Assuming you get two weeks off each year for vacation, that equals 2,000 hours, minimum, of work per year.
According to a Gallup Poll, most people average 6.8 hours of sleep per night.
Taking the same 50 weeks a year of working days, that’s 1,700 hours of sleep each year.
According to the Census Bureau, the average commute time in America is 25.4 Minutes one way, or 50.8 minutes round trip. For those working days that equates to 211 hours each year of commuting.
According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics the average time spent eating and drinking per day in America is 1.17 hours. Again using the 50 weeks of 5 working days this amounts to 292 hours per year.
There are 6,000 hours available in those 50 weeks of 5 working days. Subtract everything we’ve been talking about and that leaves 1797 hours of ‘free’ time a year for everything else.
That means that added up over a year you only have 29% of your total time available to you where you are not working, sleeping, eating, or commuting during those weeks.
You’ll spend roughly the same about of time sleeping, 3.5% commuting, and 4.8% eating.
But you will spend more than any of those, 33%, working.
This activity, that we will spend more time on than any other single activity in our lives, we often do with little to no thought, blindly following what was expected of us or simply what we set out to do through our educational path.
Our tastes, over time, as we grow change. Our music tastes, our tastes in food, movies, people, even places change as we ourselves change.
Is it any wonder that perhaps our interests in work might change as well?
Perhaps we’ve been going about this all wrong, both as employers and employees. Maybe it’s not about keeping people as long as possible in their roles. What would happen if we instead tried to match people with their skills, their passions, their abilities, and their interests? Would performance go up leading to more productivity? Would morale improve? Personal sense of achievement?
Downsizing, right sizing, and cutting costs can only take us so far.
We know what will happen if we don’t change.
Perhaps we should focus on how we use our time and companies should focus on how best to use it from us. At some point, doing what we’re currently doing is going to hit a threshold that no longer serves either of us.
Time is money. But for us, our work time is costing us hours of our life. The question really comes down to Is It Worth It?
Mission Statements, Strategic Plans, SWOTS, Vision and Values. Companies spend an inordinate amount of time, and often money, to analyze, dissect, and perfect these written declarations about the purpose of a company.
Done correctly, they can serve a helpful guiding tools for those looking to learn about what a company stands for and what it does. Sadly, few companies actually understand how to do them correctly, opting instead to write down what they think outsiders (read investors, banks and the like) want to hear.
Still, what purpose do these declarations serve in the company itself? And who should be responsible for creating them?
Too often those creating the dictums of what a company stands for, does, and will do, have little to no knowledge of what the company actually does or how it does it. Aside from a Vision statement, and some would argue even then, shouldn’t those who know the ins and outs of a company, how it accomplishes it’s ‘tasks’ and what the people who do the work stand for (or don’t stand for) be involved in declaring these time intensive corporate standards? Or perhaps they shouldn’t be involved at all.
After all, how many employees in your company can recite the mission statement word for word? How many know the vision statement? Values? Does anyone know what the strategic plan says or even where to go look and find it?
For most companies, certainly not all, the answer is very few, if any.
The challenge comes when companies want to use these often verbose and irrelevant as a measure or standard for how people accomplish their tasks.
Perhaps it’s time we recognize our individual strengths and abilities as employees have far more potential to help organizations than when we try to mold everyone into one method, one application, one mission or one vision.
It is vital that everyone move forward towards a common goal, but how each cog in the wheel arrives at that goal may be as individual as the cogs themselves. Perhaps we should be asking different questions, thinking in new and creative ways about how to embrace those differences and how to efficiently harness those individual strengths.
The workforce is changing, and our company workers are changing more often as well. Having only one thought or one directive through all of these declarative documents may have worked in the past but will they work for the next wave of employees, and the one after that?
Perhaps we should state the goal and then create an environment that allows for new concepts, new ideas, and new innovations rather than trying to fit everyone into one box.
Maybe it’s time to open the box.
Lisa Lee is the author of “The Heart of Teaching.“
Lisa is a 35-year veteran educator with the honors of being named “Teacher of the Year” in DeKalb County, Georgia (2007) and Runner-Up “Teacher of the Year” for Colorado (2017). Over the years, Lisa Lee has taught in Georgia and Colorado elementary, middle, and high school classrooms, with a specialization in Gifted and Talented and a focus on the students who don’t always fit in a box.
