Get it Right

I am going to try something radical today. Alright, more radical. I am going to try to take matters into my own hands. Be responsible for ownership. Take control. I am going to attempt to inspire and motivate myself.

Not anybody else. Just me. I am going to show me what the real me can do. The best me, not fretting about what the response might be. And not solely in terms measuring speed, power, strength or endurance. More the synergy of balance, focus, flow, attitude and presence. And that doesn't necessarily mean accomplishment. I simply want to be in the moment, for many moments today. There are messy, challenging and tedious chores that need doing. Projects that require attention, sentences to build and wrongs to right. Negotiations to conduct, accounts to manage, colors to choose. Rough edges to smooth.

I think this M&I (hereafter acronym for Motivation and Inspiration) should be my responsibility, not that of some quotable poet, musician or philosopher. Mine. It should have meaning. It WILL have meaning. If I use it as practice. If I use it with right attitude. If I put everything I have into it. If I am passionate about all that, whatever the end result provides, will be fine. For today. If I don't like it tomorrow, I will edit, erase, remove, rearrange, augment, diminish or demolish. That will be then.

This M&I will be now. Today's metaphor in fable format:

My brother is a gifted finish carpenter. I was thinking about him when cutting a gorgeous piece of clear vertical grain (CVG) fir yesterday with a dull blade. The cut was rough leaving a splintered edge and a unsightly, unattractive butt joint. I listened to myself make the usual concession as I looked at my watch, gumption escaping by the foot-pound, "This isn't a piano, buddy-boy, nobody will see it, care about it or say anything about it. It's an out-house for crying out loud, and you don't need to be a perfectionist on this, so just nail it and move along."

No inspiration, no motivation other than the accomplishment, no satisfaction, no art. Worse, I felt like I had cheated. Somehow missed the bigger point because i was hungry and wanted to start dinner's soup.

I missed a wonderful opportunity to take charge. To do the radical, avoid the mediocre. To inspire myself (in this example) by sharpening the blade, making the right cut, and accepting only my best regardless of application, location or end use. Staying with the hammer, not thinking of the spoon.

This wood-working metaphor seems appropriate here on Monday of race week. My ankle held up nicely in class this morning. I know it is not and will not be 100% come Sunday. And that is OK. The 70.3 miles of Lake Stevens will get my best, whatever that is. And whatever that is will be OK.

Because today I will sharpen the blade. Redo the cut and get it right. The redundancy of this is not important. It is practice, training, effort. It has meaning. I am doing this for me, there is no overtime charge. Just get it right. Radical, I know.

Wish me luck.