I Still Can't Believe I was that High in the Air!

It's been far too long since I made an entry on this blog so I thought I'd better update you on what's been happening with me.

One of the wonderful things about my job is that I get to take time off whenever I want. Since my wife is a teacher, summer time if often when I take my break too. This year we decided to take a trip with some of our best friends to the USofA.

We only had a six days to do as much as we could so we approached it full steam ahead.
First we hit Boston. I have a friend there so we stopped there for a night. We went to Quincy Market, Boston Common, and Harvard. The campus was beautiful at Harvard. The market had great food and was very interesting, and we had a good time people watching at the Common.

The next day it was on to NYC. We stayed with relatives in New Jersey but went into the city the next day. It was only my second time in NewYork and I was as amazed this time as I was last. It's such an incredible place! I would never want to live there (the traffic and crowds are too much for this Maritime man) but it's an awesome place to visit. Where else can you hop on a bus and see 20 places you've seen on TV your whole life in one day?

We took another day to go to Philadelsphia, the historic centre of the US. I'd never been there before but it was pretty interesting. We hit some major landmarks, saw the Liberty Bell and last but certainly not least, had a great Philly Cheese Steak sandwich.

On the last day before heading back, we went to Six Flags Great Adventure in NJ. It was AMAZING! So many rides so little time. I was never much for amuzement parks before, but this place was great. I got to ride the tallest and fastest roller coaster IN THE WORLD!!! 45 stories and 128 mph in less than a minute! The ride was called King da Ka and it just can't be described in words. I still can't Check out the experience for yourself http://www.sixflags.com/greatAdventure/rides/Kingdaka.aspx
It was out of character for me, but that's what vacation is all about right?!

So that's what's new with me. Pop me a post to let me know what you're doing with your vacation. I look forward to hearing your stories!

Summer is here, what are your plans?

It's hard to believe but we're already half-way through June and it will be officially summer in less than a week. Soon school will be over for another year and we'll all be enjoying the sun and some time off. The question is, what will you do with that time?

I certainly don't mean to suggest that you should think that you have to be striving to accomplish something every minute of every day. It's absolutely acceptable, even beneficial, to have some days where you just kick back and relax and do nothing. But that doesn't mean that we should take two months off of our goals.

For many, summer is a time where there are less commitments and the work load is lighter than the rest of the year, which means, for many of us, it's the perfect time to spend working on our goals and dreams. We have time to dream, to think big, to pursue our true passions.

The Black and White
Use your summer well. Take time to relax and enjoy the beach and the sun, but don't forget to also take advantage of the free time to work on reaching your goals and realizing your dreams.
Have a great summer!

Sometimes your best has to be good enough

What a great weekend!

This week, I had the opportunity to race in the National Capital Marathon in Ottawa, ON. What an amazing experience! 30,000 runners with different goals and different abilities coming together to challenge themselves to see what they are truly capable of.

It was my third marathon and I had visions of cutting 30 min off of my time. I'd trained, I've done the work, and despite a few nagging injuries, I was confident that I could finish under my goal time (4:29:00).

For the first 28km, I was on pace to run 4:20, things were going well, and I felt great. Then my calf started to act up. Soon the pain spread up my leg and in an effort to compensate, I adopted a different stride, the other leg began to ache too.

Soon I was reduced to walking most of the time and then running when I could. Slowly I watched as my time goal slipped away. I 'wanted' to run, but I just couldn't seem to make my legs go anymore. It was a tough feeling, and there was seemingly nothing that I could do about it. I fought with myself for miles until finally, I ran in the last two kilometers and finished in 4:45. It was still a respectable time and still better than my last marathon, but there was something disappointing about not achieving the goal that I had set for myself.

After feeling bad for myself for a while, I got an email from a friend about some really tough stuff that he was going through. Suddenly I realized that I was focussed on the wrong thing. Instead of enjoying the accomplishment of completing my 3rd marathon, or rejoicing in the fact that I was healthy enough to be able to run in the first place, I was stuck on the fact that I hadn't finished quite as quickly as I'd liked.

The truth is that goals are great. They're important and you should set big ones and set them often. But what is equally important, is to remember that we're human. All we can ever do is our best, and our best is different in different situations and at different times. On Sunday my best was 4:45, on a different day it might be 4:29 on another day, it might be 5:10. But if it's your best, it's your best and that should always be good enough.

In Black & White

Are you beating yourself up for a recent failing? Did you come up short on one of your goals and then decide that goals weren't worth setting because they just lead to disappointment?

Make a list of the things that you most regret or wish you'd done differently. Know ask yourself, did I screw up, or did I do the best I could in that situation on that day? If you screwed up, figure out how and why, and learn from it. If you did your best on that day, be happy with that, your best is always good enough.