My partner has been getting up early and doing the Tripleshot Cycling morning rides, so she’s been motivating me to join her.
Last Friday, professional photographer Brad Hartley was out snapping some shots. I really like his work, so I thought I’d share a couple snaps of me suffering and rocking the Oak Bay Bikes kit.
To pursue excellence is to risk self-sabotaging perfectionism.
The self-imposed obstacle of perfectionism accounts for many delays and failures. Perfectionism is a dirty word, and too many people associate it wrongly with success and (worse) personal worth. Although related, perfectionism and excellence differ significantly.
Excellence is a way of doing things—a process, not a terminus.
Excellence is a way of orienting oneself to the world. It may bring about success—success may even require it—but the drive to excel is a decision about how one goes about his or her activities.
I’ve been thinking about excellence in relation to Kiind and also in light of current, tested wisdom: “just ship it” and the 80-20 rule. As I learned over-and-over again at UEnd.org, getting a project or deliverable to good enough is critical for success in early-stage ventures.
What helped make good enough repeatable was a desire to excel in an impossible situation. This desire to excel served to make the impossible possible.
I took this past week off from training to mentally regroup, focus on other parts of life, and remind myself why I do sport in the first place. I love training and I love racing. I love pushing myself but I also love the solitude of a good trail run or the presence of mind one needs to have in fast moving group rides.
Laura (my partner) has started attending the Triple Shot morning rides, so on I went to the Friday morning ride with her. Woke up at 5:00, left the house on the bike at 5:30, group ride started at 6:00. I went out with the A group and it was just what I needed (I also have to learn better sprint tactics). After coffee, I spent more time on the bike heading home the long way and then doing some extra stuff. This ride helped remind me that I love cycling, I love pushing myself on the bike, and I love training.
Earlier today, I ran at Mt. Work with my dogs. While I had more knee issues after about 30min, getting lost on the single track mountain bike trails through lush, west coast forest was a real pleasure. Again, I started triathlon because I love to run, bike, and swim. I train because I love it. I race because I love it.
The reminder of my passion puts my shitty race in perspective.
Up next: Get some physio. Keep training as much as possible while looking for work (or startup funding). Love life.
A good player is always lucky.
“We feel free because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom.” — Slavoj Ž
Björk posted this recently and I wanted to pass it along.
