Press on regardless - never give up

I haven't done a scientific study, but I am guessing leadership courses and books do not favor quitting in the face of adversity. I can almost hear a determined martial arts voice saying define your goal and don't let anything stop you from achieving it. And it even sounds true. But it is only true if you have the right goals.

I had a goal today. I wanted to trike from home to Donkey's beach and back in 50 minutes. And that included time to take my iPhone out of its ziplock bag and take a picture of the waves with a strong NE wind and a rising SE swell.

When I do the ascent to Kealia I like to meditate. Usually I pick a verse from one of the Psalms of the Ascents, because, well, I am going uphill. I usually use the verse for a week or so. However, today I started with 2 Samuel 11:1 "In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites."

I was making pretty good time, (for a 60 pound, 3 speed trike), when I rounded the turn to Pineapple Dump. Still had a lot of gas left in the tank, pretty good considering I had been facing a 15 mph headwind the entire ascent, (going down was going to be a blast).

And then I saw the squall. Quick wind direction/distance calculation, yup, collision course. I don't mind getting rained on, in fact I got rained on later that day. But North of Kealia is a rockslide area, the path puddles up with red clay and I was wearing a white t-shirt. Did I really want to do this. No! Spun around, if I can keep 15 MPH or greater downhill with the wind at my back, I get to avoid the squall. Let's roll.

Did I fail to reach my goal to get to Donkey's? Yes. Do I care? No. Let's look at goal setting for a minute. Home to Donkey's beach and back in 50 minutes is a tactical goal. The reason I was on the trike was a strategic goal and strategic trumps tactical big time. When I had the PICC line in my heart, I was resolved, that if I got to keep my foot, I would do at least one 30 minute aerobic activity every day and at least one other physical activity, strength, endurance, stretching all count as physical). When I am in Hawaii and I live by the path that leads along the ocean, (Ke Ala Hele Makalae), I prefer to trike as my aerobic activity. It is breathtakingly beautiful, especially as you approach Kealia and beyond. Sometimes God even throws in a gorgeous girl in a bikini, (hey, I don't stare, I am pedaling fast).

The meditation for week concerns a tactical decision, send Joab to do the fighting, which ended up dinging David's strategic goal, (be a great king and a man after God's own heart). Because if you read a bit further you get to the steamy bit with Bathsheba, (talk about the law of unintended consequences).

And the meditation is timely. I face a major life change in the coming weeks. A new boss, that knows even less about me than my current boss. That won't change my most strategic goals, (yes, they are in a hierarchy), but it could very well scramble everything else.

Got home, put the bike in the garage, opened a beer, (hey it is memorial day and I only have four of them and won't be buying more before I fly), and sat on my lanai to watch the rain come about a minute later.