20 seconds

This week, Ashley challenged her readers to exercise 20 seconds of insane courage (inspired by the movie "We Bought a Zoo") and see what came of it.  She reminded us that the most extraordinary things can come from ordinary people making just one right choice.

I'm not going to lie, I couldn't think of a single thing that was looming in my life that I would need 20 seconds of insane courage to get to work on.

I could think of many choices I make throughout my day that do require dedication and drive.  But for some reason, dedication and drive don't always bridge the gap from possible to impossible.  That is where courage comes in.  You need the courage to make the hop, skip, jump, or leap to that next platform, that next goal.  And this got me thinking, are courage and desire separate things, or just two facets of the same broad concept?

I have a desire to reclaim my healthy body, and then in turn to help others reclaim their health.  In order to help others, I need to achieve things that I normally would say are impossible.  Impossible that I will willingly work out at 6am five days a week.  Check.  Impossible that I will stick with logging my journey online further than 3 or 4 posts.  Check.  Impossible that I will share these blog posts with others, and not keep them to myself so that no one can see my mistakes and flubs.  Check.

So what is the next impossible?

Boulder Reservoir, Boulder, CO

 The next impossible is completing my first ever triathlon.  Completing my first ever one day century bike ride (so far I've only done a one day 50 mile ride).  And, conquering "the project", a rock climbing route that has escaped me for several years now.    The crux is 5 feet off the ground.  I hear it gets better from there... kinda.  Here you can see my friend Mitch working the crux:

It's pretty tough stuff.  I have tried it I don't know how many times.  One day, it will be a victory.

I can't say that I really know how all of this will go.  These are a lot of things that I always put in the "not for me" bin, because I was afraid.  Partly of failing, but also of succeeding.  Success brings pressure to be able to replicate that success, and I don't want to work so hard to achieve something, and then have it slip away like a ship in the night.  It takes courage to do something once, knowing it might just be a freak occurrence.  Knowing that it might be the best you will ever be at __________.  But that, in and of itself, must be worth it to take the leap and just do.