A LETTER FROM CHRIS SUAREZ

THE PAST: THE GREATEST TEACHER

This week I took a quick flight out to Boston. I flew out for the 128th Boston Marathon and to notch one more of the Big 6 Marathons as completed on my list. Early on I struggled with running as I felt it was a very selfish activity. I learned to focus on the obvious health benefits, energy benefits, mood benefits. As I began to travel to races I made a commitment to always invite my family and look to create an experience for them around the race. This has brought them into an otherwise self-centered activity, and also pushed us into a new environment as a family a few times a year.

In my late teens and early 20’s I used to drive up to Boston quite a bit. It was just about a 3 hour drive from New York. I remember many days leaving after work to catch some live music in Boston, to then turn around and drive home the same night.  I'd get back around 3 or 4am, sleep a couple of hours, and get back to school or work right on schedule. 

I flew into Boston a couple days before the marathon to get a little work in and to share some of the history of the city with my family. The kids have never been to Boston.

One of the reasons I love the East Coast is the history. Growing up in New York, at times you take the history and age of things for granted. But in almost every family trip, I try to include some form of learning for the girls. We decided to take a walking history tour of the entire city. To see homes built in the 1600’s, 1700’s, 1800’s, 1900’s, and the 2000’s all on one walk was impressive. We covered the entire Revolution. Well known facts, obscure facts, battles won and lost. 

As we walked through streets and learned about people that lived hundreds of years ago and looked at buildings literally hundreds of years old, two things jumped out at me.

1.Commit to learn from the past.

There is so much we can learn about what went right and what went wrong in the past. There are lessons scattered throughout history. We have all made decisions in life and business that turned out how we expected. There were also those that definitely missed the mark. Regardless, there is always something to learn. 

In the future, when something goes right, stop and reflect as to why you achieved your desired and expected outcomes. What decisions did you make? How did you make those decisions? When things go wrong, ask the same questions. When we ask why things worked out or didn’t work out, it becomes a forcing function of identifying the cause and effect. We can impact more of our results upstream than we might think.

2.Commit to not get stuck in the past.

Whether things have gone right or things have gone poorly, don’t get stuck in the past. We can convince ourselves that things will always be good because they have been for a very long time. We fall into the trap that we are successful so that must mean we always will be. Or when things don’t go right for an extended period of time, we can lose belief that we have the ability to change our direction or affect our future outcomes. Either option is us being stuck in the past.

Things can change quickly and dramatically at times. A battle won can be followed by a war lost. A battle lost can be followed by a war won.

Four hours later, 20,000 steps later, countless history lessons later, we leave with a better understanding of America’s past. And I leave with a better understanding of lessons we can all find from our past.

Chris Suarez