Seven Minutes
Weekly update #260 1/12/2025 to 1/18/2025
Seven minutes will stay with me for a lifetime. Before I share more about this thought though, let me tell you about some of my week serving as mayor of the best small town in America.
Soccer registration is open for the upcoming spring season. The season doesn’t start until April, but getting registered now will help keep you from forgetting. Ages 2 to 15 are eligible to play. Reach out to Seymour Parks and Recreation at 812-522-6420 for more details.
Parks and Recreation also had a board meeting this past week. Upcoming programs like spring soccer were the highlights as this time of year doesn’t have a ton of information to report besides helping with snow events and preparing for the upcoming season.
The Jackson County Education Coalition also had its quarterly meeting recently and updated board members on what the year looked like from various groups around the county. The year 2024 saw each school system in the county have a Jobs for America’s Graduates program. The program statewide has expanded to 250 programs with Jackson County leading the way. The update from the Jackson County Learning Center noted a better-than-projected year with more to come in 2025. Thank you to everyone who works on the JCEC for all your work that many probably don’t notice.
I had a chance to speak to a lunch group at Immanuel Lutheran Church this past week. After a lunch of soup and grilled cheese that reminded me of my childhood, I was able to share some of what the past year has looked like and update on some of the projects like 2nd Street that will continue into the upcoming year. We even had a chance to chat about how Pastor Farney and his family are doing now. Thank you for the chance to speak; it is always a good time.
Several years ago, I challenged myself to a 24-hour cycling event to see what my physical breaking point would be. That year, I put in the work and trained like I had never done before only to discover that it was not my body that would be my downfall but my mind that would fail me that day. The following year, I knew I needed to include some way to improve mental stamina in my training if I wanted to go farther than the year before. That year, I took on a 12-hour event with a goal of 10 hours or more in the saddle. I wasn’t shooting to go faster, but simply to keep going even when my mind said stop. About 58% of the big loop that day was into the wind making it that much less enjoyable. As the buzzer was approaching, I finished my third small loop with just three minutes to try to hammer out one more mile, but I decided that I had beaten my 10-hour goal and was happy with the day's results. When it was all said and done, I discovered that my persistence and downright stubbornness resulted in seven minutes off the bike out of the 12-hour event. Roughly 1% I was off using the restroom or grabbing food and water and right back on to keep plugging away towards my goal. That day I learned that I can overcome many obstacles with that same dogged determination and pressing forward. This revelation over a decade ago has carried me through many moments since then. Today, I will leave you with a Thomas Edison quote to remind you to keep going even when you think you can’t, "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."