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How To Impose Your Will On A Situation

May 14, 2013 By 21 Comments

This Saturday, I crossed another thing off my list and did a century ride for the first time (technically it was 112.5 miles). I thought it’d be a nice relaxing ride in flat, midwest Indiana where I could take my time, relax and finish at my own pace with a few friends.

Of course, I’ve never done done anything close to 100 before and this was my first time on the bike this year, so this seemed like a great idea, but I’ll get to the full story in a second.

I did an interview the other day and had someone ask me “Not everyone can do what you do, what’s your secret?” I usually laugh at those questions as there’s nothing about anything I do that’s particularly special. I just don’t quit very often.

This past Saturday presented me with a lot of opportunities to quit (and I really, really wanted to take them), but, I simply decided not to. I imposed my will the race and I beat it.

There’s a few techniques I used to do so – which might be considered “secret”, but I don’t think there’s much beyond simple perseverance  Regardless, hopefully this is entertaining, helpful and useful the next time you run into a situation that simply needs to be “willed” into completion.

How To Impose Your Will On A Situation

Throughout this, I’ll be referring specifically to my century ride experience but you can use these techniques in almost anything you do.

Decide That You’re Doing It

Do or do not. There is no try - Yoda

The biggest decision is when you start. I decided that I was going to do it from the get-go. I could have said, “I’ll try to do it”, but in my mind when I set out that morning, I wasn’t going to “try”, I was going to do it.

Recognize & Embrace The Suck

Riding a century on a whim as your first ride of the season with zero training is not a “smart” idea. I just wanted to do it so I decided that I was going to do it. I realized quickly that it probably meant I’d be sore by the end of the day, but going into the race, I knew that it was going to suck. There was no getting around it.

I already accepted it and realized that was part of the deal of me signing up. That made what happened later during the race (slightly) easier to accept.

Break It Down

The first 56 miles of the race were relatively easy. But, while we started out in a large group with a bunch of other riders doing different distances, by mile 56, there were only 20 or so people left riding the full century ride and they were pretty spread out at that point.

At mile 56, my riding partner cramped up and headed home. At that point I didn’t really want to think about doing another cold, hilly, 56 miles by myself. We had already had some intense hills and a little rain and I was already cold, tired and wet with my nose dripping constantly, but I kept going.

However, I didn’t think about going another 56 miles in one set, I just thought about going 10. Then, every time I did 10, I mentally reset and did another 10. Over and over and over. No, it wasn’t anything crazy, but every 10 miles was a mini accomplishment and made it feasible – whereas 56 miles seemed much, much tougher.

I did the same thing when I was climbing some of the steep hills that seemed to take forever. Instead of worrying about the whole thing, I just focused on making it to the next tree, and then the next one. The cute butt strategy didn’t work in this scenario since I was surrounded by cows & sheep, but I could still use the same principle.

Say What You’re Willing To Give Up In Order To Accomplish What You Want

There’s one thing about knowing that whatever is coming up is going to suck & there’s another thing to actually say it out loud.

When I ask people “how bad do you want it?” – a lot of times they get offended because they think I’m saying they don’t want it bad enough.

Well, that’s exactly what I’m saying.

“Wanting it” isn’t’ very specific and whatever you want probably requires something more sacrifice than you anticipated at first. In order to get what you want, be very, very detailed about what you’re willing to give up in exchange for that. Because, you will be tested and asked for every single thing in exchange for what you want.

I literally started talking out loud to the “race” about what I was willing to give up in exchange for finishing the race.

  • I’m willing to be cold.
  • I’m willing to get rained on.
  • I’m willing to put up with all the wind you got.
  • I’m willing to bike endless hills.
  • I’m willing to ride the rest of the way alone.
  • I’m willing to do all of that…

But you will not beat me…so bring it.

Expect The Pain

Well…it was brought.

When you tell the world what you’re willing to be tested with – the world will be sure to test you with it. You better be expecting it to show up.

Not long after I left my riding partner,

The wind started to gust as a support car came up next to me to tell me to expect a thunderstorm bringing 30-50mph winds.

Great.

The temperature dropped about 10 degrees and the rain became more constant. The wind started to come on full force and no matter which direction I headed, it always seemed to be a headwind. Somewhere in all of that, I found my face kept getting continually pecked with what I thought was dirt or gravel. Confused, since there weren’t any dirt roads around – I quickly realized what it was – hail.

Awesome.

Miles 60-90 with no one around me. Completely alone – I nicknamed this part of the race purgatory.

Become Indifferent

Something happens when you expect the pain.

It’s not a surprise anymore.

It might be hard, it might hurt – but you can’t say you didn’t expect it.

It actually makes things easier because you get rid of the fear & anticipation of what might happen.

Instead of having to battle fear AND the actual work, all you have to do is deal with the work. That work might suck, but you can’t say you didn’t know it was coming. All you have to do now is put your head down, pedal, and focus on the doing the work.

Never Stop Moving Forward

It doesn’t matter how fast you go, as long as you do not stop

There were a couple of times where the wind was blowing so hard it almost blew my bike wheels out from under me. Race organizers would have pulled us off the course if they had been able to find us out in the middle of no where Indiana, but I kept going.

When that happened, pedaling was futile, but I’d get off and walk until that storm died down.

Realize No One Cares About Your Excuses

Somewhere between miles 70-90, I had missed my last rest stop had about 15 miles left to the next one and hadn’t taken any sort of break in about 45 miles.

At this point, I was mad (see above) and talking out loud to myself about all the reasons why I deserved to be mad.

I’m tired, I’m cold, I’m wet,  I’m hungry, my legs hurt, I’m all alone, and no matter which direction I go there’s always a headwind.

And then I looked around.

There was no one even remotely in sight except for a few dumb looking cows staring at me chewing grass.

I had to ask myself: Who are you talking to?

 

The cows don’t care about your excuses

 

No one cares.

 

No people.

No cars.

No bikes.

 

Literally no one.

 

Just some stupid cows.

 

There’s no one you have to justify your reasons for quitting out loud to. You’re all alone – you’re the only that gets to decide.

So, if you want to quit, go ahead and quit.

Otherwise, get back on your bike and start pedaling & stop trying to convince yourself of all the “acceptable” reasons you should quit. Stop whining. The cows don’t care about your excuses. They’re too busy being distracted by the strange human in tight shorts & weird shaped hat.

Quit or don’t quit. But the cows don’t care. So stop trying to convince them.

I shut up and got back on the bike.

Create Imaginary Enemies

I couldn’t get mad at the cows, so I made the race my enemy.

The event wasn’t even about 112.5 miles anymore. It was a personal competition between the race and it’s friends (wind, hail, and rain) and myself.

This let me create a “tangible” something that I could push back against.

Make It A Game

There were times where I was laughing out loud because the “race” seemed to be personally invested in getting me to quit and delivering one massive middle finger to my century ride attempt.

In response, I tried to laugh it off and ask out-loud, “is that all you got?” – only to see that – sure enough – it wasn’t.

Cue hail. Stronger winds. And lower temperatures.

