More Time...

Everyone is always asking for more time...

"If I only had more time..." "Gee, I wish I had more time..." "There aren't enough hours in the day..."

What in the world is that all about?

I don't want more time... I want more discipline! I want the courage to say No! more often! I want to be able to power on my computer and just start writing without feeling the irresistable pull of facebook or gmail tugging at my sleeve!

No! I don't want more time... Not until I'm sure I'm making the best use of the time I've got now!

Sure, I'd love to be more productive... Who wouldn't? Wouldn't you?

OK, so there are a few individuals we all know who laugh at the rest of us as we scurry around with that permanent look of constipated intensity etched into our collective portrait, people who don't give a damn about productivity: yours or their own. And, while they are laughing at us we're probably racing around feeling sorry for them, bathing in a false sense of moral superiority.

The question is: Who is right and who is wrong...

I don't want more time... I want to be happy with the time I've got! No... That isn't entirely correct. It's not happy with the time I've got that I want: it's "satisfied!" I want to be satisfied that I used the time I've got wisely, and wisely means for something other than work: something more than work!

I want the willpower to ignore Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Yahoo and the four thousand, eight hundred and thirty two other browsers that are clawing for my attention every second of every minute of every day. I want to silence the constant noise!

I don't want to connect with someone half-way around the world on the Internet: not, when I can connect with another human being in the same room!

I don't want to watch someone else exercise either! I want to get up from my desk and move around a little myself!

I don't want to watch someone on television. I don't want to watch the story unfold on the the screen. I don't want someone to tell it for me or to me. I want to experience it for myself. I want to experience it myself!

I don't want more time until I know I can and will make the best use of the time I have and quite frankly, I'm pretty sure I'm not there yet! 

Do you know how I know that? If you don't I'll tell you. I know I'm not there yet because every time I make a list of the "To Do's" I need to get done there is always one thing conspicuously absent from the list and that is the "To Do's" I need to do for me.

I'm not whining... I'm not crying the blues... I'm not bemoaning the fact I've dealt myself out of this equation. And, no, I'm not afraid of being considered selfish. I'd just like to get better at the art of living: living a full and satisfying life that recognizes that it's alright to find yourself penciled in on your own "To Do" list. That being selfish doesn't have anything to do with being on that list: Being selfish has everything to do with being the only thing thing on the list!

No... More time isn't the answer. Everyone's got the same amount of time: the same number of seconds, hours and days they are allotted. More living and more life in the time we all have is the answer!

So, until we have the wisdom to ask better questions and make more intelligent decisions, I think I'll just have to satisfy myself with the time I have... the time we all have. I'll just have to muddle through and make the best of it. 

And, if someone stops me to ask if I have the time, I'll smile and rejoice in the hidden knowledge that there is a lot more to that question than a wristwatch, cell phone or a clock will ever tell you.

It's a MACHINE...

It's a machine!

Certainly, a machine we often take for granted. Nevertheless, it is perhaps one of the most complicated machines we interact with on a daily basis.

It is a truly dynamic 'organism' with its own cardio-vascular system, skeletal structure, neuro-muscular movement and feedback capability, and intelligence - albeit, artificial.

Like fingerprints and snowflakes, no two vehicles are alike. Even if they were, the fact that every driver is unique to the vehicle and driving conditions can vary as much as they do from place to place and driver to driver, makes it impossible to generalize.

Nevertheless, there are at least a few assumptions we can make. First, just about every organism on the planet consumes at least a minimal amount of energy to exist. Energy implies fuel and regardless of how efficient an organism might be it is unlikely if not impossible that it will be 100% efficient. In other words, there will be 'exhaust:' unused or partially consumed 'fuel,' as well as other waste materials and contaminants.

We can also assume that use will ultimately result in both stress and wear. That means there is a need for the organism to repair or replenish itself. It also means that something is likely to wear out or break inevitably. This is as much an irrefutable truth for machines as it is for you and me.

Productive Maintenance for your vehicle is nothing more or less than paying attention to that restorative process: the process of repair and/or restoring the machine to as close to like-new condition as possible.

Everything we do - 'we' being the automotive service professionals you entrust your vehicles to - should be focused on that single purpose.  

If you are concerned that safety is not mentioned above, don't be. If the vehicle was designed properly and manufactured with enough care - and, if it is in as close to like-new condition as it can be maintained - it will be as safe as it was designed to be which hopefully is safe enough!

From that point forward it is a simple matter of 'regular checkups' and caring for  the unforeseen and unavoidable 'illnesses' that are bound to occur.

