I would like to tell you about Bob. Bob is my lovely wife Patty’s brother. I have listened to stories of Bob and one story in particular has given me a great idea. When Bob turned 40, he ran forty miles on his fortieth birthday. I was impressed. Now he didn't run 40 miles all at once. He got up before the crack of dawn and he ran about 10 miles before breakfast.
He had a good hearty meal, cooled down and then took off around 9:30 and ran another 6 miles. By Noon, he had run a distance of 16 miles. In the early afternoon, he took a short nap, handled a few errands and took off on another 10 miler. At ten o'clock that night, Bob was running and by midnight he had accomplished his goal of forty miles on his fortieth birthday.
Now his family thought he was crazy, insane, out of his tree for wanting to run forty miles in one day at the age of forty. I didn't think he was crazy. I saw Bob's vision. I saw the power of multiplying 40 with 40, the exponential power of stacking numbers. It causes forces, which are rarely understood to align for a release of energy greater than the input. It’s like all the planets lining up and pulling their gravitational fields together. The mind, body and spirit connect and not just with a slender thread but a wide pipeline to exchange information.
Just because we cannot explain something doesn't mean we cannot take advantage of it. Bob understood this and he was able to capitalize on it. I have thought about Bob's achievement and it has inspired me to do the same. I want to seize this power of aligning numbers to achieve my full potential. I have set a goal for myself and I want to share this goal with you.
But I’m not turning 40, I’m turning 50. On my Fiftieth birthday, I’m not running 40 miles. On my Fiftieth birthday, I am going to Krispy Kreme and I am going to eat 50 doughnuts. That’s right, 50 doughnuts!
Now I am not going to eat them all at once. I am going to start off with a dozen… and a half gallon of milk. Then I am quietly going to doze off in a sugar coma and have a nice nappy. After the initial dozen and doze, I may eat a half dozen with a cup of coffee. I will walk around the building and maybe go to over to the mall for a few minutes. It's going to be a great day!
I was telling a friend of mine about my plan and she said, "Let me know what day you're going to do this and I will come by and have a doughnut with you." Many other people have said the same thing. Now my big concern is traffic flow in and around the Krispy Kreme. Do we need a shuttle service from the mall? This thing is growing exponentially. Do you see the numbers at work?
Now I can't just go to Krispy Kreme and sit down and eat 50 doughnuts. This takes strategy. It takes training. Strategy is the pacing. How many per hour? How many bites per doughnut? This is not a place for children or the weak.
As I begin to train, I may start off with a dozen a day and work up to eating two to three dozen a day. This is really a summer time sport but I need to do this in January so training, diet and exercise need to be planned for the winter.
I hope you will wish me well in my quest for the fifty on my Fiftieth. You are all invited to come to Krispy Kreme on South College Road on January 5th, to join me in one of the sweetest pleasures of life. If there is something better than a Krispy Kreme doughnut, frankly I don’t want to know about it!
Now what have I really been talking about? What is the message here? Is it about doughnuts? It could be? Is it just for fun? It could be that too. But it could also be about taking an event that many people do not want to think about and anticipating it, celebrating it, looking forward to it. I hope to create (in my birthday extravaganza) a way to rejoice in the things we cannot stop, like aging.
To make fun what is considered ordinary or what we consider a “reluctant milestone”. This brings me to my slogan for next year, “I'm damn near fifty and I've got the empty doughnut boxes to prove it!"
As the milestones come in our life, let's prepare and embrace them with gusto! Let's look forward to every day, every birthday.
· Don't despair about what you didn't do.
· Reflect on what you did and what you have learned.
· If you do that, what you didn't do is now what you have left to do.
Life is a gift. It is a sweet gift to be savored.
And so is a doughnut.
Footnote: I wrote this in 2001 a couple of years before turning 50. My wife and I had lots of fun talking about this “speech” I gave to my Toastmasters International club. When I turned 50, my lovely wife Patty threw me a surprise birthday party at Krispy Kreme with a “cake” made up of 50 doughnuts of different colors and toppings. We all wore the paper Krispy Kreme hats and it was great! Phil.
