Every few years I need a re-direct… a refocus… a reboot.
I recently took a family vacation to Zion National Park. During which I abstained from social media completely and focused on connecting with myself and my family. During a hike up a steep trail, and looking down at where I had been, I saw a metaphor for life that reminds me that we are where we are because of where we have been.
I have tried a little bit of just about everything. I didn’t figure out that I am a teacher until I was 30. I didn’t figure out that I am a runner until I was almost 50. I have been enthusiastic about coaching, about motorcycles, about fishing, about music. Sports and music have been a common thread throughout my life to varying degrees. I tend to get super involved in something until I start thinking it is taking too much time away from something else that I want to be enthusiastic about. I do a lot of things fairly well and I don’t consider myself a true expert on very much. What I think I am fairly good at is using my experiences to coach others.
For the past 20 years, I have been blessed to share my coaching experiences with math students, to share lessons learned from running with softball and soccer athletes, and to mentor students to apply running to life and life to running.
I took up running about 6 years ago to lose some weight. I found it a powerful tool in battling depression and the lessons I have learned in perseverance from running ultra marathons have incredible value in my life.
My career coaching high school athletes has ended. I still love running, but I am taking a break (indefinitely) from distances longer than 50k and maybe from distance longer than 10 miles. I am 5 to 7 years away from retiring from my teaching career. It’s time to start looking beyond that toward whatever is next.
I have always had a huge admiration and much respect for those people who are able to focus on one thing and become truly great at it. I have never found that one thing that I am willing to give up all else for… at least not permanently.
this project is finally complete
When I trained for my first marathon, my first 50k, my first 50 miler… I spent a massive portion of my time training. I gave up playing music. My motorcycle spent 4 years not being worked on (sometimes ridable, sometimes not). Projects around the house were set aside, not started, or left incomplete. As I look ahead to my next career, I’m taking some time to finish some things. And think… meditate… pray… about what is next.
My story, like yours, is a complicated one. Yet, the simple threads that run through it are what holds it all (and me) together. I’m a coach! My experiences as a teacher, as a musician, as a runner are the tools that I use to coach people on whatever goals they are trying to achieve. Moving out of the adventure stage of life to the mentor stage of life does not mean there are no more adventures.
Truth be told, there is a lot of overlap between the stages of life and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
There will be running. There will be music. There will be fishing. There will be motorcycles. There will be beer. There will be family and friends I have met along the way. I hope that you’ll join me in my story and that my story, helps your story in some way.
