A feedback junkie

This morning was day 699 of my mile-a-day escapade.

Only just over 38 more years to catch up with my retired U.S. dentist friend.

That would make me 94 years old. Now there's a sobering thought.

Yesterday I was delivering another Be the Best You Can Be! teacher development session, this time to 22 primary school teachers in Essex.

Delivering these sort of sessions is always a great opportunity for me to step back afterwards and reflect on how I did in achieving the purpose of the overall session.

It was doubly useful yesterday because I had a fellow coach observing, who will be delivering her first teacher development session soon. She is also a very experienced coach.

Now, I don't know about you but I've turned into a real feedback junkie.

I know that I can always up my game and take it to another level, no matter whether I feel I did a great or not-so-great job.

We all have blind spots where we just can't see things that are obvious to the external perspective of an observer.

And you always have a choice when receiving feedback.

Think of it as a gift.

It could be just the thing you were hoping for.

It could be the gift that you're not too sure what to do with, but in time you realise it's quite useful.

It could be the present from your grandmother that you know you're never going to use, so you donate it to your nearest charity shop.

Whichever type of gift it is, the process of considering which type is always a useful exercise.

Madder than me

I read, on the internet yesterday, of a retired American dentist who had recently become the 6th person in the U.S. to complete 40 years of running every single day.

Apparently, there are also 286 people who have registered with the U.S. Running Streak Association, who have run at least a mile every day for at least one year.

So there are others as mad as, if not even madder than, me.

For me, running at least a mile every day is such a great discipline for overcoming obstacles.

There are very few days when I can actually say that I'm excited about stepping out of the door in my running shoes.

There have been days when there has been snow and ice completely covering my route.

There have been days when I have limped round at double my normal time due to injury.

There have been days when I've had to run on a treadmill (something I hate).

So I start pretty much each day by pushing past a mental barrier.

What do you do to build discipline for overcoming obstacles that stand in the way of your dreams?

Your balance isn't mine

I ran 5.5 miles very gently this morning.

I hope I'm not overdoing it too soon.

Checking my iPhone log of my runs, it says that today my overall mileage, since I started on 1st January 2010, just clicked over the 1,500 miles total.

The word that kept coming up for me on this morning's run was 'Balance'.

I know that I love being around people, and I also love my own space.

I love music, and I also love silence and tranquility.

I love energetic activity, and I also love relaxing and chilling out.

Life is all about finding the right balance.

I used to struggle with opposites.

It made me confused, wondering why I couldn't work out which end of the spectrum I really liked. Surely one of them was the right one for me and I was just kidding myself on the opposite that also had appeal.

I thought it made me indecisive.

But now I understand that like day and night, hot and cold, breathing in and breathing out, life is all about a combination of differing extremes and tastes, and it's about finding the right balance between those extremes.

And it's also about finding the right balance for me.

The balance that is right for you and anyone else isn't necessarily going to be the right balance for me.

I have to find my own balance.

Then it works for me.

Two of my best ideas

It was one of those morning runs full of ideas this morning.

I had to grab Post-Its to write the ideas down, in case I forgot them, even before I did my post-run stretches.

A lot of my best ideas have come when I'm running.

When I first decided to go freelance back in my old IT days, that was while running in Regent's Park in London during my lunch break.

When I decided it would be a good idea to run the London Marathon whilst coaching people on my mobile phone, the idea came to me on a long Sunday run of eight or so miles.

Those two ideas, because I not only had them, but also acted upon them, have both had a dramatic impact on my life.

I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing for a living now if I hadn't had, and acted on, the first one.

I wouldn't have had my two most lucrative clients I've had to date if I hadn't had, and acted on, the second one.

What do you do that encourages your creative ideas, and how do you make sure you act on them?

Out of my own way

Another step in my running recovery.

As well as my mile-and-a-bit yesterday morning, I went to help out with the fantastic Sarah's Runners, last night, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Then another mile-and-a-bit this morning.

With my finger noticeably improving on a daily basis, the mouth ulcer, which I've been suffering with for the past ten days, pretty much gone, and another progression with my running, my body is doing a superb job at the old healing process.

I've heard it said before, and I do think it's true, that sometimes we just have to get out of our own way.

If I was actually trying to heal myself from my running injury, my finger slicing and my mouth ulcer, I would have worried a lot about what was the best course of action, researched it in detail, tried various solutions and then fretted because I wasn't doing it properly.

Admittedly, I am doing a lot more stretching now, particularly after my running, but that is not so much healing , as learning from the previous errors of my ways, and adapting my habits so the same mistakes are less likely to be made.

I wonder in what other areas of my life could I do with getting out of my own way?