Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Three Lessons Learned in 2016

Three Lessons Learned in 2016

I'm scared - So What! Do it anyway!
Any great athlete, any brave hero has one thing in common.  They do what they do scared.  Being scared is a human experience, do that scary thing anyway. 
This year my scariest things were training for and lining up on the starting line of the Arkansas Traveller 100 again with the goal of finishing within the 30 hour time limit.
Applying for a leadership fellowship position with Team RWB, being accepted, immersing myself in the leadership experiences provided by the fellowship is the second scary thing.
When being paralyzed by fear I think of those heroes, military, police, firefighters, other first responders.  I'll bet when they run into that chaos they are scared too.  They do it anyway.  Focusing on this helps increase bravery.
Find that thing that scares the tar out of you, go for it!  Learn from the experience (see lesson three) It is life changing.  

Eagle Leader Academy March 2016 - Eagle Leader Fellows and Chapter Captains from across the country




Sometimes being brave is just showing up.
How do you beat the heat of an AR summer? why you go to Daytona Beach FL, that is how.  And we did.  Fifteen Eagles and seven leaders came together for a weekend long leadership and triathlon camp, Eagle style.
Jon was an attendee.  Jon is blind having this happen as a middle aged adult.  
This was his second time really getting out since he started accepting this twist of life.  Swimming, biking, running (walking for him) was all done with a guide, a pilot, a man he had never met before.  I'm in awe of Jon.  Just showing up is braver than anything I have ever been called to endure.

Jon and his guide


Failure is a good thing, it means you are trying.  Re-evaluate and fail forward. 
Apparently in the military they have something called the After Action Report.  From my study the best way to evaluate the results of a project is to do so immediately.  Some say the project isn't complete until the AAR (After Action Report) is filled out, by people at each step of the project.  This is to be done as soon as possible after the project is completed while everything is fresh on the minds of those involved.
So what does this have to do with declaring failure a good thing?  
Failure is proof that we are doing.  One way to guarantee no failure is to do nothing.  The gift of failure is possible by evaluation and then learning.
Within the first day after an event some great questions to have for your AAR would be:
What went right?  
What did I learn?
What would I do differently?
What was my favorite moments?
Notice we aren't asking; What went wrong?  It is important to turn failures into lessons.  The questions we ask ourselves helps us find the lessons.
Failure is a teacher, one of the very best in life.  If we are failing while doing the same exact thing time after time, we know from experience that failure will continue.  Is we change just one thing, perform, evaluate, learn, improve.
Give it a try after your next event and see what you think.

Start of AT100 with Chris and Kyle - I DNFed this year

Off to finish the AT100 in under 30 hours - I DNFed
On the caption of these photos I include information that I did not finish the Arkansas Traveller 100 2016 edition because it goes along with the lessons learned from failure.  Reviewing information will mean less mistakes next year.  Smart training, smart planning, smart execution and a bit of luck, I will finish in under 30 hours in 2017

Bonus lesson:  if it's not fun, figure it out or move on!  These things we do, volunteer, hobbies, physical fitness, we do so enrich our lives.  Laughing, hugs and high fives increase the quality of life eminences!  Their has to be a fun factor or we won't come back for more.


Hugs and high fives,
Lisa

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