An experienced TEDx speaker, Lisa embraces the TEDx platform as a gateway to deliver her messages of connection and relationship building that she so strongly believes in.
Her personal life philosophy is that “We’re put here on the planet to make life better for others. Period.” This belief is the foundation of her messaging in that making connections with others and building community can change lives. Lisa lives in the Denver, CO area with her wife, 2 grandtwins, and her dog Rosa Barks.
NOW AVAILABLE
Oh God of Second Chances
Here I Am Again
“A masterclass in courage, if you’ve ever wondered how to live well, this is the book you’ve been waiting for.”
– Laura Thomas, Author of The Magic of Thinking Big
“A masterclass in courage, if you’ve ever wondered how to live well, this is the book you’ve been waiting for. With heartfelt wisdom and an infectious, humble sense of humor, Christy Belz made me feel like I was sitting down with my best friend to take honest, yet gentle, stock of my life.”
Flying was once an adventure, an exciting experience that took you to far flung places in relative comfort. That comfort now comes with a price, a hefty one.
The price of your ticket, for most airlines, now only includes the seat you sit in. Virtually anything and everything else, costs money. These ancillary costs (costs other than the ticket itself) are what are helping airlines stay in business. Yes, they are recording profits, but only because they are able to charge for things they used to give away for free.
Unfortunately for flyers, this has coincided with efforts to squeeze (literally) more and more people onto aircrafts in order to continue to offset the ever increasing costs of running an airline.
Now, not only do you have to pay a la carte for everything, but if you want to actually be comfortable during your flight you need to upgrade to economy plus, or business class or first class. Otherwise, you will find yourself with the person in front of you in your lap making it virtually impossible to even read a book, much less work on an electronic device.
So, if you can afford it, flying can still be a pleasurable experience, once you make it past the shuttle bus queues, ticket lines, security checks, and boarding cattle call; but it will come with a hefty price tag.
The sad part is that for those who need to fly there is no alternative. No other method of transportation can get you there as quickly and in some cases not at all. You have to fly, and if you have to fly on a budget, you have no choice but to take it.
However, remember the one thing that’s constant? Change.
Every industry, every business, at some point or another, changes. Sometimes quickly, other times more slowly, but at some point, new technologies, new innovations, new advances create a shift and businesses who seemed destined to last ‘forever’ suddenly find themselves scrambling to keep up or go away all together.
Never have the customers of airlines been treated so poorly and with a complete disregard for their needs. Complaints are rampant and yet nothing changes for the consumer. The airlines hold all the cards… for now.
When the time comes. When something, someone, or something comes along and that ‘shift’ happens, remember the profits you’re making now Airlines… remember the lack of customer service you are providing now. Don’t be surprised when those same customers leave you in droves when the shift occurs.
For the very few Airlines who try to buck the trend, who find creative ways to help all their customers enjoy their flights; who continually strive to build more comfortable planes, run their business so that they don’t charge more than absolutely necessary to stay in business and believe that flying should still be an adventure, changes are you won’t see the same exodus of loyalty.
Not simply because of your focus on profit with customer service rather than at the expense of it, but because your innovation and drive will likely be the ones who create the shift in the first place.
Lisa Lee is the author of “The Heart of Teaching.“
Lisa is a 35-year veteran educator with the honors of being named “Teacher of the Year” in DeKalb County, Georgia (2007) and Runner-Up “Teacher of the Year” for Colorado (2017). Over the years, Lisa Lee has taught in Georgia and Colorado elementary, middle, and high school classrooms, with a specialization in Gifted and Talented and a focus on the students who don’t always fit in a box.
An experienced TEDx speaker, Lisa embraces the TEDx platform as a gateway to deliver her messages of connection and relationship building that she so strongly believes in.
Her personal life philosophy is that “We’re put here on the planet to make life better for others. Period.” This belief is the foundation of her messaging in that making connections with others and building community can change lives. Lisa lives in the Denver, CO area with her wife, 2 grandtwins, and her dog Rosa Barks.
