Turn Up The Heat!

As part of my professional business coaching work, I had the good fortune to fly to Phoenix this last weekend to participate in a powerhouse mastermind group facilitated by master coach Steve Chandler. This group of 20 entrepreneurs, CEOs, coaches, motivational writers, and innovative business leaders will be meeting each month to create our next projects and bring them to the world. It promises to be quite a year!

It was my first visit to Phoenix, and I was hungry (even though staying just overnight) to get in a run in this new setting. The Marriott staff directed me to a canal park run about a half mile from the hotel, and I set out just as the sun was setting.

I'd arrived in the late afternoon, with temperatures in triple digits—a little over 104 degrees. Having now lived in the US for 15 years, my English blood has accustomed well to California temperatures in the 70s, 80, and occasional 90s. Triple digits, however, still seems pretty hot!

Phoenix heat is dry. Real dry. And I was happy to have my water pack even though I was mostly running after sunset. A 10k+ distance would take me to the end of the canal path and back, and when I stopped at the turn, even my forearms were running with sweat. As my trainer often says, "If your body is using your forearms to cool you down, you know you are working hard!"

I thought of the gentleman from Boeing that I had met on the flight in from LAX, a Phoenix resident and runner, who had shared with me his weekly running experiences in the hills around his home. Hot, dry, intimidating desert running. For him, it came naturally. We joked about how if he ran on my 70-degree California beaches, it would be so easy compared to his desert workouts. We talked about the value that competitive athletes gain from high-altitude training, and the edge it gives hem when they compete at sea-level.

And as I stretched out at the half-way point and peered into the canal waters plunging into a run-off gully as I did, I saw how the Steve Chandler Mastermind group offers me the same training. How it offers all of us a premium professional "workout" environment. Our combined presence turns up the heat, brings us to creative boil quicker, ignites the catalyst of creativity in different and more powerful ways.

As runners, we can sometimes settle into a routine of a regular running route, or a selection of perhaps two or three that we choose from again and again. Familiar territory that we could almost run with our eyes closed. We know those routes well enough to dominate them and after a while, they cease to stretch us.

At least once this week, peel off your regular running route and head out into unfamiliar territory. Let go the concerns about knowing exactly how much distance you have run, precisely what your mile splits are, or the comfort and belonging that comes with seeing those familiar faces along the way.

And as you push on into new surroundings, you may well experience the creative temperature rise inside of you. New routes bring new creativity in response to new challenges. New opportunities birthed from the new information and experiences that come from running in unknown territory. A new route demands in-the-moment, unprepared choices: unexpected turns, hills, and changes in running surface, as well as new faces and places to enjoy.

As you run your new route, ask yourself how you might be doing the same in your wider life—in your relationships, in your work, in your spiritual life? Are there opportunities in these and other areas to move out of your comfort zone and re-ignite the joy that comes from engaging with the unexpected, for as you do, you will connect with the undiscovered parts in you, and all the inspiration, joy, and creativity that they can offer.

Turn up the heat and move other areas of your life into new territory, and what was previously challenging will become a breeze, what before seemed impossible will come into reach. You'll discover that the "impossible" is where God likes to play!