Momentum Builds

The Taskforce Uplift Fundraising Team has been hard at work and just crossed the $11k donation mark! We’re steadily tracking towards our fundraiser goal of $18k with just over 4 weeks remaining before the rubber hits the road. The kindness of friends, family, and strangers that have since become friends donating their time, talents, stories, and hard-earned money has been immensely powerful and serves as daily inspiration.

 
Speaking of inspiration. A tactic that I have used over the years when I want to make a daunting life change or tackle a challenge that has a high “I want to quit rate” is to purchase the most expensive part of whatever it is and heavily socialize with the people that will take a vested interest in seeing me succeed. Want to do a destination marathon but have never run a marathon? Purchase the ticket, talk some friends into joining you, and put it out there on social media. Want to run with the bulls but have a fear of being impaled by a charging bull? Buy a ticket to Spain and tell all your fearless Army buddies you’re doing it. The logic: nobody wants to spend money and not realize the value, and who wants to look silly with their friends and family for talking a big game and not delivering the final chapter to the story with pictures to prove it? And here we are, one month out from “The Ride”. Bike, gear, and tickets purchased, lodging accounted for and its all-over social media to help inspire the fundraising effort to get laptops into the hands of our underserved veteran youth! Worked so far there must be some magic left right? Built in accountability and a tactic that can be leveraged to pursue those dreams you have that may seem just out of reach. If you fail, fail forward, that crowd that’s watching, will be there to cheer you on in victory and support you in defeat. If it was easy, you would already be doing it and status quo loves to be messed with!

 
The warmer weather here in Wisconsin has allowed me to pull my bike off the trainer, exit my cave in the basement, and get out and experience the open road for the first time in my rookie season as a cycler. This past Sunday, with gale force winds blowing in my face going uphill in all directions (ok, maybe closer to 10 MPH, at my back at times, and I may have enjoyed a few bursts of downhill momentum), I was able to complete my first open road 50 miler with a few brief water breaks. More work to do and fewer days remaining to get the doing done. Thanks for following along!

 
Steve