Breaking records

Meditations, Practice, Perspectives, and Running Notes | Vol. 44

May 17, 2024

Hi Move Fast, Think Slow Readers!

You’re lucky.

You get to read my chili twice in one week!

Yesterday, we dropped advertising history knowledge / tipped our hats to a legend - Mary Wells Lawrence. Give it a read if you missed it. Find out why she was an juggernaut-trail-blazeing Queen. In short, the GOAT (Greatest of All Time for the folk in the back).

To round out this week's notes, we are going to click into running updates, a reminder to practice gratitude & acknowledge your wins, re-visiting this notion of winter farming/seeking out discomfort, and a few interesting observations.

By tomorrow morning, I will be shredding 13.1 miles in Brooklyn, running the NYRR BK Half for the fifth time.

15,000+ runners will take part in this 13.1 mile journey. It will be a celebration of life.

I just love the journey of these races and the days themselves. Getting to the race is a finish line within itself.

Us runners will remind ourselves of joy. The joy of discovery. The excitement of finding out the unknown. The elation and satisfaction of reaching the finishing line.

My goal is to break 1:40:00. It’d be a new record in the half for me and my best time on that course. Last year I ran a 1:41:35. The best time I ever got in this race was a 1:41:07.

The pain will be inevitable. But the suffering is always optional.

CHECKING IN: HOW ARE YOUR GRATITUDE & CONFIDENCE PRACTICES

Want to get a powerful perspective and feel better overall?

Practice gratitude. Observe and acknowledge your wins.

I wrote about this here.

Personally, it has been interesting to see how my energy has shifted as I’ve increased the frequency of this practice.

And the best part of it is this: it doesn’t take long. Find yourself :10 minutes. Get a notebook and a pen. Go find a quite space.

And ask yourself:

What were my wins this week?
What am I grateful for?

And. Write. That. Shit. Down.

Then later that day or the next morning. Go read what you wrote.

This tends to be an eye-opening and cleansing process.

The odds are, you’re already winning big and just don’t even know it.

DON’T LET COMFORT GET IN THE WAY - WINTER FARMING & EXPLORATION

The NeverEnding Story oral history: Secrets of Atreyu, Falkor, Artax, more

I was reminded of this piece last week, and it’s been staying with me over the past week. Two big themes:

Discomfort is where growth sits
Extended periods of exploration can be like winter farming; nothing is visibly growing, but a subterranean process is at work, and in time yield a bounty.

Embracing discomfort to get to better results is a reality that’s backed by academic research.

Great [research] paper for teaching & learning. Tell students: “Your goal is to feel awkward and uncomfortable.”
Giving an explicit goal of aiming to feel uncomfortable in order to grow makes folks persist in classes, write better, seek out more info & learn more from political opponents.
SOURCE

In that research study, the kids who were told to get uncomfortable outperformed the ones who were not told to get uncomfortable. Fascinating.

This is also a big Stoic theme that Ryan Holiday drives home.

All of this has me asking:

Am I getting uncomfortable enough?
Where else can I explore to discover the different or new?
What new knowledge wells or creative practices can I take on to get me out of my comfort zone?

I’m planning on unpacking this more in the weeks ahead. There’s an important theme for anyone at any stage of their career/life. Whether you’re looking for that next big job or you’re bored of the place you’re in. Finding discomfort and new practices are vital if you want to get to change.

What are you willing to sacrifice to get to great?

sentences.from.movies

A post shared by @sentences.from.movies

INTERESTING OBSERVATIONS - PERSPECTIVES TO MAKE YOU THINK

By Francis Fukuyama HT: Spencer Cox. Is this why we can’t have anything nice?

Do the work. Stay healthy. The rest will take care of itself. Remember, be grateful and acknowledge your wins. And find time/space to wander.

The results are in!!

F**% your smartphone.

But six weeks ago, my wife and I—on a shared gut feeling—cut off the iPads for a weekend. When they pressed to explain why, we said, "We're taking a break, and we don't know how long. Let's just prioritize some other things."
This was a real problem for our eldest, who LOVES drawing on the iPad. She started during the Pandemic and has built a real artistic style. But even then, we cut it off and forced her to use other media.
One weekend turned into two, and now SIX. Two of those weeks included TWO weeks of Spring Break. Prime iPad time. We allowed lots more TV time and Nintendo time - probably even too much.
And I'm here to report on the results of this impromptu detox: it's great.

“Are you using your device or is your device using you? We have to ask ourselves, around the world, what is it [the smartphone] doing to us?” - Denzel Washington in a recent interview