Wednesday, March 3, 2010

The End Game

It's interesting how many different conclusions you can reach by changing your vantage point on the exact same things... for example, work/career. Here's two totally different viewpoints that lead to different conclusions, but yet are both entirely valid.

  • Nobody on the death bed made mention that they wished they'd spent more time at the office.
  • Anything worth doing is worth doing well.
Now I understand that's a bit of a reach, but nevertheless it is a valid example. Being a passionate person, I don't really do many things halfway... therefore I am frequently assessing how I'm spending my time and whether that's what I really want to be doing. One paradox I've been running into for years (and seem to be bumping up against a lot lately) is present-focus vs. future-focus... no matter what situation you're looking at in the present, the assessment you'd make of the exact same situation in the long run will differ - and sometimes by quite a bit.

This blog tends to be a bit triathlon/running focused, and that's sort of the intent. The thoughts I'm having right now weighing short-term vs. long-term aren't exclusively related to tri, but there certainly is application. When considering how to do this sport for a lifetime, taking a short-term view and a long-term view result in very different results/benefits as well as courses of action. It's a blast as far as a lifestyle choice - can't beat the people you meet along the way, every finished race is a personally meaningful accomplishment, and the cardiovascular health benefits can't be beat. But, it is highly resource consuming... whenever large amounts of time and money are involved, it's always worth some serious consideration concerning the real value to you.

So, having said all that, I'm looking forward to a year of almost exclusively long stuff in 2010. 2011 will almost certainly be an Ironman year for me again (my 3rd), but we'll see what else makes its way into 2011. 2012 is a total wild card at this point.

Let the fun begin. How many days until Lonestar 70.3? I better get back to training!

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Those who want to 'See Tom Tri' :)