Category: Annual Review

Chasing Freedom: Independence, Adventure, and The Year-Long Secret Race to #WDS

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

INDEPENDENCE. WHAT IS IT?

A year ago, I went to one of my first conferences I’ve ever attended—aptly titled, “The World Domination Summit.“ (Try telling your parents and your colleagues about this one. Bemused looks and strange faces ensued.) I went anyways. As a slightly more introverted than extroverted person who struggles a bit with social anxiety and large groups of people, I wasn’t sure about meeting all of these new faces, or being part of a crowd. (There’s a reason I spent the majority of my childhood swimming, gardening, or reading–all solo activities. While I’ve shifted in my twenties and become much more of an outgoing person over time, I still find the solace of writing and blogging to be much more rejuvenating than large crowds of people.) In short, I don’t always like going out in public. I was especially terrified because aside from one or two people, I didn’t know anyone, and I didn’t have a wingman.

At the conference, I met some of the most remarkable people I’ve encountered, from Nate, who was walking across America, to Nick, a fellow swimmer and comrade in adventures in New York, to JD, who has taught me so much: In one weekend, I made more friends and found kindred souls than the years spent in various jobs. The recap of the event took four separate posts (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Photos) – and Chris joked that I should become the “scribe” of future conferences because of my note-taking obsession.

This weekend, I’ll be returning to round 2 of the World Domination Summit (#WDS), as both a participant and a workshop leader. But even more than that, I’m excited because a secret year-long race is now coming to a closing point …

Because a year ago, I met three people who joined me in a secret race, and we made a pact that by this time, this year, we would all take strides towards creating freedom and big changes in our lives. Continue reading “Chasing Freedom: Independence, Adventure, and The Year-Long Secret Race to #WDS”

Best of books 2011: For every entrepreneur and intra-praneur

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

“If you stop learning, you are obsolete.”

Entrepreneurs and intra-preneurs learn like crazy. (If you don’t know what an intra-preneur is, check out this list of business terms). An intra-preneur is changing the game in his or her current company by breaking the rules, building new programs, and becoming indispensible within their company. An entrepreneur is building something new (often with limited resources) within or beyond the current system: a new company, a new way of communicating, a new way to organize people or things and space.

They learn by testing, iterating, observation, and becoming a sponge for knowledge. We soak in knowledge about our given fields of expertise, and we expand our skillsets by learning about correlating fields that complement and reflect our given fields, and we strive to be better in the specific areas within and related to our business.

Last year I read a book a week, which worked (on average) although I didn’t always make it each week. (More often than not, I found time to read on planes…) Here’s my hit list for my favorites from the past year–a list of 50 of the best books I’ve read in the last year. If you only have time to read three, start with The Social Animal, The Essential Drucker, and (well, this is hard to pick only three) … Trust Agents. Those are the standouts for me this year.

Here are more than 50 great books for the next year, which include some of my all-time favorites from the past year. Consider this your “syllabus” for the next year, if you’re committed to learning and growing. In many cases, notes are included, categorized by my areas of interest.Please note: I’ve purchased, read, marked-up and loved each of these books, below, and they occupy space on my bookshelves near and dear to my heart. I’ve linked to them directly to Amazon–which gives me a bit of money for referring my favorites if you decide to buy it (but by no means enough to quit my day job!)–and I also review some of these books in depth on this blog, so you could skip straight to the summaries if you wanted to. Regardless, that’s the “behind the scenes” bits I have to tell you in my acts of curation.

If you know of some great ones I should check out, please leave a note in the comments. Enjoy!

“Learn like it’s your job, your passion, your food, and your fuel. Learning is a necessity. Crave it.”

Marketing & Advertising

  • Tested Advertising Methods, by Prentice Hall Business Classics. A primer on all things copywriting and advertising.
  • Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind, by Al Ries and Jack Trout. Considered the father of advertising and a guru of branding, marketing and product management, Trout brings together elements of psychology and user experience to show how to describe things to the people that matter to your business–your customers. It’s not how you understand what you do; it’s how well you explain it to others, in a way that stands out.
  • Oglivy on Advertising. One of the premier advertising and sales books of all times. Oglivy is a genius. “Ogilvy’s writing is captivating. His work, legendary. His ideas, timeless.” I’ve only begun to dig into the genius in this book, and fully expect to have it dog-eared, flagged, marked, highlighted, and re-read multiple times over.

Information, Communication, Curation & Media

  • Trust Agents, by Julien Smith and Chris Brogan. Destined to be a classic. How do people become online influencers? They do more than provide content: they establish valuable relationships, reputations, and utilize media to build trust relationships as leaders and agents in an increasingly interconnected, complex world.
  • Information Anxiety 1 and Information Anxiety 2, both by Richard Saul Wurman, founder of the TED Conferences and author of 80+ books. For excerpts, check out this article. Issue 1 is out of print,  but can be purchased used. Hat tip to Lauren Manning for pointing me to these books.

Design

  • In The Bubble: Designing in a Complex World. “We’re filling up the world with technology and devices, but we’ve lost sight of an important question: What is this stuff for? What value does it add to our lives?” This is the premise of John Thackara’s book. The book is all text and theory, about design but not visual in and of itself. Main thesis? That we’re regaining respect for the abilities that people have–by becoming increasingly aware of what technology still can’t do.
  • Bruce Mao: Massive Change. One of the most visually-stunning, eye-candy laden books about the new inventions and technologies affecting the human race. A collection of stimulating essays and questions about how the world operates–and what designers and planners alike are doing about it.
  • How to Think Like Great Graphic Designer, by Debbie Millman. A series of wonderful, thought-provoking, and deliciously accessible interviews with some of the 20th and 21st century’s leading thinkers and designers. Highlighted all over, particularly the interview with Milton Glaser.
  • Thinking with Type, Edition 2, by Ellen Lupton. One of my favorite books on typography, layout and style. Most font and style books don’t give enough visual examples labeled and annotated to truly teach; this book is a definitive overview and beautiful guide to using typography, layout, and white space in print (and web) design.
  • Information Architecture, by Christina Wodtke. The illustrations can be a bit kitchy at times, but the content and organization is great. A good overview of how information flow, diagramming, and understanding sequences chains is pertinent before starting major projects or designs.
  • The Visual Miscellaneum. One of my favorite books to pick up with countless illustrations, diagrams, and information–visualized. Understanding how to show the story of data, and make information meaningful, is an arduous task. This is a collection of hundreds of beautiful examples. No more designers’ block!

Business & Entrepreneurship

  • Start With Why, by Simon Sinek. A review of some of the most innovative, influential people and organizations in the world. Start by building a foundation and culture that answers “Why” before you ask “What” or “How.”
  • The Personal MBA, by Josh Kaufmann. A $15 book in exchange for a $150,000 education? Seems like a no-brainer. A relevant resource that I consult repeatedly. How to build value, what a USP is, how to work well by yourself and with others, and fundamentals of starting your own business.
  • The Accidental Entrepreneur, by Susan-Urquhart Brown. A shorter read, and less in-depth than Kaufmann’s book, but still filled with valuable information and great advice for anyone starting out. Covers fundamentals of marketing, creating a business plan, and traits of successful entrepreneurs.
  • ReWork, by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. In an earlier post, “Thirteen outstanding business ideas from ReWork,” I cover the tips about the book in more detail. Read it. It’s short, straight-forward, and outstanding.
  • Enchantment
  • Change by Design, by Tim Brown of Ideo. Theories about design-thinking and innovation: how good ideas happen, and the processes and rigors behind developing great ideas.
  • End Malaria, edited by Michael Bungay Stanier. “62 Business thinkers pushing you to rethink the way you work.” Ignore the title, albeit good; it’s deceiving. This is a book of essays by some of the most brilliant across industries. Listen to them.