NOW AVAILABLE
The Heart of Teaching
“You’ll come to realize just how much of a Superhero Lisa Lee is as you experience the wisdom and beauty of The Heart of Teaching.”
– Jim Delisle, Ph.D., Professor, Author, Teacher
“Lisa Lee gives us permission to fall in love with (or back in love with) teaching. Inspiration, enthusiasm, passion, humor – if these are words you think no longer apply to the educational environment, read this book.”
As soon as I was old enough to understand what the State of the Union was, I watched in awe as the President of the United States spoke to Congress and, through television, the American people. I didn’t necessarily understand, at that young age, what the specifics were that the President was saying, but I was awed by the grandeur of it all.
Sadly as I’ve grown older, my childhood illusion, like so many others, has been shattered by the reality of what the State of the Union has become.
There is little, if anything, that is Grand about it. It has become a show, a play, in which all the actors in the room have a part. For the past several Presidents who have given their State of the Union speeches, I have watched as the ‘actors’ in the audience play their parts.
I was raised to believe that the Office of the President of the United States was something to be respected whether or not you agreed with the person who held it. Growing up, I’ve watched each year as every President begins talking and those on the other side of the isle clap with disdain and outwardly disrespect the highest office in the land. Democrats do it to Republican Presidents and Republicans do it to Democrat Presidents.
Everyone is in on it. They’re all actors playing a part in the show for the cameras.
Everyone in Washington has read the speech well before the President walks in the room. One could argue that even those in attendance in the audience are given little respect since they already know what’s going to be said and in many ways must sit through the performance and wait to be prompted to play their choreographed roles.
The media has already polled people and have their sound bites ready to go the minute the speech is over. Cameras zoom in on reactions, or non-reactions of those in the audience, or to make sure there is enough focus on who’s wearing what dress or which shoes. There is no respect. It’s all about the ratings.
Perhaps most of all, it’s we the people who are shown the greatest disrespect. Days before the speech, every President leaks portions of their speech and the fighting begins. The media dissects each nuance of every word so that by the time the State of the Union is televised even we all have a pretty good idea of what the President will say and have already heard the arguments from both sides about why whatever point will or will not work.
And just in case we haven’t, immediately following the speech we are barraged with another choreographed play and a lineup of opinions and after-speeches, of how many ovations or yawns, of dignitaries and snubs in attendance, and of course the strong condemnations or rousing support for each point in the speech.
I was raised to respect my elders. To respect those who held public office as they were the “servants of the people”. No one told me it was all a show.
Maybe it’s time to change the show.
Yes, the constitution demands that the President should address a Joint Session of Congress, but I’m not sure the intent was to put on a play.
Maybe the State of the Union should be from the Oval Office. No cheering or jeering crowds, no special guests, no close up cameras on who’s wearing what.
Maybe the State of the Union should just be the President, talking to American’s… all American’s including those in Congress… about how they see the country and what they want to do next.
No advance leaks of the speech.
Everyone gets to see and hear it live. Just let us all hear what the President has to say, authentically.
Maybe it’s time to respect the people and stop putting on a show that no one believes and we’ve all seen before. As if somehow putting on this poorly acted, produced, and directed show will miraculously cause all of us to give more respect to the actors.
After all, I learned something else growing up as well. “Respect is earned, not given”.
Christy Belz, MSW is the author of “Oh God of Second Chances, Here I am again.“
Christy is an empowerment coach and entrepreneur who is passionate about guiding people to live their best, most authentic selves personally, professionally and developmentally.
Named one of Colorado’s Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Business in 2020, she is also a TEDx Speaker and a co-curator of TEDxCherryCreek, through which she encourages women to share their voice. Founder of the transformational UPROOT course, she can often be found reading the latest book in the personal growth and leadership genres or walking her dog in nature while keeping an eye out for heart-shaped leaves.
Christy lives in Denver with her husband and son.
Life Happens. We make mistakes or maybe aren’t our best selves. Sometimes the universe slams us with cosmic two-by-fours as a wake-up call to what we are (or aren’t) doing. The question is not whether you will be knocked down by life. The question is how do you get back up again?