The regular checkups, if designed properly, seek to ensure roadworthiness through regularly scheduled and structured inspection of critical systems in much the same way your doctor looks into your eyes, checks your weight, height, glands, temperature and blood pressure (and, more depending upon the nature of your visit).

We drain and refill the oil and replace the filter, look at the level and condition of critical fluids and vehicle systems, check brakes, tires and suspension and then road test the vehicle to ensure ‘little problems’ don't have the opportunity to grow into ‘big, ugly problems’ as a result of lack of care or awareness.

The next few posts will be focused on specific systems and their respective maintenance requirements. For now, however, I'd like to finish up with this.

Just like you need to exercise and watch your diet to ensure the benefits of a long and productive life, so too will you need to take care of your vehicles if you want to experience the longest service life delivered at the lowest possible service cost. 

Perhaps more important, it is the only way people who do what I do can be certain we’ve done everything we can to eliminate if not avoid the possibility of being stuck or stranded and the unplanned and unbudgeted expense that generally accompanies finding yourself stuck somewhere.

Until next time, stay well and take care…

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE…

I was sitting at my desk in my office at the shop a couple of hours ago starring at the little red knobs on the file cabinet drawers. That was just about all I was capable of at that particular moment.

Trying to figure out where the time had gone seemed pointless: it was gone. And, that is saying a lot since I started working on today more than an hour earlier than usual, and usual is lot earlier than most folks start their days.

I went to bed early enough, and slept well for the few hours I slept… But, I found myself stretching to get a decent view of the clock on my wife’s night table just so I could figure out how much rest I could still get in if – and, that turned out to be a mighty big ‘if’ – I could just fall back to sleep. The problem was I couldn’t.

In reality, the problem really wasn’t falling back to sleep: the problem was the million and one things – the million and one, really bizarre and odd things, that play across the screen stretched across the inside of your eyelids when your eyes are closed and you are trying to fool yourself into believing you really can fall back to sleep!

I don’t know about you, but I think about the strangest stuff imaginable! And, there is no rhyme or reason to it; is there?

I go from thinking about what I want to do with the outside of the building at work, to designing a new customer satisfaction survey mirror hanger; from the skill sets I will need to look for in our next new-hire, to getting ready for the speaking engagement I have in Pittsburgh at the end of next week; from what to do about the ‘bump steer’ I’m suddenly experiencing in my car, to the book I just finished…

There is this raging river of thoughts and ideas running through my head leading to an Angel’s Falls drop: but, instead of forming some kind of an idea ‘pool’ at the bottom and then gently flowing off, these thoughts and ideas start bouncing around like a thousand SuperBalls dropped from the roof of the Empire State Building.

They bounce high… They bounce hard… They bounce in just about every conceivable direction! And, some of them are pretty damned scary!

The only thing that saved me this morning was that book I just finished. It helped me understand where, at least, some of this internal dialogue was coming from and the sinister nature of its intent.

The book was Linchpin, by Seth Godin. And, if you haven’t read it, you need to!

No, I don’t care what your interests are – this is a critically important book, regardless.

It’s about human nature and the nature of being human, as much as anything else. And, aside from the fact that it is beautifully written, it helped me understand and confront a demon I’ve been battling for most of my life – that little voice inside your head narrating the images moving across that screen inside your head I was just talking about.

Its formal name is Amygdala, but Godin refers to it simply as the “Lizard Brain.” The amygdale is our ‘first’ brain: our prehistoric, pre-evolutionary brain. Its concerns are more basic than basic: food, sex, fight and flight. It’s the self-talk that isn’t just satisfied to scream out for you to be careful – it is the voice inside your head that will not allow you to take any risk at all!

Before reading Linchpin I didn’t know what the voice was, nor did I understand what mischief it is always up to. After, Linchpin: I understand enough about what it is and what it’s up to, to challenge it!

I’m sure I’ll be writing about both this book, and another Godin book, Tribes, over the next few weeks. After all, they are all I can think about when I’m not thinking about all this other weird stuff!

In the meantime, I think I’ll lie down, close my eyes and try not to think about anything, for at least for a little while!

0:Dark:Thirty

Old habits really do die hard... Like getting up long before the Sun decides to shake off the night's comforting darkness. Or, getting home long after the Sun has gone to bed itself.

That's been my routine for so long I can't remember a different time. It started on Saturday mornings with my Dad. Up at four o'clock in the morning, dressed and out before four-thirty, fishing on the sand at Jones Beach on Long Island, on the road and at work in Bensonhurst before seven. After we moved to California and found ourselves - me included, this time - back in the automotive service business in a 24-hour service station in Santa Monica, the cycle of short - very short - nights and long days returned. Only, there really aren't any 'set' hours in a 24-hour service station. At least, there weren't when we first opened in 1966.

