This summer, I am running a race known as a "backyard ultra." The basic premise of this race is that participants will run 4.167 miles every single hour. Participants will continue running 4.167 miles each hour for as long as they can keep going, with the last person standing being declared a winner. Sounds kind of crazy, right? The race that I am running is called the Ode to Laz, set as a tribute to Lazarus Lake. If you know Laz, you probably know him as the founder of The Barkley Marathons, a 100+ mile race through the hills of Tennessee. For those that have watched the documentary on Netflix…
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Seek Failure, but Always Fail Forward
Seek failure . . . Why in the world would anyone do that? You and I have failed often . . . but why exactly would we try to fail? Why would we seek failure? And fail forward . . . I suppose this means that we should try to learn from our failures so that they eventually benefit us. But failing seems so difficult and demoralizing, even if we are trying to fail forward. As humans, we don´t want to fail. We want to win the game, get the best role in the play, make the sale to our client. We want to succeed, not to fail. And I…
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You Should Keep Up With the Joneses
Everyone always tells you that you shouldn't compare yourself to other people. Especially when it comes to money, keeping up with the Joneses is a very bad thing. This makes sense. We probably shouldn't compare ourselves to people in our neighborhood who lease brand new SUVs. We definitely shouldn't compare ourselves to the people who are building a 5,000 square foot house on a lake. However, I think that we actually should try to keep up with the Joneses. Well ... sort of ...
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Your Mindset is More Important Than Your Money
It is no exaggeration to say that we live during the most wealthy time in human history. We can see examples of this wealth when we look at the huge mansions and expensive cars driven by millionaires. However, we can also see displays of wealth while we are driving through a middle-class neighborhood or an upscale food district. Even cities seem to be competing against each other to see who can build the best school, library, or park. Wealth is all around us. Take me for example. Although I am a high school teacher who lives near Detroit, Michigan, I carry an iPhone in my pocket, drive a nice Honda…
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I Feel Like an Imposter
One of my most vivid memories in my life occurred when my oldest son, Nathan, was 2 days old. We brought him home from the hospital and set him on our bed. As we were standing there looking at him, I suddenly realized that I did not know how to take care of a child. ¨So what do we do now?¨ I remember asking my wife. They didn´t give us a manual on how to raise a kid. As a matter of fact, they didn´t even check my work over when I buckled him into the car seat. Even though my wife and I read all of the parenting books…
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Today’s Decision Becomes Tomorrow’s Reality
As part of a marathon training plan that I am following for the Monumental Marathon in November, I am doing interval running workouts called "strength workouts." These workouts involve running mile repeats at a pace that is a little bit less than my projected marathon pace. Since I am optimistically projecting a marathon pace of 7:10 per mile, my strength workout involved running 6, 1-mile repeats at 7:00 per mile. On a normal day, this is something that I can do. It's not an easy workout, but I can usually complete it. However, yesterday I completed a CrossFit style workout that involved 84 "thrusters." For those of you that have…
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You Don’t Deserve This
You work hard. I know that. I work hard too. You and I both deserve happiness, peace, freedom, and safety. But guess what? We don't deserve a new car ... We don't deserve a brand new wardrobe ... We don't deserve a huge house with a swimming pool ...
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I’m Not a Minimalist, but Maybe I Should Be
Over the past several years, many people such as myself have begun to hear and think about the minimalist lifestyle because of blogs such as The Minimalists or books such as "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo. However, even after selling our huge house and getting rid of a lot of my clothes after following the KonMari method for a bit, I still don't consider myself a minimalist. I love avoiding stores and trying not to buy a bunch of stuff, but I also tend to hang onto things for a long time, on the off-chance that I might actually use it. Recently, I even got…
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Do Some Hard S*** Today
Does it make sense to constantly search for more ease and convenience in our lives? We wake up after sleeping on a 10 inch thick luxury mattress, stumble into the bathroom to get a shower with hot water that just magically appears when we turn a lever, and clean and groom ourselves with soaps and lotions that people have spent years perfecting. Then we wander to our fridge and find food that has been sourced from farms and factories throughout the country, waiting and ready for our consumption.
