Blast O' Joy

My Annual Spring Ritual

Now that spring has finally come to the Adirondacks (though it did snow the other night!) … I've been back to running outside. All winter long I pound away on a treadmill in front of the Food Network. Me and Gianna. Me and Tyler. Me and the Barefoot Contessa. I get to burn calories and consume them vicariously instead!

Then comes spring and our annual family ritual to run some 5K races together. The children, who are 11 and 16, really look forward to this - and so I'm forced off of my treadmill and out into the actual roads of our town to start taking on the real hills, facing the wind, and feeling a host of new discomforts.

This year I started prepping early and got myself up to 4.4 miles, the equivalent of the Champlain Classic, the 5K run we will do on Sunday. It's really a push for me to go past 3.5 miles, but on this one day last week, I just decided to go for it. Could I turn my chattering mind off long enough to really run this distance?

My body is in good shape and certainly capable; that I knew. But my innate laziness wasn't so convinced this was possible or even necessary. Still I bravely punched 50 minutes into the treadmill time clock and set off to prove myself right … or wrong.

At the three mile mark, I could feel myself tensing up and resisting the rest of my run. Would I break through? Or could I? Or would this just be a small exercise in torture. Fortunately, Gianna was making chocolate tiramisu so I was gloriously distracted.

At the four mile mark I suddenly looked down and realized I was and had been in the runner's 'zone'…. A place where you don't really feel like you're running. Instead, you're just moving rhythmically and there's no good reason to stop. Still there I was running a ten minute mile, which for me is the stuff of true breakthroughs.

I stopped, almost reluctantly, at 4.4, so aware that the only reason I didn't usually run that far was my busy mind. Man, what a liberating new awareness… I'm not as lazy as I always thought I was! It was just a matter of believing it.

How about you?

Tags: running, breakthroughs, coaching breakthroughs

Serenity Hawkfire Goes Live!

As many of you know, I'm nursing my own creative dream these days - creating a show based on a parody of a New Age workshop, with a character I've dreamed up named Serenity Hawkfire. Serenity is a lovely gal, if wildly narcissistic, media grubbing.

You'll have a chance to meet her on a call with Andrea Lee

Our dear friend Suzanne Falter-Barnes' alter ego, Serenity Hawkfire, regularly leaves her audience in stitches, and for a change of pace we thought we'd ask her for an appearance.  Expect to learn nothing except how an appointment with laughter can generate renewed energy for your work.

Without further ado, here are the details for this 30-minute call:

Serenity Hawkfire on 'Marketing From the Gut: Using Chanting, Indigenous Prairie Grasses, and Incantations to Get on Oprah and Beyond'.

Join Serenity Hawkfire, the "21st Century Guru" (trademark pending) in this informative half hour that will teach you how the pros market themselves.

You'll learn:

> How to get national TV producers to pay attention to you How to create your own 'signature look'

> How to get major publishers to publish literally anything you want -
anything!

> What colon cleansing has to do with self-promotion

> Why you should never channel any entity other than yourself

> How sex can improve your marketing plan

… and much, much more!

To register for this call, send a blank email to free@eggville.com with 5010-14 in the subject line and nothing else anywhere.   This is a complimentary call...no fee attached. (Thanks Andrea!)