Are you kidding me?

If it was anyone else it would have been funny.

Refuse To Lose

At one point inside of 85 miles, I determined that the only thing that was going to stop me from finishing this event was a broken leg. I figured I could walk the last 20 miles if my bike broke down and I had to.

But I was not going to quit.

In my mind, failure wasn’t even an option.

Get Angry And Yell

Seriously, this works better than you think it would – especially if you’ve already made your goal your personal enemy that will be conquered.

You need to get mad at your goal & make it personal. Because, if you really, really want something, sometimes it gets ugly.

When your imaginary enemy starts blowing you around the road, get mad at your goal. Get angry. Then fight it and beat it.

It works for the hulk. It can work for you.

Go Crazy

In a sense, I’m glad I did most of the second half of the race alone. Mainly, because if other people saw me yelling out loud & laughing at the wind in the middle of a thunderstorm, they’d probably think I was nuts – which at that point – I probably was.

But, as strange as it sounds, going crazy allows you to escape a little bit of the insanity going around you in a 40mph wind/hail storm.

Remove Yourself From The Situation

This might be the most “zen” recommendation here, but remove yourself from the situation. Forget all the pain, all the hills, and the storm (literally) happening around you. Pull yourself out of the situation and look at this from a third person perspective.

If this was a story (and you were the character), what would you root for the character to do? Do that.

Recognize Opportunities To Quit For What They Are

I finally hit mile 100 and the sky started to break. The rain was letting up & it warmed up slightly. 12.5 miles to go and I’m home free…or so I thought. Around mile 102, I was coming off a downhill and slowing around a corner when I realized there was about an inch and a half of gravel that I was about to hit.

Uh oh.

In slow motion I could feel the bike sliding out from under me as I crashed down on my left side.

I let out a yell – more from anger than pain. 10 miles to go in the race and I crashed – I should have figured as much with how things were going. At least my bruised hip took the soreness away from my legs.

As I dusted myself off  and looked at my bike, it would have been easy to give up at 102 and go home. I got the century – that’s what I wanted – plus a couple. But at that point it was personal. I recapped the race quickly and realized that all of the things that I had said “out loud” to the “race”, happened.

  • I’m willing to be cold. Okay, how’s so cold that you’re constantly shaking sound to you?
  • I’m willing to be rained on. Done. Plus how did you like the hail ?
  • I’m willing to put up with all the wind you got. Done. How’s 40mph sound?
  • I’m willing to ride alone. Done & done. Have fun out in purgatory?
  • I’m willing to ride hills. Good, cause you’ll have to bike ALL THE HILLS.
  • If you’re going to stop me, you’re going to have to break my leg. Well, we tried.

It would have been easy to quit. But I was 10 miles away from finishing what I started. I could walk that if I needed to. The crash was just the race’s final attempt at getting me to quit.

There was only one option.

I jumped back on my bike.

——-

In order to pre-empt many of the comments I know are coming:

I realize a century ride is NOT that far. Heck, the 112.5 miles was only 1/3 of the 3 legs to an Ironman. I thought it was going to be a nice leisurely ride that I’d be able to kick back and relax on with a few friends as we rode through the plains of Indiana relaxing and enjoying the view.

But, as things go, something unexpected happened and changed the game entirely. It became much less about a certain distance than it was a battle of the wills between me and the storm.

I wasn’t fast and I definitely wasn’t looking very pretty by the end of it, but after climbing a few hills for a few miles after the final crash, the course from from 108-212.5 was all downhill and as I zoomed around a few hills as the sun went down, I don’t know if I’ve ever been so happy to see a finish line.

THE POINT OF THE STORY

When things get bad, and you get rain, hail, wind and storms when you’re expecting, you can either quit and go home or you can push through it, impose your will on the situation and do what you came to do. If you do, eventually, the clouds will break and the rain will stop and the bruises you get will fade and you will finish.

Do something difficult – it’s worth it.

impose your will

Please don’t take this as woo-woo fluff fluff mental crap either. Actually get on your bike and ride it. Ride through a storm. Take a cold shower. Have a real physical experience. Experience it for yourself. Let it make you stronger.

Filed Under: Adventures, Endurance, Fitness, Good Stories, The List

“All-In” 31 Pounds In 8 Weeks – Toyah’s Story

February 19, 2013 By 5 Comments

Over the past 6 months or so, I’ve gotten quite a few great Impossible Abs success stories. Today I get to share with you one of them.

Meet Toyah.

Toyah first emailed me a few months ago:

Hi Joel.

I did your 8 week impossible abs challenge and lost 14 kilos.

Just wanted to say thank you. Your blog has changed my life in a lot of ways, not just health wise.

Thank you!!!!!

Toyah

I had to do some conversions, but I did the math and 14 kilos is 31 pounds for us Americans. In just 8 weeks. Woah!

Toyah Impossible Abs

I decided to sit down with her to see exactly what she did:

—–

Hey Toyah, Thanks for taking the time to do this interview! Before we get started, what’s your story? Can you give us a little background about who you are and your fitness history?

A: Hi Joel, no worries, I’m a police officer and my fitness history doesn’t go much further than a few years ago when I started to think about becoming a cop. It was one criteria that needed to be met to get into the academy, so my first taste of training for anything was the beep test, the Illinois agility run, hand grip strength testing and a 75kg dummy drag. It was a pretty gruelling introduction to training and I hated every second of it. If I knew back then what I know now about it all starting in the kitchen it would have been much easier. But I guess things have to suck at first for you to start looking at better avenues to take things, so it took me a few years to figure that out.

Cool, So How Did You Find Your Way To Impossible HQ?

A: There’s an Australian woman who runs a Facebook page, she’s very paleo focused. It’s called  Eat. Sleep. Move. She often posts bits and pieces she finds helpful from other facebook pages like Bellatrix Nutrition, I was looking through a few things and found a link to your Impossible Abs Challenge that both Bellatrix Nutrition had posted at Eat. Sleep. Move.    

So Why Did You Decide To Start Impossible Abs?

A: It was the way you wrote it that got me, no excuses no bullsh*t attitude, and I thought “this guy’s on to something” over a few days I read pretty much everything on your blog and everything on the Impossible HQ website. And then lastly I read the manifesto. I was in Spain during that time, I’d run off and left home for a few months after an incredibly sh*t year and I felt I was either going to make a massive change in my life and go home with a new outlook or just run as far from home as possible which probably would not have helped me at all.

After reading the manifesto I made a decision to not run away and to become stronger by facing everything. Doing the challenge wasn’t about weight loss anymore it was about owning myself and giving enough of a shit about myself to be happy, regardless of how crap life can be sometimes. Taking control of such a small thing like your diet and exercise, I found, brought everything else into line. 

So You Jumped In! I Know When Most People Start – The Actual Starting Part Is The Hardest – How Did You Jumpstart The Program In Order To Make Sure You Didn’t Fail Before Even Starting?

