Iniative, Responsibility, and Determination

I didn't do a whole lot of reading while I was sick. So I have a little catching up to do! The next 6 chapters in the book Running The Edge by Adam Goucher & Tim Catalano are about mirrors that you can use to reflect on your life. I'll go through 3 of them in this post and the other 3 in the next post.

In this blog, I'll be looking into the mirrors for initiative, responsibility, and determination for running and each of the five life stories. They ask you to rate yourself on a scale from 0 to 10. Zero being a "reactor" (passive, a puppet) or a "distance maven" (an actor, a doer, the puppeteer).

Initiative
The first mirror is initiative. They list these traits for this mirror:
Pro-Activity
Vision
Optimism
Confidence
Resourcefulness

This is how I rated myself in each area:
Running - 8
Education - 4
Family - 7
Friends - 5
Career - 5
Passions - 4

Right now, Running and Family are the areas where I'm putting in the most work/initiative. I tend to immerse myself in something when I'm learning about it, as I'm doing with running. I gave myself this year to concentrate on running so I'm not surprised by these ratings. I definitely have to become more balanced once this year is over!

Responsibility
The next mirror is responsibility and these are the traits they list for it
Reliability
Accountability
Conscientious
Sensible
Self-Disciplined

And this is how I rated each area for this mirror:
Running - 9
Education - 6
Family - 8
Friends - 8
Career - 8
Passions - 7

Once again, I'm not surprised by the high score for running since I'm focused on running this year and motivated to do my very best at it. I am only accountable to myself for running and luckily, I'm a hard task master! ;) I do think I scored pretty well in the other areas because one thing I believe in is keeping my word.

Determination
The last mirror for today is determination and these are it's traits:
Perseverance
Courage
Tenacity
Focus
Commitment

And this is how I scored myself for this mirror:
Running - 8
Education - 4
Family - 8
Friends - 8
Career - 7
Passions - 6

Surprise, surprise...running scored high again. :) But so did family & friends. I could use some work in the other areas, especially education but overall, I think these are good. I think my stubbornness helps with this area. Once I set my mind on something, I chip away at it until it's done.

It's been interesting to really think about where I am in each of these areas. I am not happy about how low Education scored in these 3 mirrors but I already knew I was unhappy with how I left things there...not having a degree. I may have been a little harsh on myself because of that because I do do research whenever I need to learn something, whether it's for work, photography, my bike, running, etc. I guess I'm thinking more of a formal education instead of the street smarts I have. And I think it's because I did so well in math & science when I was in school and my family had high expectations for me. And I had them for myself as well.

Still...I sometimes wish for a job where I didn't have to think about technical/computer issues and deal with politics, etc. Something laid back like working in a bike shop or a running store. Where I could start late and do lunch runs or rides. That's why career scored low too. I don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

Well, I do know I want to be a fast, ultrarunner. ;)