Last night I was in bed early and was planning on getting a great night of sleep.  Instead of turning off the light I reached for a book that I recently suggested to Gavin.  He’d read it and wanted me to read it again so we could talk about it.  I figured I might as well get a few pages in and then I’d nod off for the evening.

Two and a half hours later I finally laid it back on my nightstand with no need for a bookmark.  It’s been a while since I’ve pulled the “read the book from cover to cover in one sitting” trick, and it felt great!

The book I found for Gavin was Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper.  It was the start of the Dark Is Rising series that I loved as a middle schooler.  Not only did Gavin enjoy it, but Dominic read the entire book on Monday too!

I may be a little slow on the draw this morning (getting up early to run was a little rough), but it was all worth it.  There’s something so refreshing about cruising through a book in one night like that, especially when it is one that I used to love as a kid.

Thanks!!!

Here’s a weird little admission of mine…  Sometimes I wear other people’s shoes to remind myself to think from their perspective.  Don’t worry, I’m not the creepy guy who secretly tries on your shoes while you’re not looking.  The shoes I occasionally step into were gifts from my brother Nick.  Specifically, they’re shoes that were worn in professional sporting events – a pair of Najeh Davenport’s Packers turf shoes and a pair of Jonathan Lucroy Brewers cleats.

Once in a while when I get stuck on something I’ll close the door of my office and slip one of these pairs on.  It’s my mental cue to think from someone else’s perspective and try to understand how they might be viewing the world.  It’s amazing how differently I can see an issue, challenge, solution, or idea when I take myself out of the equation!  Attaining a little bit of distance, no matter how much of a mental trick it is, has been very helpful.

While I may look like a dork walking in my office with a pair of baseball cleats on I know it helps my brain slip out of its normal thought patterns and gives me a different set of holes to look through in the shadowbox of life.  For that change in perspective, I am very thankful.

Thanks!!!

Sometimes it’s kind of frustrating when I wake up for a morning run and it starts raining.  Ugh…  Either sleep or dreadmill…

This morning was an awesome example of how Mother Nature lends Becky & I a helping hand once in a while.  Take a look at the pic from my phone this morning!

How awesome is that?  Surrounded in a ring of rain the middle stayed white!  The weather held up and we were able to get our run in and stay dry.

Sometimes I get frustrated with the “bad luck” of rain while running, this was a great reminder that we have just as much good luck with it too!

Thanks!!!

Day199 – Thankful for the Rawness of Being Tired

When I get blisters I sometimes make the mistake of cutting the dead skin off, exposing the fresh new skin. The reddish new skin is incredibly sensitive and feels everything at a different level than the old skin did. The nerves are closer to the surface, the skin hasn’t toughened and is raw, everything is more receptive than it was before. For some crazy reason when this happens I can’t help but poke and prod the rawness more and more to understand the sensations more completely. Eventually it toughens up and goes back to normal.

Through life, and especially during endurance running, I’ve noticed that when I get run town and tired I get a similar sensation, but more mentally and emotionally than physically. When I push myself to exhaustion, whether it’s work, life, adult-ing, running or doing yoga, everything gets more sensitive, everything seems a little more raw. Everything seems a little different, takes on a different tone, and the relative seriousness of things varies greatly. The closest feeling to it that comes to mind is the feeling of the raw skin after a blister… There’s a rawness to life that I feel when I’m tired.

The past week has been a busy one, between work and the start of soccer season it has been a consistent dose of craziness one night after another, rinse, repeat. I haven’t slept the greatest, feel myself fighting off a little bit of a cold, and I’m tired. Sleeping in tomorrow is going to feel glorious! 

All that said, I’m especially thankful for the rawness of being tired today. Becky, the boys, and I went to Good Friday service at our church. Over the past few years Easter has been hitting home more and more, the importance of it is sinking in more than ever. Combine that growing awareness of this most important of holy days and the rawness of being tired and it felt like I was hit with a ton of bricks, in a very good way. Several times during mass I was moved almost to tears. From seeing the passion as one of the masses, thinking of Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane the night before, seeing how Pilate could have made a decision to save His life (not that it would have been right, but just seeing the perceived helplessness is pretty deep when you think of it and is the cause of many issues in society), taking in the importance of the moment of His death, kneeling and touching the cross, and seeing my boys do the same, each moment packed a punch and had a different feel. It just felt differently than in the past, and I seemed to “get it” more than in the past. The rawness of being tired certainly played at least a small role in that sensation. 

While I continue to reflect on the entire story more I’m sure I’ll continue to “get it” more and more, but that raw feeling certainly helped push it all in a different way than in the past, and I’m thankful for that awareness. To think, I briefly considered taking a nap instead of going with the family… What a waste that would have been. There’s a quote that I can’t quite remember or put my finger on, but it is something along the lines of: “Beyond the point of exhaustion is where we see the world for what it truly it is and who we really are.” I’m certainly not exhausted, but the edge and rawness of being tired has helped me learn more about the world and myself today, and for that I am thankful.Thanks!!!

