Life Happens

There's no escaping it. 

Where once ideal circumstances existed...

... now exist challenges and responsibilities. 

Make the time to play guitar. To write. To be creative. 

But not at the expense of the things that are your ultimate priority. 

Family first always. 

Especially when taken out by the norovirus. 

Disinfect every surface, people. 

Or suffer the consequences.......

And then... you feel guilty

For not keeping your promise. 

For failing to pickup your guitar. 

For putting other things, less important things, ahead of the things you want to accomplish. 

Not everything can be pushed aside, but not everything should pull focus either. 

Go play guitar and write a mini song and get back on a creative crawl. 

You'll feel better for it. 

Key Plays

The Super Bowl was an amazing game.

And its outcome hinged on a couple key plays.

2 Giants' fumbles that weren't scooped up by the Patriots. An anxiety mistake from Tom Brady resulting in a safety. A holding penalty that took the Giants out of field goal range. A Wes Welker dropped pass that would have extended a series at the end of the game. An unbelievable catch by Mario Manningham to get the last Giants' drive rolling...

I wonder what the "key plays" in my life have been...

How badly do you want it?

Went running again today. I'm not training for anything. Running sessions are now focused on having fun and maintaining my fitness. I can take it easy. I don't need to push. I can just cruise and have a good time and forget about sticking to a hard edged training regiment...

Yet I still find myself running hard on mile 4... I still push myself occasionally just to make sure I can.

It's not necessary. But I'm hoping (and banking on the fact that) it will make a difference when I actually have a training goal.

Sometimes you learn more about yourself when there's nothing else pushing you but your own subconscious.

I need to carry that mentality over into my real life. Because there isn't really an "off-season". Sure, there are periods of time where certain actions crystallize into actual forward movement and growth and development, but even when the stars don't align, you're still progressing. It's just a matter of if that progression is forwards or backwards. Are you setting yourself up for success or failure...?

How badly do you want it? You get a glimpse of how much during these "for fun" sessions... in running, in working, in your career, in your passion, in your life.

Prove it to yourself, Glynn. You know how badly you want it.

Black, White, and Grey (Gray?)

Black and white sells.

Democrat or Republican. Pro-Life or Pro-Choice. Christian or Catholic or Muslim or Buddhist or Atheist.

Right or wrong.

Everyone understands black and white. Wait. Clarification. Everyone can instantaneously relate to black and white. It feels good to have an "us" and a "them". When you think about it, that's all the marketing really is. "Us" is the group "you" are a part of, and "them" is happier than "us" so you should buy the shit that "them" has because it will make you happier.

It hurts to even try to read that last sentence, but I know that it makes sense.

Black and white sells and spurs people into action and is how politicians gain voters and ministers gain followers and parents try to convince their kids that they're not mature or wise enough to know what's best for them.

But black and white is not reality.

There are so many shades of grey, levels of nuance, complications, points of view, frames of reference, varying starting points, personal prejudices, ulterior motives...

I hope I can be there to provide a starting point for Chase, give him an educated guess as to how I think things will play out, offer him advice based on my own personal experience...

But I also hope that if there comes a time when I can't do that for him that I'll have raised him well enough that I can trust his own thoughts and his own judgment.

Black and white sells, but grey is what I'm buying...

Rest Days in Life

Sooooooo...

I'm thinking about signing up for the Carlsbad Marathon. It's on Sunday, January 23rd, which gives me just over 6 months to train. I've got 2 months of base fitness training (a necessity considering I'm in the worst shape of my life), then 4 months of marathon specific training.

In reading up on training for a marathon, rest days often arise as an important topic. "You want to make sure you reach the starting line healthy...", "Skip a run workout, but don't EVER skip a rest day..." It makes you wonder about the importance of rest days not just during marathon training, but during everyday normal life.

How often do we feel burned out? As if we've just hit a dead end? Overwhelmed by everything? In this day and age, I'm guessing these feelings arise more often than not.  Deadlines, kids, wives, husbands, traffic, co-workers, bosses... plenty of sources of stress.

Sure there are the weekends; those are rest days, right? Well, there are chores like cleaning, laundry, yard work...

What's the age old Monday morning exchange?

"How was your weekend?"

"Too short..."

What's the point of all this you ask? Maybe there is no point. Maybe I'm just trying to find out why we spend so much time trying to get ahead, fill the bank account, buy the car, watch the TV show, keep up with the Joneses and less time trying to actually improve our lives.

Funny, really...

The days I spend training for the Carlsbad Marathon...

Those are my "life rest days"...