Word to the third bird

A couple weeks ago I listened to my first audio book while I was driving in the car to pick up a friend at the airport. The book was called "What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast" (it's $2 in iTunes). It sparked a ton of ideas, but none more important to me than timing the things I do each day. How long does it take to get ready?

How long does it take to drive to the gym?

How long does it take to chop vegetables for the week?

I was surprised how little time some things actually took, but seemed so daunting to think about. Chopping vegetables is something I dread, but today I timed myself doing it, and washing the dishes after, and literally it took 15 minutes.

That was like 2 seconds in candle burning time.

I have started to time more of the things I do and realized I have a lot more time in my day if I just get on with some of things I dread and focus more on the things I enjoy, like running?

Yuck. I don't like running, but I'm starting to learn how to like it. Today I went on a run at the beach (this came as a result of all the extra time I had after chopping). I reached my destination and walked out onto the board walk to stretch. It was as if someone was telling me not to stop as a massive gust of wind blew my hoody on the side of my face and sand hit like nails against the small area showing between my high socks and 3/4 pants.

As per typical Ocho mode, I remained stopped and observed the beautiful scenery ahead. During the impressively long wind gust, I watched three seagulls jump up in an attempt to fly against the wind. I mischievously laughed to myself as the first two birds were static in their aerial pursuit to fly forward.

Then I noticed something awesome about the third bird. He jumped up to fly, but just let the wind blow him backwards, seemingly without a care in the world.  He landed in the water with a bunch of other birds that may have ended there after the same attempt.

I liked that third bird for a few reasons:

1. He didn't care that the others failed ahead of him, he still jumped up

2. Unlike the first two that came back down to where they were standing, he let the wind take him

3. He can still get to where they're going if he wants, but he doesn't have to

I wasn't sure at first why this hit home so much. But as I ran home against the wind, I realized something. (Aside from how much my legs were going to hurt tomorrow). I realized that just because one road block is closed doesn't mean there's not another way to get there. If you go your whole life thinking there's one path to greatness, it will likely be difficult to get there.

Like Google Maps, Jay DeMerit, the Beatles, and yours truly have all shown, there's not one path to getting where you want to be. That bird, though without much of a brain, is a cool ass example of not giving in to norms and taking the path that's best for you, not that's best for someone else.