We would go to work early and leave whenever we were done, regardless of the hour. Add the occasional "missed shift," where someone fails to show up and you find yourself working twenty hours and not just the 'normal' ten, and the boundaries between work and life began to evaporate, and not so slowly.

Years ago, my father determined that the day went more smoothly if we started it with breakfast: sort of like easing into the pool slowly, rather than just throwing yourself headlong into the icy water. Subsequently, breakfast became a ritual - even when no one was talking to each other!

There was a simple and inherent wisdom in that when you think about it. Even when we were at war with each other and not speaking - which didn't happen often, but did happen - someone would ultimately have to say, "Please pass the salt..." And, the fire that fuels most family feuds would ultimately die out.

This 'tradition' of early morning breakfasts continued for the better part of forty years, through countless restaurants and greasy-spoon breakfast emporiums. It transcended family battles, good times and bad, here in Simi and before that, in Santa Monica, and it served our family well.

Now, that I'm the only Schneider still standing at Schneider's Automotive, it is a tradition or habit or whatever it is, still.

I'm up before six, regardless... Regardless, of whether it is Monday morning with a 'solid' day on the books or Saturday when I could actually 'sleep in.' But, there are differences... With the exception of one or two of the regular places we ate for years where a basic breakfast club formed - and, even that's not the same when you find yourself sitting by yourself in a booth that once accommodated four or five - eating alone is different: not the same.

I still get up early... too early, probably. And, I still eat breakfast... albeit, a protein shake or a bowl of oatmeal. But, I find myself dining alone for the most part.

I still leave the house in the dark and most nights won't return until long after the Sun has gone down. But, now, I head straight to work after fixing breakfast and try to get as much paperwork and planning done before the phones start ringing and the people start coming in.

You would be surprised at just how much you can get accomplished - how much more you can get accomplished - without interruption: without distraction!

And, that's what I've been doing for the past hour or so: that is, of course, with the exception of chatting with you.

I've done the deposit. Finished signing the payroll checks. Planned for the rest of the week, more or less. Worked on our marketing plan for the coming year. Thought about the conference call I have scheduled for later on this morning to identify training for the Industry, big "I," conference scheduled for this coming October. Finished up my notes for the presentation I will deliver in Santa Barbara later on this evening. And, still managed to reflect on breakfast with my Mom, Dad and whoever else dropped by.

Not a bad morning when you think about it. Especially, when you consider that it began at 0:Dark:Thirty in the morning...

A RELUCTANT TOURIST…

We just returned home from a day out…

We left the house at about ten this morning and pulled into the driveway just after eight: a ten hour day spent wandering up and down the Coast of California.

My wife’s aunt flew in from New Jersey last Tuesday – a good week to get out of the snow and cold – and today, Saturday, was the first full day I got to participate in the sightseeing.

Of course, that was after awakening at 0:Dark:Thirty for breakfast, coffee – Java Johnny’s for some ‘real’ coffee: an espresso double-shot to get the day crank-started simply referred to by all as the “Special – to the shop for some paperwork, and then home again to begin the rest of the day!

The rest of the day started with a trip to the wine country just above Santa Barbara: the area around Los Olivos and Santa Ynez (remember the movie Sideways?). It’s what the cowboys would call a “’fer piece” from here, especially when there was a difference of opinion swirling around how to get there. I kind of remembered driving there years ago – more years ago than I can remember – through Buellton (Anderson Pea Soup?) and Solvang (Danish anything…): up the 101 Freeway to the 246 and then over. My wife insisted that we had already passed the 246 by the time we got to California 154 (we hadn’t, but I couldn’t convince her) – the route that takes you through the Los Padres National Forest and past Lake Cachuma: what I would call “the back way.”

I tried to suggest – I’m not sure convince would be the right word to use in this particular instance – that my way would be shorter and faster, but she was sure the “my way” option was literally behind us. Consequently, we got to see both the forest and the lake, which wasn’t really such a bad thing considering this was one of those magnificent February California afternoons that sets folks on the East Coast still reeling from the record snow falls to thinking about why they are living there instead of here. Or, at least, it should!

After the heavy rains we’ve had just recently everything was Technicolor perfect. The ride, even going the long way: maybe, especially because we went the long way, was breathtaking.

We stumbled upon a great little restaurant in Los Olivos: Patrick’s Side Street Café, had a great Pinot Noir, then took in the Santa Ynez Valley, made it to Solvang, Buellton and then Santa Barbara. We left Santa Barbara and worked our way through the hills of Montecito back to the freeway, through Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo and then ‘Home again, Home again: Jiggety, Jig.’

