Earlier this week I finished a really long and intensive project at work. The two weeks prior had been especially crazy, exacerbated by the fact that for the final four days before launch date I was sick. as. a. dog.
I took my team to lunch today to say thanks for their hard work. We were rehashing last weekend, and one of the guys turned to me and said, “We don’t know how you were able to work.” I looked at him and said quite matter of factly that I really had no other choice. Seriously, I wasn’t being a martyr by coming in when I was sick, it just never occurred to me to stay home when we were so close to finishing. I just couldn’t let how bad I felt interfere with months of work.
I thought about his comment a couple more times this afternoon, and as I was getting ready to leave for home, I looked up at the whiteboard in my office. I have a map of my London to Paris ride tacked up there along with a daily countdown, which as of today reads 188.
This ride will be a test not only of my physical endurance, but my mental capacity. Honestly, going to a foreign country, spending four long days on the bike, riding with strangers over unfamiliar terrain is something that I think about a lot. The thing is I just don’t want to go there and survive the trip. I want to go there and kick ass.
So as I sat looking at that map, I realized that I’m mentally tougher than I give myself credit for. And I need to stop doubting for a single minute that I have what it takes to do this, and that I’m going to have one hell of a time doing it.
I find inspiration in a great many things. Sometimes it’s in a fairly obvious place, like in the video below that I’ve watch about twenty times…
…and sometimes it’s as random as a comment over lunch.