http://www.strava.com/activities/117826750

When I looked at my schedule this morning I resigned myself that today would be a day of meetings. I was booked straight through lunch with a break in the early afternoon and another meeting at 4pm.

I zipped my muddy (but dry) running kicks into their Manchester United shoe bag (purchased at the Heathrow Nike store) and was totally fine with leaving everything on my shelf in the locker room until Wednesday and just taking the day off. Taking one for the team.

My 2nd breakfast (everything I’ve brought for lunch) is typically dispatched by 11am and by noon I’m ready to run. Today I walked into a meeting at noon, then another at 1 that ran late until 2:30.

Back at my desk I checked my calendar, skimmed email and then looked over at my colleague and called it – I’m out, this is my window. I’ll be back in an hour.

I think that a lot of things in life are about timing and patience. Trust that you’ll know what to do when the time comes. It’s difficult to tune into those signals – but with practice you learn to recognize the opportunities. There is an acute sense of focused energy and purpose that becomes absolutely clear. When you have a shot, you take the shot. The window opens, you jump through it.  You may land on your ass and fail miserably and want to cry in your beer at your misfortune… but the amazing thing is… if you’re the least bit self-aware – you just learned a valuable lesson 🙂 [Unfunnily… consider the alternative of never taking the shot. Anti-funny.]

I think that people who are happy, well adjusted and “successful” (whatever that means) have fallen on their ass more times than can be remembered. They just have the statistical advantage of more shots.

Anyway. The window opened and I jumped through it.