It would probably be safe to say that my wife’s aunt was blown away by the raw beauty of this part of California. If she wasn’t, she sure should have been because I was and I’ve lived here for the better part of forty-eight years!

The only thing I could think of was that this truly is the Golden State… and, the poppies aren’t even in bloom yet!

Well, that’s not altogether true. That wasn’t the only thing I was thinking of. I was thinking of the fact that I really didn’t want to go – “other things to do” and all the other stuff we use to rationalize wrong decisions like that. But, I went anyway and became a reluctant tourist of sorts: and, in the process realized that having people come from someplace else, forcing you to show them the host of wonders we take for granted because we live here and it’s easy – the ‘we’ being just about every one of us regardless of where we live and what those wonders are – is a wonderful thing!

It’s a wonderful thing because there is great beauty everywhere that seems somehow even more delicious when confronted with it, even reluctantly: especially, when you recognize and appreciate the wonder in watching hawks circle over head waiting for their lunch to begin, the stillness of a mountain lake or the sun setting on the Pacific.

Today was one of those days I was really glad my father came home after being trapped in Brooklyn for five days during the Winter of 1962, and very quietly mentioned that we would be in California by mid-August… Certainly, a lot happier than I remember being then!

Teach A Man (Or, A Woman...) To Fish....

I wrote this for my other blog and finished it just a few minutes ago. After reading it through a second time I kind of think it belongs here to...  So, here it is.

I love to teach...

Well, that's not actually one hundred percent accurate. What I really love is to help people. And, the way I do that, and have done it in the past, is by sharing what I know and what I have learned over the years.

I do it at the service counter with our clients every day. Or, at least I try to.

I do it through the columns I contribute to the magazines I write for and through the books I've written... Or, at least I try to.

I do it in seminar work I've done and the keynotes I've delivered... And, yes, you guessed it: Or, at least I try to.

And, I've done it with just about everyone that's ever worked here. In fact, I don't think there is anyone who has ever worked here for either my father or myself who hasn't learned something: something about themselves, or something about their profession while in our care and custody.

Sharing what you've learned and what you know is powerful. The exchange that takes places changes both the teacher and the student for ever in profound and powerful ways neither is likely to understand. At least, not while it's happening. But, the foundation for those changes is poured when the first gift of knowledge is offered.

It's fascinating, really. One moment your content with everything you know. And, the next you are confronted with something new: something that can and will change you forever.

Why? How?

Because, no matter how hard you try or how much you resist, you really can't isolate yourself from experience or ideas if or when they are properly, or effectively, or dramatically, or passionately, presented. You can disagree. You can try to ignore what you have been exposed to. You can fight to remain static: unmoved. But, even the act of any of those actions (or,non-actions) is a direct result of the new knowledge you have gained.

The more 'new things' you've tried, the more experiences you've had, and the more mistakes you've made: the more you have to offer those around you. When you've been as successful as I have at any or all of the above, you have a lot to offer! And, offer it you must...

That's what we're doing right now at the shop. We're sharing what we - all of us - have learned over the years with two young entry-level people and it's more fun and more rewarding than ought to be legal. What makes it even better is the raw energy and enthusiasm they bring to the workplace - the curiosity and the questions - the constant attention they require - and the thought and consideration that has to go into every response.

Teaching makes the teacher(s) sharper: better, in almost every way, just for that reason... If you care.
When a new-hire asks you what you're doing or why you're doing it a certain way, you are forced to you to look at everything you do with a critical eye.

Why do we do this? Because, that's the way we've always done it?

Why do we do it this way and not that? Do we recognize the choices available to us, or are we lost in the subtle sameness and comfort of the familiar?

When asked about hiring practices an old friend would simply say: "Hire for attitude. Train for ability. You can train someone to deliver great customer service - But, you can't train them to want to!"

That kind of says it all, doesn't it.

Well, the two people we're working with are filled with attitude. Not the kind of edgy, in-your-face attitude that you see on the street or in the movies: the kind that makes you want to show up early so you don't miss anything! And, that kind of enthusiasm and attitude is contagious. It filled the shop today and had just about everyone smiling. I can't say that it will last. Or, how long everyone will be riding this 'high.' But, I can promise we'll do everything we can to keep it going because it just plain feels like the right thing to do!

It feels great to share that knowledge - and, in our shop that knowledge totals well over a hundred years! And, it feels better to watch the changes that are taking place: the changes I spoke about earlier, transform these kids.

It's the ultimate: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for one day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime!"

We're teaching a couple of young kids just starting out how to fish: we're teaching them how to fish smart, how to fish efficiently and how to fish intelligently. And, in the process, we are becoming better fishermen ourselves.

Guilt By Association...

