We're a few days out from the New Year. While there's nothing really special about the new year, but it's a nice arbitrary way to look back on what you've done the past 365 days. I've been looking through old blog posts and journals from the last year and it's been a little bit of a crazy ride as I go through and knock some things off the impossible list. Here are 10 impossible things I did in 2011. 10 Impossible Things I Did In 2011 I Ran A Marathon I ...
Archives for December 2011
The Victim vs. The Conquerer
The victim wonders why nothing ever goes their way. The conquerer wonders how lucky they are. The victim wishes things were different. The conquerer makes things different. The victim passes blame and points fingers. The conquerer accepts blame and moves on. The victim argues minutiae. The conquerer understands what matters. The victim accepts reality and waits for for someone to create their own utopia. The conquerer rejects reality and chooses ...
When Was The Last Time You Felt Like Puking?
When I played basketball, we would run a lot of sprints. We ran drills sometimes, but we did a lot of sprints. Someone on the team would screw up a play and coach would line us up on the line and have us run suicides until we'd feel sick. There'd always be one or two team members who couldn't keep up so we'd run more to make up for them. Someone would curse because we were running so much, so we'd run more. When we finally finished, there was a mass ...
Epic ≠ Long
This is a note that I jotted down from a conversation I had with Nate Damm when he was walking across America: Epic ≠ Long. Too many people mistake writing something epic with writing something long. You don't have to write 3,000 words to make something worth reading. You just have to make it worth reading. ...
There Are No Safe Choices
There are no safe choices. There are common choices. But there are no safe choices. *** Common choices seem safe, they aren't. Uncommon choices seem risky, they are. The truth is all choices are inherently risky because every decision involves risk. Some risk people are comfortable with. Some they aren't. The risk people are comfortable with is called the "safe choice." The ones they aren't comfortable with is labeled "risky." The key is to work on ...
Things Will Never Be Perfect – And That’s Okay
My name is Joel Runyon. I used to be a perfectionist. There used to be a time where I was an absolute perfectionist. Everything always had to be perfect. Down to the very last detail and I wouldn't ever, ever, ever let something go live until it was absolutely perfect. There was only one problem... I never got anything done. I was waiting for things to be perfect and they never will be. Ever. I waited for the perfect job. It never came. I waited for ...
Introducing Impossible: The Manifesto
Impossible The wait is finally over and it's here. I've talked about this enough so you can read about it more over at Impossible HQ. I know, I know, you all thought it was impossible for me to actually finish this, but it's finally here :) What is the Impossible Manifesto? It's a challenge to push your limits, and live a life worth writing about by doing the impossible. What's In It? I'm not big into promoting word counts or page numbers (they really ...
Know What You Want
This is an excerpt from Impossible: The Manifesto. It's available tomorrow, December 6th, for free. “A story involves a character that wants something and overcomes conflict to get it.” What do you want? What do you want out of life? Our of your job? Out of your family? Out of your relationships? Do you even know? Sure, you might want something, but it’s not enough to just want something. Great characters want great things. But even more than that, ...
Nice People Don’t Change The World
Nice people don't change the world and you don't put a ding in the universe by getting everyone to like you. Filing Down The Edges When we're kids we're taught to get along with people. The advice goes something like this: Go with the flow. Don't cause a ruckus. Fit in and do what everyone says and everything will be okay. So you work on filing down the rough edges of anything that might be remotely offensive until you're a bland, ...
