That Razor Sharp Edge

Let's talk about complacency. I think it's evil... not just bad evil, it's the insidious kind of evil that creeps up on you when you least expect it, squirming it's way into what you're doing, how you're thinking, and what you're feeling. Complacency is the antithesis of carpe diem...it dulls the clarity, the sharpness you feel when you're totally on top of things. Complacent is not what I want to be right now.

Things at work this week are pretty slow and it makes me sloppy. I have about 2 or 3 things that I kind of need to get done today and it's 4:15 and neither of them are done because they can really wait until tomorrow. Chances are, when I get around to doing them, I'll have missed a detail or inadvertantly changed a quantity or forgotten to record a shipping address. Give me a hundred details and make me juggle 25 different jobs at once and i'm ON FIRE...I have that edge and I can keep all the balls in the air for as long as I choose...bring on the multi-tasking. But leave me with a few little items to manage, and I drop the ball like a big geek on a football field. It's just too easy to check out.

But I don't want to check out, especially when it comes to life outside of work. I realized today that my work complacency has spilled over to my tri world and that has to stop right NOW. I want to be PRESENT, to find that edge and hone it to perfection. Here's a confession: my swim coach is away coaching swim camp so our masters practices have been coachless now for almost two weeks...which is fine. The usual crowd shows up anyway, coach leaves practices for us to do and we do them. Now, I have a race in a week and a half so you'd think I'd be ready to kick some a## and work hard, but today I had a few folks in my lane who just finished a half ironman so they were understandably taking it easy. Somehow, Mind takes this to mean that Body can also take it easy. WTF?? LET'S GO!!!

And of course, just like with work, the swimming was kind of sloppy. How is it that Body thinks it has license to slack when Mind knows slacking isn't going to get me what I want. It's like there's a disconnect, no awareness of cause and effect...remember in geometry, "If A, then it follows that B...?" I could just as easily have decided that I was going to lead the lane, push myself through an hour of focused swimming and come away stronger and sharper but I chose to hang in the middle of the lane and cruise. Cruising isn't going to make me faster and it's not going to sharpen that edge. I'm resolving here and now that complacency will NOT be part of tomorrow's ride or Thursday's swim. I've said it so now it's truth. BE GONE complacency...