Oh God of Second Chances, Here I Am Again is a book about what it takes to get back up again.
Through the vulnerable and honest journey of her own life experience, Christy takes readers on a journey of falling down and getting back up again with compassion and humor. Packed with tools to help you cultivate resilience, courage, authenticity, and find your way to come home to yourself.
With each step along the journey a tapestry of hope emerges. Suddenly, there’s a way forward, regardless of the struggles that lay ahead.
Christy, a seasoned social worker, draws on literary inspiration, research, and the wisdom of mystics, as well as women TEDx speakers who know a thing or two about falling down and getting back up again. Filled with exercises to help foster personal growth and the lessons she has learned from a lifetime of helping others get back up again and again; what emerges is a community you didn’t realize you needed to face this messy thing called life.
NOW AVAILABLE
Oh God of Second Chances
Here I Am Again
“A masterclass in courage, if you’ve ever wondered how to live well, this is the book you’ve been waiting for.”
– Laura Thomas, Author of The Magic of Thinking Big
“A masterclass in courage, if you’ve ever wondered how to live well, this is the book you’ve been waiting for. With heartfelt wisdom and an infectious, humble sense of humor, Christy Belz made me feel like I was sitting down with my best friend to take honest, yet gentle, stock of my life.”
According to the Cisco Connected World Report 2014, most professionals use two to three personal devices in their daily lives.
Not only has technology allowed us to connect across the globe instantly, we are now connected almost constantly.
We live in an information age of constant communication. This allows us to learn more, and more rapidly, about people, cultures, and countries we otherwise might never have heard of.
Yet with all this readily available information at our fingertips, are we learning more?
One look at your Facebook feed when a global news story hits and you will see that more often than not it’s not a sharing of information, or a reporting of events, or even a distribution of relevant facts that show up the most. People don’t seem to want to learn as much as they want to shout.
Is our instant connection a method of faster and broader learning or simply various stages from which to scream our view or position louder and with greater reach than we’ve ever had before?
I would argue that the answer is …. Both. And Neither.
It’s really a matter of choice.
The technology doesn’t DO anything for us any more than money. They are simply tools. How we choose to use them is up to us.
We can use it to simply voice our opinion to whomever will listen (read), or we can use this information age and connected world we live in to become more aware, to expand our horizons and thinking, to learn.
Either way will allow for connection. Either way, the choice is yours.
Christy Belz, MSW is the author of “Oh God of Second Chances, Here I am again.“
Christy is an empowerment coach and entrepreneur who is passionate about guiding people to live their best, most authentic selves personally, professionally and developmentally.
Named one of Colorado’s Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Business in 2020, she is also a TEDx Speaker and a co-curator of TEDxCherryCreek, through which she encourages women to share their voice. Founder of the transformational UPROOT course, she can often be found reading the latest book in the personal growth and leadership genres or walking her dog in nature while keeping an eye out for heart-shaped leaves.
Christy lives in Denver with her husband and son.
Life Happens. We make mistakes or maybe aren’t our best selves. Sometimes the universe slams us with cosmic two-by-fours as a wake-up call to what we are (or aren’t) doing. The question is not whether you will be knocked down by life. The question is how do you get back up again?
Oh God of Second Chances, Here I Am Again is a book about what it takes to get back up again.
Through the vulnerable and honest journey of her own life experience, Christy takes readers on a journey of falling down and getting back up again with compassion and humor. Packed with tools to help you cultivate resilience, courage, authenticity, and find your way to come home to yourself.
With each step along the journey a tapestry of hope emerges. Suddenly, there’s a way forward, regardless of the struggles that lay ahead.
Christy, a seasoned social worker, draws on literary inspiration, research, and the wisdom of mystics, as well as women TEDx speakers who know a thing or two about falling down and getting back up again. Filled with exercises to help foster personal growth and the lessons she has learned from a lifetime of helping others get back up again and again; what emerges is a community you didn’t realize you needed to face this messy thing called life.
NOW AVAILABLE
Oh God of Second Chances
Here I Am Again
“A masterclass in courage, if you’ve ever wondered how to live well, this is the book you’ve been waiting for.”