A: I used cold shower therapy to start the diet, I needed to know I could do anything even if it initially sucked pretty badly. As I said before I was in Spain and I was feeling pretty down and pretty desperate. Cold shower therapy woke me up out of my lull. Once I’d done my first whole 5 minutes I got out feeling ruthless, stealthy, and just a bit awesome. It puts this realisation into the forefront of your mind that you are able to do anything, but only if you’re willing.

Did The Program Work? What Results Did You See?

A: It worked much better than I expected. After all those years of looking for the quickest way to lose weight and finding out it seems like the “hardest” way, was actually the most effective. I haven’t tried another eating or diet plan where a person could lose this much weight in such a short period of time. I lost a stack of weight. My mind was more focused and clearer than it had been in about 2 years. And that’s what I most loved about it.

How Did You Track Your Progress Throughout The Challenge? Did You Find That Helpful?

A: I was ‘all in’ when I started, nothing was stopping me at all, I took photos of myself every few days and when I felt a lull in progress I’d have a look at them. The best part of this program is its simple for people like myself who don’t have time to write things down and take notes on workout and all that. I ate until I was full, I would work out until I was wrecked. And at the end of that I’d take a photo and compare it to last weeks. And noting the difference was how I tracked my progress. 

Have You Tried Other Programs? What Did You Do Differently This Time Around?

A: Not necessarily ‘programs’ but I’ve gone vegan before which yes, I lost a lot of weight but I was incredibly unwell. And then I went paleo and put all the weight back on. Don’t get me wrong paleo is amazing, but we all need to do what’s right for ourselves, I was obviously having too much in the way of carbs via my fruit intake. 

What’s Your Current Workout & Nutrition Regime?

A: My current workouts are a lot less, a couple times a week I’ll do short sharp sessions of body weight exercises, all kinds of push ups, dragon walks/bear walk/spiderman walks, dips, kettlebells and isolated weights with free dumb bells, and a lot of burpees. I stay away from the assisted machines as much as I can. Diet recently has been pretty relaxed, and when I say relaxed I mean there’s fruit in there and I’ve for onto this Bullet Proof Coffee that you love Joel! So there’s some butter in there. However, I’m beginning the 8 week impossible abs challenge again, so it’s on like king kong!

What Was The Toughest Part Of The Program? Did You Ever Want To Quit?

A: The toughest part of the program I felt was justifying things to other people. “Everything in moderation” they’d say or, “I don’t know how you live without carbs.” I felt I’d had this massive awakening and I wanted everyone else to have one too, but a lot of the time I was talking to a brick wall.

However after all my success. I have swayed the bravest few who are eating clean and loving burpees with me. When you first start those little voices start getting really loud, and you can easily pull the pin. But I found as I got healthier my mind got stronger. And while people were putting their two cents in, I was telling myself in my head was positive and reassuring that I was on track and doing the right thing.

What Do Your Friends & Family Think? Have They Noticed The Change?

A: Oh yeah! Everyone’s noticed. After I’d done the challenge I’d lost 14 kilos (31 pounds for you Americans) and now I’ve slowly lost another 4 kilos since (~9 pounds). My face looks completely different, everyone’s pretty amazed by it all. 

What’s Your Next Impossible Thing? What Do You Want To Do Next?

A: Well Joel I did my first fun run yesterday – first one ever. I wanted to start getting into those kinds of things. Now, I’m looking at a triathlon which is coming up in a few months, as well as running the 88 flights of stairs of the tallest building in the southern hemisphere here in Melbourne called the Eureka towers. I’m fit as a fiddle right now, and I love it, I can do anything! No really I can!

—

Since the initial challenge when Impossible Abs launched, Toyah has lost another 9 pounds for a total of 28 kilos/40 pounds lost. Lets break down why it worked for it and why she continues to be successful.

—

Toyah’s Keys To Success

“Everything in Moderation” Is A Load of B.S.

HA! Moderation sucks. I’m kidding, but seriously…

When you work on breaking habits “moderation” is a death trap for staying the same. It’s an easy way to justify complacency. There’s time to be moderate when you get to where you want to be, but if you’ve got 20, 30, 50 or 100 pounds to lose, it’s not time for moderation - it’s time for war.

“Everything in moderation” sounds nice and fuzzy but the reality is you might need a good dose of extremism to get ready to suit up and go to war.

She Did It For Toyah

I felt I was either going to make a massive change in my life and go home with a new outlook or just run as far from home as possible which probably would not have helped me at all.

She decided that she wanted to do it for herself. It wasn’t about impressing anyone. It wasn’t about vanity, it was about taking back control of her life.

No one could have made that decision for Toyah except for Toyah.

She Wasn’t Afraid of Cold Water

She kickstarted her challenge with cold shower therapy which helped her tackle the mental aspect of the challenge. Once you figure out the mental part, the rest is simple.

I’ll say it over and over and over again.

If you’re having trouble kickstarting a new habit or getting out of a rut, give Cold Shower Therapy a trial run. 30 days of cold showers and you can do anything.

She Tracked Her Progress

The photos of the beginning of the workout are what kept her going when things got tough. Take a photo once a week. Even if the scale doesn’t show a huge difference, the best proof of all is a photo in the mirror. You don’t always notice a difference week to week, but over time, looking back at the photos is what shows the cumulative effort you’ve expended.

She Ignored The Haters

A Frustrating Truth: People want you to stay the same. They might not say that, but if you start changing, it starts to make people uncomfortable. When people started questioning Toyah about this crazy diet and how it’s probably not “safe”, she put them out of her mind and kept going. Not because she believed some random guy on the internet with a blog, but because she saw results and results trump all.

People will try to keep you exactly as you are. If you want to change, you’ll have to ignore them and fight for it.

She Realized It Was More Than Just Abs

People tend to thinks Impossible Abs is just about abs, but like Toyah said:

Doing the challenge wasn’t about weight loss anymore it was about owning myself and giving enough of a shit about myself to be happy, regardless of how crap life can be sometimes. Taking control of such a small thing like your diet and exercise, I found, brought everything else into line.

Weight loss, abs or whatever you want to talk about is one aspect of it, but it goes much deeper. Once you realize you can exercise control & discipline in your own life, you’re able to apply that to other things. It’s also why Toyah’s now moving on to things like fun runs, triathlons and other adventures & challenges. Losing weight was a gateway drug into doing other impossible things with her life that she wasn’t physically capable of doing before.

She Didn’t Believe Me – But She Tried It Anyways

I love hearing form people, “I didn’t really expect anything, but I was really blown away by the results.” I’d rather undersell something and overdeliver than the other way around. 100% of the time. No question.

Here’s the deal: you don’t have to believe me. You really don’t.

But, try it for yourself. Experiment. Hold on to what works.

Toyah had a healthy dose of skepticism coming into this, but she still went ahead and did the work anyways. And guess what? She saw results.

She Went “All In”

Best of all, she went all in. She didn’t pick 3 different programs and do 10% of each of them. She picked one went after it and gave 100%.

She was all in.

What About You?

Toyah’s story is really inspiring and the great thing about inspiring stories is that they’re – well – inspiring. It’s amazing to see what regular, normal people are capable of doing.

