WE ARE AT THE STARTING LINE

I’m just over three months away from running the New York City Marathon. This month I’ve added in some endurance runs to go along with my interval training as I prepare. An endurance run should be about two times as long as your typical run. I’ve been getting out for 10-12 miles early in the morning on Sunday to begin to build up my endurance. After all, I’m going to have to stretch that to 26.2 miles by race day. At first I started to really feel some pain at mile 8 or 9. Then it didn’t start until mile 10 or 11. This morning it didn’t start until I hit mile 12 or 13. Im building that endurance.

DO THE WORK

We are going to keep it simple today. Why? Because we have a tendency to over-value complexity and under-value simplicity.

JUST RAISING A FEW CHICKENS OVER HERE

This week I lost power at the farm so had no internet and no ability to make outbound calls or receive texts for a few hours. I decided to take a book and go up to the chicken run to hang out with them.

CONSISTENCY OVER INTENSITY

We all have a propensity for intensity. We like giving it our all. We love bursts of energy. We love the feeling of accomplishment at the end of that 12 hour day. We feel like we left it all on the field after that all-nighter. It makes us feel like we moved the needle. It makes us feel like we made progress and gained a competitive edge.  

ENGINEERING vs DESIGNING

Things don’t always turn out as we intend them to. When they don’t, it’s easy for us to be disappointed. Disappointed in the situation, the results, ourselves.  Why? 

JUST TAKE A SHOT

Someone let me know that the NBA playoffs were happening this week. Needless to say, I haven’t watched a single basketball game this season but it did bring me back to the days when I was a New York Knicks fan. (For those that follow basketball, now you know why I haven’t had any reason to watch the game for the past 20 years). 

JUST THIS ONCE

Excuses start early in life. At least they did with me.  Why isn’t my room clean? Why is the laundry still in the dryer? Why isn’t the trash taken out?

YOU ARE EXTRAORDINARY

There is incredible potential in every single one of us. By definition, potential simply means “having capacity to become something in the future.” So what are we becoming?  Are we proving that definition accurate? 

A WALK THROUGH CENTRAL PARK

I recently came back from a couple weeks in New York. I went for business initially and stayed an extra week as the family came in to spend some time in the city. We enjoy experiencing New York with a few of our favorite routines - visiting our favorite museum, passing some time in my favorite bookstore, listening to some jazz, seeing a show, getting in a few runs. This time we packed a lunch and decided to take it to Central Park one afternoon to eat out on the lawn.

DON’T TAKE IT OUT ON ME

This year is setting up nicely to not hit many of your expectations.

A BALLOON AND A POLAR BEAR

Today’s blog post is brought to you by the word “appreciation”. 

A JAPANESE LESSON IN BROOKLYN

There is a bench in Brooklyn that has been there for at least twenty five years. I know that because I have been coming to sit on that same bench for exactly that long. Something tells me that it had been there for 25 year before I even started coming.

THE POWER OF POTENTIAL

We all have potential. Too often we find ourselves comparing our judging our own potential on our present instead of our future. We look at ourselves and where we are right now. We compare our present situation to that of others in their present situation. We feel behind.

THE PLACE… IS THE PEOPLE

Everything is what you make it. If you go to Disney with those that you love with the expectation of it being the happiest place on earth, it will be.  It isn’t the place. It isn’t the rides. It isn’t the parades or ice-cream or fireworks. It is the people you are with.  

WINNING AT ALL COSTS

There’s an exhausting undercurrent in the world that flows through business and entrepreneurialism. It is a mindset of winning at all costs. It is easy to adopt this - after all you are a driven human being. You set goals. You knock them down. You are willing to make sacrifices for what matters to you.

WHAT ARE YOU OVERLOOKING?

We are all overlooking something in our lives. Do you know what it is? Do you know how to determine what is being overlooked? What does it tell us about ourselves when we figure out what we are overlooking?

FORGET THE VIEW FROM THE TOP

We set out before sunrise to reach the top of Camelback Mountain. It’s not a terribly difficult climb. It’s about 3,000 feet in elevation over the course of an hour. We were told that the view from the top was just stunning. The sunrise from the top was incredible. It’s worth getting to the top, we were told.

IT’S NOT ME. IT’S YOU.

It’s so easy to find yourself disappointed in other people.

THAT WAS NO ACCIDENT

There are no accidents. And yet, too often we like to explain life that way. For better or worse. We use “accident” or “luck” to explain away our wins and push away our losses. We don’t take credit for what we’ve created, and we don’t take ownership of our mistakes.

OWN IT AND APOLOGIZE

“I have made a lot of mistakes…but this one has been the most painful.”

“I am truly sorry and committed to rebuilding your trust.”

“We made a mistake … and what is important now is that we fix it.”