Days off

When people think of having a day off they often think of the massive list of things to accomplish at home such as laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning, mopping, dishes, and did I say laundry.  Some people avoid days off altogether to keep themselves together.  However, these daily activities that need to be done shouldn't consume your thoughts especially while taking time off from work.  They will still be there after you enjoyed the day.

Triathlon training is similar to this.  When there is a scheduled day off from training use it to the fullest.  There isn't a need to sneak in a small swim, bike, or run.  All that is needed is to enjoy the day without a schedule training session.  Yes, this is hard to do and is similar to taking time off of work trying to avoid house work.  However, it can be done and is rewarding on your body.

Today happens to be a day off of training.  My body is yelling at me to put some extra stress on it while the house is screaming to clean me.  That might not be the best situation since I'm staring at 4 loads of laundry, dirty dishes in the sink, and a bathroom toilet that two boys like to use for target practice while my body is twitching uncontrollably from muscles that are ready to swim, bike, or run.  

As for now, I'm going to enjoy the time with my youngest.  He is first on the list today while everything else can wait.  Kids don't know a clean house from a dirty house, but they do know an engaged dad willing to play.  In the end, my last breath isn't going to be...."I can't play now, I'm cleaning the toilet!"

Until next time...

Three Values

There are plenty of honest people in the world and plenty of dishonest people willing to take advantage of you, be HONEST anyway!

Every selfless act you do will often be forgotten, be SELFLESS anyway!

The argument today will continue, FORGIVE and move on!

I thought I would mix things up today with a few thoughts that jumped around my head while training.  We spend a great amount of time worrying about "things" and "what if" scenarios and "what might happen" situations.  It's time to move on and replace these thoughts with actions.  These thoughts are not constructive and only inhibit our decision making ability ultimately holding us back or keeping us from success.  

We all have core values.  These values help us make decisions and take actions each and every day.  With values such as honest, selflessness, and forgiveness an individual can succeed at anything.  It takes little thought to do the right thing and a great deal of anguish to succeed at the expense of others.

Don't think and do the right thing.  You'll have a better day and you won't think twice about your decision.

Until next time...

As always, while your here click an ad to contribute to my Ironman training expenses.  Its simple and fast.  I appreciate every click.  Come back again soon.  

WAIT - Don't Go!

Wait a minute - Don't Go! You spent the time to click my link the least you can do is read one of my articles. I appreciate that you selected my link to read about work life balance as well as crazy people that train for triathlons. I'll keep the articles interesting for you and mix it up. In fact, you can comment and let me know what you want to read about.

While you're here could you please select a sponsor site to visit. Every little bit helps to offset my triathlon training expenses and entry fees. Unfortunately, I've picked a hobby that is more expensive than golf if you can believe it. Now I'm hooked and I need all the help I can get from readers like you.

Come back often to help and I'll be sure to write about topics you wish to read about. Use the comment feature and the next article will be on that subject.

I appreciate your time!!

Chapped

We have all been there before whether we've had to participate in a lengthy meeting sitting at a conference table, sitting in a vehicle on a long trip, or for some individuals sitting on an uncomfortable bike seat for hour after hour of training. Today was a long training day on the bike. The first of many and it led me to think about all the long commutes and long meetings spent sitting down.

Early in my professional career I used to look forward to a long power meeting. Participating in a group and listening to the group-think dynamic take over to result in progress felt invigorating. However, as my career and technology progressed the power meeting has almost become a thing of the past. E-mail has dominated the workplace and in some cases has replaced face-to-face meetings. In some regards this led to efficiencies, but lately "company culture" has lost sight of the amount of time it takes to manage e-mails.

Reading and responding to e-mail in itself is almost a full time commitment. However, this may be due to the amount of time it takes to respond to individual questions that spawn a lengthy e-mail train versus meeting in a group for a short time to answer questions in an open forum. Even phone calls can eliminate unnecessary followup e-mails. As technology advances to create more methods to communicate electronically, companies should be aware of the costs to manage electronic communication. There are three cost components such as users of e-mail, IT staff to manage the electronic system, and the network e-mail resides on.

E-mail is here to stay and I'm a user. However, the next time you are leaving the office for the day and want to crank out 10 or 15 e-mails knowing that no one is on the other end remember that someone needs to process and respond to your question. If it is truly necessary, send it out. But if you are sending it out to push the project to someone else, hit delete and pick up the phone in the morning. You'll be much further ahead and you'll make someone's morning by not having to read through 50+ messages that showed up after they left the night before.

I'll keep training, you keep reading!

