out of the meeting and dreaming rooms and catapult us into ACTION.
Action that is consistent and resilient to keep us going when complacency creeps back in to stop our forward motion.
To paraphrase the Pink Floyd song, I think we have become "comfortably numb."
We're not happy with our jobs, our training, our weight, our finances and countless other things...
But we're not UN-happy enough to take action.
We are comfortably numb in mediocrity.
But here is the rub....
By staying comfortably numb, we tell ourselves that we may not be moving forward but at least we're not moving BACKWARDS.
But that would be wrong.
Being comfortably numb causes us do something far worse than make the conscious, and perhaps heroic, decision to quit.
It enables us to make the cowardly "non-decision" of INACTION.
To drift away...
To go out with a whisper...
So I say it's time for ACTION.
In our training, in our work, in our homes and in everything else we hold dear.
Let's stop being "comfortably numb."
And start playing a different tune.
AMJ
Saturday, April 13, 2013
The Last Two Miles
In marathon training, it is the last two miles that always hurt the most.
Always.
It's the marathon's way of forcing us--each week--to assess how bad we really want it.
It's also the marathon's way of teaching our bodies and minds a lesson.
A lesson that says, "I know it hurts, but if you run through this...I'll let you run FARTHER next week."
This teacher DOESN'T let you cheat.
And she doesn't grade on a curve.
I used to hate the last two miles of my long runs when I trained for my first marathon.
But now I know better.
Because now I know that it's the last two miles of those long runs where we grow the most..
Our muscles, our bones...our minds.
They learn to take the pain---and keep going.
A 12-mile run where the last 2 miles burns is no Mardi Gras.
But it prepares us for the 13-miler next week.
And 14 miles the following week.
So we're ready for 26.2.
But only if we learn to push through ...the last two miles.
Every week.
I think pushing through and growing from the last two miles is a metaphor for life.
The student that earns the "A" in his accounting class from studying that extra hour each week.
The salesman that became the TOP salesman from staying a little late each night to make those few extra cold calls.
The school teacher that becomes a GREAT teacher by taking the extra half-hour after school to prepare for tomorrow's lesson.
You see, going from good to GREAT seldom involves doubling our efforts and pain.
It's not about going extra BIG miles.
It's about going extra SMALL miles.
The last two miles.
AMJ
Always.
It's the marathon's way of forcing us--each week--to assess how bad we really want it.
It's also the marathon's way of teaching our bodies and minds a lesson.
A lesson that says, "I know it hurts, but if you run through this...I'll let you run FARTHER next week."
This teacher DOESN'T let you cheat.
And she doesn't grade on a curve.
I used to hate the last two miles of my long runs when I trained for my first marathon.
But now I know better.
Because now I know that it's the last two miles of those long runs where we grow the most..
Our muscles, our bones...our minds.
They learn to take the pain---and keep going.
A 12-mile run where the last 2 miles burns is no Mardi Gras.
But it prepares us for the 13-miler next week.
And 14 miles the following week.
So we're ready for 26.2.
But only if we learn to push through ...the last two miles.
Every week.
I think pushing through and growing from the last two miles is a metaphor for life.
The student that earns the "A" in his accounting class from studying that extra hour each week.
The salesman that became the TOP salesman from staying a little late each night to make those few extra cold calls.
The school teacher that becomes a GREAT teacher by taking the extra half-hour after school to prepare for tomorrow's lesson.
You see, going from good to GREAT seldom involves doubling our efforts and pain.
It's not about going extra BIG miles.
It's about going extra SMALL miles.
The last two miles.
AMJ
Sunday, March 3, 2013
What Steve Jobs and Pink Floyd Have in Common
I became a Pink Floyd fan this weekend.
I'm not kidding.
It happened when I stumbled on a documentary on how the band created the 1973 hit-album "Dark Side of the Moon."
The album that MADE Pink Floyd.
Listening to lead singer David Gilmore describe the artistic process of creating the album was instructive.
I found it particularly moving when he described the evolution of the hit song "The Great Gig in the Sky." A song that began as an organ instrumental overlayed with quotes from the Bible and speeches by Malcolm Muggeridge but became something bigger.