I feel guilty... almost, like I was cheating on a friend. I should have checked in Friday night or, certainly, some time on Saturday: Maybe, even this morning. But, I definitely feel like I should have checked in...

What does that feel like? Well, it kind of feels like 'playing hookie.' (Does anyone still call it that? Has that expression been lost somehow, like so many of the other expressions I grew up with: A victim of "generational context?"). Whatever it is: it feels like you really should be somewhere else, doing something else... that you're not!

Now, the entire weekend has gotten away from me and I feel as if I've been untrue somehow. Trying to rationalize it all, I know I shouldn't feel this way. After all, it's not like I spent the weekend in bed or sprawled out on the couch. I didn't! I swear it!

In fact, I didn't even get to watch the whole Super Bowl: just the first Quarter - which I watched while visiting my Mother; and, then the last two Quarters and the end of the game, at home. I was driving home while the Second Quarter - Perhaps, the best Quarter, if you are a Saints fan - was being played.

To some degree, at least: that's the heart of the problem! I'm always running somewhere to do something: something, it seems, I absolutely must do - and, generally, for someone else and not me!

Do I have to tell you how frustrating that can be? I didn't think so! Especially, when you start off exhausted most Friday nights. That exhaustion is almost always the result of a fifty-five or sixty hour work week: and, that's just the hours spent at work Monday through Friday. It doesn't count all the 'stuff' you have to... Or, at least, I have to do on the weekends in order to stay current. I think that's what makes it so hard. You come home completely "torched" Friday after work and then you find yourself desperately trying to cram five quarts of everything into a one gallon container for the rest of the weekend.

The cold hard truth is; it won't fit... At least, not without making a mess!

So, it was off to the shop Saturday morning for at least a couple of 'quiet' hours: productive hours. Home for some errands... Swimming at the "Y" for me!

Did I mention that I started swimming. I wanted to say: Did I mention that I started swimming again, but the fact of the matter is... what I was doing before wasn't really swimming. It was more like not drowning than it was like swimming! Now, I'm actually trying to teach myself how to move through the water as effectively (and, gracefully) as I can while expending as little energy as possible. That means learning how to breathe as well as the other, more technical elements of swimming like proper kicking, arm movements, body position, et al. And, Saturday was the best time in the water I've had so far!

I didn't get as tired as fast as I have in the past. I was able to keep my heart from exploding. I did more laps with more different strokes - I wonder if that's where the expression came from? And, I wasn't as sore this morning. Consequently, I'll be there again tomorrow morning before the sun gets up!

After the pool, it was off to volunteer at an event where my wife works. And, then, out with some of the other volunteers afterward.

I know there was other stuff... But, to tell you the truth, there was so much of it I can't remember what it was!

Today was more of the same. Only we managed to visit my mother some fifteen or twenty miles away, ran some more errands, got some more work done, watched a little football, and did some more work.

Now, I'm finally checking in again.

Outside of going to the "Y," I can honestly say that nothing I did was for me. At least, not in the sense that it was only for me. In fact, just about everything I did was done for some other person or organization.

I'd like to make the argument that it shouldn't be that way, but I can't. Although, I'm not sure how much rest I really allowed myself, everything I did felt 'right' somehow. Everything I did, albeit, for someone or something else - needed to be done. So, I guess it's a good kind of exhaustion: the kind that helps heal the world... And, that really does make it OK. At least, it does for me.

And, if I am guilty of trying to do too much, it's a kind of guilt by association, I suppose. Guilty of doing too much of the right kind of things, things that really do need to get done... And, guilty of associating with the right kind of people, the kind of people who do the right kinds of things because they are the right things to do.

Now, it's off to bed... and, finally, some rest!

Setting The Table...

I just returned home from dinner at the end of what seems like a marathon Anniversary Weekend. Yesterday, we celebrated our 40th Wedding Anniversary with a very small group of our most intimate friends. It was a very special luncheon made even more special by our kids who put the whole thing together.

One of oldest and closest friends taught me that "Friends are the family you get to choose..." and this was a very special "family" occasion.

This evening, we had dinner with our kids and our daughters "young man." In a toast, my wife put it together better than I ever could... Here's what she said... "Yesterday afternoon we had lunch with the friends who have become our family... And, this evening we get to have dinner with our family - who have become friends!" Wow!

But, believe it or not, that isn't what I'm writing about.

I'm writing about this evening's dinner experience which was incredible in every respect. It was made even more special... at least, for me, because I am in the middle of Danny Meyer's, Setting The Table - a book about restaurants and what he likes to call, "gracious hospitality."

