Born to be Stupid

I'm really angry right now!  I have been for quite some time and I'm growing angrier by the day.  The root of my anger are the stupid things that I've seen humans do to each other over the past year.  I can't help but feel that we are born to be stupid!  Please someone, prove me wrong!

• People who don't wear facemasks indoors!  COVID-19 is a virus that spreads through the air.  Wear a mask...stop the blast!
• Speeding in traffic.  That's right, cut me off to get 2 car lengths ahead!  You've saved 15 seconds of time and endangered the lives of numerous other drivers.
• SUVs.  Especially the big ones and the ones that cost upwards of $100,000.  Seriously? About as stupid as people who buy pickup trucks and don't need them for work.
• People who brag about working 100 hours a week.  Inventors and innovators get a pass on this but for the 99.9999% of the rest of us, you are a slave.  You are not very interesting.
• The smartest person in the room.  Some people say that...and believe it! OK, if I was having dinner with Einstein...

Maybe we are born to be stupid. We talk a mean streak about how smart we are but then we do some really dumb things.  When challenged, we explain it away.  A good friend recently shared how he deals with stupid people:  With a flick of his wrist, he waves them away!  I like that!

Want to explore more about human stupidity?  Here are a few links:

Do our organizations prefer stupidity?

6 causes of corporate stupidity

Organizational stupidity

So be warned.  I'm less tolerant of stupidity and I plan to stay angry about that for some time!

Until next time...

Chris

Screw Making Lemonade

"If life hands you lemons, make lemonade".  Screw that!  I hate lemonade.  When life hands me lemons I'd rather sell them and buy grapes.  I like grapejuice.  And wine.

I think about a lot of things while running. Mostly it's about how running mirrors life.  The training, preparing, anticipating a race;  Winning and expriencing disappointments on any given race day; Celebrating a personal victory and bouncing back from a loss when things just didn't work out the way I planned.  All this and more during my early morning running:

1. Stop worrying about the future.  Unless you can travel faster than time, you can't tell what's next. Worrying won't get you ahead.
2. The past is the past.  Stop hanging on to your mistakes. Unless fatal, mistakes are lessons. Take advantage of the learning opportunities.  
3.  It's not over until the fat lady sings.  And you can't ever hear her warming up.  Get on with it.
4. When S happens, move aside...fast.  How many times have you stood and wallowed in the mess before taking action? Wallowing in the S stinks!  No one wants to play with a stinky person.
5. You get to play again tomorrow.  Unless the fat lady is on her last stanza...but then, you can't hear that coming.
6. It's better to be optimistic.  The roller-coaster of life means you'll experience highs and lows along with the twists and turns.  Doing so with a smile is better.
7. Listen to all advice.  That doesn't mean you need to take all of it.  Duh!  You have a mind!
8. Running doesn't solve everything.  Well actually it does.  Can you think of a problem that doesn't get smaller while you're running?
9. Talking about running drives non-running friends and family crazy!  Go ahead, at the next dinner party, start talking about running.
10. Should you have non-running friends anyway?  Just a thought...
11. Running is living! Enough said!
12. There really is an inner voice in your head. Two actually:  The scaredy-cat and the risk-taker. "Pssst...It's your risk-taker here...I've having more fun".
13. 'Give er'. 100%. All the time. Otherwise what's the point?

Gotta go now...have some grapes to squeeze.

Until next time...

ThatRunninGuy

Running DOES solve everything

What was I thinking in my last blog post? (Running doesn't solve everything).  Running does solve everything.  On every run I've been on I've been able to 'solve all the problems of the universe' multiple times. If only I could remember the solutions after I finished...

Getting 'into the zone' where all the problems of the world disappear is magical.  Some days it happens quickly on others it only happens during the final kilometre.  I've always experienced it though no matter the run.

So running does solve everything...these are my top 5:

1. It solves the problem of what to do for an hour at 5 am in the morning.  It's better to go out running rather than trolling on Facebook.
2. Running allows you to talk to yourself without being called crazy.  Fess up:  you've had at least one run where you huffed out loud, "Come on...I can do this!!!".  Or the other version, "#%#!!%#@@!!...this is hard!!"
3. Running is better than swimming, biking.  Swimming - drive to public pool; put on bathing suit; shower;  then get wet in a chlorinated pool.  In the cold winter months this is a chilly affair.  Biking - buy bike, carry up and down elevator, store in apartment; give Spouse a reason to get angry.  And biking in the city? Unlike Holland with dedicated bike roads, sharing the road with cars in Toronto is like playing chicken.
4. Running can be done alone.  Sure you can run with a group but it isn't absolutely necessary.  Just get up, put on running gear and get outside.
5. You meet the nicest people running.  Really.  Sure all we talk about is running, getting injured and recovering from injury but it sure beats talking about politics and religion.  Maybe if more clerics and politicians ran things would run more smoothly (sorry...I couldn't resist the pun).

Until next time...

ThatRunninGuy