How do you do it...

Since returning from IMSG, this past week has been crazy. I can hardly wait until Friday afternoon. I'm leaving work early, kicking back on the deck, with a beer in my hand and decompressing.

It's funny how everything works out. This week is a post IMSG recovery week and I have no training on the schedule, yet this has been the one of my busiest weeks at work in years. Go, go, go from early morning to late night.

I'm fortunate I had no training planned because I don't know how I would've fit it in with all my work priorities. I love it when my universe just seems to work itself out and comes together perfectly.

My day didn't start and end well, but was great in between. I picked up a prospective client at his hotel at 7 am, and on the way to the plant for a tour, I got a speeding ticket. I tried to talk my way out of it and explained that this was my prospective client from out of town and could you give me a break?

The cop was nice but said, "if I gave everyone a break who asked, I'd give out no tickets". However, she did do me a favor and reduce the speed on the ticket so I didn't get 3 demerit points. I thanked her and called her a "sweetheart".

After work, I went out for dinner with the same prospective client. It was our first dinner together and it was a chance to mix some business and pleasure and get to know each other a little better. We ate at a restaurant with live Jazz and the musicians were amazingly good. We didn't drink much, yet closed the place down, getting out of there just before 1 am.

We had some great conversation and I really enjoyed the evening. He was one of those guys that's interesting to hang out with and has interesting experiences and perspectives to listen too. I learnt a lot. He noticed that I'm a guy who likes to have fun and keeps it real and genuine. He asked me a question, "how are you able to keep it fun".

It threw me a little, I'd never been asked that question before, or even thought about it. I interpreted the question as "life is busy, stressful, full of responsibility and obligations and it's easy for us to get serious and in a rut or routine or worse, boring, yet you seem to have fun and keep life exciting most of the time, how do you do it?

Like I said, I've never been asked that question before. It's something that just comes natural. Although, I was able to come up with an answer. My answer was "I act like I'm a 14 year old". At first, he had this puzzled look on his face and it was a loud place and hard to hear each other at times, so some words may have gotten lost in the background noise.

What I meant by "acting like a 14 year old" was that it's important to keep a youthful sense of naivety. To turn off the filters. Our best and lasting friendships and memorable experiences were unexpectedly made when we were young.

Things we'd do at 14 years old include lying on the ground late at night, maybe with a friend, and looking at the stars in awe and amazement. We would immerse ourselves in the moment and not think of the future or the past. We would take things on face value. Our mind was a sponge and open to ideas.

As we get older, we start adding defensive and opinionated filters. We lose our sense of blissful wonderment. For me, the turning point was when I found watching Saturday morning cartoons wasn't fun anymore.

Intuitively, I've tried to remove or recognize when I'm using a filter, which as human happens more often than we'd like to admit. The biggest thing is when dealing with people, we all tend to "judge" the value and values of the person we are dealing with.

When I find myself filtering the other person I'm with, I stop it by imagining them as having "terminal cancer", with a scarf over their bald head, or worse, that their "child just died". This reminds me that they are people first and foremost and immediately turns my filter off. The only filters naturally left on is "love, compassion and openness".

That's how I have fun, when my filters start stacking or I've wronged someone, I try to remember that stripped down, everyone is a mother, father, brother or sister. That we are feeling human beings first and foremost. Why not celebrate our humanity. At the end of the day were going to die, so you may as well have fun and the only way to have "real fun" is by connecting with others.

After I remove the negative filters, I imagine we're all 14 years old. When I do that, I develop real, genuine friendships and my guard is down. I don't care about being judged myself and I experience life in the moment. Then a weird thing happens, I "naturally have fun".

My day ended with a parking ticket. That wasn't fun.

Post Ironman Rest day.

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