Management & Leadership

  • The Essential Drucker – The Best Sixty Years of Peter Drucker’s Essential Writings on Management. Considered the father of modern management, this book shifted how I think about the role of leadership and managing teams. Can’t put it down.
  • Confessions of a Public Speaker, by Scott Berkun. Funny as hell, and likeable. Sound advice through good stories.

Organization & Effectiveness

  • Getting Things Done, by David Allen. I don’t subscribe to all tactics GTD, but it did change how I thought about 2-minute tasks and the limitations of the human brain: we aren’t wired for as much as we think we are. Figure out how to override your shortcomings and really find systems that work.
  • Making Ideas Happen, by Scott Belksy and the founder of Behance. The system is different than GTD (focused on the action method), but another good way of re-configuring how you do your best work.
  • Life After College, by Jenny Blake. Crowd-sourced tips on being awesome, figuring shit out, and getting beyond the craziness of life in your early twenties. Check out the full-length review here, with references to Jenny’s super-human powers, wonder-woman outfits, and killer heels.
  • The Accidental Creative, by Todd Henry. Strategies for becoming a creative, even if you feel like you aren’t one. Don’t think you need this? Todd argues that we all are creatives now–it’s no longer enough just do do your job.
  • The Four-Hour Work Week, by Tim Ferriss. I was skeptical of this at first, given that the man spent 15+ years testing and tweaking strategies obsessively all in the name of being able to eventually work 4-hours per week; but if you want to learn how to game the system, watch a man who does it well. (I suppose my ire is more suited towards the wannabes that followed who promised lifestyle design success–without any of the core research to back it up.)
  • The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey. Another mind-blowing organization and strategy book. My favorite premise is that the highest form of being is interdependence, and not independence or dependence. We need more thinking like this, particularly in our image-centric, ego-centric, independent entrepreneurial world. We definitely do not do any of it alone.

Psychology

  • How We Decide, by Jonah Lehrer. One of my favorite psychology writers of all time; constantly reveals how our brains work and what’s going on inside our strange heads.
  • Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert Cialdini. “Influence is a science.” It’s not magic; and Cialdini outlines six principles for how people relate to each other, socially, and why tools like reciprocity, scarcity, and liking affect how we interact with each other. And it’s fun to read.
  • Made to Stick, Chip Heath and Dan Heath. All about making ideas sticky, and the psychology of how we remember things.
  • Predictably Irrational, by Dan Riley. The peculiarities of being human, and how and why we repeatedly behave weirdly.
  • The Elements of Persuasion, by Richard Maxwell and Robert Dickman. Master storytelling will get you further in persuading people – effectively getting them to do what you want. And in work and life, don’t you want to get what you want?
  • The Social Animal, by David Brooks. Possibly–actually–my favorite book out of this entire list. A story that reads like fiction, Brooks reveals thousands of interesting insights about the human condition, all through the lens of a pair of people growing up, falling in love, and growing apart (and together again) over time. The unconscious mind is phenomenal.
  • The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, by Neil Strauss. I’m not sure if this is a true story or not, but as a woman living in a city, this certainly opened my eyes to the games being played all around us.
  • Traffic, by Tom Vanderbilt. The subtitle, “why we drive the way we do – and what that says about us,” tells us that it’s more about our quirks as humans than about the fact that we’ve gone and made entirely awful-yet-awesome transportation systems designed around 10,000 pound steel structures. Good read, but not mind-blowing. Full review here.

Inspiration & Motivation

  • Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott. A book on writing and life, and all the zany-crazy-personality quirks in between. Fluttering between self-deprecation and frank honesty, Lamott tells the story of the difficulty of writing and getting out of our own way. Humorous at times and painful at others, I have owned this book for more than 10 years and refer to it readily whenever I experience my own writers’ block.
  • Swimming to Antarctica, by Lynne Cox, one of the greatest open-water swimmers there ever was.
  • Do The Work, by Stephen Pressfield. Also going to add in his other one, “The War Of Art” — both are brilliant ass-kickers to doing the work and actually getting out of your own way to do something.
  • The Flinch, by Julien Smith. How and why to lean into discomfort, pain, and discipline: it’s not about being comfortable. It’s about getting comfortable being uncomfortable, and doing the painful or scary things. Without flinching.

Money

  • The Millionaire Next Door, by Thomas Stanley and William Danko. Frank and reasonable sense about how ordinary-looking people with small-to-modest homes become millionaires by accumulation, not spending. A good reminder for me personally to worry less about “things” and “stuff” and focus on what matters (and what’s within my means).
  • Naked Economics, by Charles Wheelan. One of the first books that made economics make sense to me. Described the ins and outs of inflation, capital markets and finance to me. To be fair, I read this book for the first time a few years’ back and went back through it again this year, because it makes economics fascinating and interesting–and I got a bit out of the book the second time around, as well.
  • I Will Teach You To Be Rich, by Ramit Sethi. The full review, “$10 for a financial wizard” covers my thoughts in detail. Worth the read for it’s psychological understanding of how we actually behave around and with money, and the idiotic things we say we’ll do, but never actually end up doing.

All-Around Favorites

  • What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, by Haruki Murakami (and almost anything and everything by Haruki Murakami!). Essays from running, writing, and doing both over time. Beautiful.
  • Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall. Just don’t buy vibrams and start running half marathons straight away. Then you’re an idiot.
  • To Have and Have Not. Ernest Hemingway. Classic.
  • The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman. What would become of the world without humans? How would cities fall and crumble, how would the ecology of place change, what would rust and tumble?
  • Ender’s Game. Have read and re-read probably ten or more times.
  • The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. Depressing, by all means, but I stayed up until 5 AM just to finish this book.
  • Last Child In The Woods, by Richard Louv. Reviewed over here, and one of the reasons why I love my job(s).

Know of any more great books? Leave notes in the comments!

 

Happy New Year & The Best of 2011

Posted on by Sarah K Peck


What a year. First, a huge thank you for everything and everyone wonderful from December: it was the surprise ending to an already-unforgettable year. I was blown away by the shout-out on Pro Blogger and the response to the recent Do Something: Slide Share presentation. (which reached 80,000 views!) WOW.  I’m completely blown away! Based on the reviews and reactions, I want to make a small coffee-table book version, since so many of you emailed to ask if it was available as a stand-alone document. I love this idea! More soon! 

