I got a text message recently from my brother. The message included a picture of his whole family who were participating in one the Parkinson Superwalk events. This was a new event to me, but I got a few take-aways from his message and from what I learned about the event.
First, very cool to see a whole family participating in an event together. What a great way to build family memories – you’re having a great time and supporting a good cause.
Second, it is encouraging to see learn about another event supporting Canadians living with Parkinson’s Disease. Since getting involved in the 10,000 Kettlebells for Parkinson’s challenge last February, I’ve been paying more attention, and have heard of golf tournaments and other fund-raising projects.
Above all, I see that even youngsters are realizing how they can contribute to a cause. They are leveraging their abilities to generate money to support a cause. If you think about it (I hope you will, especially if you are a parent), that is a pretty powerful lesson for a young person to learn. I have seen a lot of apathy these days, but this might be an antidote: Get your kids (or students, or young friends) involved in an activity where they spend or – maybe more accurately, invest – their talents and abilities. Realizing that their efforts, combined with the efforts of others and the resources of still others, can accomplish amazing things is a powerful lesson. Effort plus collaboration leads to greater accomplishment. And that is agency – the ability to make things happen. If you learn, especially at an early age, that you have agency, your chances of becoming apathetic drop.
So, when you hear about an event where you can participate at your own level, but you can leverage your abilities (your participation) along with others to achieve a greater result, you don’t need me to tell you to GO FOR IT!
By the way, I have 18 more days of 22 Push-Ups to go in the challenge Alex threw at me last week. Email me if you are also willing to contribute to the 22 Push-Up Challenge. It will be encouraging.
Hey Rich –
Great post and this was a lot of fun. Good luck with the push up challenge.
Perhaps you could think about a post about managing injury/regression. I have been pretty frustrated in my limited ability to train over the last month because of a tweak in my shoulder that just wont go away… food for thought (and yes am trying to do alternate activities!)
Tks again for the posts! Very motivating