However, there’s a trap that’s very easy to fall into – and that’s the trap of living vicariously through others. Reading other people’s stories and letting the inspiration you get from them substitute the feeling that you get when you actually accomplish something yourself. Once you start doing that, you never actually do anything because it’s so much easier just to watch inspiring things on youtube than it is to do something inspiring yourself. You fall into a black hole of inspirational porn.

Instead, live vicariously through yourself. Decide to not just read great stories about other people, but live a great story yourself.

The last week I’ve had a sort of overload of incredible testimonials & transformations come in and it really is one of the coolest things you can get. If you’ve started impossible abs or the no excuse workout, how is it going for you?

And…if you haven’t yet started….why not?

Filed Under: Case Studies, Good Stories, Physical Challenges, Six Pack Abs, Weight Loss

We’re Building A School In Guatemala ≠ Impossible

January 4, 2013 By 16 Comments

We did it.

We freaking did it.

Impossible School

I remember shooting this video in LA back in July and wondering “What the heck amI getting myself into?” Apparently the answer was: An Awesome Adventure.

The goal was $25,000. We smashed that a week early (on Christmas no less), and raised $26,406

Because of you guys, 1,000 kids in Guatemala are literally going to have the chance to do something they thought might be impossible – get an education. I really can’t accurately describe how that makes me feel. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

The Breakdown

A large quantity of consistent small actions can produce incredible things.

An interesting thing happened as our campaign developed.

Most campaigns are dominated by the 80/20 rule. They’ll have big, generous, flagship donors who contribute anywhere from 25% – 50% or even 75% of the goal. We didn’t have that.

That’s probably something I can work on doing as I learn more and get better at fundraising, but personally I think it’s pretty freaking awesome that we raised over $25,000 with mostly small donations.

Now small is relative, of course, we had some very generous donors, but I think the biggest overal donations were a touch over $1,000. The majority were made up of $100, $50, and $25 donations. That means a ton of people got involved and took action.

That’s pretty cool.

Things I Learned

Clarity 

Clarity is huge. Stating exactly what you want to achieve by an exact date is really important. It can be tempting to be vague when talking about doing something impossible because vagueness gives you safety. When you’re vague, you give yourself some cushion in the future in case you fail – you have a built in alibi.

Specificity makes it a hard landing. Interestingly enough, the bolder you are, the more precise your goals are, the easier it is to achieve them. Be clear. Be precise.

Deadlines

Goals without deadlines are nothing but dreams.

Always have a deadline. They have a way of creating an urgency and focused around.

Have a deadline. Make it shorter than you think you need. You might be surprised at how fast you can actually accomplish it (for more on this, see Parkinson’s Law).

The Origin of Service

Service (like most things) is more about mindset than capability.

It’s less about the amount of money than it is the idea of generosity. For some people, donating $5 takes way more than it does for other people to give $1,000. It’s not about the quantity as much as it is about the attitude of the person giving.

Anybody can donate $5. Few people will actually do it.

If you can see yourself doing something, you can do it. If you can’t see yourself doing it, usually you can’t achieve it. – David Goggins

Similarly, if you tink you can make an impact, you probably will.  If you don’t think you can, you probably won’t.

Interestingly enough, this is exactly what happens when you want to do something impossible.

If you always say “I’ll start being generous when I have X amount of dollars”, chances are you’ll never learn how to be generous in the first place – even if you have a million, billion, trillion dollars (or whatever the number is for you).

Similarly, if you always say “I’ll start doing something impossible when [insert your reason here] (ex. I know more / I’m less scared / I’m more prepared), chances are you’ll never learn how to do things that require you being ignorant, scared and unprepared and you’ll never do much of anything.

You’re probably not ready to do the things you need to be doing. Do them anyways.

Special Thank Yous

Special Thanks to the following people for stepping up big throughout the campaign.

All of them stepped up to raise more than $1500 towards the campaign.

Also, thank you to everyone else who donated or rallied their own friends & family to raise money for this.

For those of you who donated throughout the campaign, I’ve fulfilled my promise. I ran the race with a camera and shot videos throughout it giving shoutouts along the way. It’s a little on the long side (it was a long run), but if you make it through past mile 20, I start to get a little loopy and the shout outs get a little more convoluted/entertaining :) . You can click through to youtube you can skip directly to different parts. There’s a special thank you to EVERYONE (over 300 of you) who contributed in some way at the end of the video as well.

Ultramarathoning

(click on my face to watch the video in email)

What’s Next

I learned a ton from this project and it’s not done yet. We’re still finalizing all the details, but we’ll be heading to Guatemala later this year to check out the school and add some final touches.

To everyone who’s been involved with the campaign in any way: thank you. You made this happen.

This is just the beginning.

Thanks for being a part of it.

- Joel

(If you’d still like to give, you can do so here – these guys will appreciate it).

 

Impossible Ones School

 

Filed Under: Adventures, BIT Updates, Good Stories, Impossible Things, Kicking A**, Life, Story, The Impossible Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

How To Kill A Project

December 7, 2012 By 10 Comments

I’m a big proponent of starting lots of things. I think it’s a really good exercise in learning to become a doer. But there comes some times when you have to admit that some things fail (or even just didn’t go the way you wanted them to go).

Chris called this “letting go of a project.” Letting go sounds really nice, but I’ve found it to be much more difficult than simply “letting go.” The truth is that “letting go” often means a project dies, and you’re the one responsible for killing it.

Muderer!

And that means you have to be a little heartless. When you start a lot of projects, you have to get okay with killing a project (your baby) now and then. In the past 6 months alone, I’ve had to kill at least a half-dozen projects that simply didn’t pan out, were distracting or taking up too much mental space.

A few notable ones you may have noticed

  • I’m no longer a part of Nerve Rush
  • I took the forums down (they’re not coming back up).
  • I closed down an e-commerce store I ran.
  • I shuttered several niche-type sites that were taking too much anecdotal energy.
  • I’ve closed down multiple other side projects & turned down a lot of ancillary opportunities.
  • I’ve fired a few marketing clients.

Sometimes you have to kill a project and when that time comes, here’s how you can kill your project and focus on what really matters.

How To Kill A Project

Figure Out What You Want

Figure out what you want.

When you start something, you often have no idea what you want. That’s not a big deal when you start because the hardest part of everything is starting. When you’re starting out, simply starting trumps all.

However, down the line, once you get the hang of starting things, you might find that one or two of the projects aren’t what you thought they would be or don’t quite fit into your future plans. You’ll need to get rid of those projects.

Spend some time figuring out what you really want and the rest of this will be a lot easier.

Take Inventory of Your Projects

Before you kill your different projects, you’ll want to take inventory of all of them by asking a few important questions.

Time Investment
How much time is this taking me on a monthly basis? How much time am I investing in this every week? Multiply that by 4.

Monetary Investment
How much money is this costing me on a monthly basis?

Unseen/Intangible Investment
Some projects don’t take a lot of capital investment or even a lot of your time, but they do take a ton of your energy. They sap your energy and enthusiasm from what you really should be spending your time on.

