Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Hard Wired

Last time I was in Sydney was January 2012.  At that time I ran down to Botany Bay, to Coogee Beach a couple times, and I participated in the Sydney resolution run near Olympic Park.

I would have to search for the last time I was in Sydney and ran to the Opera House.

This morning, I headed north on Anzac Parade figuring that 5 miles out and 5 miles back for a total of 10 miles wouldn't take me all the way to the Opera House.  But I didn't check in advance.  And I was wrong.

The interesting thing was that despite how long it has been since I did this run, it all came back to me.  Running up Anzac Parade.  When it becomes Flinders.  How to go around the corner at the Hyde Park Hotel.  Past St Mary's of the Cross--honoring an Australian woman who did wonderful things for the poor.  Past the artistic rhino.  Around and down to the harbor.  The beautiful sight of the bridge.  On the promenade around the Opera House.  And back again.  Without stopping my watch at traffic lights I ran about the same amount of time as yesterday.  The course seems almost "hard wired" in my brain for me to have done it again so easily.

Where does that put me on my quest?  At 448.5 miles now.  Another 10 miles west on US 22.  Now just west of Sabina, Ohio.

What is important about hard wiring?  The Dean I now work for likes to talk about pattern recognition for solving business problems.  One way of thinking about something that I describe as "hard wired" is that I am recognizing patterns.  I could also describe it as being in the spirit of my demonstrating and exhibiting a pattern of doing the same thing over and over again.  

For my own "business", (i.e., the business of my success, the business of how I manage myself, the business of how I manage employees, the business of how I teach, and the business of how I do research) and solving problems that I face, a key is to recognize my own patterns.  Do I repeat things?  Do I repeat good things?  Do I make the same mistakes over and over again?  All of this is a part of my own pattern recognition.  Recognizing if a behavior (particularly a negative one) seems to be hard wired.  And doing something about it if it does.

Hard-wired running courses or good behaviors are a very positive thing.

Hard-wired negative behaviors need to be revised. 

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