MAKING YOUR MILES COUNT Robert D. Scheper
Stop Worrying and Trust Your Own Good Judgment! Many (many) years ago I ran two marathons, in 2001 and 2002. I’ve always thought it romantic to have said I ran a marathon… I was wrong… there is nothing romantic about your first marathon. The reason I started it is not the reason I finished it. I clearly remember in my first race; I approached a corner at the 18-mile mark and saw that another participant was leaning against a chain fence crying her heart out. I absolutely and completely related! Whatever it was that motivated both of us to make the commitment to run a marathon was pounded out on the pavement behind us. It was clear (at least to me) that neither one of us had adequately prepared for the race. Our bodies were in full rebellion. There was no pride or shame to hold us to our prior commitment, the pain and lack of energy overruled. That day she chose to quit and for some reason, I chose not to. I forged on in my unpreparedness. Bit by bit, fence post to fence post, I plodded onward. After what seemed like ages, I reached the 22-mile mark and realized I had the juice to finish. I was going to be a “marathoner”. The excitement was pure and wholesome. Adrenaline was released into my body, and I felt I could sprint the last 4.2 miles but, I slammed the door shut on the excitement 10 • OVER THE ROAD
and adrenaline. I knew that reacting to the excitement would almost certainly guarantee me to not finish the race. The adrenaline would drain the critical energy I needed to finish. My emotions were ahead of my skies (to overuse another analogy) and I forced myself to calm down and refocused on the progress from fence post to fence post, to the end. Keeping control of our thoughts and emotions in a high stress environment is usually the difference between success and failure. I have a pillow in my office and on it is stitched “calm is a superpower”. Calmness is needed in many settings. We have a lot of perks at our accounting firm. The one that comes to the forefront the most is the ability to be flexible with hours, holidays, and scheduling. As long as the work gets done on time, I will continue to provide that benefit. However, sometimes individuals assume things far beyond the possible, particularly when work clearly won’t be able to get done. My wife had an incident a few weeks ago wherein someone she was training asked for time off just before a critical event that needed to be done, and that event was
SEPTEMBER 2021
