I love when people say “you can’t do that!“  Oh yeah, well just wait and see. Ok, I’m not an anarchist or anything, I just don’t like limits and ridiculous conformity.

The above image is two climbing routes up K2, which is the world toughest mountain to climb.  There are lots of mountains in the world to climb, but the mountainman that exists in outdoorsman like me deep down want to climb the highest and the hardest mountain.  Is climbing K2 or Everest on my “Bucket List“?  Sure is, though not as high on the list as you’d think.

So what is?  Well, I’d like to climb at least 2 American prime summits.  I also would like to bike/backpack Yosemite and the Grand Canyon.  Yet I think if I had to pick between those options, aside from wanting to do them all, I’d opt out and would want to have enough time to backpack the entire Appalachian Trail, starting from Maine and ending in Georgia.

But I just can’t and neither can you!

Why?

1. Have to work to pay the bills?
2. Not enough time; Timing?
3. Not fit enough? (well not me right now)
4. Can’t do it solo and have no one to join me?
5. Don’t have the skill require? (not in my case)
6. Family?
7. Commitments?
8. Can’t take risk?
9. Insert countless other reasons…

I’ve talked about risks here and there over recent years.  Now one thing I won’t encourage anyone to do is blow off their top priorities, such as God, wife, kids, work.  But here is the tricky part, priorities can eat you alive and enslave you.  So there has got to be some smart risks that allow us to do what is right in keeping priorities, while taking a hold of moments that just are not going to land on target in our lives.  That’s what I call taking smart risks.

Sometimes you just need to jump!

Aside from honoring your God-given priorities, you need to jump.  Yes, I mean you need to live life, get back to the roots of who you are and explore the God given wonders of this very brief life we have.  Sure, the eternal destination always tops everything, yet when we trap ourselves, don’t take risk, conform, sell out, etc, we become zombies.  I see way too many Christian zombies, let alone zombies in general.  Just living life without the spices of life.

Moses couldn’t speak to Pharaoh since he stuttered.  Now I’m not going to say that he overcame an obstacle.  Honestly I don’t think very highly of Moses.  Sure, leading million of people is tough stuff, yet so what?!  Maybe at some point I’ll cook up some sermon notes on Moses to analyze Moses strengths and weaknesses.  Regardless, even though Moses caved into his inner “can’t do” attitude, somehow with the help of others, like his brother, Joshua/Caleb, etc, he ws still used of God.

I’d love to point out some other that I think did pretty good, like King David, Daniel, Rack/Shack/Benny, Peter, Timothy, etc…

One thing I can’t do

I’m not athletic. I can’t play ball sports very well.  I can’t run fast.  Even though I have some good hockey skills, I can’t skate.    Can’t, can’t, can’t, can’t, can’t…

In college around my Sophomore year for the first time in my life I got a gut.  Wasn’t too big where I could suck it in.  So I started to run and work out in the gym.  My gut never really went away, yet for the most part at least a year after getting my degree, I kept in decent shape.  I ran short distances here and there, while also biking short distances, walked a lot, worked out sometimes.  Then a desk job and a shift in my lifestyle made me less and less in fair shape.  I got fat.

I stopped running because it hurt. I didn’t bike as much, since I finally got a car and didn’t have a bike mount.  I didn’t go to the campus gym much, since I didn’t want to work out unless I was with a friend.  When I got home from sitting, I felt like sludge and felt too tried to do anything.  I can’t, I don’t feel like it, I won’t.

So years later you get a gut you can’t suck in, you are trapped in a lifestyle that isn’t healthy.  Stress makes things worse for your metabolism.  Yes, I got a new bike, I had some attempts here and there with running, and I tried working out again.  But I didn’t make the full lifestyle change.

Here I am facing a lot of other things I just can’t do that before I won’t even consider my ability in that area in training to do triathlons in 2010.  I just found out the other day I can’t swim, rather I can swim, yet I can’t do laps swimming in particular styles.  I have 8 months to remedy that.  As for running, 3-4 months ago I could barely walk since my quad were so swollen after a 2 mile run.  Yesterday I ran 7.5 miles and felt just fine.

I haven’t signed up for any Ironman event (half or full) yet, though I am training for that.  I realize it could take me a year to get my distance and speed up to that level.  When I see how slow I run and swim, I do my best to follow the expert training advice from book, websites, and zines.  I know smart training over the long haul will yield a less than 17:00:00 Ironman finish.

I’m not athletic. So what, gear up and hit the trail anyways.  I’ve been amazed how far I’ve come.  And I’m shrinking in the process too! 

Btw, all this training is going to help me summit mountain and backpack all these trails and national parks!  I’d like to bike these places too!

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1. Goal Setting: “Trying Tri” (2009-10)