The ToughMudder Challenge
A few months ago, my friend Jason passed around a link to ToughMudder. If you’ve never heard of it, ToughMudder is a hardcore 10-12 mile obstacle course designed by British Special Forces (aka my version of hell on earth).
“No way!” I thought to myself. “I’ve never run 10 miles in my life!”
I found myself agonizing over the website, watching video after video of people scaling 10 foot walls, jumping into lakes, running through fire, and yes, sprinting towards live electrical wires. I felt intimidated, out of shape, and scared. Because of this, I knew I had to sign up.
My general approach towards fear: You don’t run away from what scares you. You run to it, face it head on, and conquer the crap out of it.
So yes world, I am officially signed up for ToughMudder New England. The race is taking place on July 14 and will be the ultimate test of my strength, stamina, and sheer will power. I’m confident I’ll be in good company (I have some of my best pals doing it with me) and I know that crossing that finish line will be one of the most rewarding feelings ever.
I have 115 days to train, which means hitting the gym or park 4x/week, healthier eating, and a much earlier bed time. If you’re looking for a crazy excuse to get into shape, you want to run up a ski slope and get electrocuted, and you want to hang in Vermont this July, join the team! I can email you the registration link or just go to the New England page and join “Down In My Plums”.
Check out this video for a peek of what I’ve signed up for:
If Chipotle Can Do It So Can I
After graduating from college and entering the workplace, I found it increasingly more difficult to maintain a personal blog. What are future employers going to think about me if my writing is too personal or informal? What will my coworkers think if I update regularly? Will they think that I’m blogging instead of doing work? How can I even attempt to write about professional topics when everyone else is ________ (better, smarter, etc.)?
I think we all make excuses about why we should or shouldn’t blog as professionals. For me, I blamed it on time and insecurity. I replaced long-form blogging with tweets, tumblr posts, flickr, and good old fashioned journal writing. Rather than worry about carving out a personal brand and a chock full of zeitgeist commentary, I focused on chronicling my personal and professional growth offline.
In the past two years that I haven’t been blogging, I’ve been experiencing what some may call joie de vivre. I still work my ass off, but because I love what I do, it barely feels like work at all. This coming May will be my two year “2torversary”, a significant milestone marking the longest I’ve stayed at any job. I also just hit the two year anniversary living in the same apartment on the Upper Best Side of Manhattan (yes, Best, not west). It’s the longest I’ve lived anywhere besides the house I grew up in. There’s a hearty dose of joy and a wonderful balance of work and play that I’ve been looking to find and sustain almost my entire life.
The other day watching the Grammy’s, I was so inspired by this Chipotle ad. I believe it came out a few months ago, but it’s the company’s attempt at telling the world that they’re all about healthier, more sustainable food (I’m guessing there are still people who associate Chipotle with McDonald’s even they parted ways back in ’06). The ad uses a great cover of Coldplay’s “The Scientist” sung by Willie Nelson.
I love the video because it’s brilliant marketing, but it’s also a great reminder that you can’t move forward if you don’t remember who you are. In a lot of ways, blogging again is my attempt at falling back in love with the basics. When I was 12, I started a blog because I loved the idea of chronicling stories of my life, daily musings, ideas, and people that were important to me. I joined Facebook because I liked the idea of connecting with my friends. Twitter in ’06 was simply a way for me to document what I was doing and working on. These activities served no professional purpose, but instead, celebrated one of my favorite lessons of all time, “Happiness is only real when shared.”
In future posts, you’ll find me blogging about being social both at work and play. I’ll write about social media marketing and how I think social learning will fundamentally change education. I’ll share adventures with friends and all the wonderful things I love about living in New York City.
In the words of Coldplay, “We’re going back to the start.” Thanks, Chipotle.
Your first job after college
A good friend of mine is a senior in college and asked me to evaluate various job opportunities. The most recent one sent over was a position at a big IT consulting firm.
Here’s the email I wrote:
“[Company X], along with any other consulting firm, is going to give you great experience. I think it will expose you to a level of professionalism that you can only experience when you’re inside of a large company. You might travel a lot and live out of a suitcase, which I actually think you’ll appreciate. You’ll be exposed to detail-oriented, strategic thinkers and work on projects that impact large systems. That’s the good stuff.
Here’s the bad. You’re going to deal with OCD managers, people who demand that you bend over backwards for a client or senior person and they’ll work you to a pulp. There’s no touchy feely “Oh you messed up” in the equation. It’s results, performance, discipline, and execution all the time. Second chances are rare, first impressions mean everything, and the extent to which you’ll feel like you’re actually making the world a better place will constantly be in question.
In the end, you could never go wrong by working there. Will you have the time of your life and climb up the corporate ranks? Probably not. Most likely you’ll work there for a year or two and then leave to join a smaller firm or leave the entire consulting/analyst industry completely.
As you think about your career path, ask yourself what you value more:
- Discipline vs. Fun
- Organization vs. Creativity
- Micro vs. Macro
- Security vs. Risk
- Stability vs. Growth
- Balance vs. Speed
All of these values stack up to culture. The people you work with and who you work for will mean everything in the end. Google prides itself on having a great culture, but if you have a project manager who treats you like dirt, you’ll wake up every day hating work. So after assessing what you value, ask yourself what you want to learn and who you want to learn it from. Think about whether you gravitate more towards:
- What was vs. What could be: Do you want to understand how the world works or do you want to be part of something changing it
- Rules vs. Anarchy: Do you want to learn how to break the rules or do you want to make the rules? There’s something to be said about someone who knows how to navigate complex, large internal structure. There’s also something to be said about someone who knows how to build out process and teams.
- Getting vs. Giving: Do you want to work in a capacity where you’re constantly taking in or constantly putting out. Examples of taking in: customer support or data analysis. Examples of putting out: web development or sales.
This whole “figure my life out” thing and get a job is much more abstract than they told us it would be growing up. Stop thinking in terms of job function and use this criteria as a framework instead. Good luck!”
