Everyone has their ‘awesome’ – their unique set of gifts and talents. What’s yours? How are you leveraging it to bring your gifts to the world, both in your professional and personal life? Even if your job isn’t your ideal dream job, how are you bringing your ‘awesome’ to the table in the workplace? What’s holding you back? What if you shared your ‘awesome’ with the world?
This Is Why I Share My Trials Biking Experience
The other day I stopped to chat briefly with an acquaintance. During our discussion, he asked whether I was still doing bike trials (he had seen some of my videos). I responded that I was definitely still riding trials, and absolutely loving it! He replied that not long ago he had considered starting a new hobby, but was wondering whether he was too old to begin that specific type of thing. Then, he said, he reflected on the fact that I had started trials biking at almost 50 years old (he’s probably 15-20 years younger than I am). He caught me off guard (in a good way) by saying that my trials biking had inspired him. If I could start trials at my age, then certainly he could certainly start his new hobby. So he did!
There are two reasons I share my trials experience with anyone who will listen: (1) I want to grow the sport here in the US – both overall awareness and the number of riders, and (2) I want to inspire people to chase after their passions and do things that are challenging, regardless of their age!
Learning that my experiences in trials biking had inspired someone to take action, to stretch and try something new lifted my spirits that day. My hope is that this blog and my other social media channels (YouTube and Instagram) will inspire others as well, whether they decide to ride trials or do some other difficult thing (if it does, let me know with a comment or via the ‘contact‘ page).
Reaching ‘middle age’ doesn’t mean you have to stop learning or doing things that are physically or mentally demanding. I would encourage you to stretch yourself. Try something new. Do something different. Push yourself to grow and excel. Pursue new goals, or chase dreams that maybe you thought were out of reach. You still have plenty of life left at fifty.
Safety: If You See Something, Say Something
In support of a renewed emphasis on safety in the workplace, I shared a personal anecdote to my team that stresses the importance of speaking up when you see a potentially dangerous situation or behavior. I’ve shared that story here as well.
Given that safety is at the forefront and “see something, say something” is a behavior we want to encourage, I wanted to share a personal story to demonstrate an experience I had many years ago that really stuck with me.
When I was a child, my family spent a great deal of time participating in various outdoor activities – boating, fishing, camping, hunting, etc. So when I was old enough, I enrolled in a firearms hunting safety course, which was a legal requisite for obtaining a firearms hunting permit. The course consisted of reading a book and attending several classroom sessions held at a local sportsmen’s club, concluding with a written test.
As you can imagine, firearms safety is a critical aspect of handling firearms – not just while hunting, but at all times. During one particular classroom session, a number of various firearms were placed on a table at the front of the classroom, presumably to show us various types of firearms used for hunting. As the class began, one instructor started his lecture, while another instructor wandered around the table with the assorted collection of shotguns and hunting rifles. He’d occasionally pick one up, mess around with it, point it at various things around the room (though never aiming toward any people, mind you), but generally doing things you just should not be doing with firearms. I thought what he was doing was rather odd and probably a bad idea, but didn’t say anything (I was extremely shy back then – significantly more so than today, though I am actually still somewhat shy, believe it or not). I just watched as the man got more and more bold with his unsafe behavior. I never said anything. Let that sink in: I knew it was unsafe – potentially deadly – yet I never said anything.
About five minutes into the lecture, the instructor who was “playing” with the firearms picked up a shotgun, aimed it at something on the side wall (again, not in the direction of any people), and squeezed the trigger. If you’ve never heard a shotgun being fired inside a building – and I hope you never do – I can assure you, it gets your attention.
As soon as all of the students in the room re-composed themselves, the instructor who was giving the lecture asked whether any of the students had noticed the behavior of the other instructor (prior to the firearm discharge) and why none of the students had spoken up about it, since it was clearly unsafe. The instructor then spent some time cautioning us to not only be extremely aware of our own behaviors and how to safely handle guns, but also to speak up and say something if they see others behaving in an unsafe manner.
In case you were wondering, the shotgun was not loaded with live ammunition – it was just a “blank” (i.e., lots of noise, but no projectile). As you can imagine, this is an incident that I will never forget. And thankfully, it was a staged event where nobody was injured (or killed).
Just like I struggled with having the courage to speak up when I saw the instructor mis-handling the firearms, I would encourage all of you to speak up if you see unsafe behavior at your workplace – or anywhere else, for that matter.
Do It Right The First Time
Whenever you need to accomplish a task, always do it right the first time. Take the time necessary to ensure proper quality commensurate with the importance and complexity of the task. Otherwise, several things can occur, in order of ascending severity:
- You end up having to do it again anyway (which makes the job take even longer since now you have to do it twice). Besides being a hassle, this wastes time and/or money.
- If poor quality or cutting corners, becomes a habit you’ll end up with a bad reputation – from your teachers, peers, friends, bosses, or customers.
- In the extreme cases, there could be legal consequences – or worse, people could be hurt or killed, depending on the task or project (e.g., aircraft maintenance work, auto repair, bridge design, etc.).
[Note: I originally wrote this as a life lesson for my son on November 24, 2015.]