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

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



  

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 

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

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

"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

Clarity

It's time for clarity.

REAL clarity.

As we wrap 2012,  I think it's time to honestly assess what we are striving for and why.

At work.

On the track.

And at home.

What are the things we are working so hard for?

And perhaps more important....

What are the things we are NOT working for?

These are questions that demand tough choices.

Choices like, what is the work we should focus on that is really going to stand the test of time and actually be worth something after we're gone?

Choices like, do I give up Summers with my kids for that high-paying administrator job?

Choices like, do I train for that marathon to benefit my HEALTH, or take that night class to benefit my JOB?

What is the sorting mechanism to really, and I mean REALLY choose what is important?

And please, no cosmic, esoteric, hippy-trippy cliches from an Oprah book.

Only concrete solutions thank you very much.

I think the late Steve Jobs may have nailed it when he gave the 2005 Stanford graduates the following advice:

“Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.

Almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

That's clarity.

If Mr. Jobs were alive, I think he'd caution us that when we reach the finish line of life we will find two lists:  1) a list of the things we DID DO that we should not have and 2)  a list for the things we DID NOT DO and wish we had. 

I suspect the second list will be longer.

Much longer.

I think we will regret the time we did NOT spend with our kids because we had to work weekends.

I think we will regret the business we did NOT start because settling for the corporate job for 20 years SEEMED the safer bet.  But wasn't.

I think we will regret the piano lessons, watercolor lessons or acting lessons we did NOT take because we feared we had no talent.

I think we will regret the marathon we did NOT train for because we deemed ourselves too young, too old, or too busy with schoolwork or yardwork.

My 2000 Ford Windstar's odometer just hit 161,000 miles.

One of the electric doors doors is broken and I'm finding oil spots in the driveway.

I love teaching more than any corporate job I ever had. Indeed, the work is meaningful and has a lasting impact that most corporate gigs lack.

But I admit, I sometimes contemplate trading in my teaching spurs for the soul-killing corporate gig that comes with a fat bonus.

Because trading in the oil-leaking Windstar for that new, pearly-white Suburban with the XM satellite radio sounds really good.

But trading the Summers with the kids for more money--albeit much needed money--doesn't feel quite right.

I guess the choices are money OR time.

Not "all of the above."

I can always make more money--but I CAN'T buy back the TIME.
   
Tough decision.

A decision requiring CLARITY.

I think death is the ultimate clarifier to life's difficult decisions.

It clarifies the LONG VIEW over the SHORT VIEW.

It clarifes WHO is important over WHAT is important.

It clarifies the value of TIME over the value of MONEY.

Clarity.

This Summer, we are planning a road trip to South Dakota for my wife's family reunion.

The Windstar will never make it.

But that's okay.

There's a Hertz rental car nearby...

And I hear they rent white suburbans.

AMJ