Much bigger.
Ultimately, the band junked the organ for a piano and just weeks before releasing the album, hired 22-year old Clare Torre to improvise--yes IMPROVISE a vocal accompaniment with the only directive that there be NO WORDS. After listening to the track a few times, Torre performed an improvised vocal by "pretending she was an INSTRUMENT."
The result: a haunting, beautiful "wail" that is arguably one of the finest and most recognizable songs by the band.
In listening to Pink Floyd describe the artistic and labor-intensive process of song writing, I was reminded of three other interviews I recently watched.
Interviews not of musicians.
But ENTREPRENEURS.
Interviews with Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Group, Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, and Steve Jobs, the late co-founder of Apple.
Like Pink Floyd, these three men never talked about their "product" but about the "ART" they were creating.
Each described their business in the context of the satisfaction they derived from changing and improving the world through their products.
Like Pink Floyd, these men chose to drive to work each day--even when they didn't need the money.
Because the need to create great art can never just be about money.
In business school, we teach students to build a successful business by identifying a need, and then filling the need.
Perhaps we have it backwards.
Perhaps we should be do what Seth Godin eloquently instructs us to do in his book "Lynchpin."
Become artists FIRST.
And create great work.
Work that has passion
Work that we can be proud of.
And work that maybe, just maybe-- like a great band, and like a great entrepreneur--work that can be bigger than us and inspire others to make great work.
To make art...
I'm going to the track tomorrow to do some speed work.
I am going to be singing Pink Floyd's hit single "Money" in my head to push me through the intervals.
Better yet... I think I'll download the song onto my iPod.
Steve Jobs would be pleased.
AMJ
I'm not kidding.
It happened when I stumbled on a documentary on how the band created the 1973 hit-album "Dark Side of the Moon."
The album that MADE Pink Floyd.
Listening to lead singer David Gilmore describe the artistic process of creating the album was instructive.
I found it particularly moving when he described the evolution of the hit song "The Great Gig in the Sky." A song that began as an organ instrumental overlayed with quotes from the Bible and speeches by Malcolm Muggeridge but became something bigger.
Much bigger.
Ultimately, the band junked the organ for a piano and just weeks before releasing the album, hired 22-year old Clare Torre to improvise--yes IMPROVISE a vocal accompaniment with the only directive that there be NO WORDS. After listening to the track a few times, Torre performed an improvised vocal by "pretending she was an INSTRUMENT."
The result: a haunting, beautiful "wail" that is arguably one of the finest and most recognizable songs by the band.
In listening to Pink Floyd describe the artistic and labor-intensive process of song writing, I was reminded of three other interviews I recently watched.
Interviews not of musicians.
But ENTREPRENEURS.
Interviews with Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Group, Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, and Steve Jobs, the late co-founder of Apple.
Like Pink Floyd, these three men never talked about their "product" but about the "ART" they were creating.
Each described their business in the context of the satisfaction they derived from changing and improving the world through their products.
Like Pink Floyd, these men chose to drive to work each day--even when they didn't need the money.
Because the need to create great art can never just be about money.
In business school, we teach students to build a successful business by identifying a need, and then filling the need.
Perhaps we have it backwards.
Perhaps we should be do what Seth Godin eloquently instructs us to do in his book "Lynchpin."
Become artists FIRST.
And create great work.
Work that has passion
Work that we can be proud of.
And work that maybe, just maybe-- like a great band, and like a great entrepreneur--work that can be bigger than us and inspire others to make great work.
To make art...
I'm going to the track tomorrow to do some speed work.
I am going to be singing Pink Floyd's hit single "Money" in my head to push me through the intervals.
Better yet... I think I'll download the song onto my iPod.
Steve Jobs would be pleased.
AMJ
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Why Steve Irwin Could Have Taught Accounting
I really miss Steve Irwin.
I admit, his show, The Crocodile Hunter, was due south on the "sophistication scale"of Masterpiece Theatre on PBS.
But I loved the show.
And so did millions of others.
Irwin didn't just tell you the FACTS about a mean crocodile.
