From The Land Of The Moon 2016 Ok.ru

[Marsilius Boa]

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2 weeks into 2018, and I am sure many of us have our personal new year resolutions and professional KPIs all setup or are finalizing the details. So, this is the perfect time to share about aiming for the stars, i.e. being the best ... top scores, best results, full marks, rank #1, etc ...

My elder child is very into stars and makes it a point to count all the stars on the worksheets that we do together. In fact, she adds up all the stars across worksheets and will proudly proclaim to every family member that she had 5 stars or 10 stars. She also questions why sometimes it is 5 stars and at other times it is 3 stars. (5 vs 3 is based on the scale of correct answers, but that's irrelevant for this particular message)

While it is definitely important to inculcate the value of going all out and doing your best (i.e. aiming for the stars), I believe that it is equally (if not more) important that we teach our children how to manage imperfection and, even, failure. Getting something wrong, or failing at something is not the end, in fact, it is a beginning. This is where we begin to learn, our brain muscles start to flex and think of alternative solutions, our heart muscles stiffen but also learn to develop elasticity to be resilient to emotional stress.

Same thing applies in the workplace, when working with direct reports. Give them the freedom to explore and space for them how to reach for the stars. Also let them know that it is ok to miss the stars sometimes (in fact, everyone misses sometimes) and land on the moon.

Of course, saying is easier that doing, but let me share some quotes which I picked up from Big Life Journal, all about developing a growth mindset in children, which is applicable not only to children, but to your team members.

I did as much as I could under canvas in the morning which meant that I was late in creeping away that morning. Perhaps the 90 miles in high temperatures had something to do with that as well? The ride to Telford was along the Silkin Way which is a beautiful trail which relates back to and celebrates the trading history of this area.

In the end I spent an hour or so using my Komoot account to plan shorter days which would take me through the swath of motorways, industry, housing and general urban-ness that is Liverpool, Warrington and Manchester. I reckoned I could keep moving then take shelter in filling stations, supermarkets and the like to resupply whilst cooling down. So that was plan A.

While my devices were finishing off their charge cycles I took a walk to the nearby Dominos Pizza which felt a little strange in the middle of a hot, hot day as well as using my feet to walk not pedal! The lunch special was ingested at the usual speed and I headed back up to the station. There I thanked everyone and also got a photo of some of them with my bike, beside a fire engine. Once again my route took me along a lot of quiet lanes but a wee bit flatter. It was exciting to start to see some hills as I approached Audlem. There I rode straight towards a pub where I was greeted by two friendly families who recommended that I had a pint of Landlord as well as giving me directions to the local campsite. In no time I found it, got pitched, had a shower and made a fresh dinner with vegetables I had bought at a farm table. My usual sleeping system is a mat, a down quilt and base layers. This evening I barely needed any of that as it was still roasting at 9:00pm. Little did I know that I was going to get moved on by the managers as I had pitched at the wrong campsite and was going to be re-pitching by the canal towpath around 10:30pm!

By now I had worked out why my GPS device seemed to be chewing through batteries. I had thought it was the heat and me checking my location a lot more when in urban areas for junctions and the like. No, the reason was I had bought alkaline batteries by accident instead of Lithium. I still had a pair of the alkaline ones and gave them to another customer to make better use of than me.

There was as expected still a lot of undulating road before I reached Silverdale. At first I was disappointed as there appeared to be no pub however I spotted that the local golf course was open to the public. I had barely got into the car park before Club Captain, James Vernon greeted me in true Cumbrian style. Turned out his son in law was a Firefighter and that James had been until recently a teacher like me. James assured me I would be made welcome at the Golf Club for a pint. I parked my loaded bike beside the golf bags and enjoyed a pint while the golfers honed their skills on the pitch to the green from the beer garden.

At Jubilee House I received a warm welcome and was shown to my room which was right by reception which made life very, very easy indeed. Once showered and after my third cup of fresh tea I was able to put almost all of my clothes into a washing machine before tumble drying them back into clean, comfortable and fresh smelling belongings once again.

