I've been thinking a lot lately about winning (no, not the Charlie Sheen-esque #winning). I've never really been into winning competitions (as my last post touches on) - I didn't play team sports as a kid (what, you didn't peg me as the quiet artsy musical kid?) and generally didn't participate in a lot of competitions. Oddly enough, though, I've recently entered into a competition at work that I'm very much getting into: the mixed doubles foosball tournament. Thanks to my teammate, I've been working on my foosball skills and now, I must say, we are quite the formidable team. I've been practicing and loving the games and can't wait to kick some foosball butt.
It's not the competition, though, that I'm loving. It's the learning of a new skill and pushing myself to practice and develop that skill even more. OK I'm sure this sounds ridiculous because I'm talking about this in relation to foosball. But really this is bigger than a foosball tournament.
We recently had Nancy Koehn, author and Harvard Business School professor focused on entreprenuerial leadership, come speak during the HubSpot Fellows Learning Leadership from the Legends class. Outside of work, Nancy is an avid equestrian. She picked up this activity, she told us, because it's important to have something that forces you to push yourself and achieve new milestones. Having an activity like this gives you the opportunity to push yourself, overcome your fears, and maintain your ambition in other parts of your life.
Now, foosball is not exactly what's going to keep up my ambition level in other parts of my life, but I'm happy to share that I've picked up something that does fill this role: running. If you know me, you might be as surprised as I am. I have always hated running. In general and especially on the treadmill. I couldn't think of anything more dreadfully boring. But I was inspired by my friend who did the Couch to 5k program and subsequently ran two races and absolutely loved it. I was certainly skeptical that I could ever be transformed the way she was and actually start to enjoy running. But I gave it a shot and started following the Couch to 5k program myself. And, I have to say, it's been fantastic. I'm four weeks in now (I didn't want to jinx it by sharing it with the interwebs earlier) and I love the time I spend on the treadmill (hoping to move outdoors soon now that Spring's coming!) and I love that I'm reaching new running milestones each week.
The milestones may be small, but they are real. And they give you this amazing sense of accomplishment (coupled with a runner's high?) that fuels you in the rest of your life. Nancy really knew what she was talking about.
It's perhaps not a coincidence that my friend who started it all has recently gone back to running after a brief hiatus, this time in honor of her mother and her mother's advice to go after your dreams. I won't attempt to recap her blog post announcing her return, you should just go read it. It might just inspire you to pick up running or another activity you've always wanted to do. Or maybe it will inspire you to support her in her next run, in support of the American Cancer Society.
I may not be into winning against other teams, but when it comes to battles against my own personal obstacles and reaching my own personal goals, I can be a fierce competitor. Hopefully in a few months, I'll be posting about my first 5k!
Flickr photo by psd
