Entropy Happens!

2009 was a monumental year. My wife, Renee, and I welcomed our daughter, Lydia, into the world in November of that year. A little over a month prior to Lydia's birth, Renee and two of our best friends sat in a car in the pouring rain somewhere in the Vermont wilderness waiting for me to emerge from the woods 30 miles into a 50 mile ultramarathon. I was at the top of my game, I felt all of life was in balance (homeostasis)...As 2009 came to a close and 2010 opened I was given a life lesson in a topic I had learned about in physics class, ENTROPY!

entropy en·tro·py (ěn'trə-pē) n. 1. A measure of the disorder or randomness in a closed system.

Yes, entropy had hit me. Everything in life began to feel disordered...night blended into day, organization seemed to melt into chaos, was I coming or going? I didn't know, and as a result the balance I had experienced not so long before felt far, far away. Suddenly the act of trying to balance all of the spinning plates (fatherhood, marriage, work, friendships, my own health, etc.) began to feel impossible and plates seemed as though they were falling! Exercise and sleep were inconsistent at best, nutrition below par, and as a result I felt like I was cracking.

Well, luckily with time comes perspective and looking back I know my experiences are no different than anyone else's. We have all been there! The roles and responsibilities don't really change or go away (in fact I am sure they continue to multiply), but how we manage to balance them all seems to make all the difference. I've learned if I allow my own foundation to crack by improperly managing the key ingredients to success (you know them already...fuel, move, recover & endure) that I can't reliably support the life I want to provide for myself, my family and my friends.

So now the challenge is to successfully balance all of those roles...being a parent, a spouse, a friend, a sibling, a professional...the list goes on, but at the ROOT of each is our OWN HEALTH! Without which we can all endure only so long, but we will not thrive in the long run. I plan to thrive! So, if you are someone who may share in some of the same experiences and are curious to see how I manage, what works and what doesn't, feel free to follow along. In addition, I invite you to share your own experiences.