If you don't know who Danny Meyer is I'll do my best to help you understand. But, let's just say it would be worth a trip to New York and an evening or afternoon spent dining at one of his many restaurants to truly understand. I had the privilege of experiencing "gracious hospitality" at two of his restaurants and believe me, it's an experience you want to repeat!

It's really all about picking the right people: people who want to shine... people who want to create great art in the kitchen and deliver the gift of great service at the table.

We had a Danny Meyer experience in Westlake this evening at Tuscany. We had some of the best food we've had outside Manhattan and the best service we've ever had anywhere. It wasn't inexpensive - But, I didn't expect it to be inexpensive. However, it didn't leave you questioning the value of what was received either. Our server shared the menu with artful enthusiasm and actually persuaded my son NOT to have something on the menu because as he put it, "It's the worst thing on the menu!" The young man who helped my son select the wine was equally as honest and enthusiastic... They knew their products and they understood their clientele. The service was attentive without being overbearing. In other words, it was elegant!

What else can you say about a dinner at a restaurant like this other than that it was expensive... and, worth every penny! All you can say is that it helped make a special event even more special.

We have a service business that you would think has virtually nothing to do with serving fine food. We service and maintain automobiles and trucks. And, yet, there is a lot to be learned from a Danny Meyer experience regardless of where you experience it. There was a great deal of energy and effort apparent in the training invested in the staff. There was enthusiasm, pride and excitement. There was a definite desire to ensure a powerful and positive experience. And, it was obvious the goal was to have you return as soon as possible, and to have you share a great experience with your friends, family members and colleagues.

All I can say is that it worked! And, that I'll take this experience back to the shop with me and try to help our people understand the importance of understanding, practicing and delivering "gracious hospitality" in every interaction we have with our customers, clients and friends with the same powerful goals in mind...

Tiger Balmy...

Well, if you've been following this series of posts you know I've been struggling with my swimming and a reinforced, reinvigorated commitment to 'wellness'... not necessarily in that order. Despite the desire to do more or better, I've been dealing with a body that seems more interested in going home or to bed than in going to the next level.

I haven't let that or the aches and pains slow me down or stop me... At least, not yet. Instead, I dragged myself out of bed in what felt like the middle of the night to be in the water and ready to swim at 6:00 A.M. If the number of headlights and tail lights on the road at that hour are any indication of the number of people up and about, I can tell you with absolute certainty there aren't many people up and about at that hour!

Nevertheless, I was... And, I was in the water warming up before Jessica - the Master Class coach - arrived on the scene.

Again, that sounds easier than it was. As certain as I am that there were few others up and about, at or before 6:00 A.M., who were not coming home or heading to a workplace somewhere: I am equally as certain, the one place in the world your body does NOT want to be is submerged! I am also pretty sure the reason fish don't hate swimming as much as I do is because they don't have shoulders or elbows, hips or knees! Shoulders, hips, knees and elbows can and often do get sore...

Does anyone out there actually know if fish can get sore? It would be reassuring as hell to know!

I did six or eight laps of various different strokes before Jessica realized there was someone in the water she didn't know and a lot more after she did. I learned a lot for a first class. I learned that I have a 'natural' breast stroke (It was news to me too...). I learned that you can - with an emphasis on 'you' so far - swim while practicing "bi-lateral" breathing: you can alternate breathes from one side of your body to the other, which actually seemed to work better for me than breathing only on one side. I also learned you don't have to breathe once every three or four strokes: but, that you still have to breathe! I learned that I have no endurance, at least not yet. Which was disappointing. And, that I still get winded much too easily... Even more disappointing.

Did mention that I've only been in the water eight or ten times and that I'm terribly impatient; or, have you already figured that out.

The good news was finishing more laps and more different strokes than I have ever - emphasis on: ever - completed in my life and I didn't drown, as evidenced by my typing this message some twelve hours later!

I should be back in the water Wednesday morning... Maybe, even tomorrow morning depending upon when I get done tonight and how my right elbow and shoulder are feeling. If I don't go to the "Y" to swim tomorrow morning I'll probably return to Krav (Krav Maga) tomorrow night. My thinking is, as long as my shoulder and elbow hurt anyway; why not.

Oh... And, if you read the last post: applying Tiger Balm before you get into bed at night is something you really shouldn't do unless you're sleeping alone. If you aren't sleeping alone, it isn't something you ought to do without first asking your significant other if that would be OK. If you don't heed my advice, it is almost certain you will be back in the water again, a lot sooner than you thought you would... Not at the "Y" and in the pool, but back in your bathroom and in the shower!

If you're lucky, any remnant of the "Eau de Tiger Balm" will find its way down the drain. And, you may find your way off the couch!

Everyone Back In The Pool

I went back to the pool again late Saturday afternoon. It was wonderful!

