The Last Tenth of a Mile

I ran my first 5k in a long time last Saturday. I had been wanting to run a race for a while - the last 5k I ran, I injured my foot 2 weeks before, so I was really only able to run the first 2 miles at any sort of good pace. I've been trying to run at least a couple of times a week, in addition to my regular workouts. Sometimes if I'm in the zone I'll run three miles straight; sometimes I'll run some, walk some, jog some. It just depends on the day. Needless to say, I was still a little nervous Saturday morning - so much so that I woke up at 2am and started to get ready for the race, only to realize that it was 2am...

I got to the race site at about 7:30am. It was a fairly small crowd: probably only a couple hundred people there, and only some of those were actually running. (The event also had a 5k walk and a couple of other "just for fun" events.) Being a pretty small event, the chips only counted your time crossing the finish line, so to get an accurate count you had to have started right at the start line (written in chalk). You could tell who the serious runners were - the guy with his high tech gear and gps timer, stretching on the side, and the ladies jogging around the parking lot to warm up. I did my stretches and walked a couple of laps by the start of the race, and started to get pumped up.

When the race started and I heard the gunshot, I suddenly started to get really nervous, but all of a sudden I was running! For the first minute or so I had this anxious feeling in my stomach that I was going to wimp out and quit running. After what seemed like the longest mile ever, I saw the sign that said "1 mile". Without a watch or timer, I had no idea what my time was like, so I just kept going. The terrain kept changing - road, dirt, gravel, through the woods - and it took a lot more concentration than my usual one mile loops around the pond on the bike path. I started to get a little tired, but I knew I would be mad at myself if I stopped halfway through. Seeing the families stationed around the course for motivation really did help! The other thing keeping me going was watching the two sets of dads and kids a little bit ahead of me. If they could do it, I certainly could!

Finally nearing the end, I saw the 3 mile sign. I was already planning to sprint the last 0.1 mile, and it felt awesome. When I saw the finish, I honestly felt like I was floating across the path. Although initially I wasn't thrilled with my time, I realized that I still hit a personal best - and the biggest accomplishment for me was knowing that I didn't give up. There were a lot of excuses I could have given for not even showing up: I hadn't preregistered, I was going by myself, I had just finished a long week at work, etc. But I am SO glad that I took the leap to go. It has given me the motivation to continue running, and has set the bar for me for future races. There is no feeling like the accomplishment of completing a race. The most surprising thing about this race was that I actually placed first in my age division, which I didn't find out until looking at the results online today! Even though it was a small race, that is a huge accomplishment for me. I would have been happy regardless, but that just goes to show you what can happen if you just go out and do something! You never know what might happen!!

Good Old Friends

It is really nice to know that some friendships really are deep enough to endure one person moving away. Having been that person that moved away myself, it was always a concern of mine that I would inevitably lose some of those friends and acquaintances that I had worked so hard to nurture during college. These past few weeks have reminded me that there are those fantastic friendships where you can be apart for a long time, and when you are together again it is as if nothing has changed. You still have that strong connection that allows you to talk and laugh the same as you would before. The great thing about these friendships is also that you can keep that connection while also being able to adapt to the changes in either person's life. It is not as though you revert back to the person you were maybe a year or two ago, but you are able to keep up that friendship with your own growing life and personality.

This post has the potential to sound really sappy, but I obviously don't really care. Friendships have been so incredibly important for me, and I enjoy knowing that I really don't have to start completely over every time I move to a new place. I would like to think of it as adding to my friend base and life experiences instead of starting back at square one and wiping away everything from the past. Life builds upon itself, and that is what makes us all unique and wonderful.

Make it a great week!

Forget About Stress

It's amazing what can happen when you decide not to be stressed! For the past six months, ever since I moved to a new city, I've had this lingering feeling of stress. I recently read something that suggested forgetting about the word "stress". Instead of saying that something is "stressful", label it as "challenging" or another fitting adjective. I think our generation, and our contemporary world, is so involved in stress and stress management that it may be almost a self-fulfilling prophecy. Once I stopped thinking about my life as stressful, I started to feel more confident and happy. Go figure! I still have some long challenging days and difficult situations, but I don't like to think about it as stress anymore. I know that I can handle whatever comes my way, and that makes me so extremely confident about the future. (Example: The difficult client mentioned in the post "Things don't always go the way you plan..." has created even more issues this week. My solution? Deal with the issues I can handle, and make sure that the situation is communicated to everyone that is involved, so that him dragging his feet in providing information for us won't completely screw up the natural operations of each resort.)

As a side note, eliminating stress from our lives can have some serious health benefits. I feel healthier now than I have in weeks! Have a great evening, everyone!

Every Minute Counts

I was reminded today about how every minute really matters. It is interesting to think about how small decisions can cause a chain reaction of events in your life. In fact, the very time I arrived to, let's say, a meeting, could determine who I happened to meet and could shape the experiences to come. If I were to have waited just one more minute, the situation could have been completely different, and I could have missed out on what I hope will be some great opportunities in the future. This is just one small instance, but I think this is really true overall. You never know when such small decisions can have such a big impact on your life. I think about some of the odd circumstances when I have met the most important people in my life, and everything goes back to a small decision that seemed so insignificant at the time, but now seems to have risen in importance. Deciding to go to a meeting where I knew no one. Going to a recruitment event for a sorority. Loaning a pen to the girl sitting next to me. Talking to the guest speaker after class. Arriving early to a community service event. Meeting with a professor during office hours. Going out with a bunch of people I've never met. All of these things have led to great things in my life, and all of them involve doing something. Note to self: don't forget to do something small - it could become something amazing!

Things don't always go the way you plan...

...That's what I am slowly still learning. I think that is one of the downfalls of the "personal" aspect of hospitality. I've been experiencing a lot of difficulties the last few weeks with a client that just doesn't quite seem to get it. My hospitality mind wants to just make everything right and appease the client. Kind of the along the lines of "the customer is always right." However, working in sales now, as opposed to operations, I have a lot of other things to consider. There are binding contracts and  a lot more potential revenue is on the line. I've found myself torn between trying to smooth things over, but also standing my ground. There truly is a fine line between making the client happy and actually making money on the account. The challenge is to hopefully succeed in both, but, as I said earlier, things don't always go the way you plan.

The second point I have to make, though, is how important it is to just learn and move on. I am still extremely early in my career, and there will inevitably be many more difficult clients that I will have to deal with in the future. I'm sure that it will get easier as I move forward, because I plan on absorbing as much knowledge as I can from each difficulty. What I learned from this one:
1. Communication, communication, communication! Even when you think it's overkill, when dealing with a difficult account, the more the better.
2. Cover your bases. Back yourself up, and make sure you have people to back you up. (colleagues, boss, etc.)
3. Some people just don't know what they're doing, so try to figure this out early on. If they're new to your business, you may need to spell things out word by word. Don't assume they understand.
4. Don't let it get to you! Chances are that whatever the problem is: it's not your fault! Just move on!

Well, that's my wise words of wisdom for the day. Tomorrow's another day, and I'm going to make it a great one!