Tuesday, April 5, 2011 at 01:57AM My 460th day of running a mile and the day after my 56th birthday.
All is good. I've just run my mile in the dark with my head torch again because I'm heading up to London quite early for the day.
My 3 key questions for myself today are:
Monday, March 28, 2011 at 11:43AM Now the clocks have sprung forward, I have enjoyed two early'ish morning runs, although I haven't had to revert to the old head torch again, yet.
Yesterday, I went out for a quite pacey (for me) five-miler, which was fantastic.
I saw my four-month-old granddaughter on Saturday for the first time in about five weeks. My, how they change so quickly when they're that little!
What really struck me was how wide-eyed and attentive, although often very briefly, babies are at that age.
Compare that with how narrowly us adults usually look at things, judging, interpreting, writing off or thinking we already know.
How refreshing it would be if we all looked with such wide-eyed and attentive eyes, ears and feelings, suspending our judgements, interpretations, and our thinking that we already know.
We might well discover something new...
Saturday, March 26, 2011 at 08:11AM I enjoyed a lie-in this morning and went out for a little over 2 miles. Weather cloudier today, but pretty warm. All in all a really nice run.
On my run this morning, David Hemery's quote "There is a spark of greatness in everyone" crossed my mind, as well as the phrase "Draw a line in the sand" from the excellent book ReWork, which is one of several that I'm juggling with reading at the moment.
I do believe that there is a spark of greatness in everyone. That greatness may not mean world records, fame, or acclaim, but nevertheless it's in there.
Drawing a line in the sand is about deciding what you stand for and not compromising on that in any way, shape or form.
My ruminations on my run led to the thought that I stand for that spark of greatness in everyone, and my line in the sand should be about acting from my chosen side of that line always.
Do I do that now? No, I don't think so.
Do I do it a lot? Yes, I think I do.
My challenge, and it is a challenge, is to be able to do that every single time and in every single moment.
Will I achieve it? Probably not every single time, like when I'm tired, upset, sad, sick or overwhelmed.
But when I fail, my challenge is to redraw that line in the sand, this time even deeper and recommit a hundred per cent.
I think that acting from my chosen side of the line of greatness is where my greatness lies.
And that for me is what Being Tony is all about. That is what it means for me to be true to myself.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 11:17AM Absolutely gorgeous morning kicked off with an aperitif of fifteen minutes journal writing, followed by a mile-and-a-bit running starter, and then two main courses of business networking. A good healthy way to fuel my day.
I talked about confidence at my first networking meeting this morning.
In my experience, the people that I have been helping with their confidence over the past few years struggle because they think they're going to have to change to be something different than they are now in order to be confident.
Firstly they don't know how to go about this, and secondly they're not entirely sure that they want to change to be someone so different to what they are now.
The most liberating and inspiring part for them is when they find out that they can still be, and they need to be, exactly who they are. They don't have to abandon being nice, being kind and being caring.
Trying to be someone else never works.
You can borrow techniques from others that you see as being effective, but only if you tweak them to work for you and to fit in with your personality.
Who you are stays the same. That, for me, is the most important part and why it works!
Monday, March 21, 2011 at 06:28AM The first day of Spring, according to some. It certainly feels like Spring right now, although it didn't at 6.30 this morning.
My legs are surprisingly sore this morning after a seven and a half mile run yesterday. After all my half marathon training, I didn't expect to feel it in my legs this morning.
On yesterday morning's long(ish) run I was thinking that I am surrounded by possibilities in my life all the time, whether that's from ideas that pop up whilst running, from possible interactions with others, from hearing something, reading something, seeing something or feeling something.
I miss most of these possibilities either from being too busy thinking, worrying or agonising over something else that's wirring around in my head or because my mind is not tuned to receive possibilities.
Sometimes when I'm hoping for something positive to happen I already have a preconception of exactly what I want it to look like, and I don't notice when it presents itself in a different guise so it passes me by.
The best place to be to notice possibilities is in a place that's called openness and curiosity.
It's a bit like letting the clouds clear on a dark night to notice the amazing stars that litter the night sky. They're always there, it's just that most of the time I can't see them.