You’ll find yourself dreading doing some projects and simply not interested in other.

This can be the most dangerous of all these investments, because you’re not always aware that it’s happening.

The Return

Once you’ve figured out what your inputs are, it’s important to figure out what you’re getting from each project.

Am I getting any additional time from this? Is my time being utilized correctly?

How much money is this bringing me every month? Is this substantial/sustainable/worth it?

What additional opportunities is this bringing me that may not be immediately obvious (relationships, opportunities, curiosity, enjoyment).

Opportunity Costs
If you kill this the project, what will it allow you to do in the future.

  • What additional things can you do with your time?
  • What can you do with your additional resources?
  • What parts of your business/life can you focus on now that you’ve cleared your mental space?

Ask The Hard Question

Once you’ve gathered all the info above, you have to ask yourself the hard question:

Is it worth it?

Is whatever return you’re getting on the project, worth whatever you’re putting into it?

At this point in the game, it’s important to keep in mind the answer to the first question of this whole process: what do you really want?

Decide Which One To Kill

You may have one. You may have 3. If you have a bunch of different projects, some with more success you’ll probably have to kill a couple of them.

Weigh what you want with the inputs & outputs of each project.

Pick which one to kill and decide.

Walk Away

This is the hard part.

Walk away.

You keep telling yourself, just six months. Just six more month. Six more. S-I-X. Walking away seems like quitting, but eventually you just need to do it

If something is a side project, you need to treat it like a side project. If something is a business, it needs to be a business.

The worst thing you can do is drag things out and slowly bleed yourself out and let the project die a slow terribly death while taking your other projects with you and slowly sapping your enthusiasm through the whole process.

What About When A Project Isn’t Necessarily Bad?

This is the worst scenario to be in.

If a project hasn’t succeeded and hasn’t failed, it’s in danger of settling into solid mediocrity – which unlike failure, can go on for eternity.

Ask yourself a few questions:

  • Am I really set on completing this project?
  • Can I get this project out of mediocrity in 3-6 months?
  • Do I want to put the effort into getting this out of mediocrity

Set a Time Bomb
Set a time bomb for this. Essentially an exploding deadline that makes you kill your project if it doesn’t get to the level of success you want by a specified time.

If _______________ (project name) doesn’t achieve  _______________ (directly measurable metric of success) by __/__/____ (specific date less than 6 months in the future), _______________ (project name) automatically shuts down. I’ll cease future work on it and the automatic consequence of goes into effect and I have to shoot my project in the face (figuratively) and walk away.

This is extra tough, when you have a project that’s not necessarily bad, but may not be the best project.

***

It’s worth nothing that this isn’t advocating simply quitting when things get hard. Things will get hard, but you’ll have much more energy to allocate to fight through the truly hard things if you’ learn to quit the projects that aren’t really strategic in your overall master plan.

***

TLDR

Launching multiple projects is great. Throw something against the wall and see if it sticks. But…if lots of things stick, you’ll probably have to pick one or two of the “most successful” projects and kill the rest.

It’ll be hard, but if you don’t do, somebody else will do it for you (or worse, it’ll die a slow, painful death).

[photo credit]

Filed Under: Blogging, Business, Good Stories, Life, The Impossible, The List Tagged With: , , , , , ,

5 Lessons Learned From My First Ultra Marathon

November 2, 2012 By 14 Comments

This weekend I ran the Chicago Ultra Marathon.

I never thought I’d actually run an ultra marathon. I told myself after my first ever marathon that that was more than far enough and I was quite okay.

Then I found out about ultras and they kept popping up in my mind. At the same time, I found an amazing organization to partner with, and pretty soon I was working in a coffee shop sitting next to Nicky when I looked up at him and said, “I think I just signed up for an ultra marathon.” What am I doing?

A few months later, after a few months of trainig, I was staring at the starting line this past Saturday, listening to the race director shout out “5 minutes till start!” I lined up, took my sweats off and over the next 6 hours, ran the thing. Here’s what I learned.

Here’s 5 Lessons I Learned From My First Ultra Marathon

Reference Points Matter

The course was a about 31 miles. It was a 10.5 mile loop we ran 3 times. That meant it was a ~5 miles out, and ~5 miles back.

A lot of marathon courses don’t have loops. They’re like big running tours where you can see different parts of the city. That’s great for big cities where you have crowds out cheering, but on longer courses with smaller fields, the number of people tends to get spread out, it’s much quieter and can be more difficult to always know where you’re at on the course.

That’s why reference points matter. They help give you familiar segments throughout the race.

The race was 30 mles, but it was only a 5 mile run, 6 times.

That sounds way more manageable. And while it was still freaking hard, every 5 miles, I had a reference point that I had definitely seen before and after one loop, I was running in familiar territory and began to know what to expect. I knew where hills were, when the head winds would pick and where the break stations were. That might not sound like that big of a deal, but in the middle of the race, it makes a big, big difference when you know that you’ve been here before, you’ve done it before and you can damn sure do it again.

It Hurts Until it Feels Good

As we started running, the pack was pretty close for the first 5-7 miles. You don’t want to take it too fast out of the gate since you’ve got quite a few miles ahead of you. I started talking to a guy named Tom who had run a couple of ultras before and he said something I took me the rest of the race:

It hurts, it hurts and hurts until it feels good.

I didn’t really “get it” at the time, but 10-12 miles later I knew exactly what he was talking about.

It’s All About The Decision

Up until the run actually began, the idea of an ultra marathon was all cerebral. I knew I was running an ultra marathon, but it didn’t really set.

At mile 17 or 18, it hit me. I realized that no matter what, I was going to finish.

It was decided. No motivation needed.

It might take me all day, but it was going to happen.

Chicago Ultra

It’s Not About You

It was a good thing I decided that at mile 18, because miles 22-30 sucked. Like really sucked. I tweaked my ankle and spent an hour fighting a brutal headwind that was on special delivery from Lake Michigan just for me, but there wasn’t a chance I was going to quit.

Because I had perspective.

The race wasn’t about me. It wasn’t about how fast I could go or if I could beat the 200 other nut jobs spending 5+ hours on a Saturday pushing themselves to the limit.

It was about giving a small group of kids access to do something that’s literally not possible for most of their peers.

When you get perspective you realize that your problems aren’t that big after all. Sure, an ultra is tough, but it’s also the opportunity to push myself to do things I never thought I could do. Most people don’t have that same opportunity and there’s a lot of kids out there who just want the chance to read.

Realizing that most of your problems aren’t really that tough. And, when they are tough, don’t quit because they’re hard: keep going because it is hard.

Impossible is Negotiable

Ask anyone I knew 3 years ago if I would ever “run” and they would have laughed your face off. I hated running. I still do.

3 years ago, I laughed at my friend when they asked me to sign up for a 5k. I signed up because there was candy at the end. I remember hearing there was also a 15k race happening at the same time and I can distinctly remember thinking to myself:

15k? Why would you ever run a 15k? That seems WAY too far! There’s no need to run that far.