– Laura Thomas, Author of The Magic of Thinking Big
“My aim in writing these diverse and hopefully engaging little tales is to give people a little moment of escapism and a happy ending. The sort of thing that all of us who are working hard in the world, pay attention to its sorrows, and may (just may) occasionally struggle finding balance might read and remember the goodness in people and life.”
Inspired by Seth’s Your Turn book, Winnie issued a challenge to ship 7 blogs in 7 days.
Ok, i’m game.
I saw a post the other day which posed a question to solopreneurs that basically asked what do you do to keep moving forward when things aren’t going your way and you start thinking about getting a JOB?
Most of the responses were helpful but when one person questioned those who were commenting with perspectives like “I’m no longer employable” or “I could never go back to a job” etc, this person reminded them that all businesses start out small, grow, and then hire employees and not to disparage someone who has a job.
There was immediate backlash.
It got me to thinking.
Entrepreneurs, small business owners (solopreneurs), Authors like me, often times leave the traditional JOB environment to follow a passion or dream and once we experience life outside of the constraints of a traditional JOB we most certainly don’t want to go back.
That being said, the poster with his comment had a point. If our businesses grow the way we hope they will we will likely hire employees… who are basically going to a JOB, it just happens to be one that we created.
For me, I could see both sides of the discussion, but the issue at hand was based on a false premise that I often hear/see when the topic of chasing one’s dreams comes up. That false premise is basically this: If everyone chased their dreams there’d be no one to do the ‘real’ work that has to get done.
The reason this premise is false is because not everyone wants to run out and start their own business and even those who do, not all of THEM are ready to do so.
For many people, and even those of us who left our jobs, there is a cyclical, almost seasonal part of our lives we go through where we are working in careers and fields that interest us, but not to the point of starting our own business, or at least not yet.
So, yes, I agree that we should not disparage the idea or the people who have traditional JOB’s, but likewise we should acknowledge that for some people, they have arrived at the point where taking a traditional JOB, while perhaps providing more money and security, does not meet the needs they have grown into.
I worked with Andy for eleven years during my stint in Broadcast Television. Andy was a breath of fresh air in an all too often sad business. His wit and humor were as unique as the seemingly endless supply of Hawaiian shirts he had in his closet.
Andy Schaeffer lived life on his own terms. His unique perspective on life showed through his lens as a photographer, ever the consummate professional, and in his witty repartee and often sarcastic view of things. He loved his work, his life, his family and his coffee and not in that order.
He was a generous human being in a crowd of those who more often than not were not so. We saw each other rarely after my departure from television, but we kept in touch online. His signature style of greeting when our paths did cross felt as familiar as they had on my last day at the station.
He brought a lighthearted view of things from his brightly colored shirts to his warm smile and sparking eyes wherever he went.
As the sun sets it’s a little dimmer today. Simply put, Andy was one of the good guys. Thank you Andy for being you. I, among many, will miss you.
If you believe in prayer or positive vibrations or simply compassion for the loss of a genuinely kind human being, please send comforting thoughts to his family. They will surely miss him most of all.
Andrea Susan Valentine Gelfuso Goetz is the author of “My Modena – A Year of Fear, Laughter and Exhilaration in Italy“.
After her husband was given a job for a year in Italy, Andrea and the rest of their family joined him on the adventure; and what an adventure it was.
Often trying to do the simplest of things, her story captures the hilarity of an American in Italy trying to navigate a country that seems as foreign as should be familiar. She spent a year in Italy in an apartment that was like camping, with tile, in a town full of ancient churches, like God’s attic. Come meet Melanie, a fashionista who can make ATMs bend to her will from a hundred miles away. Her landlady Giovanna, who taught her to make risotto as golden as her smile, and her husband, Raimondo, who stood by serenely as six firefighters tried to get Andrea and her family back into their 7th floor apartment – using a ladder truck. Meet Piero, the artist who told her Modena’s most beautiful secrets, and Luca, who sold her boots so fabulous she re-soled them three times. Meet Danilo, Fabio, and Marcello, heart-stoppingly gorgeous Italians. And a mime who knew a lot more than he was saying.