He would grab the beast by it's tail and tell you with a child-like exhuberance in how many seconds it could kill him---while keeping a smile!
You couldn't help but love the guy.
Like any good teacher, I think he really knew his subject.
And he was definitely a showman who knew how to please a crowd.
But I don't think it was his knowledge...
Or his ability to entertain....
That made him a great teacher.
I think Steve Irwin's greatness was in his ability to get you CARE about the subject before you LEARNED about the subject.
He once said:
"I believe that education is all about being excited about something. Seeing passion and enthusiasm helps push an educational message."
As a community college instructor and as a parent, I'm always searching for better ways to communicate.
Be it the accounting equation to my students....
Or how to catch a trout with my 7-year old daughter...
But as any teacher knows...
And any parent knows....
This aint easy.
Today's students, like today's children, have little patience for incompetence.
And simply KNOWING the subject matter isn't gonna impress them either.
The same goes for fancy PowerPoint presentations and slick videos as well.
I think Steve Irwin instinctively knew this.
He knew that a simple presentation delivered with the HEART, delivered more punch than a presentation delivered only with the BRAIN.
No matter the subject.
This is my first semester teaching students how to train for their first marathon.
As a former "bean-counter" I find myself resisting the urge to get too technical too soon....
Lactic throeshholds, VO2Max, simple carbs versus complex carbs.....
All very SMART information....
But then I contemplate what Steve Irwin would do...
He would first get them to CARE to run...
And THEN teach them HOW.
Just like he did with crocodiles.
AMJ
I admit, his show, The Crocodile Hunter, was due south on the "sophistication scale"of Masterpiece Theatre on PBS.
But I loved the show.
And so did millions of others.
Irwin didn't just tell you the FACTS about a mean crocodile.
He would grab the beast by it's tail and tell you with a child-like exhuberance in how many seconds it could kill him---while keeping a smile!
You couldn't help but love the guy.
Like any good teacher, I think he really knew his subject.
And he was definitely a showman who knew how to please a crowd.
But I don't think it was his knowledge...
Or his ability to entertain....
That made him a great teacher.
I think Steve Irwin's greatness was in his ability to get you CARE about the subject before you LEARNED about the subject.
He once said:
"I believe that education is all about being excited about something. Seeing passion and enthusiasm helps push an educational message."
As a community college instructor and as a parent, I'm always searching for better ways to communicate.
Be it the accounting equation to my students....
Or how to catch a trout with my 7-year old daughter...
But as any teacher knows...
And any parent knows....
This aint easy.
Today's students, like today's children, have little patience for incompetence.
And simply KNOWING the subject matter isn't gonna impress them either.
The same goes for fancy PowerPoint presentations and slick videos as well.
I think Steve Irwin instinctively knew this.
He knew that a simple presentation delivered with the HEART, delivered more punch than a presentation delivered only with the BRAIN.
No matter the subject.
This is my first semester teaching students how to train for their first marathon.
As a former "bean-counter" I find myself resisting the urge to get too technical too soon....
Lactic throeshholds, VO2Max, simple carbs versus complex carbs.....
All very SMART information....
But then I contemplate what Steve Irwin would do...
He would first get them to CARE to run...
And THEN teach them HOW.
Just like he did with crocodiles.
AMJ
Friday, January 4, 2013
Taking the Beach
My old boss and good friend, Claude Bergeron, died just before the holidays.
He was 80 years old.
His last message to me a few weeks before he died is still on my cell phone.
Claude was not the Brooks Brothers, 3-piece suit, corporate executive kind of a guy. He didn't use "MBA-Speak" to talk about "leveraging synergies" or "maximizing core competencies." He didn't own a BMW with an alarm, but drove a pick-up with a pit bull named Sharky riding shotgun.
Claude was also one of the smartest guys I have ever known--and I can absolutely tell you I learned a hell of a lot more about the principles of success and pushing through adversity from him than I did from my MBA program.
Back in 1997, Claude and his wife Barbara opened the only federally funded community health center for the uninsured population in Klamath County in Southern Oregon. Before Claude and his wife opened the clinic, if you were pregnant and on medicaid--or uninsured--you drove 60 miles over the Siskiyou Mountains to nearby Medford for prenatal care--an especially harrowing journey during a snowstorm--because very few docs in Klamath County were taking new medicaid patients.
