I've focused several posts so far on finishing what we start and comparisons between different exercise programs once I've gone through them. Each of these has served to focus on very specific issues associated with undertaking and completing structured exercise programs, which seems to work pretty well for my personality. I have come to realize that the structure and organization of things like Insanity and Asylum have helped me to stay motivated between Tough Mudders.
The gap between the first and second mudders that we ran (Wintergreen in October 2011 and Pocono in May of 2012) seemed interminable - particularly as it dragged on. I needed something to push me through the gap. So far, we've averaged about 5 or 6 months between mudders, but that timeline becomes compressed from here on for the rest of the year. Between Miami and West Virginia is about 6 weeks, and then we'll have another six weeks or so until Virginia Beach. The more compressed timeline makes it easier to stay motivated, but it doesn't necessarily work well for my need to incorporate structured workout programs.
I know that I have many foibles that other people would consider weird, and maybe it's me being a little wacky, but I have difficulty fitting the "square" of a 30-day exercise cycle into the "circle" of 45 days to fill. The 63-days of Insanity are even more awkward. I like the concept of checking off boxes, and I really feel engaged as I near the finish of a cycle. I don't like the idea of starting a new cycle and having a mudder fall midway along that process (something just doesn't "feel" right about that to me). This means that I finished Asylum about a week before the WV event, and have found myself in a holding pattern. The waiting game is driving me a little crazy.
I'm wondering what lessons I can take to translate this to the educational and leadership arenas. I think I've realized that this may be one of the reasons that the draw of procrastination is so powerful. If we finish things when they are due, then we don't necessarily feel the listlessness of the waiting game. Of course, we have the pressure of deadlines and stress of not knowing whether we'll finish, and it would seem to me that those would be worse than feeling a little directionless for a couple days, but procrastination is such a universal human trait that I have trouble figuring it out.
Perhaps, I'm reading too much into this, and I just need to go for a run and clear my mind. The more I think about it, the more likely that seems to me. After all, if I feel restless because I am waiting for an event, perhaps I need to fill that time with something productive rather than "navel-gaze" it to death.
The gap between the first and second mudders that we ran (Wintergreen in October 2011 and Pocono in May of 2012) seemed interminable - particularly as it dragged on. I needed something to push me through the gap. So far, we've averaged about 5 or 6 months between mudders, but that timeline becomes compressed from here on for the rest of the year. Between Miami and West Virginia is about 6 weeks, and then we'll have another six weeks or so until Virginia Beach. The more compressed timeline makes it easier to stay motivated, but it doesn't necessarily work well for my need to incorporate structured workout programs.
I'm wondering what lessons I can take to translate this to the educational and leadership arenas. I think I've realized that this may be one of the reasons that the draw of procrastination is so powerful. If we finish things when they are due, then we don't necessarily feel the listlessness of the waiting game. Of course, we have the pressure of deadlines and stress of not knowing whether we'll finish, and it would seem to me that those would be worse than feeling a little directionless for a couple days, but procrastination is such a universal human trait that I have trouble figuring it out.
Perhaps, I'm reading too much into this, and I just need to go for a run and clear my mind. The more I think about it, the more likely that seems to me. After all, if I feel restless because I am waiting for an event, perhaps I need to fill that time with something productive rather than "navel-gaze" it to death.
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