Tonight, I wasn’t able to make an earlier flight home. It was 3 pm and my flight didn’t leave for 6 more hours. I put out a tweet “Need a MicroAdventure in Salt Lake City. HELP”. My new friend Carl Richards, The Sketch Guy, was himself boarding a flight but gave me a call.
“Aaron, you can go run Mt. Olympus or you can do one of the most amazing things ever and go ride a Swiss Bob down a snowy trail on Iron Mountain. Go to my house to pick up a sled and my wife will give you directions”.
DONE!
Carl’s wife was a sport. She let me come to their house, pick up a sled, borrow some gear and gave me directions to the trailhead. At sunset, I started up the packed snow trail in Park City just up from the Winter Olympics circle. I listened to a podcast on my way up from Rob Bell “A prayer for the New Year”.
Once up top the backcountry trail, I mounted the small toosh size Swissbob sled, cranked on the headlamp and swooshed my way down to the car. JOY!
Following your weird
Although it feels a bit weird to show up at a new friend’s house when he is out of town to borrow his boots and coat… to me it’s more weird to sit at the airport for four hours and drink too much, answer endless email and read Outside Magazine wishing I was in Belize paddling in a sea kayak.
My weird wires me to eat $12 sushi in the car after I stop off at the grocery store to buy Carl’s wife some flowers and the Sketch Guy a few more Sharpe markers. I’d rather squeeze in a few hours of possibility than slog through hours of aimless work. My weird fuels my joy.
Let’s get to you. You’re weird too. In fact you have a particular dose of weird that is good. But have you ever observed your weird as your super power? IF you thought of it mythically, like a comic book like one of those characters you have to call on if you want to make an ice bridge, form of a giraffe, “ What’s the reason I’d have to call you? What bind would I be in that only you could help me solve?
You have a good amount of weird and that perfect proportion of weird is what makes you powerful and the only you there will ever be. Follow your weird and find your superpower.
It doesn’t have to earn you gazillion dollars. It doesn’t mean you’re famous. It does mean that you’re weird is the perfect amount and what you choose to do with it will shape your life, your career and your play.
My superpower weird is leading me into more adventure, connection and joy.
Where is your weird leading you?
