Quarters

Well jellloooo, it has been quite some time since I have wrote. All I have to say is my blog list has grown exponentially and I can't commit to saying I'm going to vet all my thoughts or even try to, but at least I'm here for now. I have been taking in so much information lately and have gotten deeply deeply involved in running which has given me so many insights in mental clarity and ability to process thoughts. Another thing I'd love to write about, but for now... Let's talk about quarters.

So, I don't know who you are or how you were raised, but in my house I often experienced time-out growing up. Example being that when I acted up (which, of course, I never did) then one of my frequent punishments was getting put in time-out. This resulted in me having to put my face into a corner and stand for an extended period of time. Back then, this time would have amounted to what seemed like an eternity, when in reality it was probably 5-10 minutes. So, the reason I bring this up is because the punishments I often received were also ones my Dad had received. One evening he was telling me a story about how when he would get put in time-out he would often have to hold his arms out with books resting in his hands. Now, you'd have to imagine that holding a book that weighed a few pounds would get pretty heavy pretty fast and in the eyes of a 9 year old child, would probably lead to tears being shed.

Now this is where my brain goes, idea. I am out on the trail and this comes to my mind for some reason. I want to place you back in that scenario. You're 9 years old, theres kind of that old musty smell that comes from your grandmas house lingering in the air. The carpet is definitely like something out of that 70s show and your dishwasher was a shitty sponge and your two hands. You had just mouthed back to you mom after she asked to have you help with a remedial task around the house to which your dad comes in and tells you to head to the corner. Little did you know that he would be changing things up this time. As you stomp your size 4 light-up spiderman shoes on the ancient artifact covering your floor your dad says, "hey, I want you to hold these." You turn to look and see that he has two quarters, one for each hand. In your head you scoff, and say "thanks"... to which he responds "you can hold these quarters out in front of you for 5 minutes, or do a normal timeout for 15." You elatedly say, "QUARTERS".

15 seconds passes by and you can't believe you've gotten away with murder. You've outsmarted the all knowing being, the all powerful rulers of your house. Your parents. 30 seconds go by...60....2 minutes. And all of a sudden you begin doubting yourself. You see your hands start to shake, your brow start to collect small beads of sweat. You feel an overwhelming sensation of tension and angst. You think to yourself, "how can these two quarters be causing me all of this pain??!?". What at intial look seemed to be two measly quarters, turned into the feeling of a half ton weight bearing down on us.

The thing we often forget in our lives is that little things make the big things. So often we see an issue arise in our work, our relationships, our training, our development and we sweep it under the rug. We see the overall value of that problem being as small as a quarter. Yet, we don't realize in our shortsidedness that over time that quarter can grow, change, and fester. When we allow a small thing in our lives to become an afterthought, we can often see that manifest in many different ways that may not even be the initial issue that was brought up in the first place. Life compounds. Don't leave the stone unturned. Don't leave the words unsaid. Dont let the quarters turn into boulders.

On purpose,

Matt