WARNING: THIS POST IS LONG. PROBABLY TOO LONG. IN FACT, IT’S THE LONGEST ARTICLE I’VE EVER WRITTEN. IT’S OVER 3000 WORDS AND CONTAINS SEVERAL INTELLIGENT READER COMMENTS, AN IN-DEPTH STORY AND MORE INFO ABOUT MY LIFE IN THE LAST 10 YEARS THAN YOU PROBABLY CARE TO KNOW. I ALSO USE NUMEROUS REFERENCES TO THE 90s BULLS DYNASTY. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED. Last week Reader David asked me a really thought provoking comment on twitter: @ ...
Archives for October 2010
6 Things I’ve Learned In 6 Months of Blogging
Saturday was the official 6 month birthday of the blog. *Commence Applause* Honestly it’s not really much. When this whole thing started off as a personal project 6 months ago, I can't say I expected it to turn into what it did. Wow. 70 posts later, along with 3 triathlons, several other races, lots of new readers and some good friends, I've learned a lot in the last 6 month. Here are six key lessons: 1. Writing is the most important part of a ...
When Do You Give Up? Pt. 1
Earlier today I got this tweet from David and he got me started thinking. I actually had a whole different post planned for today, but I think this is a really, really good question that deserves an answer. [blackbirdpie id="28046401471"] For those of you that can't read the embedded tweet, he asked @joelrunyon - question: at what point does one admit, " this thing IS impossible," and give up? And how does one regroup.after failure? I know a lot of ...
It’s All Mental
What's your default mindset? For a long time, mine was "can't." I can't do this. I can't do that. I focused on the things I couldn't do. I let people tell me what I couldn't do or I disqualified myself from doing things because I think I fit the criteria to do it. I've talked about that before and it's the whole idea behind my list. I'm don't identify as an idealist or positive thinking self-help advocate, but I think there's a huge value in reworking ...
In Case of Emergency
The Train Emergency I snapped this photo in London on the subway [or “the tube” as they call it] last month. I had just jumped onto a packed train and as I squeezed myself in between 10 other people, I found myself face-to-face with this sign: In an emergency Use the passenger emergency alarm to alert the driver It is safer to stay on the train than attempting to get off Follow instructions from staff or emergency services Do not take any ...
The Most Valuable Trait You Can Ever Have
Intelligence Manual Skills Physical Fitness Creativity Critical Thinking If I were to make a top 5 list of the traits that are traditionally seen as MVTs [most valuable traits], you’d probably see those 5. One or two might be switched out, but a lot of people talk about those 5 traits but consistently leave out the most important trait of all. This trait that allows some people to excel in whatever they do while others flop. This trait that lets ...
Waiting
What are you doing right now? What do you want to be doing? Don't wait. Do that now. Don't know? Don't wait. Start thinking about it. Waiting is a game we play to tell ourselves that where we're at is okay when we know it's not. There are usually some legitimate reasons for waiting. All the ones you're thinking of right now probably aren't. If you're happy where you are, great. If you're not, do something about it. Now. Don't wait. I was thinking ...
The #1 Thing I Learned From 2nd Place In My First 10K
Saturday morning I headed out at 4:45am. Unfortunately, due to equal parts bad navigation and poor marked signage, the short 1-hour drive turned into 2 1/2 as I turned myself around at least a dozen times. After some out-loud yelling at my car, I finally figured everything out and showed up to the race. The Race The main race going on for the weekend was a duathon [10k run, 40k bike, then another 10k run] and there were a few hundred people there ...
[Impossible Update] August/September 2010
Every month Every once in a while, I take a look back at what I've done, what impossible goals I've accomplished, and what types of impossible things are on the horizon. It' been a great way for me to constantly encourage myself to keep going and do new things. If you're new, or just haven't read in a while, you can get a quick recap here. Here at BIT I started out August by knocking out the Tri Indy race. I talked about the Power of Why inspired by a ...
