The 'purpose driven' run...

Yeah, I know, the title's cheesy.

But it sells.

Anyway...

So here's the thing.  People were laughing at me but I must beg leave to ask who, dear reader, gets the last laugh?

Niki and I needed wine.  It was 'American Idol' tuesday and I'd just gotten back from another (short this time) biz-trip so we were going to do our usual thing; put the kids to sleep, hit the couch, watch our show, drink some wine and see if one thing might lead to another...

But we had no wine.

Understandably so, 'cause really, with managing the four kids by herself while Daddy's away, what moment of which day do we actually think Nik's going to dedicate to hitting the liquor store?

Not gonna' happen.

So I was going to go.

And we decided I should run.

So I did.

Jogged there, bought the wine, then jogged back.  3.5 km, non-stop, a bottle of 'Silverleaf Shiraz' switching between my left hand and my right for the second half of the run.

And people were laughing at me.

Enshrined in their gas-guzzlers (it did, in fact, seem like it was the SUV drivers who were laughing loudest and longest...) they saw me running home with my bottle o' goodness and they laughed at me.

Can you believe it?

I mean, it's not that weird is it?  You need wine AND you need to be in shape so why don't you combine the two?  

(Your wife's already sexy and the wine's gonna' go great with that and if you run you're gonna' be sexier [though never quite up to her level] than that fat fu***r in his Escalade, so that's a good thing right?)

And that made me realize that I need to apply that same principle to other areas of my life. There are things you want to do and things you must do and things you don't want to do.  So take the things you like and leverage them so that they'll only happen in connection to the things you don't like to do and the things you must do.

Right?

I like having sex with my wife.  I like red wine.  I don't like running.  I must run.

So I run to buy the wine then I'm away from home (where my wife happens to be) so I have to run home (and, you got it, I took only enough cash to buy the wine and not enough to book a taxi to get me home...) so I have no choice but to run home and then the chicks in the minivans start staring at me and that inspires me to run faster 'cause I don't want to look like some shlub who just hopped out of an Escalade you know?

Plus, the sooner I get home, the sooner one thing might lead to another.

So out you go friends.  Lace 'em up and hit the pavement and go an buy yourself a bottle of Silverleaf Shiraz, the best Australian Shiraz under $20 there is.

And it's 'eco friendly'.

See?

Everybody wins.

Keep tricking yourself into doing what needs doing and you and me both can have that last laugh.

T