Welcome Summer! Stick around a while, okay?
Today is June 21st, the first day of summer, the summer solstice. It's both an end and a beginning, and I'm taking full advantage of that concept - something ends, something else begins.
What's ending for me is a very stressful Spring, one in which work pressures were paramount, and tended to crowd out other obligations and opportunities. Those other priorities included being a race director for an annual 5K, preparing for a speaking engagement at a conference, training for some races that I'll be doing this year (including the subject triathlon) and, oh yeah, being a husband and father.
There was rarely a day that I didn't have to be out the door for work by 6:30, and rarer still were the nights where I was home before 8. Even those nights were spent 'watching TV' with my laptop open and active, addressing mail or trying to just stay on top of the pile of deliverables that were due within 24 or 48 hours. Urgency became my only measure of importance.
The good news is that those other priorities closed this week. The 5K was held successfully, and the conference speech was well-received. As the conference ended, a local magazine did a profile on a running project I finished earlier this year, another shoe I was waiting to hear drop, and it did so well, I think.
I say that's the good news, because it reduces my stress level, but really, those were the fun things I was looking forward to. The bad news is that the work priorities are still there, and (as always) getting more urgent as we move to the end of our normal financial reporting cycle.
But now, I have a new urgent priority in my training, and I've decided to use the summer solstice as a good time to make changes. First, I'm going to restart my running streak, and hold it for the summer. Second, dietary changes - soda is out. Chocolate is out. Donuts were out a month ago (save one slip this week), but I'm going to expand that to unhealthy baked goods in general. Coming in are water, tea (I hate coffee), fresh fruit, and expanded protein sources.
Finally, I've got a half-ironman to train for, and I weigh just too dang much. There's not much I want to do about the weight outside of fixing my nutrition and enhancing my exercise - no quick solution is worth pursuing here, I've learned, so I'm just going to have to be patient on that front. But I can enhance my training, get on my program, do the double-workouts that are sometimes called for, and get back the discipline I had when marathon training.
It all sounds good, and it will be good, as long as I manage the balance of time, and find the new ways I need to keep priorities in balance. Focus on the important (to me) not just the urgent. Focus on doing the things that I can do best, and providing opportunities for others on my team to shine by doing their best. The question is: Do I really have the guts to pursue what that's going to take?
What's ending for me is a very stressful Spring, one in which work pressures were paramount, and tended to crowd out other obligations and opportunities. Those other priorities included being a race director for an annual 5K, preparing for a speaking engagement at a conference, training for some races that I'll be doing this year (including the subject triathlon) and, oh yeah, being a husband and father.
There was rarely a day that I didn't have to be out the door for work by 6:30, and rarer still were the nights where I was home before 8. Even those nights were spent 'watching TV' with my laptop open and active, addressing mail or trying to just stay on top of the pile of deliverables that were due within 24 or 48 hours. Urgency became my only measure of importance.
The good news is that those other priorities closed this week. The 5K was held successfully, and the conference speech was well-received. As the conference ended, a local magazine did a profile on a running project I finished earlier this year, another shoe I was waiting to hear drop, and it did so well, I think.
I say that's the good news, because it reduces my stress level, but really, those were the fun things I was looking forward to. The bad news is that the work priorities are still there, and (as always) getting more urgent as we move to the end of our normal financial reporting cycle.
But now, I have a new urgent priority in my training, and I've decided to use the summer solstice as a good time to make changes. First, I'm going to restart my running streak, and hold it for the summer. Second, dietary changes - soda is out. Chocolate is out. Donuts were out a month ago (save one slip this week), but I'm going to expand that to unhealthy baked goods in general. Coming in are water, tea (I hate coffee), fresh fruit, and expanded protein sources.
Finally, I've got a half-ironman to train for, and I weigh just too dang much. There's not much I want to do about the weight outside of fixing my nutrition and enhancing my exercise - no quick solution is worth pursuing here, I've learned, so I'm just going to have to be patient on that front. But I can enhance my training, get on my program, do the double-workouts that are sometimes called for, and get back the discipline I had when marathon training.
It all sounds good, and it will be good, as long as I manage the balance of time, and find the new ways I need to keep priorities in balance. Focus on the important (to me) not just the urgent. Focus on doing the things that I can do best, and providing opportunities for others on my team to shine by doing their best. The question is: Do I really have the guts to pursue what that's going to take?
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