Our Road

We all have our own secrets. Not the skeletons in the closet type, but the elements we have established as crucial to our success. In sum, they are the things that comprise the us we refer to when speaking in the first person. I have mine and you yours. My most important line item secret is - that there are no secrets. It is all common knowledge, done a thousand times before and nothing new. Seriously, will I be the first person ever to mix diet, exercise, stress management, stretching, weightlifting, meditation and music into something greater than their respective parts? No, absolutely not. I can say unequivocally that this methodology has been used more times as a game plan than three chords and rhyming couplets have made rock songs. 

BUT THEREIN LIES THE RUB BUB!

Some of those songs are among my favorites. And that gives us all the unique opportunity to add our personal preferences to the mix.  In combinations, ratios, philosophies and dreams that separate us from the person standing beside or behind  us. Consider the endless possibilities we isolate, inspect and invest in our growth process, that magical trajectory of adaptation and evolution. We can add parts, measures, bits and pieces or truck loads of such precious commodities as (to name but a few), love, happiness, devotion, commitment, service, gratitude, forgiveness, education, creativity, spirituality, rhythm and flow into the blender that concocts our real-time, moving target definition of who were are. There are limitless possibilities. 

I used the now infamous two donut parable this morning in class. I told those assembled that I was going to try a third time to get the story straight and make the meaning a little clearer than the muddy waters of my first two attempts. Because this is an important part of the me of today, the me as storyteller, as mentor, as coach and as a willing partner to all associated efforts that push the health, fitness and growth narrative. This part, this activity and this goal are so important to me at this critical juncture that I have tossed my trusty compass and detailed map into the garbage can. They have faithfully served their purpose (to get me here) and are no longer necessary as this place in space is navigated further by simply trusting the cosmic reality of here and now, or as they say in Ultrarunning, RUNNING THIS MILE. You can quote me, or Joe Paterno, Vince Lombardi or Scott Jurek, but (quote starts here): If you do everything right in practice, all you can do is go out and play the game. Yes, I understand that is a BIG IF, and it is where 99% of the football players or trail runners fail to achieve their dreams. Faith in the process, dedication to the now, this drill, this hill, this effort, when assembled together create the bigger picture of success, completion and in most cases a victory of appropriate status. Sometimes the victory is a minor one, as walking away from the donut display case, one simply necessary to proceed with confidence, other times it is a major win, one of those timeline moments we talk about as a pivotal for many years. The moments we pass along to others just starting their journeys in the form of wisdom from our experience. Kinda like a secret, a tale of caution, of magic, or reward. The times we were knocked down (ate the donut) but got back up and persisted. 

At one point or another the hero of our story faces the moment of truth. She can act or not. He can choose the path of least resistance or lead the resistance. If we practice this scenario on a daily basis, assigning to it our personal mix of courage, wisdom, compassion and resolve to each, when that moment arrives, we will be ready. In many disciplines and philosophies this is fittingly called our ‘practice.’  It is what we do and who we are. It is our road. 

There is no secret to it. It is just hard, consistent right effort.