Second, I am so glad that people enjoy stopping here. It’s been such a joy to meet so many new faces and I’m thankful for those gutsy folks out there who took the time to stop by my internet home, check out the work, send an email, do something they were afraid of, and then tell me about it. Honestly: you are my HEROES. Some of the most courageous of you sent me a message and said hello and how much site has meant to you–that you “get lost in it,” that you “identify with the ups, downs and struggles,” and that you “love how much I share.” I had no idea!  For me, sitting here, writing behind this computer, I am grateful. This was the best Christmas present of all: knowing that I can connect with so many of you. Thank you. 

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To all of you, Happy New Year. 

Holiday mail!

One of my favorite things to do each year is sit down and reflect on the year past. I write a quarterly letter to myself (yes, it’s nerdy–just don’t ask what I call it!). The letter helps me stop and review what’s working and what’s not working.  The best way to get better is to look back and see what you’ve done so far–and where you can get better. Feedback is brutal, but it’s okay: it might sting in the short-term, but it’s good for the long term.

So, as you can imagine, I love writing my annual holiday letter! Here’s a picture of this year’s stack, stamped and ready to go. I thought I’d share a bit with you–although please, sit down and have a cup of coffee (or two) because this post is going to be a looooong one.

Where it began.

Where did this year begin? In a set of annual December prompts, one of my favorite Reverb questions is “where did your year begin?” And I sit, behind this desk of mine, looking back myself from a year ago.

 … 2010 was quite a year itself. In describing the end of last year, I had hope that 2011 would be slower. 

I wish I could paint a picture of it, of how much has changed in a year. A year ago, I wasn’t a long-distance open-water swimmer. A year ago, I didn’t have this job. I didn’t even have this blog, in fact–it only went live in June, days before I went to my first conference. (I wrote another blog, that I used posts from to build this one). A year ago, I wasn’t living in San Francisco.

A year ago, a lot was different.

A little over a year ago, as the new year was approaching, I was living by myself in a tiny garage in northern California, without a bed of my own, just my treasured sleeping bag and a borrowed twin bed.

Sometimes I feel ashamed of telling this, as though I won’t ever be able to get it–IT, LIFE–right. As though you could get “life” right. Sometimes it all feels like pretend; a story of someone else’s life, an idea that I fabricated, like I’ll wake up and pinch myself, and it won’t be real anymore. For most of the summer of 2010, I lived in a small tiny garage apartment, a room-within-a-room attached to a house the suburbs, alone by myself in a room with no windows, wrapped up in a sleeping bag. Almost all of my things were packed away at my parent’s houses or in storage; I took with me a book shelf, a bag, and my computer electronics. It’s raw to be with nothing, with no one: all you have, really, is you. Who you are. 

In the evenings, I’d dress up in my one black dress, putting the city on, my high heels teetering and clacking on the floor in the hollow house, made-up and dressed up, driving the 30 minutes down the dark highway into the city. The lights of the Golden Gate Bridge would beckon after the rainbow tunnels; the city sparkling, telling me to come be a part of it. 

The glitz and the glamour of the city disappeared as I drove home, slowly, the silence of the car deafening, and I’d retreat to my temporary home across the bridge, over the windy hills of the 101 and down into the sleepier, quiet, dark towns of the North Bay, the Marin headlands. Cyclists sped past me on the Bayfront trails as I walked and wandered through the towns. Safeway was Safeway; suburbia was suburbia. 

And so, I saved. I wanted to be back in San Francisco so badly, but I couldn’t afford it. I thought about selling my car but decided to keep the car and scrimp and save money for a few more months. In October, I saved up enough money to move into the city. At the beginning of the year, I got my things out of storage, drove to my new apartment, and started again.

Most of my friends don’t even know I ever left the city. 

Unpacking all my things made me realize how much I could do with out.

And in December, when I got to the city, I said YES.

Yes to the city, Yes to new things, Yes to escaping the tired and the dreary, Yes to none of the same, Yes to opening new worlds. Yes to meeting new people, to starting a new life, to actually doing the things I said I wanted to do.

Sometimes you just need a little motivation …

A word? 

If I could sum up this year in a word, it would be “yes.” This year was a year of yes; an experiment in trying new things, meeting new people, and getting out of my comfort zone. It’s easy to stay at home, read books, and do the same thing over and over again; it’s much harder (for me at least!) to get outside and push myself into the uncomfortable places where growth happens.

At the beginning of 2011, I vowed to do several things: many of which failed, and many others which were more successful than I imagined. In that list, I wanted to write more, start a blog, travel, speak Spanish again, do more open water swimming, and change my job. And here, another year has gone by, and I’m taking time this December to look back and see what’s changed, for better and for worse, and understand where I’ve come from.  I really learn a lot by looking back and using it as a guidepost for the future.

Travel 

I adventured with my sister to London and Paris  in April (and got conned); on back-to-back weekends in May and June I made it to Portland, Maine and Portland, Oregon.  In July I went to Tucson, Arizona for a roller-coaster weekend of heat, humidity, thunderstorms, and long talks with my Grandpa; In October, I found myself in New York, Toronto, and Philadelphia for both work and fun, and in November, my work took on me to Los Angeles and San Diego. Finally, in December, I escaped the city to Costa Rica with a group entrepreneurial women to reflect on 2011 and plan for the 2012 year ahead. Perhaps 2012 will be a bit less nomadic, but life on the road was fun: it meant I get to see so many more faces that I don’t always see.

Projects, Jobs, Dreams + Ideas. 

In March, after years as a full-time draftsperson/designer focused on landscape architecture and urban design, I started a new position in communications and marketing for architecture and design industries, which we created anew. I’m now spearheading our communications endeavors for our seven offices, with a focus on business, strategy and marketing. The projects on my plate vary from website design + strategy, internal + external communications, designing for print and web, publications, meeting with editors, coordinating conferences, and bringing more visibility to our firm and work. In short, it means I get to write and design.

Themes: innovation, entrepreneurship, intra-preneurship.

When in doubt?

Innovating work within an existing company or by building a new company fascinates me, and has been the theme of this year: new job, new career, and many, many new projects. It’s an exercise in learning, growing and adapting, so I spend quite a bit of time in the late evenings and early mornings self-teaching, or reaching out to folks to get advice and feedback on these new processes. The job and my own interests (which often fold into each other in unexpected ways) – have taken me to several events including Start Up Weekend, Blog World, WDS in Portland, ASLA’s national conference, ULI and Green Build.

Launch! Landscape Urbanism.

In March we launched the Landscape Urbanism beta site, and in September launched the full site, a process in team-building, strategy and design that taxed my capabilities and stretched my limits, certainly. It’s amazing to be able to point to something and say, “we did that,” – and see a project that was an idea built into reality. These are skills and lessons I’ll never forget. For the complete breakdown of post-hoc lessons learned, see “The lessons you need most (part 1)” and “20 lessons from launching a project (part 2).”

The best of posts: 2011 

This blog reached new hits, with some of the most well-loved posts including:

Adventures

What happiness looks like ...