Big Weeks

With triathlon training every week builds upon the previous weeks training plan. The building process places more stress on your body to advance your fitness level. In most cases, people show signs of moodiness. As long as the moodiness remains in check, all is well. However, once the moodiness takes over and the athlete lashes out all bets are off until after a great nights sleep.

Work days are often like this as well. No one knows when that ONE person in the office that almost always says inappropriate things will erupt. Coworkers will try at length to avoid that individual to prevent any outbursts and receive the daily onslaught of outrage. Unfortunately, individuals that erupt do not see themselves as toxic as methane gas. They often see themselves as contributors and one of the few competent people on a project or in a specific department. When they are pressed, they come up with many ways in which they are great leaders to their peers.

If they only knew what people really thought of them, they may be able to change their behavior. Alright, that may be far fetched since people who display this type of attitude are usually in a circle all to themselves and cannot recognize they have an issue.

What does this have to do with triathlon training? You may say absolutely nothing. However, if you happen to know someone who is training for a triathlon and placing a great deal of stress on their body, please tell them if they are acting like an ass. They will appreciate it and will make some changes to prevent exercise moodiness in the future. You may want to try this at work as well. The worse thing that happens is your coworker remains an ass, but that ass may not erupt around you in the future.

Until next time...

Work life balance

Each day we continue our daily routines. Most do this without thought, but some do this with the idea to find a work life balance. I don't mean that we purposely try to find a way to balance our working lives, but rather we each try to balance our work life in order to live. I've said it before that when we take our last breath we will not exclaim "Gee, I wish I worked harder". Just the opposite is true.

We all want a work life balance. In order to achieve it we need to plan for it. I am finding that the training required to complete an Ironman takes a greater degree of dedication and planning that originally anticipated. There just isn't enough time in the day to accomplish EVERYTHING. Somethings will need to be planned for another day and time. This means that we need to plan. If we don't plan we will have too large an obstacle to push and we'll undoubtedly avoid it at all costs.

Ironman training highlights this effect explicitly. Take a training week where you need to fit 16 hours of training in. During a week 16 hours is not impossible to find with planning and some life style changes. However, if one training day is missed and you roll it over to another day you body begins to disown you. Similarly, when we push out our work life balance to "another day" we tend to avoid it altogether and begin accepting the situation that we are in. With Ironman training you can't do this or you'll end up entering the day of the event unprepared and unlikely to finish without seeing the medical tent.

Take a good look at your current work life balance. Do you see any changes that can be made? If so, make them today so tomorrow you'll have a brighter outlook on life.

Until next time...

Easy Weeks

Have you ever had one of those weeks that you thought was easy? I'm talking about the type of week that seems to go by effortlessly and yet you accomplished everything you set out to do. It's not too often that we have weeks like this, but when we do the week usually passes and allows us time to reflect. A time where we could actually take a moment (or several moments) to plan and perform the tasks at hand only to complete them to move on to the next.

Wouldn't it be great to have weeks like this consistently? I'm not sure if that is possible, but with planning weeks can have more meaning. The type of meaning that provides a great sense of accomplishment and self worth. Not the type of self worth that people boast about, but the self worth that allows us to look inward with peace or contentment.

As we all know, life brings us daily challenges. Sometimes we don't make enough time for ourselves to overcome these challenges and they mount up. They may mount slowly building week after week or month after month, but sooner or later we'll need to make time for them. Daily planning helps with challenges that we can anticipate and saves time for us to handle unexpected challenges.

Take time today to plan your week so you can enjoy and "easy" week. You owe it to yourself for a little peace in this economy. Begin today. Spend five minutes planning and ultimately you will find yourself wondering why the week was so easy!

Until next time...

Why? or Why Not?

The question of why is always around us in everything that we do. However, each time we try to answer one level of why there is always another one to answer. I have been asked "Why are you training for an ironman?" It may seem a little crazy, but there really isn't a question of "why" to be answered.

For me, it is simply a goal for a way of life that I have selected to follow. I try to eat right and exercise so I can remain on this planet long enough to watch my kids have kids and to give useless advice to my grandchildren. Completing an ironman really isn't a "why" but rather a "why not". The event itself is actually only one day. Not very significant, but the events leading up to it are something special. If people exercise regularly, I ask them "why not?" Why not try to spend one day doing something that you do almost every day...exercise?

You can think of this another way as well. At work, ask yourself "why do I do this every day?" Hopefully, you respond with something such as it is a path that you have selected and enjoy doing every day. If you answer with something other than that, I wish you luck in finding happiness.

Do something today that will make someone ask you "why". You won't regret it and you may even create a little happiness in your corner of the world.

Until next time...