Take charge

“When you start relaxing your grip on your permanent identity and see you can be anyone, who you want to be will become more important than who you are.  That will be a big moment in your life.” – Steve Chandler

Two years earlier I had hurt my neck badly in this race.  Whiplash.  It took a year to get better.  For the last year my neck was ok, with a few bouts a chiropractor could fix.  I was getting on a plane in three days for my third Ironman attempt and all of a sudden my neck was killing me.  I needed an adjustment but my chiropractor had just gone on vacation.  I knew I would be severely handicapped trying to race like this with a helmet on my head and 30 hours of vibration and up and down.

I called my back-up chiropractor.  He tried, but the next day it still wasn’t good.  I had to get on the plane.  We landed in San Diego on a Sunday.  I was really worried about my neck.  It was killing me.  I used Google and found chiropractors open on Sunday!  I took a taxi over there and told my team to pick me up there.  They didn’t care that I was not a previous patient or that I was paying cash.  I couldn’t believe it.  This is how it should be – and it was only $29!  Problem solved.  I dodged another bullet in this crazy quest.

There are times when I am not feeling good and I think I can’t do it.  I don’t mean to be negative, but I’d be asking myself, “How the heck am I going to do this?”  When you are hurt, or sick, or sore, or emotionally wounded – your ambition and optimism hits the deck.

But emotion is created by motion.  Get started.  When you are doing it, you’ll feel like doing it.  

Sometimes you have to solve a problem to get going.  Solve it, and get to it.  Bust through the resistance, and take charge.