The goal is running

There are many reasons why I love running. It makes me feel alive. It makes me strong. It makes me free. It makes me happier than already I am. It makes me unique. It makes me competitive. It makes me different. It makes me "weird". It makes me fit. It makes me slim. It makes me who I am. It makes me determined.

Feeling of Freedom
I feel free when I am running. I am not stuck in traffic. I don't have to worry about crazy drivers in V8 pickup trucks. I am free when I run because I can, and I want to run. I am free when I run as nobody told me to run because it was a "Black Friday", or because there was a big sale event happening. Running is free and in order to run you don't have to spend lots of money. Certainly you could, as running 'industry" will tell you that something is "cool' and "absolutely necessary".

Pain is weakness that leaves the body

When I run I am part of nature. I watch, I listen, I smell. I listen sounds produced by my running on crisp snow and I listen my own breathing. I see my breath that sometimes almost crystallizes as I don't stop running when it get's cold. Depending on the season I see different pictures around me and my footing is different. When we get our short rain season I run through water and mud and that liberates me.

I feel my muscles work. They push me up the big hills and they get tired. I feel pain but on the top any hill I know I am stronger. My muscles work overtime but they get better. Many times I "hit the wall", and pain is almost unbearable. My heart is pumping, my muscles are on fire and my mind is almost quitting  but I know that all of that pain is actually weakness leaving the body. It feels great as I know I am using my own power to move, fast and sometimes faster, as much as I can and want at any given moment.

Running is individual sport but I meet many people when I am running. I meet other runners, walkers, people with dogs, couples in love, couples that just met. Many of them smile, say "hi" or "hello", or wave with their hand. Very few are rude and don't notice me. They are usually "busy" listening their iPods. Nevertheless I still say "hello" and wave my hand. I know they are enjoying too, perhaps even more than me, as they have their favourite tunes motivating them.

Winterstart Race

When I run I remember times when I wasn't able to run as my home town was in siege and only running was applied when I (we) were trying to escape sniper fire. Many times I ran as people from the hills were bomb shelling us, so I was trying to run faster thinking that I might not get shot. I was lucky I didn't get shot and these people who were shooting at us are still saying that they didn't.

That's why when I go running now, when I go 8, 9, 12, 15 km, or longer, I am so happy that I can just go and run, and be free. I run and my face and my body is all enveloped in sweat. My body is functioning how it should and I feel that I move like a sail boat on a perfect wind. It feels as there is no effort. I navigate through icy trails, steep down-hills, and my feet place itself as they feel terrain and as they cannot make mistake. Well, I still crashed twice on my run couple of days ago. Nothing is perfect.

Technology and running
I have a stop watch that I use to measure my time. That's the only running gadget I own. I was thinking about getting other useful gadgets but I didn't buy them. I thought that its extensive usage would take too much of joy I have while running. Many people ask me what is my running goal, and I say: "The goal is running". I am reluctant to adopt technology in this joyful part of my life. It would create many rules and when a game gets rules, it stops being a game. That's why running makes me different and weird.

I do have the most technologically advanced running shoes though. That's where I accept technology. Only reason for that is to protect my feet as they get hard pounding every time I run. That hard pounding affects everything else, and it is of paramount importance to decrease it and absorb it.

Running also gives me so called "runner's high", that I haven't been aware of, I guess almost ever. I feel good and I feel animated all the time anyway.  But running gives me even more boost and increases my energy even more.

Inspiration
Running inspires me. People who used running to become successful business people inspire me too. They help many others to start running, even though only reason for that was profit. But, they still help. Good for them.

Runners inspire me. World class, national class, local runners, fast runners and not so fast runners inspire me.
Well, when I run I inspire myself. And this is not hot air - it is true. Many times I feel crappy and I want to skip my arranged run, I want to do nothing. And then I still go running, somehow I convince myself to go running, and then I have a blast. I don't know if I can describe that feeling when I am done with my run. It feels indescribable. Try it out. You might get that feeling too.

Last 30 days of running

I am not an elite runner and I don't win races (I only won one running race in my life!). I run because of genes I have in me, genes that still remember that we were runners long time ago. I run because I can and because running is there. I run because it feels good, and because I want to run. I run because I am an investor who invests in himself.

And now, enough writing, I am going running.

We waste time on meetings

There are millions of meetings being held every day. You might be part of one of these meetings. They could be at work, at your volunteering organization, at your condo board....really everywhere.

I am sure that many of you had this feeling - how many times, during your long or short meeting, you really didn't know what you were doing there? You felt dumb. You felt and actually you knew you were wasting your time. There were no agenda, nobody was chairing the meeting, some of people took all time they could, some people dominated every conversation, some people kept interrupting others, some people browsed their hand held devices......You get the picture.

Imagine how much productive time is wasted every day and every hour, during these ineffective meetings? Millions of hours that could be used for something productive and useful. This is not fun. This also might sound negative, as it brings the truth, but I am sure that everyone has felt this way at least once in his/her life. On the other hand, to add a positive spin to this,  I did participate to some very effective meetings too. I know that you did too. That's where I want to focus. I want to find out why these meetings were efficient, productive and effective. I want to find it out from you.

Backwards Meeting

I will explore this next time, as my real intention today was to talk about backwards meeting. This is probably something that cannot be applied in a business setting, but I believe, it still should be explored as it develops a different way of thinking and challenges us to adopt to something that our Euclidean brain doesn't support. It also creates so much fun that you'll definitely want to do it more than once. It is more likely that this could be explored in a setting that supports structured meeting with defined agenda. For example, we had Backwards meetings at my Toastmasters club, and when I witnessed it and participated for the first time, I found it quite challenging, but so much fun. Thanks to my colleague Wang Yip who introduced it to the club, we had that privilege of experiencing something that was really demanding. That really connects to my way of thinking that emphasizes on constant learning and challenging of each other.

What is a backwards meeting? Well, simply, it is a meeting that starts from its end and finishes at point where it should start. So, we start with closing remarks ("Thank you for being here today, our next meeting is next week.") and progresses through agenda items going towards the start of the meeting. If you are a chairman, your last words will probably be:"Good afternoon everyone and welcome to our meeting". Some, and actually I believe, many people would ask: "What are the benefits of backwards meeting? What do I get from it?" Short answer is: "To teach your brain to think in a different way, to take a road less traveled  and help yourself to become more complete and more diverse person.

Everyone who participates in this meeting can gain enormous benefits by exploring this other, "opposite" way of thinking. For example, if Evaluator mentions in his/her evaluation that the speaker: "Showed us push-ups in such a great way", the speaker should try to incorporate these push-ups in his/her speech or presentation. If Timer marks that Table Topics Speaker (TTS) spoke 2 minutes and got clapped down, the TTS has to speak for 2 minutes, and actually has to start after applause. This also means that everyone else has to participate by clapping. This also means that person in charge has to lead this applause, and actually to be focused 200% of the meeting flow. Each role is done backwards, so everyone has to prepare in advance. Everyone has to think. Everyone has to listen.

In order not to make this complicated I am publishing my Backwards Meeting logistics that I developed, as I was responsible for our 2nd ever backwards meeting. Note that this work is based on original backwards meeting material published by Wang Yip. I intend to record my next Backwards Meeting and publish it, so that people could see it, instead of reading it.

Who knows, maybe some of them will organize backwards meetings and ultimately put yourself out of their comfort zone.