Oct. 16, 2010
Total Distance for today: 12.5 miles
Total Distance for Trip: approx. 135.5 miles
Current Location: Eddystone, PA
Today was a very short skate, because I got started later than I wanted to, and I didn’t really want to do the last 14 miles of the skate in the dark. I ended up skating from a Wal-Mart in Philadelphia to another Wal-Mart in Eddystone, PA. I’m just splitting the original planned route between today and tomorrow. Speaking of which, tomorrow night will be the first Couch Surfing experience of the tour! I’m pretty pumped, but more on that later! I got tied up working on a promotional video for Sandi and Al from the Insights Group. They were going to show it at a VY Summit event they were attending this weekend. Dillon and I kinda got distracted on that, so we got it to them pretty late. Not sure if they were able to show it or not.
For whatever reason, I woke up with very little motivation today. It happens. I just didn’t feel motivated to accomplish much of anything, and the skate was no exception. I had enough energy physically, and it was no problem. I just wasn’t excited to do it. Sometimes, when you’re going against the wind uphill and you have no desire to go, you just do it anyway. You don’t need some psychological reset or inspirational speech. The best thing you can do for yourself and your cause is to simply get your ass out there and skate! 😉 No matter what you’re working toward, don’t expect every day to be an exciting adventure. Sometimes, it feels like a long, tedious, and boring adventure, but you’re just preparing the way for more interesting days ahead – putting in the time, if you will (and you will, because this is my blogpost, and I say so!).
Understand that your energy levels, emotional and physical, will fluctuate. Studies show that the most important mood hormone, dopamine, comes in cycles. If you feel down and out about your situation, project, or dreams, recognize that it’s most likely just the trough of the sine wave and not the end of all hope for you! You’ll be riding it back up soon, and the key is to show the maturity to appreciate the perspective gained from the trough. It’s inevitable: People like me, entrepreneurs, are likely to make emotional decisions in both the troughs and the peaks of our emotional cycles. We can be impulsive, and that can be a weakness. It’s also a strength, because it allows us to make quick decisions with conviction, when others would feel the need to “sleep on it.” Today’s lesson: Push through the emotional lows, use the energy of the highs, but maintain an objective perspective through both. Sound a little like stoicism? Well it should, because it is! To tomorrow!