Claude hired me as the Finance Director after their second month of operations to set up the Accounting Department. I was 28 years old and had never done a "start-up."
But Claude believed in me before I did.
And I am grateful.
That first year was terrifying as we were flooded with new patients--we could barely keep up.
To meet the demand, we kept adding docs and relocating to newer, bigger--and more expensive-- locations. As the "the numbers guy" I was terrified as we hemorrhaged cash from our exploding payroll and rent.
I fretted about everything--the payroll, the bills, our account receivable balance, the federal reports that were due...
But Claude never worried.
For this was not Claude's first rodeo for he and his wife had opened several community health centers in Northern California and Southern Oregon throughout the years--health centers that would grow to the size of small hospitals.
Serving THOUSANDS of grateful families.
In his typical Redd Fox demeanor, Claude would assuage my fears by ordering me to "stop thinking like a bean-counter" and start thinking like an ENTREPRENEUR.
He would remind me that a "start-up" required a "take the beach" mind-set. "We are the Marines, Andrew," he would say. "In a start-up, things are messy and bloody...but you can't get lost in the weeds...you have to keep your eye on the goal of victory by first TAKING THE BEACH."
I love that metaphor.
As I find it applies to many endeavors--including running.
Not getting overwhelmed with the small chores and keeping focused on the big goal.
Taking the beach.
The emails, the phone calls, the forms that need to be completed and signed in triplicate....the laundry, the bills...the hill-work, the speed work...all "necessary" chores that indeed need to be done.
But chores that can easily decimate a vision and make us miss the big picture.
Our goal.
Taking the beach.
The Spring semester starts in two weeks.
I feel some trepidation as I am piloting an experimental business course where the final exam is completing a 26.2 mile marathon (I am serious).
But I can already hear Claude's calming words as I finish typing the course syllabus...
"Stop thinking like a "bean-counter" Andrew...and focus on TAKING THE BEACH."
Thanks Claude.
AMJ
He was 80 years old.
His last message to me a few weeks before he died is still on my cell phone.
Claude was not the Brooks Brothers, 3-piece suit, corporate executive kind of a guy. He didn't use "MBA-Speak" to talk about "leveraging synergies" or "maximizing core competencies." He didn't own a BMW with an alarm, but drove a pick-up with a pit bull named Sharky riding shotgun.
Claude was also one of the smartest guys I have ever known--and I can absolutely tell you I learned a hell of a lot more about the principles of success and pushing through adversity from him than I did from my MBA program.
Back in 1997, Claude and his wife Barbara opened the only federally funded community health center for the uninsured population in Klamath County in Southern Oregon. Before Claude and his wife opened the clinic, if you were pregnant and on medicaid--or uninsured--you drove 60 miles over the Siskiyou Mountains to nearby Medford for prenatal care--an especially harrowing journey during a snowstorm--because very few docs in Klamath County were taking new medicaid patients.
Claude hired me as the Finance Director after their second month of operations to set up the Accounting Department. I was 28 years old and had never done a "start-up."
But Claude believed in me before I did.
And I am grateful.
That first year was terrifying as we were flooded with new patients--we could barely keep up.
To meet the demand, we kept adding docs and relocating to newer, bigger--and more expensive-- locations. As the "the numbers guy" I was terrified as we hemorrhaged cash from our exploding payroll and rent.
I fretted about everything--the payroll, the bills, our account receivable balance, the federal reports that were due...
But Claude never worried.
For this was not Claude's first rodeo for he and his wife had opened several community health centers in Northern California and Southern Oregon throughout the years--health centers that would grow to the size of small hospitals.
Serving THOUSANDS of grateful families.
In his typical Redd Fox demeanor, Claude would assuage my fears by ordering me to "stop thinking like a bean-counter" and start thinking like an ENTREPRENEUR.
He would remind me that a "start-up" required a "take the beach" mind-set. "We are the Marines, Andrew," he would say. "In a start-up, things are messy and bloody...but you can't get lost in the weeds...you have to keep your eye on the goal of victory by first TAKING THE BEACH."
