Skip to main content

Wisdom or Foolhardy Choice

It's hard to find the line in the sand where you're stretching beyond the comfort zone into growth and development and when you're just in over your head.

It's been said in a triathlon (swim, then bike, then run) the swim is merely a warm up for the more challenging parts of the race. But when I'm a novice swimmer who takes 1.5 hours to do what others do in 40 minutes, is it still a warm up? or is it now the full course, the main meal, the entree needing no dessert?

Or when I fell and now need medical attention to a few wounds, do I give up and go to the medical tent or soldier on to the finish line and then pause?

It's tricky. It may depend on the situation, the day, other variables. How we decide what's pushing our limits and what's breaking us is hard. I guess the answer in this case was in my godson's eyes as he looked up at me proudly, held my hand and ran the last few yards to the finish line.

I gave him my finisher shirt. He seemed to think to himself: that's what we do--we finish. I just hope he also knows when to just stop.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It Gets Better

I spent some time watching the It Gets Better videos last night. Moving stuff. My favorite is the singing from the Chicago Gay Men's Chorus. It's wild how song works. The world needs all our talents. I'm good at storytelling. I'm good at helping humans align their being with their doing. To get really good at what I do, I constantly have to get better at aligning my own being with my doing. It's hard work. I think our careers help us focus on our deepest wounding as human beings, and as we get better, we develop power in that very area where we're broken. We get stronger than most other humans around that and we can GIVE that strength to others to help them along on the human journey. And that's our career. I think firemen saw some hopeless stuff growing up and are COMPELLED to run into burning buildings to do the impossible task of saving someone from fire. Nurses run TO broken bones and tend to them. I run to broken souls: I see someone struggling wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

I came home HAPPY tonight

Life will never be perfect. I left the office today with a pile of "to-do" on my desk that makes my head spin. And yet, I carved out time today to do the following: 1. have a powerful yet shortened work out this morning that cleared my head and got my blood pumping. When I hit the office this morning, I hit it hard and strong, muscling through an anxiety of mammoth proportion about how I was going to get ANYTHING on my plate done. 2. pause and do networking at an industry conference. That raised my sights, beyond my little desk and day to day concerns and showed me the bigger picture. Seeing folks at a career fair quickly snapped me back to reality: I'm lucky to have a job I love in the industry I am most fond of, and in the function I care deeply about, working with people on my team I love and with colleagues to serve whom I respect. Bollywog that it's overwhelming: I'll find healthy, collaborative ways to slog through this period. 3. I managed my netw...
Post a Comment
Read more

what a day what a day

start your engines. 25 days to glorious Rowe http://www.rowelaborday.com/ the fellowship and reflection on the year.  the dancing.  the good food.  rest.  the laughter and tears.  men asking the hard questions and grieving the losses, cheering each other on and empowering each other to tackle life well.  we'll talk about our challenges and form plans to meet those challenges in the coming year. i'm excited. today, i jump in.  sessions for employees, and a big project to work on.  went to the gym and wrestled with iron and pushed my body for endurance.  and now we begin. work well.
Post a Comment
Read more