Friday, November 16, 2007

Being Unreasonable

I went to a "wealth-building seminar" last night, though I tend to stay away from those kinds of things, because, you know, generally? They're bogus.

But this was put on by my mortgage broker (hmmm, this is sounding worse and worse).

And it was actually—not bad. The guy who presented it reviewed a lot of basic stuff, like how to make a budget. You know, stuff that I have no desire to learn and will probably never actually sit down and do. Although he claims that a budget is KIND OF KEY to building wealth.

Whatever.

But the guy said one thing that actually stuck with me, in amidst all the crap about assets and liabilities and income and expenses (that last part is where it all seems to fall apart).

Someone in the audience said to the presenter, who is now a gazillionaire, "It's important to be practical." Meaning, "Don't aim too high."

And the gazillionaire, who claims to have been $60K in debt in 1996, and not only climbed out, but over and up, said that he disagreed. He repeated that old saw about if you aim low, you can be pretty sure you'll hit your target. He said that it was important to "be unreasonable."

When he was $60K in debt, he set a goal to retire on $100K a year. And then he met that goal.

Naturally, I applied all of this financial info to fitness, triathlon, running. (The whole money part? Yeah, that blew right over my head.)

I'm taking a stand for unreasonableness. I would never in my wildest imagination thought that I could run a marathon, and certainly never ever ever thought I could swim 1,000 yards (yes, it is yards) at one go. Ever. Nevermind get on a bike after that and then run (of course we have yet to see...but that's not the point!)

The point is to take a risk. Push yourself. Go out on a limb.

Maybe your version of being unreasonable is asking for what you need. Or taking an unpopular stand.

Or signing up for swimming lessons.

I don't know.

For me, trying to become a triathlete, even my teensy version of one, is totally and utterly unreasonable. Running a marathon, or a half (upcoming!), is totally unreasonable.

For me, three years ago, running one mile was totally unreasonable.

Who knows where this little game could end?

Point is: I liked the guy's point!

8 comments:

David said...

I remember that "maybe run a mile" period. You continue to amaze us all.

Next thing - you'll be leveraging to buy out EW with a SH lawsuit or something. Retire. Move to Florida. Entertain me.

Yeah, that's unreasonable.

Neese said...

being unreasonable sounds reasonable to me! thanks for this post! :)

Nancy Toby said...

You can still afford to replace your antique TV. Maybe the Smithsonian would be interested in it.

I'm just sayin'....

21stCenturyMom said...

I like the way you think. I do this stuff and think, "big deal - lots of people do it" which is just.so.wrong.

I never did one athletic thing in my whole life until I was in my late 30s (unless you count going to Jazzercise in my 20s). At 52 I have run 3 marathons, 5 Half Marathons, 4 sprint distance triathlons, 4 Olympic distance triathlons and swam 1.5 miles across the SF Bay twice. I never, in my wildest dreams could have imagined I would do such a thing 10 years ago. So yeah; unreasonable - but so good. Thanks for the positive spin - I need that.

Mark said...

My own unreasonable challenge is to follow in the footsteps of people like Ed Whitlock and get BETTER as I age.

Then again, I might just be having a mid-life crisis. ;)

LBTEPA said...

THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST THINGS YOU HAVE EVER WRITTEN
Oops why am i shouting? Sorry.
I have 'Dream Big' on my road id to remind me. Dream Big and THEN be practical about how you will get the dream. Go Jeanne go!

Thomas said...

And I always thought the key to wealth-building was to earn more than you spend. Fancy that.

Rich said...

Boston here I come!