I didn’t see much of the London Marathon yesterday as I was at church but I did listen to some of the coverage on the radio as I was driving there.

I was struck, yet again, but the amazing capacity people have for hope, for good and for generosity.

People who don’t run wake up one day and decide that for some reason running 26.2 miles seems like the kind of thing they want to try. Some are motivated by loss, others by a second chance or the need to make a difference, raising millions for charities. Some do it just to prove to themselves that they can.

Watching 40,000 people do something hard is inspiring. We have become a little used to the distance. We are little less impressed because we all know someone who has done run a marathon.

What’s more, we know the people who run are not special, at least not in a physical way.

The only difference between them and the 99.9% of people who will never run a marathon is that they have chosen to do it.

As you watch the whole range of humanity from superfit Kenyans completing the course in a staggering 2:04 to the 101 year old completing yet another marathon with every kind of person in between it’s hard not to think ‘I could do that!’.

I heard Helen Skelton, tv presenter and someone who has taken on some incredible challenges, remind us that challenge is relative. For some running 26.2 miles isn’t hard. For some walking 0.2 miles is a dream. Running isn’t for everyone, but there is something out there for you.

There is a woman walking the marathon course this week who is paralysed from the chest down. Yes, I did just say a woman who is paralysed from the chest down is WALKING. She is using her brand new exoskeleton to help her get round the course.

There were amputees, transplant donors and recipients, people with all kinds of things that others call limitations or disabilities who all joined that 0.1% club of people who said ‘I can do that!’.

There were people who have lost someone special, who have recovered from illness or accident and people who just wanted to see if they were up to it.

They are all proof that we should never let someone tell us that something is impossible, that you are being silly or that you couldn’t do that.

They did meet their challenge… and you can meet yours.

What are you waiting for?

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

I’ve been on holiday. I had a week off and lots of plans with the small boys for an action packed week. It all began well with a trip to Fir Park to see Motherwell v Leeds United on Saturday and big plans for the week ahead.

The action was curtailed somewhat by a sore back. I ran 17km on Monday with no ill effects. On Tuesday I picked up a t-shirt and couldn’t move for 3 days!

It’s easing off now but I’m pretty annoyed at it really messing up a week of adventures and cutting in to my training too. I’m planning (hoping) to get back out on Wednesday but we’ll have to wait and see.

It’s amazing how it is the things you least expect that cause the most bother in life. I could understand a running injury. I get that 40-50km a week starts to have a ‘ware and tear’ effect. Picking up a t-shirt was never on my ‘high-risk’ list!

The ironing basket now has a ‘caution’ sign on it.

My name is Stewart and I have a problem.

Over at We Live Simply Jonathan is thinking about ‘downtime’.

His thoughts really made me think.

We probably all have a sense that we are more available than we used to be.  The mobile phone sorted that out.  But the smart phone has taken our availability to a whole new level.

Email on your phone so people can contact you anytime, and expect you to answer.

Twitter.  Facebook.  FourSquare.  All designed to keep you ‘in touch’ but as this article on Life Hack suggests there is a huge downside.

…what’s actually happening in the life of many  professionals is not amusing at all.  Their companies  have taken the opportunity given them by technology and the recession to convince employees to spend more  “down time” doing work.  At the same time, they send a subtle message that  “staying in touch” with work also means being available 24 hours  a day for 52 weeks of the year.

Converting “Down Time” Nowadays, it seems, everyone with a smartphone has gotten into the habit of continuously trying to convert “down time” into useful, work time.  Here are some everyday examples of ways in which many professionals are converting their “down time.”

• - a manager driving on the highway at 70 m.p.h. sends a text to his team  (while spilling hot coffee into his lap)
• - an engineer in a meeting that’s going slowly, checks her email and replies (missing two action items assigned to her)
• - an accountant watching his child play baseball on Saturday morning closes a deal in the fourth inning via cellphone (and lies to his  son about seeing him make his first catch ever)
• - a supervisor attending 3 days of personal productivity training is unable to leave her smartphone untouched for more than 15 minutes (and later complains that  the trainer was ineffective)
• - a consultant speaking to a client on the phone remembers that  he should have sent an urgent message to a colleague, and quietly does so (even as the client notes the sudden lapse in attention and interprets it as a lack of interest in continuing the relationship)
• - a hard driving attorney once again takes his smartphone to the  urinal where he can multi-task (… and is noticed by his boss’ husband who happened to borrow his smartphone just five minutes earlier)
• - a family cheers in unison when executive-Mom forgets her  smartphone at home 5 hours into the annual vacation (and falls into  despair when FedEx delivers it the next day)

I recently asked a client: “How did your big presentation to the executive team go?”  She responded: “OK… but the CEO spent the entire hour on his (expletive)  Blackberry.”