Well, almost wonderful... I went to swim, and the pool was wonderful. In fact, with the exception of a few little ones and their respective parents, I had an Olympic-size pool just about all to myself.

The part that wasn't so wonderful was the 'getting older' part of working out. It's that; "Eighteen-Year-Old Brain: Sixty-Three Year-Old Body" stuff again.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I haven't been to the gym in a while and when I was going I wasn't swimming.

How long is "a while?" Let's just leave it at "a while," and move on. You can fill in the blank if necessary. However long it's been, it's been too long and now I'm doing something I've never done before and my body is crying, "Foul!" as a result.

So, tomorrow morning I'll be at the "Y" before it opens to take a class. What kind of a class? A swimming class so I can move from something that must look almost like drowning, to something that looks almost like swimming. I've decided I have to become more comfortable in the water... which is hard to do when the water is one of those places you are the most uncomfortable. I'm going because Saturday's sojourn at the pool was a definite improvement over my previous attempts at drowning. And, it was an improvement because I stopped trying to muscle my way through the swimming and slowed everything down to a "crawl," if you'll pardon the pun.

I focused on the obvious skills: floating, breathing, relaxing in a foreign environment and just moving through the water. Instead of trying to cover as much distance as quickly as I could, I keep things under control and focused on 'smooth' instead: no thrashing, no splashing, no gasping and no trying to breathe water! And, to tell you the truth, it actually worked... a little. I didn't run out of air as often. I didn't get as tired. My heart didn't try to explode out of my chest, and as a result I felt a hell of a lot better when it was time to get out of the pool.

Why swimming, if it's so uncomfortable; so unnatural?

Because...

Because it is uncomfortable and unnatural; at least it is to me. I'm doing it because I don't want to do it. And, because I know the results will be more than worth the effort if I prevail. If I can manage to stay with it, my endurance and stamina will increase as well as my overall fitness. I know this to be true because I can see the difference it's made in my son's Tri training and the training he is doing for the Iron Man he's enrolled to participate in.

All I have to do is work my way through the injuries, the pain and the discomfort. That takes a lot of positive self-talk and the encouragement of friends and family: and, a healthy sense of humor. I'm working on the self-talk and my son is both a great example and a wonderful cheerleader. The sense of humor part seems to be taking care of itself and we'll have to wait and see how or if the rest of the family signs on.

In the meantime, I've got to get ready for tomorrow morning and that means a hot shower, ice on my elbow and shoulder, followed by a little Tiger Balm on both.

I'm not exactly sure how the Tiger Balm rub down is going to go, however. It may turn out to be part of the sense of humor and the being able to laugh at yourself you really need to get through something like this, especially after a long absence.

I was applying some Tiger Balm in the locker room after my shower and before I got dressed on Saturday when one of those 'little ones' I referred to a minute ago, turned in my direction and said, "Yuch! What is that, and why does it smell so bad? That stuff is really strong! "

I told him it was Tiger Balm... And, that I was using it because I was sore.

Do you know what happened next? He looked at his Dad, and then at me, and said, "Mister, I been to the Zoo and I seen the Tigers... And, know what! None of 'em smelled anything like that!"

I'm going to shut down, take a shower and apply some Tiger Balm to my elbow and shoulder before I go to bed... and, and wait to hear what my wife has to say about the stuff. I'm not sure, but I'll bet it won't be as funny!

Have A Good Day!

How many times a day do you do you catch yourself directing someone you know or perhaps even a few people you don't, to "Have a good day!"

It's become a reflex, hasn't it... A smile. A wave. And, a friendly, thoughtless edict.

Meaningless.

What does it mean when something becomes meaningless, especially if it is a 'something' you yourself  are guilty of doing countless times a day! I know I just said it a few hours ago when the last person to pick up a vehicle before we closed paid their bill and started toward the door: "Thank You. Have a good day!"

Absurd!

No matter how you determine what a 'normal' day is, at 6:15 in the evening that day is just about over. There certainly isn't a lot of time left for something 'good' to happen. So, why bother suggesting it?

I could understand wishing someone a "good day" if we could all agree on what a good day looked or felt like. But, that hasn't happened... Has it? If it has, I must have missed it and I don't think I did. And, if that's the case, now might be a good time for us to give it a shot. What have we got to lose? Directing someone to have a great day would certainly be a lot more meaningful if everyone could agree on what it really meant to have one.

My son called this morning after he ran in the rain for an hour-and-a-half, and with his best John Wayne, declared that "A day without training is like a day without sunshine, Pilgrim!" 

Does that mean a day with training is a "good day," or at least the start of one? I'll bet it does.

