175 Miles Stronger

My joke before becoming a runner at the end of February was that I might run the equivalent of a marathon in a lifetime, but couldn't imagine anyone doing it in one day.  It's still hard to imagine anyone running 26.2 consecutive miles, and I'm as surprised as anyone that I've now run over 175 miles (the equivalent of 6.75 marathons).

Some lessons learned from becoming a runner include:

• we can do and enjoy things we never thought possible, practical or palatable
• it's only possible, practical and palatable when we're not injured (when we accept our limitations we set the stage for new milestones)
• disconnecting electronically allows us to clear our minds and in so doing create new ideas
• opportunities to connect with others expand with new these new venues

Making Stuff that Happens Work

Regardless of our perfection aspirations, stuff (that we don't expect, anticipate or hope for) happens.

When we're faced with challenging situations, we have multiple options including seeking alternatives, exploring connections, finding collaborative partners, endorsing another plan, admitting problems and asking for support, plowing ahead, working around the obstacle, abandoning the current path or just taking a break.

It's easy to get discouraged if we don't realize that there are multiple paths to success.

1 Year + 25 Days

A new milestone for me!  In 390 days, I've created 365 blog posts.  Not bad for someone who initially assumed that once per week was as much as I'd be willing and able to commit...

I would never have imagined all that I would gain from this experience including:

• embracing the discipline and commitment to continue
• reconnecting with friends and establishing new relationships
• becoming a hyper-observer (my term for always looking for things to share from daily encounters)
• boosting creativity
• establishing credibility with Gen Y
• challenging myself - okay, the first post was a known challenge; daily posts created a new bar
• connecting experiences, learnings and relationships that might not ordinarily be connected
• making as many new personal and business connections as I've made

I am most grateful to each of you who have read  and shared my posts!  And, I love the comments that are posted, or much more frequently, delivered individually to me.  And, I am thankful to those who have requested permission to use my posts in other publications.  I Lovett (love it) when you ask to share my posts.

Maybe in year 2, I'll revert to the initial once per week expectation...

Still thinking about next steps!

Don't Bulldoze the Ornaments

Some of my parent's friends were offering items from their attic to their children.  Mrs. P had said that anything that the children didn't want would be thrown away.  After selections were made, Mr. P took the remaining boxes to the dump.  A day or two later, Mrs. P went to the attic to get her Christmas ornaments.  She didn't realize that her ornament boxes had been removed with the other attic contents that the children were evaluating. Her lifetime collection of Christmas ornaments had been delivered to the dump with the unwanted items the children hadn't claimed. 

A quick trip to the dump revealed that the procedure was to bulldoze the grounds each day.  It appeared that a logistical error had cost this family all their prized ornaments.  Further inquiry revealed that the bulldozer was broken.  Thus, recent deliveries hadn't been covered.  Unbelievably all the boxes were recovered and not a single ornament was broken.

At face value, a broken bulldozer wouldn't appear to be anything more than a maintenance issue to be resolved.  As with so many things, one person's challenge creates opportunity for another.