The story is well-written. It's personal while it touches universal truths. Fathers, sons, priorities, commitment, accountability, purpose, community.
A few lines and thoughts stood out:
When real people retire, ideally, they have accomplished everything they wanted to.
Yeah. Ideally. That's the operative word. Ideally. Ideally we do that every day. Mostly. Ideally. But life interrupts. Or sometimes, we stand back. We allow it to interrupt us. We give the keys to our car. Let someone else drive.
But what if we are a driver. We're relentless, focused. We push through obstacles. We carry people through change. Sometimes, we're smart enough to give reasons for their change. We rush through mistakes like hot knives through cool butter. Charging onward. See the goal, be the goal when we get the goal.
And what if...we see the goal. We see our idea just steps away. We see our vision only moments away. And our situation, is now an obstacle. Where it had been ideal, it now is an obstacle. Or we are, to it.
No fault of anyone's. We've changed. Together that situation has changed. We want to run; they want to walk. Or vice versa.
Bill describes it in his post like this:
I'm retiring from this space in ESPN The Magazine after seven happy years. ... The Magazine was never an ideal match for me -- I hate advance deadlines and word counts -- and yet, I couldn't be happier with how it all turned out. It's just time for me to try some new things, that's all. And you have to know when it's time.
He learned this wisdom from his mentor. That's his dad.
Who will teach you when it's time? Who will teach you it's time to let your idea go? Will you know when it's time to let go?
We read of the power of personal coaches to help set goals and create strategies and plans to move us forward, stay on task, be passionate, committed, dedicated, running through failures like a sprint session, do more, do more. Is there much to read for knowing when to walk away?
What happens when it's time to do less? To walk away? Will someone like Bill's dad help you see it? Will you know when it's time?
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