Lead Your Charge!

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m no life coach. More than anything, I’ve simply followed my passions and lived my life accordingly. What’s the recipe for success?   …I really have no idea?  From what I have observed in those who are successful (“success” being defined as living up to one’s full potential) is that they have a few underlying principles in common:

Find Your Beat - No matter what your definition of success, if you are not happy doing what you do all else seems immaterial. Follow your passions. Do what you love. There is no higher calling. As Thoreau famously put it: "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears the beat of a different drummer." Find your beat and dance to it.  And dance with reckless abandon!

Focus - My grandmother once told me, “You can have anything you want, you just can’t have everything you want.” To me, this speaks to focus and perseverance. Set goals and stay the course. Will it be easy? Hell no! Undoubtedly there will be hurdles to overcome and obstructions to conquer. Highly accomplished people remain focused on getting the job done despite the blockades. “Obstacles are those frightful things we see when we take our eyes off our goal,” Henry Ford once said. Keep your eyes on your goals and never, ever give up.

Fail Spectacularly - The grander the challenge the higher the potential for catastrophe. The history books are filled with stories of successful people risking everything. Sometimes the outcome is a celebrated success, other times it’s not so pretty. The main lesson here is to have the courage to try. Failure can lead to incredible discovery. Embrace failure as an opportunity to learn and grow. Shake it off, pick up the pieces, and move on. As I self encouragingly say to myself, “It’s not how many times you fall down that matters, it’s how many times you get back up.”

Never Stop Exploring - Show me someone who is content and I will show you an underachiever. Be restless. Search, endeavor, wander.  Push your limits and step beyond your comfort zone.  The familiar breeds contentment and complacency.  True growth only occurs when you journey into unchartered territory and tackle the unknown. As Tennessee Williams once said, "Make voyages. Attempt them. There’s nothing else.”

May 2010 be YOUR year for attempting great challenges to be better!

Boulder Beer Mile

A time honored tradition here in Boulder - and the fierce rivalry between San Diego vs Boulder continues for this auspicious event.

Costumes are mandatory for participants, and late 70's-early 80's are always honored!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snowshoeing in Vail

First, a few more pics from the Speedo Party:

I didn't mention my hilarious "white elephant" gift.  Most people know I continue to get grief about my animal pajamas (I call them "warm, fuzzy pants", which they most certainly are!) that I, admittedly, wear more places than I should.   What can I say?  On a cold day, those flannel warmies just feel good to throw on if I am schlepping to the gym, Safeway (mmm), whatever.

There have been secret plots to try to steal my ducks/penguins (see below in the October snow post), talks behind my back as to how to get these from me.  Mean friends!!   For the white elephant gift exchange I gave in to JZ and Brandon's pressure and agreed to give up one of my animal pajamas for my gift give-away.   I begrudgingly wrapped my warm, cute Halloween bat flannel jammies.  *sigh*

Then!!  As only fate would have it, the gift I got....

(drumroll, please...............)
A SNUGGIE!!!

We all continued to laugh that I would give up the jammies and get a Snuggie.  Perfect.










Here are a couple other funny shots of JZ, Brandon and me.

The following week our crew of Mark, JZ, Tingle, Billy, Lara, Bogart (B&L's beloved canine) and I went to visit Don in Vail to do some snowshoeing.  I had never done it before and it was really fun.   Of course JZ had us climbing ridiculous inclines but you know with her there always has to be some sort of workout involved.  :)
Here are some shots taken:

 

 

 

Happy Holidays!

4th Annual "I look good in a speedo" Holiday Party

Another crazy party put on by Pete Valentyik and Brad Seng.    Only in Boulder (and maybe Southern CA) could the roomful of people actually look good in swim wear (if worn).

 

Our Boulder Timex crew huddled up for some group shots:
(Tingle, me, Will Kelsey, Barry Siff, Erin Kummer and Denny Meeker)

 

Highlight of the party is the "white elephant gift exchange".   Billy (Edwards) dresses as Santa and gifts are exchanged while Billy heckles each of us.