I’m running that same race this weekend as a cool down run.

When I announced our inital fundraiser goal to build an entire school, $25,000 seemed MASSIVE and unachievable. Now that we’ve raised over $17,000+ already with less than $8,000 to go. It doesn’t seem so impossible anymore.

Impossible is negotiable. Negotiate.

Chicago Ultra Finish

—-

I’ve got videos of the event that I’ll editing and posting soon on my youtube channel. You can subscribe here.

You can still donate to the #impossible campaign. We’ve got just under $8,000 left to go. Almost there!

Filed Under: Endurance Racing, Fitness, Good Stories, Impossible Things, Kicking A**, Physical Challenges, Races Tagged With: , , , ,

Adventures In Wadi Rum

October 20, 2012 By 3 Comments

Wadi Rum ATVOne of the major goals of this blog is to live a story worth writing about. That involves quite a few different adventures and experiences. A few months ago I spent 8 days in the country of Jordan – here’s one of the adventures I had there.

—-

Wadi Rum might be one of my favorite places on earth. Over the course of 24 hours, we went on a jeep tour throughout the desert, went skydiving on mars. On our way back to the desert waiting tent where we waited for our skydiving videos to be processed, we passed about 20 atvs parked next to the side of the building.

They piqued my curiousity and considering we had some time to kill, I started poking around trying to find more information about the atvs at the various buildings and tents in the area.

Then I did something really radical: I asked. 

As it turned out, the atvs only cost $35/hour and conveniently, we had just about that much time before our skydiving videos were ready.

Sean and I looked at each other and nodded.

“Lets do it.”

Another good choice. A few minutes later we jumped on the atvs, strapped on our helmets and went after it.

The next hour we spent cruising through rock formations and bombing down sand dunes. It was amazing – I could spend a few thousand words talking about the entire experience, but instead I strapped a GoPro to my chest to give you a first-hand look of what it was like.

 

[click here to watch the video in email] 

The ATV adventure was the biggest surprise of the trip. And yes, it was as awesome as it looked (probably even more so).  Between skydiving on the moon and ATVing across the desert, Wadi Rum might be my favorite adventure destination on earth.

I can’t wait to go back.

Filed Under: Adventures, Good Stories, Travel, Video Posts Tagged With: , , , , , ,

A Brief Guide To Bravery

October 18, 2012 By 24 Comments

Spoiler alert: You don’t have to be brave to do brave things.

How Bravery Works

Felix Baumgartner Jump

There’s this misconception that you have to be brave to do brave things. That’s a bunch of crap. There aren’t brave people – there are just people who do stuff that scares them and people who let fear tell keep them from doing things.

Most people assume “brave” people accomplish “brave” things this way:

  1. Born without fear.
  2. Do something incredible.

In reality, it usually goes something like this.

  1. Be terrified of something.
  2. Do it anyways.
  3. Be moderately less scared than the first time you do it.
  4. Repeat

It’s like learning to suck less.

When you first start anything, you usually suck at it – quite a bit. Over time, if you keep practicing and improving, you’ll begin to suck less and less and less until eventually you become mediocre.

With bravery, it’s the same thing. At first you’re scared. Then you’re scared less, then a little less, then a little less. It never really goes away, you just learn how to not let it getin your way. You let it focus you and

It’s only way to do it. The alternative goes something like this.

  1. Be terrified of something.
  2. Do nothing
  3. Still be terrified
Not necessarily a great way to go about life.

How To Be More Brave

Felix Baumgartner Space

I spent an inordinate amount of time this past week watching Felix Baumgartner float up 25 miles above earth in a balloon, step out and fall to earth for 10 minutes.

You want to talk about brave? That guy had to have balls the size of Texas.

Felix didn’t do the mission because he was brave – heck the suit and capsule made him claustrophobic.

Every step he took, he became a little more scared, but, he never let that fear stop him. He made it his friend and became a little more brave with every step.

“Fear has become a friend of mine,” he said in a statement. “It’s what prevents me from stepping too far over the line. On a mission like this, you need to be mentally fit and have total control over what you do, and I’m preparing very thoroughly.”

The entire mission was oen big gut-check. Of course after working 7 years to get to that point, you can’t very easily climb back inside the capsule and ask them to let you come back down. But, every single step until he stepped off that platform and squared off with the earth 25 miles below was a gut check.

But he never hesitated. Not because he was brave, but because he was committed to the mission.

“I know the whole world is watching now. And I wish the world could see what I can see. Sometimes you have to get up really high to understand how small you really are. I’m going home now.” — Felix Baumgartner

Then he stepped off and began a 10 minute long adventure.

The One Step Guide To Bravery

“Learn to love what you’ve been taught to fear.” -Felix Baumgartner

Pick out one thing you’re scared of doing. Go. Do that. 
Instead of running away from what you’re scared of. Run towards it. Go. Do something.
Do it anyways.

Remember: You don’t suddenly “become brave” and then decide to go do something.

It’s the opposite.

Bravery is based on what you do – not how you feel.

Doing the things that scare you is the process that makes you brave and enable you to do more things that scare you even more down the line.

If you want to run an Ironman triathlon but don’t know how to swim, do an indoor triathlon. If you want to jump from the edge of space, google the closest skydiving center near you.
When you do, you’ll get a little bit less afraid and a little more brave.
Start as small as you need to, but start.

What If You Don’t Feel brave?

Be brave anyways.

Be brave. Even if you’re not, pretend to be. No one will know the difference.

I would bet money that Felix’s stomach was in his throat when he decided to step off that platform. But he did it anyways and nobody will ever know otherwise because he still jumped.

The idea that you have to be “ready” to do big things or try new stuff or do something you’ve never done before, is crap. Practice sure, but you don’t have to wait until you fell “ready” (spoiler: you never will), and you don’t have to “brave”.  You just have to do it.

Felix Baumgartner Lands

Be brave. Even if you’re not, pretend to be. No one will know the difference.

Go do something that scares you.

[images courtesy of red bull]

Filed Under: Adventures, Good Stories, Life Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Running Back To Back Marathons

October 16, 2012 By 15 Comments

A few years ago, I had never run more than 3 miles.

After a few triathlons and some other short distance races, I ended up running my first marathon – barefoot.

When I finished that, I basically told myself I never want to do that again – I was done running marathons – at least that’s what I thought…

Sometime after my legs had forgotten how much pain they experienced during my first marathon, the idea of running an ultra got planted in my mind. I pushed that thought away and told myself that I didn’t need to do it…and I thought that would be the end of it.

But it wouldn’t just go away…and it kept coming back again and again.

I don’t particularly enjoy running and I’m certainly not the fastest on the course, but I enjoy the challenge of pushing myself to go farther and do stuff I haven’t done before…I think I have a problem…

Finally, I decided if I was going to do it, and realized that I might as well put it all to good use and decided to run a 50k in order to raise awareness and help build an #impossible school in Guatemala (We’re a little past 50% of our goal as a community. If you’d still like to be a part of the campaign, you can find out more info here).

