Seize and Conquer in a "Like" and "Share" Time

I finally came to the realization of something in the past couple days that has been building over the past year.  It all revolves around the way our society now operates of being able to see so dramatically into the lives of one another through social media.

You can literally see what all your "Friends" are doing day to day even if in another state, follow your favorite stars and share all the amazing work of the professionals you aspire to be.  And yet you don't actually have to DO anything besides clicking like or share!

You are (or can be) sooooo connected and yet still be farther detached than we ever have been as a community.

Don't get me wrong, I use these social mediums frequently, maybe without such savvy as some, but they do serve a purpose.  You can reach large groups of people quicker than ever.  Create something viral, a following, or even get your message out.  Needless to say that bottom line can be positive, negative or somewhere in-between, but it's getting it out there.

Now getting to the point, I recently used a Facebook event for a Strength Training for Cyclist presentation and demonstration that I hosted for our local COS Racing team.  It was great being able to see the couple handfuls of locals who were "Interested", "Coming" or just no response while sending out updates to the attendees.

The striking thing was I got an RSVP from a friend and former coached athlete living in Denver, Teddy Gutshall.  He's the "Seize and Conquer", the model social presence in this scenario.  Don't get me wrong, I hopefully put together a good presentation with some interaction setting goals and forcing the participant to reflect, all ending with a hands-on circuit that we were able to run through together in a friends private gym.  But I was expecting only local, so to have Teddy drive 2 hours round trip for a 1 hour session was humbling to say the least.



He showed up in his teacher work attire which happens to be going the extra mile with classy bow tie laid upon a Colorado chic palate of dark khakis and plaid shirt.  I thanked him for coming down and he made the statement that Facebook events make it so easy to jump on attending varied events and happening like this.  When I made the comment that I see just the opposite; people have a social presence, make comments, show "web" interest from behind their digital devices, but then never act upon actually attending or making a real social presence.

I'm thankful for this and as I look back upon following Teddy over the past year including when we worked him up for his completion of the Dirty Kanza 200 in June, he's done nothing but DO!  He disclosed that that's how he found out about DK200 and signed up.  He's one of the spearheads of a fun group of friends that embark on yearly outings of biking, beers, & outdoors that they refer to as the DST, or the Dirty South Tour.  They are in their 8th year of having a blast driving cross country from the hoodoos of Utah to the canopied trail and roots of Pisgah in NC.  And on top of that whenever schools out for summer, he loads up the car and embarks on every adventure he can find outside of the group of friends that can get together for those 1-2 weeks each year.  He ok rolling solo to seek adventure and I respect that.  He's living each day for the moment and actually acting on the things that most everyone else is just "liking" and living vicariously through.

Keep it up Teddy!