If you are in business, is a good day a profitable day: a day where you have somehow managed to make a little more than you spent? It certainly would be "good day" in this economy! Is it enough to define a "good day" simply as one that hasn't managed to become a bad one? What do you think? I've experienced more than my share of days like that: days where just having nothing bad happen looked and felt pretty damned good by the end of the day! But, is that really enough?

I'll bet most of us have had enough bad days to recognize a good one if we came across one. It would probably have a lot more to do with content than with meaningless activity. It would be filled with more laughter than tears, more satisfaction than frustration. I'm sure there would be a sense of service thrown in for good measure. There would be at least a little appreciation, some recognition and maybe even the sense you actually managed to accomplish something that day floating around as well.

Maybe, that's what we're really trying to say. And, if it is, then we should just say what we mean...

Thank you! And, have a meaningful day! Thank you! And, have a rewarding day! Have a day filled with satisfaction and accomplishment, a day filled with love and respect! Have a day filled with people who make you laugh and smile, people you are genuinely glad to see and be around!

Now, that would be a "great day," wouldn't it! And, if you think about it, I'll bet it was!

Because It Gives Me Peace...

I'm relatively new to this 'Blogging' stuff.

I tried my hand at it in August... unsuccessfully.

I really didn't have a handle on what it was supposed to be all about, but that didn't stop me. Although, it probably should have. I was subsequently inspired to try again by my son who is more or less keeping an electronic journal of his preparation for the 2010 Tempe Ironman event, Seth Godin and Tom Peters.

Reading my son's blog (theironmadman.blogspot.com) and becoming addicted to Seth Godin's have helped me to understand that there is no right or wrong way to go about this which has in turn quieted my perfectionist neuroses to a manageable level: You know, that not so small voice that demands everything you do is done flawlessly lest someone find out you are somehow less than you appear to be... somehow less than you think they might think you are.

Did I just say that out loud?

The result of of this exploration has me taking another run at it, first on my company's website: schneidersauto.net, and then again here. Realistically, I haven't decided if the content will be the same, similar or different. You know, one focused on our automotive service business, the automotive aftermarket, broken cars and broken people: more or less the heart and soul of the columns I have written to the industry for the past twenty-five years, and my 'other life...' the one that begins and ends on the other side of the driveway at 607 E. Los Angeles Avenue; a world of family, friends, kids and community.

Realistically, it isn't all that easy to separate the two. I lean toward obsessive/compulsive behavior... a lot. And, tend to carry my professional life home with me every night and every weekend mixed in with the stack of papers and folders I drag back and forth every night. In fact, I'm sitting here right now bracketed by one of the 6 1/2" x 9" spiral notebooks I've started carrying everywhere on the left pull-out writing surface of my desk, and that five-inch stack of papers and folders I just mentioned, crying out for attention on my right.

It's Sunday and I just finished watching a digital recording of the The Sunday Morning Show, something that has more or less become a ritual around here: a recording because I refuse to get up at "0:Dark:thirty" in the morning to watch it when it actually airs, and a ritual because it is something that both my wife and I take great pleasure in doing together.

The motivation for this post is something that was said upon the conclusion of this week's episode and my subsequent response. After my wife and I finished talking about what we had just finished watching, I got up and started toward my office. She asked where I was going and I told her, although there aren't all that many choices in the small, 4-bedroom tract house referred to with love as "the Baronial Estate," purchased new thirty-six years ago.

She asked me why... And, I told her I was heading to my office to write. After all, that's what writers do.

She asked me why... And, without a second thought, I replied... "Because it gives me peace!" And, at that moment I achieved a blinding insight into something a dear friend and client said to me more years ago than I care to remember... "Work is prayer..."

Suddenly, I realized that work is prayer and that the purpose of prayer is to elevate; to communicate with powers in the universe greater than one's self. And, that through this dialogue we can achieve peace - Or, at least, I can: if not on demand, then, at least, at times! And, even though I may be writing about something that happened in the "real" world, the world in which I struggle to confront every day - the very act of writing about it transforms whatever it was that happened into something somehow more objective: something, somehow less personal and subjective. And, there is a very real kind of peace to be found in that simple transformation. There is a very real peace to be found in moving from the direct to the indirect...

So, in a way, my ultimate reason for my return to blogging is somewhat selfish: it is at least in part a search for the kind of peace most of us are probably struggling to find. In another, it is totally altruistic: altruistic in the sense I hope that by sharing my search with you, you may discover a door or a window leading to the kind of peace you are struggling to find.

Who knows... We may even find what we are looking for together. But, right now, it's time to pray: time to work for the peace I seek! In other words, I have a deadline to meet...

More later...