Marathoning (Guest Post - Tyler)

It is my distinct pleasure to welcome Tyler as a guest poster. Although I disagree with who he roots for in baseball, I have great respect and admiration for Tyler. I am amazed at how he can nonchalantly mention he ran 10 miles for fun today, when to me it sounds like pure punishment. 

I am slowing down to pace myself
 and maintain balance

In my line of work I am constantly looking at making decisions based on the inherit risks. I have to determine what risks are acceptable and how does my organization manage those risks if we decide to accept them. One thing I look for is trends from year to year. If the trend is negative, I ask myself if I believe it can reasonably be corrected or reversed. If it is a positive trend I ask if it is sustainable over a long period.

As I examine my personal life I can take the same approach. If I have a negative behavior impacting my life can it be corrected or reversed? If I have a positive behavior is it a behavior that I can sustain for the rest of my life?

Sometimes when I am feeling particularly motivated with the desire to change a bad behavior I go all out and take drastic measures to change. The problem with this is that it is not sustainable and consequently does not fit my lifestyle, so I end up burning out, quitting, and resuming with the same poor behavior. If I am going to make a permanent change then it has to balance with the rest of my life.

As a hobby I enjoy long distance running. I have run multiple marathons in the last 5 years. I am by no means the fastest person out there, but relatively speaking I am faster than most, and usually finish in the top 5%. The reason I bring this up is not to brag, it is because it reminds me of an article I read this last year on running that indicated research showed the long term benefit of running on cardiovascular health is better for those who run at a more moderate pace. For men, who typically train at a pace faster than 8:00/mile, they begin to see deterioration in heart health later in life as a result of the intense strain put on the body earlier in life. Those who train at a slower pace, and were able to maintain that training, enjoyed a positive benefit of long term health.  As my high school track coach used to always say to us distance runners, “If you go out too fast you will pay for it double at the end.”

This is just another reminder that perhaps the best approach is to slow down. I believe the key to a sustainable positive lifestyle is balance and moderation. That is what I am seeking. I see areas in my life where I am way out of balance and adjustments need to be made, but I am going to try and tackle them gradually with patience. I am going to look at finding balance more like a marathon than a sprint. I can’t just hurry and find balance. I need to work and prepare and take my time so that I am able to keep moving forward when life happens and tries to push me further out of balance.