ENERGIZED

Pedal pedal pedal, breathe breathe, pedal.

So here we are well into a busy active Autumn with the holidays just around the corner (heck how did that happen!!). I have made a choice lately to keep the skinny tires hanging on the hook, and have been taken instead to the great pleasure and joy of spending time in the woods and on the dirt rediscovering the world of mountain biking in all it's beauty and wonder. It's been a refreshing change getting off the pavement, and up into the hills exploring new places and new trails. It's like soul food. I'm feeling a little fitness coming on too, which is incredibly good news for me. Good for me in a way that goes far beyond the obvious athletic gains that are so easily visible from consistent activity.

I know I am not the only one who experiences this, but over the years I have often recognized that there is a distinct parallel with my level of fitness and my ability to create the quality of life that I strive for. I have also been completely aware of the fact that there will come a tipping point for me (that isn't so pretty!), if I am not keen to stay in touch with my core values, and remain on the path of taking care of my physical well-being.

As a matter of fact (a bit of reminiscence for me since I am just finishing my first annual cycle in bicycle industry sales), I was thinking today about what a difference a year makes. Just last November.....a month or two into this new position as "sales rep", my new boss came to spend a few days with me in my territory. We had literally been on the go from early morning until well into the evening for two straight days. My life had been jam packed with activity and change for weeks and weeks on end. No joke.

So there we were, finishing up day two of three busy days together.
As I was dropping him off at his hotel after a very full day of travel, he says to me "Okay....see you at 8am." (ahem...it was after 9pm already). I remember this moment very clearly. I was in the driver's seat, slightly amped from two straight days of race-like highway driving, just having buzzed around my territory like a hummingbird on sugar, introduced to new roads, new areas of my work territory and the new language of this entirely "new to me position" that I had literally launched into without ANY training.

Never mind the fact that I had just completely uprooted myself from a home of eleven years in a community that I had lived for the last twenty. That was all part of the grand adventure though ...I and was totally into opening up new doors in my life. However, I found myself suddenly getting lost trying to normal things like find gas stations that carried diesel for instance and I became instantly aware of the fact that I would have to go through grand procedures to find the health food store, the bank, highway entrances and exits ...etc etc etc. I was coming from a place where I could do most of those things in my sleep. Here, EVERYTHING was completely new (to me) and I was totally spinning in the whirlwind of change.

I had been a living like a sponge, soaking up a life in a whole new world, and had been completely committed to not missing a beat, and making sure to get the most out of every moment.

However...I was coming to a place of information overload, I was also on day three without any physical activity (funny how there are some of us in the world who think that three days without sweating is like an eternity). I could feel the anxious swell rising up inside of me, like an orchestra preparing for the crescendo.

Anyway...so my boss continues on, completely unaware of the swell, he rallys me for another day of action packed travel.

I couldn't go on.

I looked at him from the driver's seat of my car and boldly told him "No.. 8:30 is too early".

He looked at me, slightly stunned and at a loss for words. I think at that moment he was saying to himself..."who does this this little "rookie" junior sales rep think she is challenging my itinerary and agenda"....

He challenged back and said to me that 8:30 was NOT too early.

I took pause. Then said (in a calm voice).......
"Roy, I need to go for a run in the morning. Here's the deal. When Brenda exercises, Brenda is happy. When Brenda is happy, she does her job more effectively."

(in other words, Hellllooooooo....I NEED physical activity in my life!!)

We went around and around for a minute, but I was adamant about my situation, position, feeling....whatever you want to call it. He was equally pressing with his opinion..."no you don't need...blah blah blah...exercise blah blah blah to do your job well blah blah blah".

Little did he know that run was absolutely going to happen.

And it did.

And as the story went, we hashed it out, compromised our agenda... and met at 9am ;)