Actions Define You
If you had called me a runner just three years ago I would have called you a liar. I didn’t run. I didn’t jog. I didn’t even want to think about running. But then one day, something was different. I bought the shoes and started. And I kept at it. So much so that one of the questions people will ask me on Sunday morning now is, “How far did you run yesterday?” They know because I run every week. It’s an expectation because it’s who I have become. My consistent, frequent actions have defined me in a new way.
Jeff Goins made the comment recently that “writers write.” That goes for just about any label. Runners run. Musicians make music. Readers read. Speakers speak. Parents parent. Friends befriend.
The definition of me as a runner stands in stark contrast to my self-applied label of “writer”. I could even throw in “friend.” These labels mock me because in my heart I know actions define. I don’t write. I scribble from time to time. But I don’t put in the metaphorical effort of pounding the pavement mile after mile in the cold, the wind, and the rain. I label myself as a friend but I don’t put out much effort to invest in the lives of my friends. Read more
How I Spent My Sunday Morning
I spent this past Sunday morning running the inaugural Louisiana Marathon. Close to two thousand marathoners and half-marathoners lined up at the start line on Sunday morning. It was cold but not unbearable. The sun was just beginning to make its way above the trees surrounding the state capitol as we got ready to begin.
I met a guy who had recently been transferred from Okinawa to San Antonio. He was hoping to finish in under five hours but really just wanted to finish. He hadn’t been able to train in over a month. I thought I might keep pace with him but after the race started, I lost sight of him.
At 7am sharp the starter’s pistol went off and we were underway. As with any large race, the group surges forward and then everyone realizes there is no where to go unto the people ahead get moving. There was a pacesetter for a five hour run which is 11:27/mile. On some of my long runs I had been averaging between 11:10 to 11:40. I set that as an unofficial goal but decided I would start out slow and make a decision at mile 20 on whether to go for a sub-five hour time. Read more
Creating Is a Marathon
Courtesy of Charlie Llewellin
Thinking back on the last few months a familiar pattern emerges with regards to my writing. I have fallen back into a sprint mentality. I start with a burst of creative output but after a few weeks I am sputtering. The Accidental Creative site raised the question, what is our creative superpower and our creative kryptonite. My kryptonite is consistency. After the burst, I allow distractions to take center stage and my output flags. After much processing, I realize that creating is a marathon.
Discipline as a Routine
I can’t put my finger on it, but through a confluence of events, I’ve found more discipline to write lately. Don’t get me wrong, I still have a lazy streak, but I’m getting better. I started dissecting what happened but I couldn’t settle on any concrete reasons. Then I came across two posts this morning. One was by Chris Brogan titled Discipline and the other was by Mindy Holahan over at the Accidental Creative entitled Cultivating Deliberate Focus. These posts summarize what has been transpiring in my life. But first, let’s look at what has helped get me to this point.
One thing I started doing recently was listening to the Back to Work podcast by Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin. Merlin is all over the map during their talks but he comes up with some nuggets of truth. Sometimes he turns into the Merlin that yells at people, nicknamed “Mean Merlin.” That’s the Merlin that resonates with me most often. “Mean Merlin” will often tell you to shut up and do the thing you’re scared of. Don’t think about all the ways things might go wrong. Shut off the TV and Facebook. Stop with all the productivity hacks. Stop complaining about how you wish you had time to do the thing you want to do. Shut up and do something. Another great Merlin quote is “No one’s going to eat you.” We can think of so many things that could go wrong. All these doomsday scenarios keep us from doing what we want to do. What’s the worst that could happen. I’m not going to die if I try and write a book. I just need to shut up and do something. Read more
One Bad Dude
I didn’t decide to run the Ft Worth Zoo Run 10k till about 2 weeks ago. I had some friends and coworkers ask me if I was running and finally I signed up. I haven’t done much distance running since my half-marathon in November. Partly because I wanted to heal up and partly because I was just getting lazy in my running. So I put together a two week crash course to get back close to the times I ran last year. I focused mostly on speed work and hills. I think I got one 6 mile run over the last two weeks. Read more
Inside the Cowtown 10K
I was up at 5am this morning and on the road by 6:30am. The race started at 7:30am. About 6:40 I found a traffic jam heading into downtown Fort Worth. It was at this point I decided that if I race again, I will have someone drop me off. Many people were getting out of their cars and running to the starting line while a family member or friend took over to get out of the traffic.
I drove around and found a spot where a parking meter used to be and hoped that the police would be too busy with traffic to give me a ticket. I walked/jogged to the start line and made it with about three minutes to spare.
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