This was bad news for my client, whose project was now being viewed by the CEO as another chunk of his “down time.”

Rest is essential.  Spending time with the people you love is too.  These people need you to be available to them too.

For many people reading this your life, like mine, will be complicated by the fact that you work from home.  People call at mealtimes because they know you will be there.  People expect you to reply to email because they know you can pick it up anytime.  And we feed those expectations because we pick up the phone and answer the emails at 2am.  We like the versatility and the chance to arrange our days but we need to switch it off sometimes.

Working from home also brings isolation.  Twitter and Facebook give the feeling of company.  But like at work when you might chat to your colleagues over coffee there comes a time when you just need to get on with work.  That’s why you’re there after all.  The same is true when working at home.

So, I’ll be turning my work email off at 5pm and on at 9am.  It will stay off at the weekend unless I’m working.  When I’m off I won’t be looking and when I’m with my wife or my kids I’m going to try to keep my phone in my pocket unless I’m taking photos or using it to enhance our day.

So, what do you think?

Sorry I’ve not posted for a while.  If I were being graded I might get a ‘could do better’.

But then ‘could do better’ is an odd thing to say because we can always do better.  What it really means is ‘I think you’re not trying hard enough’ or ‘you haven’t lived up to my expectations of you’ (even though you might not know what those expectations are).

Success in the world of church is a strange and often unquantifiable thing.  Does more people mean success?  How about more money?  More activities?

Sometimes all of those things are indicators of success, but sometimes none of them are.

So, before you tell someone they ‘could do better’, even in your head, perhaps you should ask yourself what better is, and for who.

I’m not big on resolutions.  I’m not sure they serve much purpose, especially when they are things we don’t really intend to do or stick to for long.  So, instead I’m going to set some personal goals for the year.  I have a forward plan for my work so these goals are just for me.

In 2010 I will:

complete my Masters in Research

I don’t have a lot of choice in this one but I hope to have my dissertation complete by the end of April. I’ve changed the whole concept of my research and instead of something on social media I’m going to be doing a project evaluation with a church in Linwood.

run / cycle / walk more

In 2000 my brother-in-law and I ran a half marathon.  Since then he has completed the Maggies Monster Bike & Hike, I’ve sat on my couch!  I’ve never felt better in my life than when I was running regularly so I’m going to start getting out more.  Avril got some running gear from Santa so I’ll have company.  I also bought some lights for my bike so I have no excuse for not getting out on it over the dark winter months (apart from the snow and ice!) and we are going to climb more hills this year as once I get my Masters out of the road we should have some more leisure time!

learn to play the guitar

My oldest son is learning guitar at school.  I have one and I can’t play it.  I want to learn. Hopefully this will be something we and I can do together.

read

I like to read but don’t do it often.  I go through little splurges of reading a lot then maybe nothing for a few months.  The TV is going off more and books will be read.  After The Guns of Navarone, obviously.

write

They say that everyone has a book in them.  I want to see if mine is ready to come out yet.  I’m not committing to a huge project but I want to write more in this blog and write a related e-book about one of the topics I’m passionate about.

take more photos

Perhaps that should be ‘take better photos’ but I read somewhere that your photos get better after your first 10,000 so perhaps quantity is important.  I started a 365 project last year, trying to take a photo a day, but it ended up in scrambling about to find some random thing to take a photo of.  Instead, I’m going to try to take my camera with me more, take it out of my bag and take more photos.  You can see the results on my Flickr page.

I know that doesn’t sound a very exciting or even particularly ambitious list but I will be very pleased if by the end 2010 I can run 10 miles without stopping, have climbed a dozen hills, can play 10 songs on the guitar, have read 20 books, have an Masters degree and some decent photos of all that.

So, what are your goals for 2010?

Avril and I were married three years ago today.  She makes my life better in so many ways and I can’t imagine being without her.