Last year I asked myself what the scariest athletic event I could do would be, and I decided to go all-in with my open water swimming. It’s hard to believe that two years ago I had my doctor tell me I might never swim again. This year, in May, we did a 6 mile Bridge-to-Bridge swim from the Bay Bridge to the Golden Gate bridge. In June, we did a 10 mile “Prison to Prison” swim from San Quentin to Alcatraz, crossing the San Francisco Bay. And in October, my friend Nate Damm finished his walk across America.Why? Because we wanted to do something worth talking about. I am so thankful for my health and ability to be outside, to move, to live. There’s nothing like running the San Francisco hills in the early morning and watching the fog roll away to help me achieve clarity and motivation.

Lessons Learned.

Through it all, there have been some persistent meditations that keep cropping up as I work through projects and dreams that are tiring, difficult, taxing, and challenging. I’ve found, over and over again, that the hard work is worth it. It’s no easy feat, “designing your life,” but the benefit of persistence, dedication, and embracing challenging goals has been by far unbelievably rewarding.

It’s not without lessons, tears, fears, and scared moments. Yet without a doubt, the more I do the things I’m afraid of, the more joy, happiness, and love I experience. There is a direct correlation.

Nothing I do is ever alone, and I am grateful, encouraged, inspired by the people I am surrounded with. Living in San Francisco again has been a joy in unexpected encounters, adventures, and meeting new smart, talented people who are working hard to create amazing things. People like YOU have taught me and shared with me over the years, and I’m lucky to have you as my friends and family.

Some of my favorite quotes from this year, for inspiration and motivation:

What’s holding you back? | Adversity is beautiful. | Learn by doing. | Give yourself permission. | Do something worth talking about. | What would you do if you knew you would not fail? | Do it anyways. | It’s all about attitude. | You get back what you give. |  If you’re not doing something about it, you’re doing something about it. |  Stop putting stuff between you and your work. | Give yourself a chance to get good. | If you don’t commit, it won’t happen. | Leap boldly. | Finish or Punt. |  Put it out there.

And of course, my all-time personal favorite:

Do something.

Do Something

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

I’m sitting on an airplane, staring out the window, reflecting on the year past and how quickly it seems to have gone by, and thinking about all the adventures I’ve been on. December is a time of pause: we can stop and look back, and, if we really do our diligence, analyze how we can improve and get better.

I’ve met so many people this year who want to do things, but something’s not working: there’s excuse after excuse after excuse; ideas that don’t make it off the drawing board; self-defeating mechanisms that work against you instead of for you. I can’t say that I know what I’m doing all the time, but I’ve developed a few tricks that have worked along the way. And here, on the airplane, I can’t help myself: I quickly scratch out a list of motivations, of voices that I wish you would hear when you’re working hard, when you’re trying new things. This is my manifesto for 2012: to making things happen. You need to make it happen.

Do something.

This is my mantra for the year, my vision behind my actions. You won’t get anywhere faster by sitting and thinking about them. (And I realize the irony of sitting and thinking about this, even as I do it: sometimes moments of reflection are prudent. But here on the airplane, the things I’m happiest about from last year are the actions I took. The things I DID.). And I know this to be true, from the life I’ve lived so far: you need to act, even in the face of uncertainty. You need to try new things. Fail beautifully. Fail miserably. Get stuck. Be frustrated. Make microscopic movements in better directions. But above all else, we must do something.

Do something.

Here’s the presentation: Fifty handwritten notes for you, as always.

With love,


DO SOMETHING

(Can’t see the presentation? Watch it on slide share). 

2011 review: Costa Rica, Reflections, and Entrepreneurs

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

I’d like to interrupt the middle of winter for a short escape to the pure life: la pura vida, costa rica.

This past week I spent living in Costa Rica with a group of six women for an entrepreneur’s retreat. For many people, particularly small-business owners or entrepreneurs, working from home or abroad is a real possibility – we just don’t do it or take advantage of it as often as we should. (In the case of people like me, with a “real job” and several side projects, I did have to take a few vacations days – but it’s always worth it).

For just under a week, a group of women from across the United States traveled to Quepos, Costa Rica, to share a house and combine vacation, fun, entrepreneurship and learning. In addition to ziplining, exploring the jungle and spending time in the surf and sunshine, we spent ample time unplugged and away from computers. Instead, we exchanged ideas, talked about our fears and successes, and compared notes and ideas on both current and future projects.  Each person had an exciting story: a different career track, advice to share, and processes and questions to consider.

For me, December is the time to slow down, reflect, take stock in what has happened over the year past, to see what you’ve done with yourself, and plan ahead for the year to come. It’s always a time when I need to spend extra days in quiet reflection, analyzing what worked (yay!), what didn’t (which can be frustrating and disappointing), and figure out how I might change or tweak my existing systems to get better results in the future.

Some of our reflection questions: Each day, we shared questions and thoughts about our current progress, our future goals, and our business aspirations. We spent an hour (or more) each day talking openly about the following reflection questions:

  • What’s holding you back?
  • How do you define success?
  • If you could be in (or on the cover) of any magazine, would you want to be? Which one would it be, and why?
  • What do you have to offer and what do you need?
  • What are your goals for next year?

Thoughts and reflections: Here’s my personal list of take-aways, questions, and reflections from the retreat; these are ideas that I’m starting to spend a lot of time thinking about. (If you have any advice or ideas, please share!)

  • Down time is necessary. This was the first time I stopped working for 5 straight days. I’m embarrassed to admit that, to myself even. Recently I’ve been struggling with burnout and exhaustion, and I’m starting to realize how vital it is to take breaks.
  • Unplugging is good. Creativity does not necessarily come from technology, computers, television, cell phones, facebook, twitter, google, blogging, cars, or any other thing that we’re currently using in our day to day lives.
  • Is comfortable bad? I don’t know the answer to this question. I’ve now asked myself it over and over again for almost a month. If you want to participate in the conversation on this topic on Google Plus, there are some interesting comments and ideas being exchanged.
  • How do you know when to change? Again, a question I don’t fully know how to answer.
  • What do you do when your systems aren’t working? As a personal glimpse: I’ve been very discouraged and frustrated at projects lately that either aren’t completed or haven’t turned out well. One of the important lessons I learned was that each project you work on, it’s a test of the process and the idea. Several of the projects would be more successful with tweaks and changes to the structure and process. Everything is a work in progress, I suppose!
  • Focus. Following on the themes above, I often struggle with chasing too many ideas. Allie said it best: “A man who chases two rabbits, starves.”
  • Decision waffling: Sometimes I get completely stuck in the decision making process. Do you?
  • What are you afraid of? What is it that is holding you back?
  • We are often the ones to get in our way first. So much of what we do and say comes from our monkey brains, those mental traps that don’t serve us but rather, burden us. Interfacing with other people is often the best therapy for getting out of our own way (Feedback, friendship, mentorship, coaching, conversation all serve to stimulate idea progression rather than stalling in an endless loop of self-chatter).
  • Comparisons are ruthless. I’ve learned this one before and I’m reminded of it again: we can’t compare ourselves to everyone else, or we will always fall short. Harvard suggests that Facebook is making us miserable — and I’m inclined to agree.
Gratitude. As always with traveling, I am grateful and humbled. The opportunities I have I cherish. Things I am grateful for:
  • New views. Alternative perspectives. I love looking into new cultures and experiencing the world from a new set of eyes. Travel lets you do this.
  • Language. Language lets you think in another form. It’s been a while since I’ve brushed up on my Spanish, but I was delighted and surprised that my college lessons kicked in after I dusted the old cobwebs off my internal Spanish neurons. One of my dreams is to be fluent in at least two languages, and I’m now back to solid intermediate level. (Another dream is to live in a Spanish-speaking country for at least a month and re-learn the language, getting closer to fluency. More on this in as events transpire …)
  • I love people. I love meeting people, skipping over fences, hopping, dancing, hugging, and celebrating.
  • An excess of things. Leaving the country always reminds me that I own too much stuff, too many things, much of which burdens me. I am always inspired to get rid of things and de-clutter my life.

