Start With Awake
I do not understand the words. But the tone and energy level? These, I know well.
It is 7am and still dark. Street lights quietly illuminate the empty sidewalks. Our bus pulls out of La Seu d’Urgell for the short ride up to the Principality of Andorra. The passengers and I are competitors headed to the start line of a high altitude mountain trail race through the Pyrenees. We will finish close to where the bus departed. Once we begin, our climb is about 6,000 feet on rocky trails along the 20 mile race course.
In this field of 150 competitors, and the 50 or so on this bus, I am the solitary person who speaks English as a first language.
Most everyone else speaks Catalan — a language I am learning but still don’t understand very well… very well? Barely well.
However, on this morning, the lively conversations, moods, and routines transmit clearly. Nerves. Anxiousness. Anticipation. This is the universal language of killing time until the start of an immense endeavor.
What goes into the preparation for a mountain trail race? It is a solitary training endeavor. You against a clock — time on your wrist. Marked in hours, minutes, seconds. A normal day for a mountain racer is anything but normal, but…
Just as in competition — our training day includes a start line and a field of play.
Just as in a typical business day — we handle our commute, tasks, meetings, and obligations to others.
Just as in the office or store or salon or gallery, plant, studio, mill, restaurant — we perform under circumstances that we do not exclusively control.
Two Start Lines
Prior to the line that begins this race, I have an earlier start line. Its name is: Awake.
When I cross Awake’s start line, I enter a zone where I exclusively own my surroundings and circumstances.
On this bus ride, I pay attention to what the runners choose to do between their two start lines. They are not that different from the choices many of us make prior to heading into work:
Race: Review notes for the race-plan
Work: Review plans for the week ahead
Race: Anticipate the various layouts of the course
Work: Anticipate the various person to person interactions in the day ahead
Race: Close eyes and take mindful breaths
Work: Close eyes and take mindful breaths
Race: Acknowledge gratitude for the opportunity
Work: Acknowledge gratitude for the opportunity
The start line of Awake provides to me an opportunity to practice skills and attributes that affect how I will respond to unexpected situations in my work day and work week.
For me, Awake’s start line initiates a period calm, creativity, mindfulness, and gratitude. It is a practice that I will repeat and strive to improve.
What lays ahead is Start Line #2.
That second start line invites the unknowns and uncertainty. Not unlike a high-altitude mountain trail race. Which on this day challenges me.
There is a steep mountain climb right off the start. It contains most of the elevation in this race and takes more out of me than I expect. At the high point in the course, my legs hurt and I still have a long way to go until the finish in La Seu d’Urgell. My final few miles are a struggle.
Not unlike many “normal” work days.
Which is why my practice of crossing Awake’s start line matters. That start line is never about results. It simply provides the opportunity to improve my response to what I do not expect.
With gratitude,
-Joe
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Hi, I’m Joe, the owner of 5 With Joe Performance Coaching. My clients are leaders, organizations, and teams who utilize my Olympic Gold Medal performance strategies and 40 years of navigating whitewater river rapids to streamline decision making and actions when engaged in complicated river currents of business and life.
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