When I teach Cub Scouts knife safety I’m quick to point out the scars on my left index finger.  The one closest to my hand was in Boy Scouts when I decided to cut towards my hand instead of away from it.  The small one near the tip was from fooling around and not paying attention to what I was doing (to add insult to injury I was cutting a very juicy lemon…  that tickled!).  I point out these scars as examples of what not to do.

Over the past couple of days we’ve had an awesome and huge opportunity present itself at work.  Navigating the path to the right strategy was difficult (not that I’m through it yet) and one misstep could lead to critical failure.  In the past I’ve been quick to move ahead quickly, try to think my way out of any problem and react.  This time I’ve remembered a valuable lesson, I took a good long look at my scars first.  After looking them over I remembered past failures and mistakes, lessons learned, and better ways.  Just as I was about to walk more confidently into the minefield two close friends reminded me to look at the scars I’d skipped over.  I almost missed a couple of things that could have made all the difference, history almost repeated itself.  Having looked over as many of the scars as I can see I’ve taken action and I’m feeling more confident of our success than ever.

Those scars were all earned through pain and failure.  Mistakes and poor decisions.  Poorly executed strategies and well executed but poorly thought out strategies.  Each of them involved hurt, always mine, sometimes others’.  While I’m not proud of the mistakes that made those scars I’m thankful for the wisdom they’ve brought.  It’d be easy to glance at them and see them as ugly, but when I pause I’m reminded of their beauty.  I’ve tried, I’ve failed, yet I persist and each scar makes me stronger.

Today I’m thankful for remembering to check my scars.  It always hurts on the surface when I remember how it was earned, a brief flash of that pain crosses my mind.  Once I take a deep breath and swallow hard I’m ready to dig deeper and remember what I learned from it.  Today those memories and lessons did me well.  While the results are a long ways away I’m confident that we’re on the right path.

Thanks!!!

Nope, I did not mis-type, button mash, or spill something on my keyboard.  Dawat Mutang is the name of a farmer in the jungles of Borneo, and the guy is pretty amazing!

Today we had our Express Refresh Leadership Simulcast and one of the presenters was Robyn Benincasa.  She was an Adventure Racer in the Eco Challenge series, a crazy set of races in which teams of five head out to run, bike, climb, canoe, kayak, and everything in between for 300+ miles in five+ days… non-stop.

https://youtu.be/LL8gRR5eGdw

As she was relating these experiences to leadership lessons she shared the story of Dawat Mutang, a farmer in Borneo.  As you’ll see in the clip above, the French team had a team member break their ankle on their way to the starting line.  Undeterred, the French started knocking on doors in the jungle village the race started in and found someone who was willing to make the trek with them without training, preparation, or experience.  Dawat opened the door, said yes, and the rest is history.

How crazy is that?  Picture yourself sitting at home one day with your family.  You’re enjoying a nice meal together and out of nowhere someone knocks on your door and asks if you’d like to join them on a week long journey into the jungle to run, bike, kayak, cave dive, and rappel…  And you’ve never done any of those things other than running?  By the way, this will be one of the most painful experiences you’ll ever have…

To think that he said yes, not only tried, but successfully finished the race!  How incredible is that???  The smile on his face at the end of the video helps us glimpse just how incredibly happy he was at the end of the adventure.

How many times in life has a crazy opportunity come up and I’ve said no?  How often has someone offered something that would push me completely out of my comfort zone and I said no out of fear?  Haven’t there been times when I said no to a wild idea that could have taken me on an adventure that made me smile that big?  I don’t know.  What I do know is that the next time a wild ass idea presents itself I’ll remember Dawat and give it a longer thought.

Thanks!!!

I sometimes catch myself in those moments when I’m not doing anything productive.  I’ve kind of just drifted off and found a way to fill my time.  No purpose, motivation, or focus, just some mindless way to waste time.  It happens so quickly and easily, it usually takes me a while to notice and get myself back on track.

Earlier today I almost had one of those moments.  My lunch eaten I was online reading the news and I noticed what was happening.  I quickly pulled out my planning guide for the week and got myself on to task.  After a brief review I then spent the next 10 minutes or so focused on something that I had intended to get done this week.  It felt great!  One less thing that needs to get done, something that wasn’t super involved but easy to put off, done.

It wasn’t the most exciting thing ever but it was something that needed to be done.  Instead of drifting off into mindlessness I was able to realize that I was slipping, got back on track, and made something happen.  While I will continue to work on this to the point when it is my natural reaction today I am very thankful for not randomly filling my time.

Thanks!!!