 

If you’re interested in doing a trip like this:

  • What is your purpose? Why do you want to do this trip?
  • What kind of people would you like to meet? What kind of people would you learn from?
  • Expense, wise, the highest cost is the flight;
  • Housing can be extremely affordable with co-sharing;
  • Food and meals can be shared and cooked in, keeping it in budget.
  • Transportation and travel time is significant – remember to allocate this into your time.
  • Plan ahead for major events: we scheduled in advance about 3 months, booked tickets to certain events (ziplining, etc)
  • Some coordination on the back-end (with clients, schedules, and events) is definitely required.

And for you? What are your dreams or goals?

  • How did 2011 turn out for you?
  • What worked well? What are you proud of?
  • What do you want to improve? What didn’t happen that you wish you had done?
  • What are your goals and dreams for 2012?
  • How are you going to make them happen?

Closing thoughts: 

This trip kick-started my December year-in review, where I reflect on the year past, study what worked and what didn’t, participate in the month-long Reverb prompts, and prepare for the year ahead. I’m excited to be participating in Reverb 11 this year. Reverb is a month-long set of prompts for you to participate and reflect on the year past. Kaileen Elise put together a list of questions. I usually answer about half of them, and I’ll post some of them here and some of them on mytumblr if you’re interested in following along.

I’m grateful to be able to do this, to meet people, and exchange ideas. “To exchange ideas, to engage in conversation, to meet new people” – these are the golden nuggets. Not just sitting behind a computer screen.

As always, I encourage each of you to *do something*. This is the heart of life. Not sitting. Not waiting. Not idling. Do something. 

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2011 review: 28 in fifty-two notes: a year’s worth of writing, lessons, and people

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

Another year, another day, another second. Each moment we get a little older, and hopefully a little bit wiser. Yesterday I turned 28, and I can hardly believe it. I’m nearly done with my twenties: somehow it feels like I should be getting on with my life, setting an example, and doing stuff worth doing. At the same time, I feel as though everything’s just beginning, that we’re only getting started, and that the fun times that have transpired are peanuts to what’s ahead.

In looking back, I’ve realized several things this past year. First, I love the internet. Second, I am blown away and amazed by the number of people that I’ve met through this web of stories – this side-kick, this second life I have: blogging. I am grateful, inspired, and lucky to be here, living this life.

One year ago, I made a pact to myself that year 27 was not going to be small or meek; that it wasn’t going to be solo or quiet. I wrote one thing down in my notebook: meet people. Get outside of my books and notes, and start living. Even though I am an INTJ – slightly more introverted than extroverted in my personality type – I decided to go for big, join twitter (September 2010, yes, late, I know), learn as much as I could, and say yes to whimsy, fun, exploration, and adventure. And all I can say is — well, I’m never looking back.

For my 28th birthday, I’ve made me — and you! — a small present. I made a collection of 52 things from my notebooks, of lessons, notes, observations and conversations I’ve had around the way as I travel through life.  There’s a note for each week: a collection of wisdom, inspiration, and joy that I’ve found, heard, listened to or gathered from meeting so many incredible people.  This is just a smattering of the genius I’ve encountered along the way: a bevy of brilliant minds, an assortment of awesome adventurers.  Thank you, all of you, for making this year phenomenal.

1.  Start early. Something about worms, right? Early birds get them.

2. Most things worth doing can’t be done in just a day. Build houses and things that need your dedication. The landscape architects I know who worked on the High Line, Simon & Helen Director Park, or on Mary Bartelme Park didn’t wake up to a finished design one sudden day. Teams of people worked slowly, methodically each day for years to build places in the world.

3. Practice being nice. You can get better at everything. Nice, like anything else, gets better with practice. You are what you consistently do.* (This one’s from @Aristotle. He’d tweet it if he could, I’m sure.)

4. Be nice to yourself. Be nice to yourself. When you do good work, stop and say congratulations. When you work hard, acknowledge that, too. Suzannah Scully is one of the kindest people I know, and her blog always makes me smile. On my desk and bookmarked is a list of ten things for right now – reminders to keep me sane and to stay kind to myself.

5. You will probably only do one or two useful things each day. Pick wisely.

6. Doing it later is usually a lie you tell yourself. And this goes straight to the next one:

7. You either ARE or you AREN’T. Which is it? Stop lying to yourself. If you’re not doing it, you’re not doing it. Later isn’t a guarantee, and today is already yesterday’s later. If you’re not doing it now, and weren’t doing it before, all signs point towards the likelihood that your behavior isn’t going to change.  So what to do? Be honest. And second, realize that what got you where you are is not going to take you the places that you want to go.

8. What got you here won’t get you there. If you want to keep getting better, you have to keep trying new things. If you want to stay the same, keep doing what you’re already doing.

9. Turn off all alerts. They are just interruptions and distractions. I know. I’m a recovering Facebook Addict.

10. “Checking” is psychologically addictive behavior. Social media is brilliant – it’s as though we’ve put the human element of interaction, interconnectivity and buzz back into our stoic factory-relics of offices, allowing people to breathe and be personable again. However, the technological aspects of email, twitter, messaging, phones, and immediate notifications do nothing but wreak havoc on our ability to focus for solid periods of time. Email in particular preys on our addictive psychological make-up that rewards us with dopamine and seratonin when we receive new messages. Control the monkey brain. Turn off alerts. Set times and patterns. Learn how to over-turn your genetic faults and be better within a nearly-impossible-to-control framework. Who knows – you might also be happier.

11. What do you want? I’ve started asking this of everyone and everything I’m doing. It’s brilliant. Try it.

12. Believe in magic. Good things happen if you’re willing to watch, listen, and go a different way home.

13. Think less. DO more. Stop worrying about what if? Start worrying about what will happen if you don’t do anything at all.

14. Build something. I’m continuously amazed by people like @myfirstyoga and @marenkate and their quests to become self-made.  Maren’s diamond-cut philosophy underpinning her new business ventures is something I regularly check back on as a reminder to do what I’m doing.

15. Make it something worth building. You don’t have very much time to build something great. The big design problem? Designing your life. Figure out what’s most important, and start building it.

16. Do something that terrifies you. Do it every day. I don’t always do this, but I try to. Sometimes speaking up terrifies me. Sometimes writing terrifies me. Other times hurting someone’s feelings terrifies me. MeiMei Fox’s Huffington Post blog on living Life Out Loud highlights some of the fearless things people can do.

