Live Intentionally

I tend to be a very determined person.  I believe that often the difference between success and failure is the successful person just gets up one more time than he fails.  One of my my mottos is “refuse to lose.” 

John Maxwell makes some insightful points about quitting in the latest Leadership Wired newsletter:

“You may have heard the saying, ‘Quitters never win, and winners never quit.’ Nothing could be further from the truth! Leaders are strategic quitters.”

I think he’s right.  Sometimes we continue to do things we know aren’t working because we’re afraid of risk.  We’re afraid that if we quit the job we hate we won’t find a better job.  We continue doing things that are ineffective because we don’t want to rock the boat.  There are people who like things the way they are and will be impacted if we make a change.  

In the article he cites 3 valid reasons to quit:

• You quit something you don’t do well to start something you do well.
• You quit something you’re not passionate about to do something that fills you with passion.
• You quit something that’s doesn’t make a difference to do something that does.

It’s been almost 2 months since I last blogged.  What have I been up to?  Recovering from an overly busy phase of life.  Now that I’m reenergized and ready to take the Live Intentionally blog to the next level, one of the things that’s been on my mind is what is the right level of activity to have in one’s life?  One the one hand a boring, listless, unchallenging life lacks meaning and fulfillment.  On the other hand trying to do too much can lead to a rushed, stressed out, overly tired life that lacks reflection and fulfillment as well.

So, where’s the balance?  How do live at a challenging but sustainable pace of life?  I think these are questions a lot of people struggle with.

If you have any thoughts on the topic or know of some good books or other resources.  Post them here.  I’m considering doing an extended series on busyness.

In just a few hours my wife, 3 children, and I will be on the road for the 2 hour drive to Disney World.  And 24 hours from now I’ll be standing around the starting line of the Disney Marathon waiting for gun to go off.

Shifting my sleep cycle seems to have worked.  I ended up going to bed at around 9:30 last night.  I set my alarm for 4:30 but woke up at 4:20.  I think tomorrow morning I’ll set my alarm for 3:15 and arrange to have a taxi at 3:45.  If I have everything laid out and just need to get dressed and eat something, I should have plenty of time.

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Yesterday, I started looking around the web for more advice specific to the Disney Marathon.  The official  Disney Marathon website is good and offers a lot of important information, but I was looking for some unofficial information from people who have done the Disney Marathon.  I found a very helpful site where I got most of my questions answered.  I’ll talk about that in a bit, but there’s one big question I’m thinking through this morning…

The marathon starts at 6 AM, and the official Disney Marathon materials say runners should be in the Epcot parking lot by 4 AM.  That means waking up somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 AM.  I’m used to going to bed around 11 PM.  And considering I’ll be sleeping in a hotel and excited about the marathon the next morning, chances are I’m not going to sleep all that well.

It’s a bit concerning to me that I’ll be taking on the most physically demanding task of my life and lack of sleep could be a significant factor.

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It’s been 3 months since my last blog post.  I added several new things to my plate in the fall including training for my first marathon, helping to coach my son’s soccer team, and serving in a couple of new capacities at church.  Those things along with work and family just became too much.  I just couldn’t do it all.  Some things had to give, and blogging was one of them.

I did keep up with my marathon training (more or less), and now my first marathon is less than 4 days away…

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Saturday I made my first attempt at a 13-mile training run.  It was my first long run since learning last Saturday that I lost about 8 pounds during a 12 mile run, so I did another sweat rate test and continue to experiment with ways to stay hydrated.

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While writing yesterday’s post about how I lost about 8 pounds during Saturday’s 12 mile run, the thing I realized I need to do first is make a more accurate assessment of how much fluid I’m actually losing by doing a sweat rate test.  So, that’s what I did this morning in conjunction with my short run.

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Last Saturday (9/15) I was tired from a long week and lacking sleep and after a good 8 miles, I had to alternate walking and running the last 4.  But after good short runs last week on Tuesday and Thursday, I set off this past Saturday morning on another 12 mile long run with the hopes of doing the whole 12 miles without stopping to walk and hopefully in about 120 minutes.  Everything seemed to be going according to plan through the first 8 miles again and then things headed downhill.

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I apologize again for my infrequent blogging.  I’m way over-committed right now.  And while it kills me not to blog, blogging is probably the only thing I can cut back on where someone else won’t kill me.

Because of working hard and not getting as much sleep as I need, I hit a bit of a dip in my marathon training.  But things seem to be on an upswing now and I surpassed sentimental milestone this morning.

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Sorry I’ve been lax in blogging lately.  Just extraordinarily busy with work, family, and church.  Saturday I ran the same 11-mile loop through several parks as I did last Saturday.  Only this time thanks to the online route mapping sites brought to my attention I knew it was 11 miles and so I didn’t quit 2 miles early.  But perhaps the biggest thing impacting my training these days is lack of sleep.

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