So, I kicked off the training a few months ago and I’ve been slowly adding miles to my long runs every weekend which somehow culminated in me running back to back marathons in consecutive weeks – yup, I surprised myself too.

Why Back To Back Marathons?

My simple answer is why not?

It certainly seemed to be the best option given my training schedule.

See, a big part of running is dealing with the boredom. While some might be especially fast, if you’re not, it can take a little while to get from point A to point B. So when my training schedule said I was supposed to run 22 miles one week and 24 the next, I wasn’t terribly excited about the prospect of spending 3+ hours running around Chicago on my own as the temperatures began to drop.

While training runs aren’t always fun, races aren’t too bad. There’s water stations, usually a few spectators – no matter how sparse – a timed result and food at the finish line. I realized I’d be much more excited, motivated and interested in running a marathon than I would be to run 22 or 24 miles for “training.”

I should note, that this is probably not the smartest way to choose races and most running coaches would probably hate me, but it seemed more interesting to me, so I decided to do it.

Prairie State Marathon

First up two weekends ago was the Prairie State Marathon.

I literally decided the night before the race that I was going to do it (like I said, most running coaches would hate me).

But, I realized I probably wouldn’t run the 22 miles on my own given the upcoming weather conditions. Either way, I showed up early, paid my $90, got my bib number and started running.

The first 18 miles were pretty straightforward. 9 out and 9 back on the north side of the course. I felt pretty good as evidenced by the picture through the first 18 miles of the course. Of course, my legs were tired, but you have to look pumped for the camera. Joel Runyon Prairie State MarathonComing back, you run right by the finish line as you pass the 18 mile marker and head out for another 4 mile out and back on the south side of the course.

It was not amusing.

After being teased by the finish line a little less than 2/3rds trhough the race, the four mile out and back weaved through a marshy/swamp area that seemed to be endless cruel joke where the race director sent you to run for eternity – never to return. Again. Not amusing.

After what seemed to be forever, I finally hit the turnaround and made my way back the same 4 miles to the finish line. It wasn’t pretty but I finished.

Over the next 7 days, I took lots of ice baths, ate bananas and rested. My legs hurt.

Stone Bridge Marathon

The bridge marathon was this past Saturday. After taking the past 7 days off, my legs were feeling better and I figured I would have no problem. We showed up early and somehow it got darker between the time we left and the time we got there – I have no idea how that happened.

When we showed up, I thought maybe 10 people were going to run the race – there was practically no one there. About 15 minutes before the race started a bus with about 50 people showed up.

Whatever the final total was, it was under 100 athletes – easily the smallest race I’ve ever been a part of. Seriously, this was the start line.

Stone Bridge Start

But at 7am, off we went.

Stone Bridge is advertised as a flat course, but there were definitely hills – especially the first 12 miles. I realized about 6 miles in that I was going to feel the effects of the previous week’s race. Around mile 14, my legs decided to let me know how tired they were and my quads were just screaming at me. There were a few time where I had to stop and stretch them out, but I just had to keep going.

After I hit 20 miles, I told myself – It’s all over in less than an hour. You just have to make it 60 minutes. And I did. Again, I finished – it wasn’t really pretty – but I finished.

Back to Back Marathons: DONE.

—

Both of my times were well over 4 hours which was fine with me – considering they were training runs more than anything (and believe me: that sounds as ridiculous to me as it does to you). I’m taking this week easy, filling it with ice baths, stretching and (unfortunately), probably more ice baths.

Next weekend I’ll take it easy with a half-marathon followed by the 50k ultra on the 27th. After that, I’m not sure when my next big race will be. I’m not sure I’ll need to do any more runing after this – but then again, I’ve said that before.

Like I said…I think I have a problem.

Filed Under: Endurance Racing, Fitness, Good Stories, Impossible Things, Life, Physical Challenges

An Update On The #Impossible School Campaign

September 14, 2012 By 4 Comments

At the beginning of last month, we launched our first every charity intiative with Pencils of Promise. You can read the full announcement here, but here’s the gist:

We going to raise $25,000 to build an #impossible school in Guatemala and make education possible for 1,000 students.

Since then, we’ve raised $7,184.31 of $25,000 – almost 30% BOOM! Nicely done team!

But there’s still a ways to go and still few months to make things happen. Here’s an update on everything that’s going on.

What I’m Doing

I’m running an ultramarathon in Chicago to raise money & awareness for our #impossible school project. I’ll be running a 50k – farther than I’ve ever gone before (in fact, before this initiative, an ultra marathon wasn’t even on my impossible list). This involves a lot of long weekend runs. Fun!

We also prodcued a video with PoP while out in Portland at our Bungee Jump adventure. You can watch it below (and if you did the bungee jump, you might even see your face in the video). You should share this with everyone you know :) .

[click to watch video in email]

Other Things We’re Doing

–> We’re running a limited edition run of IMPOSSIBLE cycling jerseys. They look incredible and we’re donating 10% of the revenue to the #Impossible School Initiative. This is the final week to pre-order them if you want one. Pre-order them here.

–> We are donating a portion of all the proceeds from Impossible Abs towards the initiative.

–> Blogging, tweeting and generally getting the word out as best I can about this cause and the effort – all while running 50k to help get the word out.

There’s also quite a few of readers and league community members that decided to get in on it as well.

What Others Are Doing

People are doing all sorts of interesting/crazy/strange ways to raise funds. They’re all unique, interesting and ambitious. They’re all unique.

Theres quite few more as well. You can see all of the campaigns here. (On a non-competitive/very-competitive gender comparison side note, the ladies are absolutely killing the guys in taking on their own challenges. Lets go guys!)

What You Can Do

If you want to be a part of something bigger, help build a school and get involved, help build Here are a few practical ways to help.

1. Share the video. This is really easy, but I’ll make it even easier for you. Use the following examples below:

Twitter –> I’m helping to build an #impossible school w/ @joelrunyon & @pencilsofpromis . Want to help? http://bit.ly/Ou0gET [click to tweet this]
Facebook –> Want to help me provide access to education for 1,000 students and build a school in Guatemala? http://pencil.li/NwSsvn
Feel free to use those quotes specifically or make up your own and be creative if you like.
2. Donate to The Campaign – This is pretty simple. Even if you don’t have much, a little bit from a few thousand people can make a big difference. It’s amazing how fast just a few “small” donations can add up. To put things in perspective, just $25 helps one kid get an education.
3. Create your own Impossible Challenge This is the single bigest thing you can do to help the project. The exponential reach of the network effect is huge. Pick an impossible challenge, commit to doing it and set a fundraising goal to do in conjunction with the challenge. Even if you can’t donate a massive amount yourself, you probably know people, and can pass the vision on to them about what we’re up to.
You can share the videos below as well.