17. Dedicate time to being & becoming organized. If you can’t find what you wrote down, did you write it down at all? Did you even think it? How much time is wasted re-creating the same thing? How much time is lost to poor organization?

18. Always have something to point to. I believe in visual aids, beautiful design, and the art of information representation. Some of the most talented I know include Nancy Duarte, Edward Tufte and the ever-inspiring Lauren Manning (a person I shared a BRGR with for 45 minutes in New York City from the recommendation of the brilliant Merpie, and thus following commenced an email relationship and mutual adoration that continues to this day!).

19. Follow your energy. You’ll find some things unlimited.

20. Do one important thing before 11AM each day. I’m a morning person. I’ve learned not to have more than 3 major things on my task list each day. And of those 3, get at least one of them done before 11AM.

21. Everything adds up. This sounds like something J.D. Roth would say – oh yes, he’s said it! It’s the small bits, the subtle changes, the habit-formation that Leo talks about that makes a difference.

22. Write stuff down. Annotate your notes. I write everything down, or nearly everything. Shane Mac clued me into re-organizing these notes and annotating them for later documentation. Probably one of the smartest things on this entire list. Do both. It will change your life.

23. If you don’t know where you’ve come from, how will you know where you’re going? Look backwards regularly. In back to then, I stopped to write my past self a letter, and I like the advice I have to give. Who knows if I would have taken it – but in getting here, I acquired it.

24. Set time limits. Boundary your time. Things take time and time takes things.

25. Embrace whimsy. This is a quote directly from Kym Pham, a #WDS darling I was lucky to meet at last year’s Portland, OR conference, along with Mark Powers and George Palmer, incredible people making waves around the world.

26. Ask questions. Because. You should.


27. Do something worth talking about. Nate Damm walked across the entire United States. None of the steps themselves was particularly significant, but the collection is stunning.  I’m waiting for his book to come out. Until then, @whereisnate, I can’t wait to see your next adventure.

28. Push GO sooner. Iterate. Test. Design. Fail. Re-calibrate. Repeat.

29. The more you learn, the less you know.

30. Do the fun things first. Tomorrow’s not a guarantee. And the fun will take you places. Fun is not lazy. Fun is not procrastinating. Fun is enjoying the act of being and doing.

31. You are what you feed yourself.

32. Sometimes you are a lot closer than you think.

33. Talk less. Some of the nicest, most thoughtful people aren’t the loudest or the brightest. They are darn hard-working and lovely to be around, even just sitting at the beach and enjoying the waves or strolling through Regent’s park with ice cream cones.

34. Do something useful each day. Even if you spend 14 hours in a sick bed, sleeping, 3 hours eating chicken soup, and another hour drinking tea, you can still say Thank You to the people who deserve it and I Love You to the folks you want to talk to. Every day, do something useful.

35. People are complicated. Forgive them. Let them be weird. If you haven’t learned it yet, I’m a bit weird myself. (It’s all okay).

36. Stop talking, start doing. Every day is a gift. Use it wisely.

37. Everybody has a story. Sometimes you don’t get to hear these stories until later, one-on-one, in small groups. I love having friends stop by (and friends of friends)

38. Tact and kindness are always appropriate. This one comes straight from a conversation with @elizashawvalk about convictions and the art of believing in something. She mused, “you know, I believe that tact and kindness are always, always appropriate,” and I concur readily and wholeheartedly. You can be well-mannered in all that you do.

39. Have a set of convictions. Have something to stand for. Know what you stand for, and what you think is okay and not okay.

40. Ask for feedback. It’s the quickest way to get better.

41. It’s okay to be a contradiction. We are inherently contradictions.

42. Say no more often. 

43. They can’t take what you learn away from you. Despite all of the setbacks, fears, doubts and insecurities I had when setting out on my big project’s launch last November, including my stumbling in the middle, my notes on the process, and my sheer exhaustion during May, I found that persevering and doubting challenge every great intention. Despite all the naysayers in my mind, this was one of the biggest words of encouragement: No matter how big you fail, how far you fall, or how high you dream, they can’t take what you learn away from you. My two lists from launching my publishing venture on landscape urbanism? Part one and part two have 50-odd things I gained along the way. These, I get to keep.

44. Surround yourself with good people. I could name a million smart people around me that have offered guidance, and there’s almost too many to name them all!  I had the fortune of meeting a brilliant relationship strategist and all-round-rocketeer, Jeff Riddle, earlier this year. Through many questions and queries, doodles and sketches, I’ve gained brilliance like this favorite, “Humility and confidence,” learned how to pivot like a champion; learned when to sit an listen, how to trust my gut, and how to brave it all and put my fears out there for honest feedback. And every bit of it was golden.

45. Ask WHY as much as possible. You might consider reading Simon Sinek’s Start With Why. Or hanging out with a five year old for several consecutive hours. You’ll whittle away a lot of fluff by figuring out the why early and often.

46. Try new things. Embed yourself in new experiences. A few sites remind me of this regularly – @joelrunyon‘s and his tireless challenge to do new adventures on his blog of impossible things; @heyamberrae and her feature stories on revolution.is, @tylertervooren’s advanced riskology, or @chrisguillebeau’s art of non conformity (and the book review from earlier, as well as the recap’s one, two, and three from the #WDS conference earlier this year in Portland, Oregon).

47. Pay attention to how you feel. You are a mess of complicated neurons and brain cells, a collection of dendritic firings. Pay attention to them occasionally; sometimes they are talking to you.

48. Say No to everything one day each week. Then, follow the rabbit hole! Go ask Alice, yeah? Some days I set aside explicitly for saying No to everything and anything I can, only allowing myself to do those few things that I truly enjoy and feel called to do. I like to call it ‘following the rabbit hole,’ – a phrase that reminds me to go on adventures and stay playful.

49. Follow your bliss. It will take you fun places.

50. Do one thing at a time. You can do a lot of things, but it’s darn difficult to do them all at exactly the same time.

51. Stop making excuses. I love the gumption and energy that come from people who ask you tough questions. Who challenge you to be better, not routine. To be extraordinary, not regular. Find people who make you better, who call your bullshit when it’s bullshit, and are cheering you on from the sidelines.

52. Stop chasing ordinary. You’ll get the same results from the same inputs. Change it up. Dare to be different. Be phenomenal. Find your extraordinary.

I can’t even begin to list the extraordinary that’s been this year. I feel grateful, lucky and blessed. As for next year? I’m writing myself a list and a vision plan. I have high hopes and dreams, and I’ll check back in on my letter to myself every few weeks to see if I’m making progress. And as for my birthday? It was excellent, caught somewhere along the coast of California as I meander through conferences in Northern and Southern California. I spent the day with my sister, friends, and escaped for a few hours to relax poolside and loved every minute of it. Thanks for all the well-wishes!

Leave a note in the comments about YOUR life rules and what you believe about how to live. 

 

2010 in review: travel

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

#Reverb10 offers a month of reflection and prompts for each day. I’m doing a handful of them on this blog, plus a few of my own for a 2010 in review series. December 22 is about Travel. How did you travel in 2010? How and/or where would you like to travel next year?

Travel.  What a lovely word. What a lovely year.