He had a good hearty meal, cooled down and then took off around 9:30 and ran another 6 miles. By Noon, he had run a distance of 16 miles. In the early afternoon, he took a short nap, handled a few errands and took off on another 10 miler. At ten o'clock that night, Bob was running and by midnight he had accomplished his goal of forty miles on his fortieth birthday.
Now his family thought he was crazy, insane, out of his tree for wanting to run forty miles in one day at the age of forty. I didn't think he was crazy. I saw Bob's vision. I saw the power of multiplying 40 with 40, the exponential power of stacking numbers. It causes forces, which are rarely understood to align for a release of energy greater than the input. It’s like all the planets lining up and pulling their gravitational fields together. The mind, body and spirit connect and not just with a slender thread but a wide pipeline to exchange information.
Just because we cannot explain something doesn't mean we cannot take advantage of it. Bob understood this and he was able to capitalize on it. I have thought about Bob's achievement and it has inspired me to do the same. I want to seize this power of aligning numbers to achieve my full potential. I have set a goal for myself and I want to share this goal with you.
But I’m not turning 40, I’m turning 50. On my Fiftieth birthday, I’m not running 40 miles. On my Fiftieth birthday, I am going to Krispy Kreme and I am going to eat 50 doughnuts. That’s right, 50 doughnuts!
Now I am not going to eat them all at once. I am going to start off with a dozen… and a half gallon of milk. Then I am quietly going to doze off in a sugar coma and have a nice nappy. After the initial dozen and doze, I may eat a half dozen with a cup of coffee. I will walk around the building and maybe go to over to the mall for a few minutes. It's going to be a great day!
I was telling a friend of mine about my plan and she said, "Let me know what day you're going to do this and I will come by and have a doughnut with you." Many other people have said the same thing. Now my big concern is traffic flow in and around the Krispy Kreme. Do we need a shuttle service from the mall? This thing is growing exponentially. Do you see the numbers at work?
Now I can't just go to Krispy Kreme and sit down and eat 50 doughnuts. This takes strategy. It takes training. Strategy is the pacing. How many per hour? How many bites per doughnut? This is not a place for children or the weak.
As I begin to train, I may start off with a dozen a day and work up to eating two to three dozen a day. This is really a summer time sport but I need to do this in January so training, diet and exercise need to be planned for the winter.
I hope you will wish me well in my quest for the fifty on my Fiftieth. You are all invited to come to Krispy Kreme on South College Road on January 5th, to join me in one of the sweetest pleasures of life. If there is something better than a Krispy Kreme doughnut, frankly I don’t want to know about it!
Now what have I really been talking about? What is the message here? Is it about doughnuts? It could be? Is it just for fun? It could be that too. But it could also be about taking an event that many people do not want to think about and anticipating it, celebrating it, looking forward to it. I hope to create (in my birthday extravaganza) a way to rejoice in the things we cannot stop, like aging.
To make fun what is considered ordinary or what we consider a “reluctant milestone”. This brings me to my slogan for next year, “I'm damn near fifty and I've got the empty doughnut boxes to prove it!"
As the milestones come in our life, let's prepare and embrace them with gusto! Let's look forward to every day, every birthday.
· Don't despair about what you didn't do.
· Reflect on what you did and what you have learned.
· If you do that, what you didn't do is now what you have left to do.
Life is a gift. It is a sweet gift to be savored.
And so is a doughnut.
Footnote: I wrote this in 2001 a couple of years before turning 50. My wife and I had lots of fun talking about this “speech” I gave to my Toastmasters International club. When I turned 50, my lovely wife Patty threw me a surprise birthday party at Krispy Kreme with a “cake” made up of 50 doughnuts of different colors and toppings. We all wore the paper Krispy Kreme hats and it was great! Phil.
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