A quick thought I shared on Facebook
Its so weird how fast time flies. Buehler was right!
Being ever present and available in the moment, but using wisdoms earned from the past to be ready for near term lessons learned and adaptations is an ever present reality in the selfless vs selfish vector of a growth mindset and lifestyle.
Liz and I have been feeling lots of gratitude to the great German teams responsible for Liz’s care. Serendipity has even afforded her a new friend. To the kindness extended to us strangers by the German locals. For precious sleep. Faith requires action, and well, thus far our actions have led us to gratitude. Empathy begets courage and courage is calling. Looking forward to visiting the kristkindelmarkt in Bremen in the coming days. Holiday season in Europe is often magical.
To ever think that humans here went to the depths of war, in blitzkrieg and other events. That humans tried to eradicate our Judaic friends and many other evils that have persisted in various ways well before the two most recent world wars. I’d like to believe we can proactively engage in options that won’t lead us back to wars and removing lives. It’s a crazy world, to which Liz and I and countless others are trying to navigate.
My humble Christmas wish, well besides a new bike, is to be blessed to see more selfless acts. Intentional and present examples of humans striving and being better.
I wish to see less apathy, especially when folks are either stuck in the past or stuck in analysis paralysis or choosing to be blinded by having 5 minutes or more into the future ( chasing the next shiny thing aka FOMO – Fear of Missing Out). I know that there are many examples out there and I’d love to see more shares on blogs, fb and Instagram of those selfless acts. That’s my humble Christmas wish .
What’s your Christmas wish on this eve of the day of infamy?
– Shane question
Being Consistent
This is a difficult thing in the world of life, endurance sports, heck just being a human. We are flooded with so many things vying for and requesting our attention. While I tend to follow the practice of acknowledging most things I encounter, I believe and have found that through controlling what I can, limiting external inputs that I cannot control or influence (thus controlling external things best I can) and simply facing what is in my face and making a choice:
- Determine as quickly as possible to actively engage in the thing because it has value, immediate or otherwise.
- Acknowledge that the thing that I don’t want to engage with exists and move forward.
- Effectively I acknowledge that it exists, but choose not to have a conversation with it
- I may discard it out right
- I may have to determine I need to return to it and deal with it at a different time whn I have the headspace and demeanor to deal with it appropriately
One of the difficult things about being consistent is – it just isn’t always fun, or fresh, or sexy or the shiny new thing. It is often about just showing up. Sometimes employing the 10 minute rule. What is the 10 minute rule? Start the work out, give it 10 minutes or so and determine if I need to shut it down or was it just, the meh fighting through the mind and the body is like, I’m here waiting for the brain to get out of the way.
Being consistent in life or in triathlon often means, ignoring the negative Nancies, ignoring the overly positive peters and accurately framing things. I am here. I am tired. That is ok. I’m hungry, and I need to eat. Allowing space for grace, and being flexible. Consistency doesn’t necessarily mean rigid, but it does mean following a plan. similar to the Bruce Lee notion of sticking tot he principle but not being bound to them. Often consistency means ignoring the numbers. Sometimes we become blinded by the numbers. Numbers provide us optics and measurements. But without the correct aptitude of how to interpret the data, especially for me, I can chase a rabbit hole that is better for me to leave alone. I have not ever had the means to pursue and use a coach but I have used platforms like Training Peaks or Tri-Dot to help me get into the groove for the particular season or event I am most interested in. Being consistent means including nutrition. Finding the correct sources to fuel my mind and body which also allows the space for me to have those things go full cycle through my body. It means drinking fluids, mainly water and eliminating all the other goody tasting sources (Monsters, cokes, and other drinks). Being consistent means –
Stoically accepting the brutal facts of reality. All the while maintaining an unwavering faith in the endgame, and a commitment to prevail as a great company despite the brutal facts. We came to call this duality the Stockdale Paradox.”
Good to Great by Jim Collins https://www.jimcollins.com/concepts/Stockdale-Concept.html
You can link to more of my thoughts about the Stockdale Paradox here: https://happyinthehills.com/zentriathlete/2021-april-12-triathlon-ego-communication-paradoxes/
The most interesting thing about the Stockdale Paradox is keeping an accurate frame of the reality. This often means disregarding the highs and lows, the noise that is vying for my attention and focus of consistency. It needs to maintain discipline. Sure a single data point does not wreck a bell curve, however it can also mean disruptions if you allow too much grace or over indulge in that great feeling, so just let it rip. Being consistent includes ample amounts of space for proper rest. I really like the thought from the street artist Banksy here. Too often not enough rest balanced with proper exertion, fuel and nutrition and then also clearing the mind of stressors is often a recipe to disrupt consistency. Stress is stress is stress and the body nor mind are incapable of compartmentalizing the stress and trying to say, I will deal with this in the moderate stress pile and that is at level 67 percent. Or I will place this in an epic workout at 120 percent and the average between the two put me at X percent. Reality is, the sum of all stress is disrupting opportunities for success.