In lieu of another essay, I’ll leave it to a few photos to catalog and capture this year. Here are just some of the photographs from this whirlwind year. (For more images, take a look at photos + places on my design website)


jackson hole.

march

taipei, taiwan

august

portland.

august

seattle.

august.

los angeles.

august, october, + november.

san francisco.

(hometown).

ohio.

october.

philadelphia.

october.

can’t wait until 2011 … Happy New Years! to another year of exploration :)


2010 in review: achieve

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

#Reverb10 offers a month of reflection and prompts for each day.

December 28 is achieve: Tara Sophia, the author, prompts us to look beyond the goals and the lists that we create – and instead, imagine the feeling that each of these achievements creates. When we reach a certain goal, we have attained more than a paper or certificate or acknowledgment – we certainly don’t work hard just for the kudos alone. We achieve our goals because through sustained effort, we grow. Our goals change us, in some way. Looking forward, for 2011, rather than just creating a list of goals, this question asks us what feelings we want to achieve in the next year.

*** *** ***

These are some of the feelings I want to achieve in 2011:

Strong. I want to be physically strong, stronger and more flexible in ways that I haven’t shaped my body just yet. I want to say yes to new physical challenges, try more difficult yoga poses, and sign up for longer, more diligent practices. I want to spend more time dancing, rock climbing, doing martial arts, and trying any other physically-enabling task that lets me stretch, strengthen, and re-shape my body in different ways.  The tangible, check-able items on my goals list range from being able to do the splits, to doing handstands on my own, to increasing to a 5.10 level at the climbing gym. The long-range goals include yoga teacher training, teaching my own yoga classes, swimming across the SF bay solo, and learning how to salsa dance well enough to shake my tush at a mixer without an instructor.

Inspired. I want to feel the rush of inspiration that comes from long, sustained thinking about a certain topic. I want to write. I want to think, to ponder, to speculate, to question, and to continue to feed my unending curiosity about the world and what it has to offer. On the tangible list of things I’d like to achieve: write 2 blog posts per week for the next year. Write 12 short stories for a collection of short fiction. Write my first fiction book. Write my first e-book. Outline and research my first non-fiction book. (Okay, all those goals collectively might take longer than a year).

Alive. The things that make me feel alive are simple. The weather. Changing temperatures. Colors. Light. Contrast. Exertion. Hard work. Being outside. Hugs. Family. Camaraderie.  On a daily basis I try to engage with these things that make me feel alive – this is one of the reasons I love running, swimming, walking, being in the rain, toasty fires, and exploring new places.  For 2011, my goals are to travel to at least 1 new state, travel to at least 1 new country, swim across the San Francisco Bay solo, run a full marathon, and continue on my goal of running, walking, or biking every street in San Francisco.

Exhilarated-Exhausted. Challenged. Frustrated. Tired. Alive.  I like projects that leave me feeling BOTH exhilarated AND exhausted. I love working hard, when the hard work is for something that’s huge. Something I’m completely, utterly, totally passionate about. The thrill of publishing a book after a year of endless nights of hard work is something I dream about — and I know will make me feel both exhilarated and exhausted. Running a marathon would be the same.

Accomplished. I like trying new things. I like checking off lists. I like feeling like I’ve grown, stretched, matured, reached. This sense of accomplishment comes not from early success, but from the dips and double-dips in confidence that occur when you realize how vast the world is and how much there is to learn and study, and then slowly, you relegate yourself to the long and arduous task of accomplishing or conquering, in baby steps, the skill you set out to acquire. Mastering a concept, or contributing a thought towards it, is accomplishment. For 2011: I’d like to put my thoughts on paper, put my ideas out there, and be not afraid of failing. I’d rather try, fail, and try again than never try at all. (Well, perhaps I’d like just to succeed, but in the absence of pure success I’ll take repeated efforts that teach and lead me to success).

Surprised. My most remarkable days happen when my calendar flies out the car window and I end up talking to strangers on the street and making friends on buses. I meet new people every day, and their agility, talent, wisdom and friendship just surprises me to no end. I hope to never stop being surprised and amazed by the people around me. For 2011, I’d like to surprise someone, perhaps do things that surprise even myself, and continue to let people around me surprise me and fill me with genuine wonder. (To the South Africans I met on the bus yesterday: YES, I’d LOVE to come to Cape Town and swim with you… Just get me a shark cage, okay?)

Exposed. The greatest growth potential comes not from living within safety, but living on the edge. I don’t particularly love the feeling of fear that comes from unknowing, but I’ve lived just long enough to realize that not-knowing and being exposed is one of the best teachers. So, to putting myself out there. To trying new things. To leaping, unconditionally, when your soul tells you to leap and try something new. To building new ideas, projects, businesses, and friendships.

Loved. Appreciation, friendship, admiration, respect, love, caring: these are all words that people bestow on other people. The power of tribes, the amazing-ness of community, the awesomeness that is family: these are things that I cannot ever imagine my life without. I feel loved on a daily basis, and it is from this platform that I feel lucky enough to do what I do and try what I try. I hope that EVERYONE has the opportunity to feel this way. For 2011: I don’t ask for more love for me from anyone, although I love love and I believe it’s an element that comes in abundance. :) Instead, I hope that something I do, somehow, can help other people achieve more love in their lives.

Me. In 2011, I don’t want to be anyone but ME. I hope that the person I am rings through and the things that I do are in line with my beliefs and my unique talents. I can’t be you, and you can’t be me. The most important thing is to use this limited time that we have and use our talents to the best extent possible.

*** *** ***

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years, Everyone! What do you want to achieve in 2011? Who do you want to be, and what do you want to do?

Photography from Flickr – Billsophoto

2010 defining moment: running.

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

I run.

This year, I ran a lot. Ran for sheer joy, out of exhaustion, to escape my work life, to find new places, to learn, and to start or end my day. I ran to explore, to test my capabilities, to challenge my mind, and most often, just to be.

To simply be.

The defining moment of this year is not a single moment per se, but a series of moments laced together, all connected by a simple act and a pair of shoes lined up at my bedroom door, waiting for me each day.

Running.

It took a long time for me to realize that I was a runner. It took a lot of just running for me to acknowledge that I was a runner – 2 years’ worth of running, in fact.

Now I can’t imagine myself without running.

Just the act of stepping on the earth really lets you feel it, get to know it better. They say that the closer you are to the ground, the more connected you are to the earth. (Perhaps this is another reason why I love handstands and headstands so much…) But in the absense of inversion, running lets you feel the earth.

So many days I just closed my books and put up this sign:

Gone running.

*** *** ***

Tuesday, March 3, 2010. San Mateo.

My toes, covered loosely in my weathered sauconys, expand to grip the pavement below, softly splaying outwards as the impact rolls across the ball of my foot.  The thud rolls through my heal, knee and leg, bending and releasing in an evolutionary precision designed before my simple body walked this earth.

The vernacular ‘pounding the pavement’ sounds heavy, awkward, cumbersome. I’m not so light as to float, nor am I so quick as to scamper like a four-minute miler, but I move. I move efficiently, quickly, steadily.

Running rights the world, putting it in line with my breath, my step, and my feeling.

3 miles.

