On Making/Keeping Friends

Nordstrom's brand new CMO Brian Dennehy plays old-school tag (yes, "you're it" variety of tag) with a group of his childhood friends. The Wall Street Journal article describes the rules of the game:

The game they play is fundamentally the same as the schoolyard version: One player is "It" until he tags someone else. But men in their 40s can't easily chase each other around the playground, at least not without making people nervous, so this tag has a twist. There are no geographic restrictions and the game is live for the entire month of February. The last guy tagged stays "It" for the year.

Dennehy and his friends end up flying halfway across the country, conniving with car salesmen to let them hide in the trunk of a car, and jumping out at the least expected moments just to revel in the glory of delivering a long awaited "You're it!"

There are two insights I'm taking away from Dennehy's shenanigans. The first is that you can do a wealth of silly activities and as long as they're with the right people, they're 100% justifiable. 

Secondly, friendships are no different than any other work in our lives in that if you want to see successful outcomes, you need to put aside the time and energy and dedicate focus. Sure, this was never the case growing up where friendships were 1 part convenience, 1 part chemistry, and 1 part Adam-has-a-basketball-hoop-at-his-home. But with adult lives and agendas in full motion, blocking off time to develop or sustain strong friendships is more important than ever. Vacations and trips away are less of a Spring Break in Miami and more of a way to remember why our friends play a role in our lives (even if the trip is in Miami anyway). 

Running half a marathon

The headline's no metaphor. Yesterday morning I ran my first race ever - a 13.1 mile half-marathon around Central Park in 20 degree weather. See proof below:

As someone who is slightly obsessed with preparation and goal reaching, it makes sense that running a half-marathon and training over months to reach a target time and distance is something I would love. To be honest, I'm surprised it took me this long to sign up. While my ultimate goal is to finish the Paris Marathon on April 7, 2013, yesterday's half marathon served as just another benchmark on my way to what they say is the world's most beautiful marathon (complete with a route along the Seine River, through the Eiffel Tower, and by the Champs Elysses).  

The Hardest Thing About Training for a Marathon (full or half):
Oh, you know, just the endless toil on my legs after running 30+ miles per week in sub-freezing weather. Did I mention it snowed in New York two days before last weekend's race? 

The Easiest Thing About Training for a Marathon (full or half):
Often, people identify a goal and then work backwards from that goal to develop a plan of how best to accomplish. In running, this means getting a certain number of miles under the belt every week. Each week that number goes up until the day of the race. Preparing to complete a marathon is about as clean and clear as any plan could be. With the caveat that my body is relatively healthy and my legs are intact, the road map to successfully running a marathon is one of the more stable executions I've gone through. Here's another way to look at it: completing a marathon is mostly a matter of doing, a matter of putting one foot in front of the other repeatedly. Unless your goal is to win the actual race, there is little strategy involved regarding competition, contextual factors, etc. 

What I've noticed is that this is rarely the case with other goals I've identified in my life. The necessary steps on the way to success are always so variable. Do I want to run my own start-up? Well, yes, but it depends on the industry, and the other competitors in the space, and the resources at hand, and so on and so forth. When it comes to these other life goals, action plans are always being rearranged. Putting one foot in front of the other seems to be necessary but not sufficient.