Today I begin another trip around the sun with 40 completed trips behind me. You can’t skip across the solar system and take shortcuts on this journey to get there faster. And even if you could, why would you?
The first five you spend learning how to hold your head up, walk, talk, and even play nice. Seems trivial, but all parts of an important foundation to make you into a productive human being. The next five you discover and improve your capacity for learning more complex things, but with that comes sophisticated emotions as well. Love, jealousy, sympathy, and even hate.
The next ten can be quite the shit show. First love, first heartbreak, fights with parents, bullies at school, raging hormones, and trying to fit in while figuring out who you are. Good times. The following ten to fifteen after this, you think you have everything figured out to only learn that you don’t…which is completely fine. After all, if you stop learning and growing, what’s the point?
One word describes the last five trips around the sun. WOW. So many highs and lows. IRONMAN racing, Kona, failed relationships, my dad having a stroke, family moving to Thailand, losing friends, job loss, funemployment, premature menopause, new job opportunities, 303 Endurance Network, solo travels, Everest Base Camp.
Some trips were harder than others, but at the end of the day they shaped me into the person I am today. Had I taken any short cuts along the way, I probably would’ve missed out on some pretty epic stuff and amazing people. So here’s a few pieces of wisdom from me to you as I embark on another epic trip around the sun…
- Don’t take short cuts
- Embrace the highs AND lows
- Don’t worry about what people think about you (including your family)
- Say NO to stuff so you can say YES to other things
- Stop saying “someday” or “I can’t” and instead say “I’m doing this” and “I CAN!”
- You can always make more money, but you can’t make more time
- You get one chance at life. Give it all you got!
This Thing Called Life 