The Art of Preparation

What is up folks, how is everyone doing?

It always amazes me how much goes into preparation for a task… be it a training session, an international triathlon trip or a surf-camping trip with a baby!

If you prepare early, the chances of being late or messing something up are smaller -although they still happen!

Name it and chances are I already thought ahead and had it all prepared when the time came. I am known to plan things ahead of time –unless I’m burned out, then I’ll just go with the flow.

There has been days where I had to be at work at 10am, and had a 4 hour bike ride scheduled before. How do you make that? -planning the day before of course! Everything is lined up in a way I don’t have to think much next morning. A lot goes into it, little things, but those little things save time! Like the shoe already on my prosthesis, the coffee grounded inside the French press (just add water), a clean skillet for breakfast, my cycling kit, the air in the tires, the snacks I’ll take with me, the bottles of water in the fridge, the headlamp (because that ride starts at night time).

It’s the sort of thing I learned from my dad and it helped me so much in my life and athletic career. He always chose and put aside his clothes for work the night before; his duffel bag for soccer was always impeccably ready, and it had to be –mind you, he played between 3 & 5 times a week!

This kind of ritual is a healthy one, and it will make for a more pleasant experience. There’s happiness and tranquility in the fact you know that stuff will be ready for you, it sets your day up for success. That is, if you have the opportunity to get stuff organized. I understand sometimes it feels like you had 48 hours crammed into 24, too much stuff in too little time. Then all that I wrote just goes out the window.

But it’s the little things that sometimes will give you the upper hand. Control what you can control. And breath…