NOW AVAILABLE
My Modena
A Year of Fear, Laughter, and Exhilaration in Italy
“My Modena is an utterly hilarious memoir of expat life in Modena, Italy.“
– Christina Lynch, New York Times bestselling author of The Italian Party
“Every page of this marvelous book is a laugh-out-loud treasure as you walk along with Andrea on her incredible journey of frustration, exhilaration, laughter, and ultimately beautiful memories of a year she’ll never forget; and neither will you.”
You can take the high road or the low road. That’s what they tell you anyway.
What if you don’t want to go by road?
“But you have to take one of the roads, it’s the only way to get there” they say.
I wish I could talk to those who have gone down new avenues in the past and ask them what they felt like. Were they told it was impossible too? Did someone tell them that because it had never been done before it wasn’t possible to do it. Were they told they had to conform to the way others do it in order to succeed?
We all applaud the visionary who finds a new, and often better, way to do something. We call them trailblazers and laud them for starting a movement to change the way things are done. Sometimes when we ourselves didn’t even realize that something needed to be done better in the first place. We pat them on the back, drink a toast in their honor and marvel at why we didn’t think of it ourselves.
But all that happens only after they’ve done it. Whatever the IT was that they set out to do.
Before then, we’re just like everyone else. We laugh at their audacity. We question their sanity. We ridicule them for daring to think they can do something differently. Surely if there was a better way to do things it would have been done already. Stop trying to be smarter than everybody else and get in line.
What if I don’t want to take the road?
I have this crazy notion of how I want the future to be. It’s not the way things are done today. It’s not how the game is played. I don’t really have it all figured out, I just know that the roads I’m told I have to drive down hold no appeal for me. I don’t want to take any of the roads.
Maybe I’ll succeed and maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll work really hard at trying to figure out a different way to get there and people will laugh, and ridicule, and tell me it can’t be done.
They’re talking, of course, about the book signing. “Isn’t it amazing to have your book published?” they ask.
The answers, of course, are Yes and Yes. It’s amazing, exciting, humbling, surreal, joyous, and many other incredible words…. and then there’s terrifying!
Okay, maybe not terrifying, but definitely nervous! When you write a book and get it published you’ve put a great deal of yourself into that book. No matter what kind of book, what the subject is, fiction or non-fiction, the process of writing a book is intimately personal. Putting it into a binding and then out into the world is no less terrifying (okay nerve-wracking) than the first time you ask a girl to dance or go out with you.
What if no one likes the book? (She says no to the dance) What if no one shows up for the book signing? (She says no to going out). It may seem silly given that these days getting a publisher to agree to publish your book is so much harder than it ever was and therefore it stands to reason that I should be elated that someone thinks enough of my work to publish it. And I am! I just have this tiny, intsy bitsy nagging little fear of failure that is tagging along for the ride.
I’m also hard at work on another book, I’ve just put the finishing touches on two customized card decks that have art images and AM and PM questions on each one that I hope will help those who have read the book with getting the habit of questions to be a part of their lives. I’m halfway through the first intensive month with my test group for the ASK CirQle Program. A 12 month program which I’ve created in the hopes that it will help people integrate the principles from the book into their lives and not forget them once they’ve finished the book.
All of this is good news right? Yes, and I’ve also got to find someone to manufacture the cards at a price I can afford, I have to create an entire eCommerce part of my website to handle the ASK CirQle Program that needs a great deal more than a simple shopping cart, oh and did I mention I have to shoot and edit a years worth of videos to go with the program?
Right, so it might be my own fault that I’m more than a bit nervous going into this book signing seeing as I have so much going on and so very little time to get it all done.
Which is where the questions come in. Yes, I do actually take my own advice and yes it does work. I just wanted you to know that I’m not immune to fear or doubt or moments of hesitation (typically right before I leap off the edge screaming like my 7 year old self riding his first ever roller coaster in the pitch black).
So, to answer the questions.
Yes, it is unbelievably exciting and amazing and satisfying to have my book published and in print. And yes, I am incredibly excited for my first (of many I hope) book signings. I can’t wait to meet whomever shows up and get to talk to them for a bit and hopefully create some new friends.