 

 

Winter Weather

"Time for the weather report. It's cold out folks. Bonecrushing cold. The kind of cold which will wrench the spirit out of a young man, or forge it into steel."

-Diane Frovol and Andrew Schneider   "Northern Exposure, Lost and Found" -

I promised I would always report in the truth.  The truth as I saw it (or felt it!), but the truth nonetheless.

It will be interesting to see how this winter season plays out as, not even mid-December, I have already seen more snow than I encountered the entire year last year.   It has been below 20 degrees, some days even hitting the negative numbers (YIKES!!) for the past week.  Holy smokes.  

It has been COLD here lately, friends. C. O. L. D. !!!   Since I am a wuss and was promised Boulder winters were not that brutal, I've maintained that my blog would be a refuge for the truth about this.  Last year really wasn't that bad, but so far this year has been a little more of a challenge.

Billy seems to feel differently.  "No Sharpie, remember last year, it was like this!  It was COLD for a short stint and then it was fine."

Maybe he is right.  I do remember and have always maintained that it is kind of cold for a couple weeks, but then it's not so bad.   And if memory serves, it was around this time last year, too.    So.... perhaps we are getting our cold weather out of the way now?

It is also worthy of mention that the dry cold IS a different cold.   Leanne picked me up for dinner the other night and it was 12 degrees.   TWELVE DEGREES.  I am the first to agree, it was cold, but it didn't feel like what 12 degrees to me would feel like.   It felt closer to what I know 40 degrees to be in Atlanta, or on the east coast.   So, using that as the measure, it really isn't THAT much worse.... the test this winter will be the amount of snow, and the longevity of "days like 40".

Stay tuned.

Acronyms

“The problem with the younger generation is that I’m no longer part of it,” Mark Twain once famously penned. Wow, can I relate.

Just when I thought I was catching up, they go out and invent an entirely new language. I am becoming more and more frustrated trying to decipher emails/notes and text messages from people.  Some of my friends are quite proficient, but I’m conversational at best.

It’s quite demanding, so who can blame me for occasional mispronunciations? I said "IAE" at Laura Tingle and Erin Kummer's pot luck dinner last night. Some of the young 'uns reminded me that it’s supposed to be IAT (I am tired). Whatever.  Until Mark and JZ arrived (we are the same age), I was by far the oldest person at the shin-dig.  I scanned the houseful of people feeling like I was at a fraternity party.  I leaned over to Tingle and said, "I feel like the house mother right now!".   As one of the guys walked by... he was, I don't know, maybe 24 years old (?), I stopped him in his tracks to tease, "Hey handsome, think you'd be interested in a cougar?"  Everyone around me laughed, including my young friend.   I then took a swig of Geritol in liquid form in order to maintain my stamina at the frat party. :)

But I digress.  Back to acronyms.

Here’s how it works in this updated world of "communication": All dialog must be limited to 140 characters—the maximum length of a “Tweet”—and shorter is universally better. Any phrase that can be abbreviated, should be.

Here are some I've learned: 4COL (For crying out loud), CMSS (Cut me some slack). ^5 to that, right? (High five).

This whole thing got me thinking about some abbreviations we athletes might find handy. Here are some of my favorites:
BMP (Bring me pizza)
BMP STAT (Bring me pizza, immediately)
BBT (Bonking big time)
D@M12 (Died at mile 12)
NGU (Need GU)
NGU STAT (okay, you got this one)
And one of my most enthusiastic, PMUN! (Pick me up NOW!).

Soon enough the world of technology will make it possible for us to be devoid of in-person conversations entirely!  How lovely.  We'll become entirely social phobic creatures incapable of functioning in a "live" scenario.   Every conversation can exist in the vacuum of electronics. 

All well.   BMM STAT!  (Bring me margaritas, immediately!)

Do you even need me to say anything?   I didn't think so.