At night I joined the company of some residents for dinner and a few pints in the dining room and lounge. A few years ago my wife had stayed here to receive treatment for her shoulder injury so it felt pretty special to be there part way through a ride to help raise funds for this organisation. That night the Guinness went down well with lots of laughs as well as reflection on getting on with things.

I was in no mega-rush to get away quickly this morning as I wanted to say cheerio to the residents I had been with last night. Also I wanted to spend some time with the managers who had made it possible for me to stay and looked after me so well. We also arranged a large group photo of the staff along with me and my bike.

In Penrith I picked up some snacks for the ride, food for dinner and a cheap sleeping mat to replace the one that had got burst on the towpath near Audlem. The lad at the checkout was pretty cool when I asked if it was going to be ok to take my knife to it in the foyer of the outdoor shop to make it more lightweight!

The route I selected was parallel to the M74 in order to get me heading up the road efficiently. I had a loose plan that Lockerbie, or Moffat would be a realistic place to camp after all of the admin in Penrith. Carlisle from the south by bike appeared to be pretty run down until I reached the main town and had lunch in PizzaExpress. The place was deserted and I was given very personal and first class service and food. By this point I thought that I would definitely press on past Lockerbie.

Somewhere north of Gretna I was picked up by an immaculately clad road cyclist called Martin. He showed me quieter backroads and the miles passed quickly as we talked about what riding bikes meant to us. There were also times where I was working a lot harder than I would have liked to but he always made sure I got back on. Martin took me all the way to Beattock and as we said cheerio he replied that it was a pleasure to help get me within striking distance of Glasgow and to stop my mind from wandering. My arrival at the pub after 51 miles or so was nothing short of perfect. I had time to sort my drinks bottles and feed bags before heading in at 4:00pm. The atmosphere in the pub was busy and welcoming at the same time. Two cans of ginger beer went down in no time, as did some KitKats and crisps. Before leaving I ordered the same again and stuffed them into my jersey pockets and got ready to hit the road which climbed over Beattock summit.

When I did arrive in Hamilton I was pleased with how I had ridden this part of the route and enjoyed the reaction that I got when I arrived. The only negative aspect of the ride was that today was the first time in over 650 miles that I encountered any unpleasant driving or comments from drivers of cars.

I was given a lovely send off, not to mention some tasty sandwiches and more bananas. Originally I had planned to get onto the trails of the West Highland Way, then the up/down route through Tayside before pushing and panting to Loch Ossian via Ben Lawyers and Innerwick. However a few days ago an old friend of mine from my student days in Aberdeen had got in touch to say that if I was passing be sure to call in. This was too good an offer to pass on so instead of riding trails that I had already done on a recce in Easter I found myself passing through where I used to live in Viewpark, near Uddingston. From there it was interesting, engaging and varied back road riding past wee places like Glen Mavis before a fast descent to Cumbernauld via a weird road semi-blocked with two crash barriers.

Proper rain today but I had put on, zipped up and fully embraced my waterproofs and was safe, comfy and happy inside this wee Gortex life support system. I even managed to film another Reel to post, hoping for sympathy donations as I was seen riding in the rain. One great thing about riding in the rain is that I do not stop nearly as much as usual so I made good time through Denny and then started to pick my way towards Stirling. Here I was pleasantly surprised with how quiet and pretty the riding was to Dunblane and eventually Braco. I even managed to ride some off road trails somewhere near Dunblane before arriving in Braco to meet some tail end traffic from their summer show. The guy in the local shop was very friendly when I popped in to buy my supplies for the next day and a bottle of wine for my hosts.

My pal and his wife lived at the end of a very quiet road and to begin with I was unsure which house was theirs. I am sure to some folk it looked a bit strange as this cyclist went up and down, then round and round until homing in on the right house. There I was treated to a big hello after 26 years hug! My stay in Braco was another lovely, unexpected surprise on the ride and emphasised to me once again how going with the flow sometimes is the best thing to do.

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