Category Archives: General

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Pick-A-Person

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Today’s a perfect day for this new “game”.

Why? Because it’s the New York City Marathon Day, of course.

Now, don’t stop reading just because you’re not a runner/walker or a marathoner. It doesn’t matter.

What I’d like you to do is scan your memory or even your bookshelf. Or here’s an idea, go through your “Friend” list on social media.

Pick one person that you admire. It doesn’t matter even if you know them (but they’re on your “friend” list for some reason, right..ha ha).

Take 30 seconds to a 1 minute – that’s all it requires. You can do more or even less. You have control. It’s totally up to you.

Why did you pick that person? What is the first thing that comes to mind when you picked them? I mean, you have a ton of people to choose from – from world leaders, ancient philosophers, your mail carrier, you disabled neighbor or friend, an acquaintance who’s sick or struggling right now, someone who’s been the Phoenix rising and overcome hell to rise up again.

Now caress that one thing, that one quality or characteristic you saw. Describe what that quality is. Then express gratitude that you have seen this trait personified.

Ask yourself what you can do to cultivate that same attribute. Obviously (hopefully), it’s something you desire, or you wouldn’t have picked them. Why do you admire them? Make a list of what you need to do to either strengthen it in you or to develop it.

Today I pick Kim McCoy, whose comeback from a horrific car accident during a 340 mile race and a resultant amputated leg, is the stuff that “feel-good” and inspirational movies are made of. She is running in the New York City Marathon. Determination is the word that comes to mind when I think of her. This is coupled with persistence but I am going to use “determination” as my word of the week and write down everything I can think of that will emboss that quality in my daily life.

Best of luck to Kim and all the others who have worked so hard to prepare for the New York City Marathon!

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Is The World A “Mess”?

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It’s almost discouraging to scan the papers or even social media because most of what you see is negative stuff – people arguing, fighting, violence both provoked and unprovoked.

“Why bother? Many of us have just thrown our hands up in despair. We give up? What’s the world come to? It’s such a mess.”

One of the most important lessons I learned in preparing for the 2022 Vol State race (and subsequently for life – too bad it’s several decades late) was that you should focus on only that which you can control. “Control the Controllables” for short.

Neither you nor I can control the state of the world. We can actually control so very little in our lives that that is often the source of our frustration and even our anger.

But you CAN control the way you behave in YOUR world. You can control your anger and your responses to people and their actions even if you can’t control their actions. Can you go a day without experiencing “frustration” at something? Can you make a pact with yourself to replace every negative thought with something positive? Take the controversy about Daylight Savings Time. You can’t do anything about that. Instead of letting the negative effects of all the name calling and derision get into your mind, why not prevent the spewing of the stress chemicals by thinking about the weather at this time of year (or if it’s still uncomfortable, think about what’s coming) and be grateful and happy about it. I walked to the mailbox this morning (the extent of my walking right now) and it was 58 degrees and glorious. I just took a minute to savor it.

Can you help someone in your apartment, on your block, in your neighborhood, in your community? You can control what you do and who you give to. You can’t control their reactions so don’t do it to gain appreciation and be thought of as a wonderful person. Do it because it gets you out of the “the world is a mess” thinking process.

Or, just concentrate on something in your life that you can control and that will make you feel good. Can you go to bed earlier at least one night a week? Then, maybe 2 or 3 and so on? Can you not get a latte one day a week and donate that money – or put it in a special jar for a surprise you can get for someone or for yourself?

There’s a myriad of ways you can change things in your life so it’s not a mess. We change the world one step and one person and one response at a time.

Make a list of things in your life (see the word cloud image I included and make your own). Then, circle those that are in your control. Copy that to a separate list that you can keep in front of you whenever you need to remind yourself. A car cuts in front of you. Can you control that? No. But, do you have to get upset by it? Nope! That’s within your control!

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Always Have a Back-Up Plan

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Do I have one? Nope

Have I ever had one? Nope

You should take advice from people who have experience, they say. I don’t have experience with back-up plans, but I have some with NOT having one and it’s from that perspective I’m writing today…unfortunately.

I am forcing myself into “down” time since I am having injury concerns. I don’t like calling them injuries because nothing specific happened, but they are problems. Both my hip and my heel (same side too ha ha on me) have been bothering me for a couple of weeks. The heel is my biggest concern, though, as it’s not in the location I’ve had plantar fasciitis before and therefore may be another stress fracture – even though it occurred at a weird time. I had already cut down on my walking when it started. Sigh….. So, since I have a very big year coming, I figured I better let them both heel now.

I’m sure most of the people reading this will already be feeling my anxiety – “oh no, what do I do now? I’ll go crazy if I can’t walk.” And yes, that is happening. I don’t have a back-up plan.

However, fortuitously, this has happened during November which is always NANOWRIMO – National Novel Writing Month. And I have participated in this almost every year since 2004. Although not writing a novel, I had planned to get my next book out this month – it’s kind of a sequel to “It’s Not About the Miles”. I use the structure and discipline of the NANOWRIMO program for my writing. Last year I got 70,000 words of “It’s Not About the Miles” done in November and I intend to write this book entirely this month.

So, I have a built-in back-up plan for November. Not sure what to do if I need more time than that.

It has made me realize, though, that at my age (or any age), I need to develop more interests to fill a day for the time when, God forbid, I can’t walk any more. I’ll have to explore that more.

You’d think I would have learned about having a back-up plan when I was younger. I had wanted to be a doctor since I was 4 and that’s all my sights were ever set upon. Well, you can imagine my surprise and total devastation when I didn’t get into medical school on the first TWO attempts. I had to get a job but had no skills, no training, no idea of what to do….So, I just floundered around, and the Universe took care of me, but I should have had a plan. Especially since my “plan” of becoming a neurosurgeon was also derailed at about the same time – when I developed epilepsy. I had no idea of what I wanted to do instead of neurosurgery, so I had no plan.

It’s important to ask ourselves if we have back-up plans for many aspects of our life. And it helps to ask others too because they may need help in the future (or perhaps now) and might be too proud to ask. No one saw the pandemic coming. And no one saw the consequences either – inflation and cost of living skyrocketed. Many folks are in need of help now but don’t feel they can ask for help. Maybe you know what was going on with them and can provide help without them having to ask. Think of all the good you could do! That’s a back-up plan of sorts.

Take some time – we are too darn busy anyway – to figure out your back-up plans. I bet people in Florida know what a back-up plan is with all the hurricanes they endure.

Sigh..back to writing with my foot elevated….have a great day.