Even Stephen
By Steve Moore
Next week I am turning the ripe old age of 36, and in my time here on Earth, I have been very consistent in my inability to keep an even keel. I have a very hard time not letting my emotions get the best of me and it’s something that I struggle with in everything from my family, running, and business. The past few weeks I have experienced some amazing highs and lows and I am trying my best to keep everything in perspective (especially with what is currently going on around the world). I swear this will get to a point, so just bear with me.
A few weeks back I was involved with a local race that, in my opinion, went very well. I spent way more time preparing for it than I’d care to mention and after the race we received a lot of great feedback from runners and the race director. The day after the race I received an email from one unhappy runner out of a thousand participants. He went into tremendous detail telling me what an awful job we did and called me some very harsh names and attacked my personal character. I received this email during a cookout that I put on for my staff as a thank you for the extra hours and work to make the race go so smoothly. I was beyond upset and I stayed up all night over it. I went from being on top of the world to down in the dumps despite all the positive feedback, I could not let the one negative comment go.
Just this past week I had a follow up appointment with a manufacturer who I have been trying to build a relationship with since April of 2014. I have been given every reason in the world as to why they will not allow us the chance to buy and sell their products, and despite knowing better, I had high hopes that this would be the day we would be granted permission to hand them thousands of dollars to represent their brand. Once again, I was told no and not to plan on it anytime soon. This brand is not interested in working with any more independently owned stores in the United States. They are only selling to newly opened chains stores like Dicks or Kohls. I was totally crestfallen afterwards and spent the whole day in a serious funk and since I am currently dealing with bronchitis, I could not take my frustration out on the track.
Then on Thursday night, I got to post something on Facebook that made me smile from ear to ear and it brought me back out of my malaise – I got to post a picture of a giant Peep display. Not just any Peep display, but a Peep display of my logo. I got the most flattering request from two customers to turn my logo into a submission for the world famous Peep Show. They did an amazing job and it reminded me that we have so much love and support here that if one out of a thousand racers does not like me, or if one brand hates small businesses, that I need to move on and enjoy the positive things. I need to look at all the good around me and let it carry me through the down times.
I have always done the same with my running as well. I tend to dwell way too long on the bad race and not enjoy the good ones. We should all try to enjoy each day that we can get out and run instead of beating ourselves up for missing that 5k PR by a mere five seconds. I hope in this coming year that I can slow down and appreciate all the little good things in my day and allow the bad stuff to roll off my back.
Be safe out there everyone and hopefully I’ll see you out pounding the town soon.
