Kerri On Down The Road

When I first started to incorporate hill training as part of my running schedule, I had mixed emotions.  As a cyclist I had huffed and puffed up my fair share of hills and inclines and knew the value that came with this type of work.  I always managed to get myself up the hill with the promise of the thrilling decent that inevitably followed.  It felt so freeing to just relax into the downhill and let the bike fly.   With running it was a different experience.  I found that I could settle into the uphill portion of the hill and almost began to enjoy the feeling of that slow burn as I made my way to the top.  What I found unnerving was coming down the other side.  Instinctively I would lean back, heavy on my heels as I tried to fight against the momentum that was building.  I seemed to focus on the space right in front of my feet and felt like I was working almost as hard on the way down as I had on the way up sometimes.  My fear was hold...

Another week, another song title for my blog post.  This one really resonates as I feel more and more lately like I am becoming an architect, even though the very thing I am building is somewhat of a mystery to me.  I am planning my next steps, crafting my vision of what I would like my future to look like and doing it all by feel.  Almost like putting together a jig saw puzzle and slowly finding where the pieces all seem to fit together. For those who know me well, this type of unscripted building is not typically my way of doing things.  I am a rather process-driven person, someone who likes to create and follow a plan.  I enjoy having a framework to guide me and have always felt the most comfortable when I know the parameters that I'm working within.  For example, when I was a kid and playing with Lego, I was more likely to follow the patterns and instructions than I would be to just build things off the cuff.  (Side note - I feel that all of the Le...

 This is the journalling card that I selected this morning, and as I reflected upon it, I began to realize just how important cultivating hope is. On many occasions I have been reminded that "Hope is not a game plan".  Going into a situation hoping for the best was often equated to being ill-prepared or basically setting myself up for failure.  While only holding onto hope as a way to achieve a goal may not produce the outcome that you are looking for, I do feel that we need to hold a space for hope in our lives. When I think about hope and just what it really is, I am struck by how vulnerable being hopeful about something can make us feel.  It is like we have laid our cards out on the table for all to see and now are giving voice to what we desire and allowing ourselves to be judged based upon our dreams.  And yet, without hope, how can our dreams actually take flight? I feel like hope is what gives our dreams room to grow.  It gives them the wings to sta...

To say that I tend to look at things in terms of absolutes would be an understatement.  I am the first to admit to a mindset that has more often than not been about this or that, black or white, right or wrong.  Learning to become open to and also appreciate the grey or uncharted areas of life has been some of the hardest and most rewarding work that I have done.  What I have learned through this is that sometimes the most meaningful progress in life happens while we are sitting knee-deep in uncertainty. The concept of winning or learning, versus winning or losing, was introduced to me while I listened to an excellent audio book entitled "How to Ikigai", which explored the idea around discovering your life's work.  The author Tim Tamashiro introduced this concept as a new way to consider the effort required to develop a skill or reach a goal.  It really boils down to changing our mindset from win or lose when it comes to pursuing goals and accomplishments. ...