Awesome

When it comes to making a change in life, there are two choices:

1. Commit to specific goals now, or
2. Admit that the goal is not important to you.

You must pick one.

Forcing yourself to choose one determines your dedication to the goal.

For example, a statement like “I want to get fit” needs to be followed immediately by a set of actionable commitments that will move you towards that goal. Be specific. “I will run for 15 minutes on Mon, Wed, and Fri at 7pm”.

I said, “I didn’t know you were a cross-country skier.”

He replied, “Yeah. I did it competitively all through high-school, and continued into university. It was awesome! We used to go to the local ski hill and ski up the fucking thing for our training…”

The stories went on for twenty minutes and it was the most animated that I’ve seen Joe in years.

Joe is now middle-aged, overweight and plagued by health issues. Oh, and he recently lost his job. So did his wife. They’re not doing so well.

I finished the Toronto Marathon on May 5, 2013 in 3:54:10 and I’m satisfied with that result. Overall I found the race to be much more enjoyable than it was in 2005, mostly because of the improved course and better crowd support.

Getting to the start was a bit of a hassle, as it often is in Toronto. The subway gets to sleep in on Sundays here so there’s no public transit. I wish I had paid the extra $8 at registration for the shuttle bus from downtown but I didn’t think about it at the time, so I ended up having to take an expensive taxi.

I recently watched the Bones Brigade documentary/autobiography that covers the explosion of skating in the 1980s and 1990s. If you haven’t seen it then do yourself a favour and see it, even if you were never into skateboarding.

There are several parts of the film where the skaters talk about how they went about inventing tricks. You see, learning a trick merely requires practice because you’ve already seen someone else do it so you know that it’s possible. Your mind already believes it.