I’m rambling, but the concept is to do the following things:
- Show up ready to do the work
- Find a plan calibrated to the success i want to achieve paired with a proper and accurate set of expectations
- Follow the plan, but be realistic and allow space for grace when life or other priorities need to take precedent
- Eat right
- Get rest and sleep
- Be kind to self
- Keep showing up
- Don’t become blinded by the numbers or the progress and its ebbs and flows or ups and downs
Do Epic stuff – Apply the correct dosage – avoid the trap
Don’t get me wrong there is indeed a time and a place for epic. But it generally follows the patterns from above. For example, after a consistent build up, the epic thing may be an event. It really is telling a story and having it framed correctly. The epic is demonstrated after following a plan and being diligent so that I am prepared for the the epic to occur. That is in mindset and in triathlon training or activities. That is in family life vectors too. If we as a family are always doing epic adventures – day trips to fun destinations on weeks starting at 6 am and getting home at 2 am – consistency takes a back seat and is disrupted. Look, I am also not saying to not be present enough and embrace the thing that is in front of myself or yourself. I’m just saying that the allure of doing epic is often empty on the other side because of the need for the space to recuperate, or recalibrate or refocus and return to the consistency. I don’t feel for myself that there is a hack that exists that allows me to jump from epic dot to epic dot. I have to methodically plan that out. When I was in my teens and early twenties, I had a different body etc. I was able to do the epic adventures, but I also have the eyes of hindsight. In snowboarding for example, I wasn’t big into flashy tricks, rather I loved big mountain riding. I spent over a hundred days a year on the snow, day in and day out working on the fundamentals. Conversely, as a young teen, I didn’t do what I should (both didn’t know and didn’t care0, but I kept throwing harder and harder until one day I hung my arm and I found out years later what I thought was a rotator cuff injury was actually the labrum behind it in the joint and an impingement I am always monitoring and defending against.
Lessons learned
I have come to learn that wisdom earned can come from anywhere. Example – one day a gentleman from Pathetic Triathletes Group reached out to me. Mike Tarrolly was his name. He and his friend and coach were starting down a path of sharing information freely and were trying to organically create something they called Crushing Iron. Well with over 500 episodes and many frank and simple tidbits of wisdom – I am a better triathlete and person from their ramblings – not always what they say, but often prompting me to consider certain things and work on those things in my way.
I have a lot of friends from the Utah circles that i am involved in. Many came from my wife well before I became engrossed in my own fire and chasing my hobby of triathlon. In another blog I once posted about how I was ‘that guy’ I didn’t mean to be. But I was able to get out of myself, observe and change things. There was a situation in a documentary called Sound City.
Mick Fleetwood in the documentary stated something about the process. And how it was just better to do with friends. I was polarizing folks and being a real douchebag. I was so worried about me, that I lost sight of the chemistry that happens between people and well that’s the beauty of triathlon and a growth mindset. It’s about people. It’s about learning to be better and growing and bringing a few friends along with you. I learned that I was pushing people away, and it was my love of wanting to do this hobby of triathlon I wanted to most share. Well, I had to recalibrate and take a different approach and it lined up a lot with my changes in who I was physically.
Germany
So here I am in GErmany, supporting my wife and her disc replacement surgery. I have been isolated with little Lucas and keeping him entertained and alive. I have been alone with ourselves thinking about how to approach this whole thing;
- Support Liz and her recovery
- Get back and recoup lost time with our kiddos that stayed home
- Get the double doors installed at our house
- Begin focus on IM California in Oct of 2022
- Map out what that looks like
- Begin the process
- Start acquiring the missing tools
- Manage stress
- Family First
- Work and don’t go bankrupt (money, mind, life, etc)
Well, I think I got away from myself and that’s what Germany and being with Lucas has been. It has been him and me and developing a bond of dad and son. I miss my other kiddos – I see Dennis and Juniper and Astrid without us. I don’t like it, but it is what we had to do to support this happening for Liz. I hope that we can get back to #teamlivingston norms quickly. We appreciate the support of friends and family and many others that have serendipitously joined the path of support. It’s been an adventure and I look forward to seeing how Liz tells her story. I was hoping to be able to run a little bit while here and maybe that will still happen over the next week, but time will tell.
I think what I wanted to say is there is a battle of being consistent and being epic. I think sprinkling epic in with the correct dosage is very appropriate for me. When i dose it wrong, I definitely derail, and it is time for me to reframe consistency for me so that I can be successful for me at IM California in October of 2022.