And about all that other stuff I mentioned above?…… I wouldn’t change it for anything. This is what makes the ride worthwhile, it’s what puts the adventure in my journey, and what makes crossing the finish line so very much worth it.
I hope you’ll come along with me to see how it all turns out. 16 days…. Gulp!
Andrea Susan Valentine Gelfuso Goetz is the author of “My Modena – A Year of Fear, Laughter and Exhilaration in Italy“.
After her husband was given a job for a year in Italy, Andrea and the rest of their family joined him on the adventure; and what an adventure it was.
Often trying to do the simplest of things, her story captures the hilarity of an American in Italy trying to navigate a country that seems as foreign as should be familiar. She spent a year in Italy in an apartment that was like camping, with tile, in a town full of ancient churches, like God’s attic. Come meet Melanie, a fashionista who can make ATMs bend to her will from a hundred miles away. Her landlady Giovanna, who taught her to make risotto as golden as her smile, and her husband, Raimondo, who stood by serenely as six firefighters tried to get Andrea and her family back into their 7th floor apartment – using a ladder truck. Meet Piero, the artist who told her Modena’s most beautiful secrets, and Luca, who sold her boots so fabulous she re-soled them three times. Meet Danilo, Fabio, and Marcello, heart-stoppingly gorgeous Italians. And a mime who knew a lot more than he was saying.
NOW AVAILABLE
My Modena
A Year of Fear, Laughter, and Exhilaration in Italy
60 years ago, on May 6, 1954, Englishman Roger Bannister did something many thought was impossible. He pushed the limits of the human body and ran the Mile in under 4 minutes. In all of recorded history, no human being had ever run a mile that fast.
Although Roger Bannister’s accomplishment is indeed extraordinary for many reasons (he was an amateur, student, trained little, went to school full time etc…) what is also astonishing is what has happened since.
46 days after he broke the 4 minute mile, another runner (from Australia) broke it.
Since that day, over 1,300 people have run the mile under 4 minutes. Two people have run a sub 4-minute mile over 100 times each, and 5 HIGH SCHOOL students have now run the mile in under 4 minutes.
Yet for well over one thousand, nine hundred and fifty three years, NO ONE had ever done it.
By the way, 23 days after Bannister broke the 4 Minute Mile, a woman from England broke the 5 Minute mark, something no woman had ever done before, and the current world record for women stands at just over 4 minutes 12 seconds.
The Impossible is simply something possible that has not yet happened.
In the sports-crazed society we live in most people believe that winning is everything. As the saying goes, ‘Winning isn’t everything, it’s the ONLY thing.’
I’m not sure that’s true. People confuse winning with being first. They’re not the same thing. VERY FEW people are the first to accomplish something. Most people give up. Sadly for many of them, they give up just before the moment they might have succeeded. They stop one corner short of the prize or give up one failure before the triumph.
It’s not easy to keep going, but it’s worth it. The one adage I find to be true one 100% of the time is that those who are successful simply don’t quit.
Yet, for most people, it’s much easier to achieve their success once someone else has done it first. Now it’s no longer a matter of faith, they have proof. And yes, when you KNOW it can be done, sticking with it becomes easier, not easy necessarily, but easiER than doing it when no one else has ever done it.
It’s why Entrepreneurs should be lauded, because more often than not, they are creating something new, trying to be the first.
1,300 sub 4-minute miles is impressive but it’s not a lot considering the time frame, and, the current world record hasn’t been broken in 15 years. In 1997, however, two miles were run in under 8 minutes!
There’s always room for another first. Chances are you may not even be trying to do something that is a first. For many of us we’re just trying to reach a goal or a dream for ourselves, but likely as not, someone else has already done it. If they can do it, so can you.
If, however, you’re one of the few who is trying to do something no one else has done, you are in good company. It will likely be hard. You’ll probably be tempted to quit. Don’t. It might be around the next corner, or the one after that. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. Step on one stone at a time. Just don’t quit. We need you to be first. Others will follow but they aren’t able to be first. It’s up to you. We’re counting on you. You can do it, and we’ll be there to cheer for you when you cross the finish line.
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Andrea Susan Valentine Gelfuso Goetz is the author of “My Modena – A Year of Fear, Laughter and Exhilaration in Italy“.
