A LETTER FROM CHRIS SUAREZ

The Chafing Is Real

You didn’t really think I'd write a blog post about chafing did you?  But let’s get this out there.  I’m not sure which is worse:  the cramping at mile 23 or the first shower after a long run with some major chafing.

And yes, both of those things are solved with one simple thing - life choices.

So today I thought I’d write about life choices. We all get to make them. And we all actually make our own for the most part. Sure there are things that influence our choices, and at certain ages choices get made for us.  As children, our parents often make those choices. Not easy. And life has a way of coming full circle as we end up making life choices for our aging parents at times.  Also not easy.

Every single marathon - yes, every single one - at around mile 21 I begin to ask myself, “why am I doing this?!” I begin to go down this rabbit hole of questioning the decisions that led up to doing a 26 miles run. I ask, “Why does this matter to you so much?” And, “Why not just walk the rest of this and enjoy it.”  I begin to question a lot. But mostly the decision making behind the life choice. Then I get control of my thoughts.

But let me tell you, crossing mile 26.2 suddenly everything makes sense again. The feeling of accomplishing something you set out to do. Knowing what you just went through was hard. And reminding yourself that you can do hard things. And then realizing that doing hard things in your personal life translates beautifully to doing hard things in your business life.

Too many of us in our industry made some choices - years ago or maybe even recently. Then things got hard and we began to question why we made those decisions. We regret the decision, we go back on the decision, we opt out of the decision. We come up with all sorts of reasons as to why the decisions don’t matter to us anymore, that we don’t enjoy it anymore, and look for the exit plan or to walk it out. We just need to realize this is the hard phase. You are at mile 19-24. They aren’t the fun miles. But they get you to the finish or the next beginning or to the goal. Don’t question the life choice just because it was hard.

A small side lesson from the marathon - Don’t forget that leading others in the belief of themselves that they can do hard things is just as important. When every day people do hard things, it shows them that they can as well. Having my daughters by my side at most of my runs makes me feel like they realize I am willing to put myself through some pain for a potential reward. Our generation of youth are mostly raised around the concept of convenience, optimizing for self-care, and not trying too hard. 

Before I could walk out of the corral at the end of the race, my youngest daughter had called and texted asking if she could have the blanket that they hand out to all runners to wrap themselves in to keep warm. She said it looks like a big cozy bath towel.  Sure, you can have that.  And the race didn’t end without my 16 year old posting some epic photos - read that as “completely embarrassing” - to her instagram of me running. But at the end of day being an example of being capable and willing to do hard things for those that you lead is priceless.

I’ll be sharing some other lessons from my time here in Japan over the next week or so. So many take-aways in life and business I look forward to writing about.

Chris Suarez