*** *** ***

Saturday, March 20, 2010. Santa Cruz

What the weather is, I am. When it rains, I run, and the dampness only bothers me until I’m completely soaked, and then it’s just me, the earth, and the running. If I wear the cotton pants, the weight of the water will drag my pant legs downwards and water will slosh in and out of my shoes. So instead, next time, I wear shorts. If it’s cold, I wear the nicer pants – the pants I bought for too much money at yet another store filled with products, products from all over the world, products that no body really needs and I feel guilty for buying them.

But I like them. They are definitely comfortable.

When I think too hard, the relentless drumbeat of my footstep brings my brain back in synch with my body, balancing my thoughts with my movements, all in the present.

5 miles.

*** *** ***

Saturday, April 3, 2010. Lake San Antonio.

Wildflower Training Weekend, San Francisco Triathlon Club. My first 25 mile bike ride. Long, wobbly legs after the hilly bike ride and we’re off, off running through the campground on jello-feet, thudding awkwardly along. I think I understand why they call this a “brick.”

7 miles.

*** *** ***

Tuesday, May 11, 2010. San Francisco.

Track. The weekly circular jogging group – learning how to train faster, quicker, and add speed. My first mile for time: 6:59. Track relays.

5 miles.

*** *** ***

Saturday, June 3, 2010. Pacifica.

Trail Run, Pacifica. 6 miles.

Too fast, too fast! The hills at the end were brutal.

6 miles.

*** *** ***

Sunday, July 11, 2010. Sausalito.

The world cup finale blares on the television. My roommates and I are too excited for worlds. We squeal, jump, and hold our breath for a heart-agonizing 2 hours.

I run off the steam. I run, imagining the soccer players and hearing the vuvuzelas over again in my mind, the buzz drowned out only by the wonderful world cup anthem that is my theme song for nearly the entire summer. I run, imagining the work effort and the dedication of each of the players to the craft of running, and I run, for the simple joy and freedom that is running. I don’t want to stop running.

8 miles.

*** *** ***

Sunday, July 25, 2010, San Francisco. Half Marathon.

I’m up early – very early, 3:30AM, driving across the Golden Gate Bridge from the North, heading into the city with 20,000 other people to participate in the San Francisco Marathon. I’m nervous. It’s my first half marathon. I’ve had 2 cups of water and carry a small amount of food with me. I have an ipod of music prepped for 2.5 hours. My goal is to finish under 2:15, but I’ve never run a half marathon before and I’m going to be happy with whatever comes from my body. I feel prepared. I stretch.

I hate being thirsty, so I carry my water bottle with me. At the last minute, I ditch my sweater and give it to my friend at the starting line. 5:30 AM and the first heat takes off. 6:02 AM and my wave is off.

I run, steadily, telling myself to take it easy. (It’s hard – I’m really excited, and I’m a sprinter by training from 20 years of swimming). I relax into a pace that doesn’t feel too hard and I look at my splits – 9:30’s for the first 3 miles. Not too bad. I settle into a pace and strike up a conversation with someone next to me. We chat for a mile. 4 miles. I work into it – it feels great. I pick up the pace a bit, approaching the bridge. I still feel good.

Somewhere between miles 5 and 8 I miss a mile marker and I don’t track my splits very well. As I’m crossing the bridge back towards the city, I see the mile 9 sign. I check the watch.  1:31. I do some quick math – 9 minute splits? I realize that with a little bit more effort, I can nudge myself under the 2 hour mark. I pick up the pace again. 8:30 for the next mile. AWESOME. Mile 11, 8:45 minutes. Heading into some hills. The last 2 miles are an absolute struggle – my body starts to cramp up, and the training runs I remember doing were all shorter than this distance.

Finish time. 1:57:30. I did it.

Half Marathon.

 

2010 in review: ordinary joy

Posted on by Sarah K Peck

#Reverb10 offers a month of reflection and prompts for each day. I’m slowly catching up, and enjoying the prompts, however delayed. December 27 is ordinary joy.

*** *** ***

Yesterday I ran to the bus stop, almost missing the bus, to jump on the 38L and transverse San Francisco, east to west. My apartment is close to downtown, and the pool I teach swim lessons in is out in the boonies – also known as the Inner Richmond.

(I look silly, when I’m running in the rain in this city. I dress for warmth and function, not glamour, when I’m in the middle of DO-ing. And I am vaguely aware of the strange looks I get as I run by people on the sidewalks – but why walk when you can RUN?

My typical rainy weather attire includes a long blue jacket, a bright red vest, and a rain slicker. Oh, and I tuck my hair upwards into a brown hat. Mostly because these items of clothing are WARM.  And it keeps me dry. Oh, and my Sauconys. You can’t find me without my Sauconys.)

And then I ran.

On the bus, I tagged the bus card, pulled out the book I’m currently reading out of my backpack (forgot to mention: backpack adds to nerdiness, above). I started reading. Somewhere in the middle of the book, I looked up.

The man across from me was looking at me.  Well, I think he was looking at me.

I glanced at his face and then at his clothes – his soft, tan cargo pants full of crinkles and his 5 or 6 year old, unassuming shoes  – before my eyes automatically darted back up to his face and his head.  My eyes inadvertently widened slightly as I noticed his complete figure.

His face was a dimpled carcass of tans, reds, and taught pinks, with a small slit for his left eye and a slightly bigger opening for the right eye. The entire left side of his face was covered in tight, stretched, charred skin. His hair was missing from one side of his head, with a tuft of hair spouting off the right side, uncombed and probably due for a hair cut. His ear was burned off with nothing but a hole left.  Instead of an ear, it was one continuous surface with a small, dark inlet where the ear canal would have been. It looked as though his ear had been cleanly sliced off and the remains of his face was a burn mark.

And he smiled at me.

He smiled, and then pointed down to his lap, where he was holding a big black box with stickers and numbers and sounds. The bus pulled up to a stop. The box declared, “Franklin.”

Then the bus announcer, in an echo, announced “Next stop, Franklin, Franklin, Next Stop.”

The man giggled.

*** *** ***

We all carry scars, wounds, and trauma. Some of it is emotional, some physical. Some of us have healed, some of us are healing, some of us are still struggling. Much of it we can cover up – with clothing, with a stance, with a smile, with an attitude. But the face: the face you can’t hide, you can’t cover up as easily.

Scars on the face beget curious stares, shocked stares, long looks and wide eyes. It’s disrupting to see something out of the ordinary, something different, something unusual. I admire this gentleman, because of the poise and happiness he carried with him through his movements. He sat, at ease, enjoying the noise and the announcement of the bus stop.

Laguna.

He laughed again, and pointed to the box.

The woman next to him adjusted her seat without looking up. The bus rattled over potholes and creaked to a stop.

Webster.

“Webster!” He cried, throwing his hands up.

What fun, what play, to get on a bus and enjoy the stops and the starts and the ride it gives you through the city.

What an unexpected joy for me, to run into such happiness unplanned. Riding the bus always presents characters, but sometimes, on rare lucky days, it presents moments.

And people – raw people.

To enjoy life with such unabashed pleasure – that is the goal.

To experiences of ordinary joy.