I love that metaphor.
As I find it applies to many endeavors--including running.
Not getting overwhelmed with the small chores and keeping focused on the big goal.
Taking the beach.
The emails, the phone calls, the forms that need to be completed and signed in triplicate....the laundry, the bills...the hill-work, the speed work...all "necessary" chores that indeed need to be done.
But chores that can easily decimate a vision and make us miss the big picture.
Our goal.
Taking the beach.
The Spring semester starts in two weeks.
I feel some trepidation as I am piloting an experimental business course where the final exam is completing a 26.2 mile marathon (I am serious).
But I can already hear Claude's calming words as I finish typing the course syllabus...
"Stop thinking like a "bean-counter" Andrew...and focus on TAKING THE BEACH."
Thanks Claude.
AMJ
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
"It Had to Get Done."
We kicked off the first day of 2013 at the Rooney Trailhead at the base of Green Mountain.
Nothing like some gnarly hill-work to bring in the new year.
Start time: 6:30am--just before sunrise.
Outside temperature: 12 degrees--NOT including the wind.
I admit, we were serving up heaping portions of smack-talk and smug attitudes about our early morning dedication whilst adjusting our headlamps in the darkness.
But smack-talk and smugness is something the running gods rarely tolerate.
As we approached the trailhead to began our run up the icy trail, we noticed a frost-covered 4x4 in the parking lot.
An abandoned vehicle--left by a party goer from too many New Year's eve festivities we assumed.
We assumed wrong.
For in the distance was an approaching runner...
On his way DOWN the trail...
FINISHING his run...
As we were just STARTING ours...
In the darkness.
On New Year's Day no less.
This guy redefined the word "dedication."
As the runner approached the trailhead to get climb in his frost-covered jeep, I shouted "good work man."
After removing a face mask, SHE responded; " It had to get done."
She closed the door, and drove off.
"It had to get done."
Perhaps it was the dark and the cold, but those four simple words screamed an impressive and indeed a humbling resolve that morning.
A resolve that ran deep.
Real deep.
A resolve that said no hill, no weather, no lousy boss, no lousy economy, not even a damned disease is going to discourage me from the work I need to do to get to the place I need to be.
I don't know where resolve like that comes from.
I wish it came in a bottle so I could splash it all over myself each morning like Aqua Velva.
For imagine possessing this type of resolve in our lives OFF the trails.
Our work.
Our home.
On any day...
Even when it's 12-degrees.
AMJ
Nothing like some gnarly hill-work to bring in the new year.
Start time: 6:30am--just before sunrise.
Outside temperature: 12 degrees--NOT including the wind.
I admit, we were serving up heaping portions of smack-talk and smug attitudes about our early morning dedication whilst adjusting our headlamps in the darkness.
But smack-talk and smugness is something the running gods rarely tolerate.
As we approached the trailhead to began our run up the icy trail, we noticed a frost-covered 4x4 in the parking lot.
An abandoned vehicle--left by a party goer from too many New Year's eve festivities we assumed.
We assumed wrong.
For in the distance was an approaching runner...
On his way DOWN the trail...
FINISHING his run...
As we were just STARTING ours...
In the darkness.
On New Year's Day no less.
This guy redefined the word "dedication."
As the runner approached the trailhead to get climb in his frost-covered jeep, I shouted "good work man."
After removing a face mask, SHE responded; " It had to get done."
She closed the door, and drove off.
"It had to get done."
Perhaps it was the dark and the cold, but those four simple words screamed an impressive and indeed a humbling resolve that morning.
A resolve that ran deep.
Real deep.
A resolve that said no hill, no weather, no lousy boss, no lousy economy, not even a damned disease is going to discourage me from the work I need to do to get to the place I need to be.
I don't know where resolve like that comes from.
I wish it came in a bottle so I could splash it all over myself each morning like Aqua Velva.
For imagine possessing this type of resolve in our lives OFF the trails.
Our work.
Our home.
On any day...
Even when it's 12-degrees.
AMJ
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