Impossible Ones Campaign Trailer - http://impossiblehq.com/impossible-ones-trailer

Impossible Ones Impossible HQ Trailer - http://impossiblehq.com/impossible-ones-hq

As a reminder, the person who raises the most is going to come with me to Guatemala and help with the school construction with our own two hands. I told you we’re serious about doing! If you decide to take this on and need anything from me, let me know.
4. Help get the word out – If you run a blog, newspaper, magazine, or other type of media outlet, I’d love to talk to you about the campaign. Email me at joel [at] impossiblehq [dot] com or just say hi on twitter and let me know.
5. Get your business involved - If you run a small or large business or would like to help contribute in some bigger way, please let me know at joel [at] impossiblehq [dot] com.

$25,000 is still a big goal, but when a lot of people, take a small action, we can do really big things.

$25,000. Education for 1,000 kids. Not impossible.

Lets do this :)

Filed Under: Business, Good Stories, Impossible Things, Kicking A**, Life, Physical Challenges, The Impossible Tagged With: , , , , , ,

7 Things I Learned From My Encounter With Russell Kirsch

August 11, 2012 By 91 Comments

If you haven’t read An Unexpected Ass Kicking yet, read this first.

—-

After debating a few days whether or not to even share last weeks post, I hit publish. Over the first few days, it got some traffic along with some residual views from  views from my six pack transformation. But Sunday, the piece really took off. It hit the top of Hacker News for 6+ hours,  and got featured on BoingBoing (twice!). In short, over the last few days, the story has received over ~350,000 visits in the past few days and been shared 40,000 times on facebook and 8,000+ times on twitter.

After melting some servers, Russell’s words still reverberated.

  • Nothing is withheld from us which we have conceived to do.
  • Do things that have never been done.

All this started from talking to some old man I didn’t know in a coffee shop. It was an incredible conversation and even more incredible experience. Here’s 7 things I’ve learned from my encounter with Russell Kirsch:

Make Stuff

This is really simple.

Make stuff.

Go create something. The only limit on you is what you can imagine. So imagine some impossible things. Then stop waiting around and go create them.

You Are Not That Important – Be Humble

I could have missed out on an incredible encounter if I would have treated Russell like anybody else you see at a coffee shop.

I could have thought I was too important for a tangential conversation with a stranger about Macs and PCs but instead I chose to listen.

On the flip side, a few people commented that Russell needed to learn humility – saying he sounded arrogant. If anything came across like that, it’s my fault in the story telling. If anything, Russell was one of the most humble people I’ve ever met. Just because someone talks about their accomplishments (even as something as big as the first american internally programmable computer), doesn’t mean they’re arrogant. He was relaying facts after I asked him to elaborate.

I’ve kept in touch with Russell since the encounter and let him know about the popularity of his posts. I asked him if there was anything he’d like to add, but he told me he preferred not to talk about his accomplishments en masse.

If one of the guys responsible for one of the biggest advances in the biggest pieces of technology in the last 50 years can be humble about their accomplishments - you can too – you never know who you might meet.

Details May Make You Right, But They’ll Probably Make You Miserable

Several people got so angry about one or two minor details, they missed the point of the story. The story was not supposed to be a wikipedia entry about the history of the computer or the creative potential of the iPad.

Sure, there are ways you can create on an iPad. Sure, there were other advances in computer technology before Kirsch. It wasn’t supposed to be a persuasive essay on the inferiority of iPads or a historical paper on the computing technology of the last 50 years. It was a story.

Russell Kirsch Bad Time

If every time you meet a person with a different viewpoint than you and all you want to do is tell them how stupid they are, you’re gonna have a bad time.

If I would have interrupted Kirsch to reference wikipedia at every possible second and asked for cited references as he told me his story – not only would that have been incredibly rude way to talk to people – but I would have missed out on the opportunity to actually talk to him, hear his story and (maybe, just maybe) learn something from him!

If I would have cut him off on the iPad comment, which was little more than an icebreaker, I would have missed his entire reasoning behind it. And, even if I disagreed with him, I would still be able to have a conversation with him since he was explaining his point of view and not bullying, pushy or arrogant about it at all.

Sure details are important, but they can also make you so dogmatic that you completely miss the point. Being open to learning from other people is more important than defending your viewpoint.

Don’t Complain – Fix It Yourself

Russell invented the first square pixel while creating the first digital picture. As much as square pixels are used (they laid the foundation for satellite imagery, CT scans, virtual reality and Facebook), they have a lot of limitations and end up getting pixelated and grainy up close (you’ll notice this if you zoom in on any photo to any measurable degree).

He mentioned it to me during our conversation.

“I’ve been waiting ever since for someone to change it – and no one has.”

He elaborated on this in an interview with Wired a few years back:

“Squares was the logical thing to do,” Kirsch says. “Of course, the logical thing was not the only possibility … but we used squares. It was something very foolish that everyone in the world has been suffering from ever since.”

Now retired and living in Portland, Oregon, Kirsch recently set out to make amends. Inspired by the mosaic builders of antiquity who constructed scenes of stunning detail with bits of tile, Kirsch has written a program that turns the chunky, clunky squares of a digital image into a smoother picture made of variably shaped pixels.

He applied the program to a more recent picture of his son, now 53 years old, which appears with Kirsch’s analysis in the May/June issue of the Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

“Finally,” he says, “at my advanced age of 81, I decided that instead of just complaining about what I did, I ought to do something about it.”

So, instead of waiting for someone else to fix it, he’s started on it himself. He’s continuing that work with variable pixels now after be inspired by mosaics and even written a program to turn square pixels into variable pixels to smooth out the photo images.

Instead of complaining, critiquing and critizicing other people’s work (or even your own) and waiting for someone else to fix it – step up and fix it yourself.

Don’t Stop Creating

No matter your age, you can create. Just because you’re young doesn’t mean you can’t start, and just because you’re old doesn’t mean you’re done. Russell started his work with his computers in his twenties and is still working on the pixel problems well into his 80s.

It’s never to late to keep changing things.

Keep creating. Don’t stop – Russell hasn’t (and he still finds time to randomly blow young people’s minds in coffee shops throughout Portland). Just because you’re young doesn’t mean you can’t start and just because you’re old, doesn’t mean you’re done.

You’re only done when you decide you are.

Live A Good Story

A couple people told me I made up the story. I didn’t.

A couple people lamented that Russell was bragging. He wasn’t.

I’ve said from the beginning – do something worth writing about…then WRITE ABOUT IT. People love good stories and you’re not bragging if you’re simply relaying facts of what happened.

If other people get offended by your stories, then maybe they need to step up their story. If you’re bored with life, try living a better story yourself, rather than trying to have other people live worse ones.

LifeTip: If someone’s accomplishments make you feel small, there’s two things you can do. You can get mad and angry about it and let it make you feel really insecure OR you can use it as a challenge and inspiration to do something yourself and step your own game up and start telling a better story yourself. I recommend the second option (after all, that’s why I started everything I’m doing).

Live a good story. Then don’t be afraid to tell people about it.

Most Of All

Most of all. Stop reading. Start doing. There’s a lot of things that haven’t been done yet that need you to go do them. Go.

Thanks Russell. Time to step it up indeed.

[Read the original unexpected ass kicking here]

Filed Under: Adventures, Blogging, Good Stories Tagged With: , , , ,
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