Surrounded

Responsibility for our successes and failures ultimately rests on our own shoulders. OK, maybe not on our shoulders, but somewhere on us. We make our own reality. That doesn't mean that every success, failure, or result somewhere in between can't be influenced by factors outside of our control; we still have potential for credit, blame, and misplacement of each. Racing can transform even the best blogs into excuse machines when things go wrong. What about when they go well?

Today marks my final week in a position I've worked at for the past five and a half years. Next week on November 1st I'll be starting in a completely new and different role at the same company. With the transition looming, yesterday I attended my first meeting in my new capacity, and the reality of how much different "work" is going to be set in. This transfer was a big change, and one which I took the initiative to pursue. In the past, in my professional life, and probably the rest of it too, I've allowed complacency to set in and taken a "go with the flow" approach. Sometimes this worked out well, and sometimes it didn't. This time around, feeling unchallenged and unrecognized in what I've been doing, I stepped out and found something better.

While pouring down over the rocks of the stream bed that's made up my working career, I've worked with, and for, an incredibly diverse group of people. It's been said that working for a great person is the best way to become great; observing great performers can be the best way to learn to become one. I've worked for some great people, and I've worked for some real bozos too. Most likely, so have you. One of the reasons I took this new position was to get back in a position where I could interact with, observe, and learn from high quality professionals in my field, while also doing things for which my existing skill set is better suited to than what I've been doing.

What's this have to do with bike racing, or blogging? Everything. I've gone on before about my belief that people who are taught too much begin to lose the ability to learn. There's too much emphasis on teaching now, from the cradle all the way through college and entry into the work force (at least for those who make it that far, and don't become so dependent on being taught that they just continue playing in the academic industry machine forever). We're seeing this in bike racing too. Everyone has to have a coach, and pay them to teach them what to do. Personally, I prefer the mentoring-learning idea. I'm seeing many people undervaluing and even disregarding their own experience, instead allowing the teachings of others to dictate how they train and race. Sometimes it's worship of the professional racers who compete in an entirely different arena, and sometimes it's mundane factors like peer pressure from other bloggers, but the result is the same.

I'm certainly not immune. Influence from those we're surrounded by can be good, bad, ugly, or in between, but it cannot be avoided. Who and what we surround ourselves with then becomes pretty important, doesn't it? The opportunities to learn, to observe, to be mentored, and even to be noticed and taught are unlimited, as are the opportunities to be jaded, discouraged, corrupted, and weakened. The responsibility to make positives out of our interpersonal experiences lies with us. But I already said that at the top...

I've been very lucky to have some great people to learn from, especially in bike racing and running. I'm happy to share credit for any success I've achieved. Some of those who've been unlucky enough to mentor me viewed me as stubborn and resistant, and I probably was and still am, but I see it as more of a willingness to learn than a refusal to be taught. Question authority, right? I've managed to piss mentors off, making them take every question as a challenge to their knowledge and to their authority. Some see this as disrespectful, and others found it downright intimidating. Bad solobreak, no biscuit. Note to self, here's another opportunity to learn about interpersonal skills, and how to be a good mentoree.

That takes us to crappy writing. I haven't been doing writes and rewrites lately. My entries, including this one, are filled with weak verbs, disagreements, made up words like "mentoree" and I'm sure a host of other problems I haven't even noticed. This is my responsibility too. It's a shame that those who do take the time and effort to put forth great writing in their blogs don't always get the recognition they deserve. I'm afraid that often times the works get skimmed in the feed reader and the subtleties and nuances, if not the basic message of these works are entirely missed by most. What blogs you surround yours with matters too. I know it's my responsibility to get my message across, be it in a blog entry or an email or a monthly report at work. I can't just blame the reader for poor comprehension of the material, expecting them to carefully read and re-read until things are clear. If you know the audience is just going to skim, then I guess you can't put too much message in there, can you? It looks like once again I'm already guilty. Thanks for reading.