How do you feel sir? I feel amazing!

What price do you pay to achieve your goals?

I had just crossed the finish line of the Seattle Rock & Roll half marathon. Adrenaline was pumping given the 12 weeks of training that allowed me to achieve one of my goals for 2009. Running a 5k in a sub 8 minute mile is nothing easy, but I managed to run a half marathon (13.1 miles) at that pace. I got my medal, a bottle of water and a race volunteer asked “how do you feel sir?” Without hesitation and to her surprise, I told her I felt amazing.

I’m a driven person and at time set some ridiculous goals (e.g. trying to finish ‘08 NYC marathon in under 4 hours), both at home and at work. As I reflect on the first half of 2009, I sit here in shock. I’m in shock because of all the goals I’ve cross off my list and for all the ones I’ve made tremendous progress on. Last year at this time, I was just getting started with my personal goals. I let my work consume me and sacrificed my personal goals to meet my professional/business goals. I’ve heard disappointment in so many people’s voices this week that half the year is gone. I hate to break it to everyone, but time has been moving at the same pace for billions of years. Abraham Lincoln said it best: “And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” Well I know looking back over just the past six months there was a lot of life in them.

As I continue my encouragement that you should each of goals in writing with action plans, I want you to remember to be realistic. Push yourself, but not so much that in achieving your goal you miss the fun in it. Also, take the biggest challenge and try to balance both personal and professional goals. In 2002, I canceled on a hike to climb Mt. Whitney (highest peak in the lower 48 states) so that I could work 32 hours over the weekend to fix a problem with one of our airplanes. At the end of the year, it was disappointing to not be able to cross off one of my top goals because I had a few extra dollars in my bank account.

Some say you must have balance, others say it is BS. I believe it’s a constant journey in readjusting ourselves to stay on course. Are you happy with what you’ve accomplished the first six months of 2009? If not, take time from the extra day this weekend to create a six month plan for the rest of this year. You’re not alone and if you want help let me know. I promise, in all that I’ve accomplished in the last six months I did not do it alone.

One person has already asked me for help. I’d like to ask you to check out the Leadership is a Verb blog. It’s authored by retired Boeing employee and friend of mine, John Bishop. If you like what you read, please vote for John’s blog in the Best of Leadership Blogs 2009.

All the excuses in the world…

This weekend I ran the Seattle Rock & Roll half marathon, taking me one step closer to my running goal for the year. My goal was to finish in an hour and 45 minutes, which would be 8 minute miles for 13.1 miles. I made the journey up to Seattle Friday morning getting the chance to meet up with some co-workers and friends so I would distract myself as the race approached. Learning from past races where I stayed at someone else’s house the night before a race, I went so far as to bring my own cereal and even ear plugs. Laugh as you’d like, but I have a pre-race routine that settles the nerves. Heck, I even had a plan on how we could drive to the starting line instead of relying on the race shuttles (which are crowded unless you get there really early).

I woke up Saturday morning excited to run. We made our way down to the starting area and found parking just as I thought. Then came the trouble. We waited what seemed like forever in a bathroom line. I didn’t get a chance to do a few light sprints before the race. As we made our way to the starting line we couldn’t get up front to my coral. As the race began I was feeling stiff, it seemed I stretched so long ago. We crossed the starting line and all of about 90 seconds into the race my iPod froze. Dam you Apple. 13.1 miles without music would be a death sentence. I live by my playlists in long races. At mile two I went to grab water, but instead got the sport drink which I hate during the race unless it’s a specific flavor. At mile 5 my world seemed to go into pure chaos. I found out that I had incorrectly programmed my watch and it was pausing every 8 minutes. By that point it was 5 minutes off from my actual race time. At mile 6 I grabbed water to toss over my head, but when I removed my hat I forgot my Oakley’s were there and they fell to the ground. As thousands of racers rushed toward me, I had to stop to pick them up. I’m sure there were a few other things that didn’t go my way, but finally I crossed the finish line with the race clock showing an hour and 49 minutes and a smile from ear to ear was all you could see on my face.

A few weeks back I said if our day is real bad sometimes we just need to get up and leave instead of enduring any more. I’m not trying to contradict myself here. Sometimes it’s not just one day. It’s a week or a month. Everything seems to not go our way or there seem to be too many obstacles from us achieving our goals. I’ve been in that rut and during this race, I realized I was getting too absorbed with the excuses that I could make.

You see that smile was so big, because I didn’t let those excuses get to me. I reset my iPod and figured out how it wouldn’t freeze again. Since my watch was off, I had my friend give me the correct time in correlation to the race clocks posted at each mile marker. My friend ran with me for six miles and just after that mile marker she screamed for me to start running my race. The weather was perfect, the course was spectacular and the decent at the end was priceless. As I reached mile 11 I knew I had more than enough time to finish the race and enjoyed 2.1 miles of time free running. If something is not making sense with my story, I apologize for teasing you. The race clock was just under six minutes off from my time since they had staggered starts, so I cleared my goal by a full minute and finished in an hour and 44 minutes. Success!.

The race woke me up to the problems I’ve been having with work. I’ve been letting the excuses be my focus instead of all the things that are going right and leveraging them instead.

All the excuses in the world ... should never stop you from achieving your goals!
Are you leveraging the good things or letting excuses get the best of you?

Just go, do it, live life!

Aerosmith says “life’s a journey not a destination”, Ferris Bueller tells us to “stop and look around once in a while”, and another reminds us that “most people miss life while making grand plans for it.”

I talk a lot about planning in setting goals, finding the right mentors, searching for the right job and thinking about how to confront or recognize. Sometimes the only thing left is to just do it. Stop thinking. Stop planning. Stop worrying. Stop preparing. This is it. You are the one that got yourself to this moment, so just go, do it, live your life. Today as I rest from all my training for tomorrow's race, I know in the morning all I need to do is just go run.

Today’s post is dedicated to the memory of a long time friend and fraternity brother of mine, Drew Hunter. He passed away in Colorado during a kayaking accident, but in doing so he proved the point above. He fought a good fight. He lived with no regrets. He attacked the world and soaked in all its beauty. Drew allowed me to reconnect with him this winter after losing touch and we had a great time in the mountains. He showed that you can worry and doubt many things, but that life would just be much more fun if you road, climbed, skied, ran and loved whatever came in your path.