Happy Saturday Folks! Hope everyone is ready for a terrific day. I woke up sometime in the middle of the night thinking today was Sunday and so I was elated when I realized it was Saturday—a good surprise. Today…I am going to dive into consistency and how that is key to ANY impact that you want to have on yourself or others.
Yesterday marked the end of the school year for Liya and Luke. There is something magical about the last day of school when you are a kid and I just love that energy. They both had such great years and I am so proud of their grades and I am especially proud of the comments from their teachers. It’s clear that our kiddos “understood the assignment” and the proof is in their grades and the kind, heartfelt notes from their teachers about their behavior and how they treat their classmates and teachers.
Back in the summer of 2022 when Liya finished 3rd grade and Luke finished Kindergarten I wrote about the notes I leave in their lunch boxes each school day. Here we are in 2025 and I am still at it. Writing notes, putting them in the boxes, and then keeping them. As you can see in the picture, that’s four years worth of notes. Between the two kiddos, there has to be close to 1000 notes.
One day in January it became apparent that at least one of the kids, who shall remain nameless, was not reading the notes. I had written a note that said “if you come home and tell me you read this note I will give you $100.” I got home from work expecting the unnamed kiddo to run up to me to collect their $100. Instead, nothing. The next morning I opened up their lunchbox, took out the note, and put it with the others I have saved. For just a moment I wondered if the time had come to just stop. I mean…if they are not reading them then why write them?
Well…as I do with most of the important considerations I have in life, I process and think about the “big stuff” on my daily runs. As Luna and I were running around the neighborhood the next chilly January morning, I thought about those notes and what I was really trying to achieve with those. Was it that they read them all? Or…something else? And that got me thinking about why I run everyday. Is that because I am trying to be an olympian? Or…is it something else?
As I was listening to the footstep pattern that Luna and I were creating in the silence of the morning, the answer popped out to me. Writing notes to the kids was not about them reading the notes, but rather knowing that if they needed a lift to brighten their day in a tough moment that the note was there for them to rely on–maybe even comfort them. Running with Luna was not about trying to be an olympian (and let’s face it I am too old and slow for those dreams), but rather the relationship I am trying to create with her and the comfort in knowing she and I have that time together each day. She can count on me. They can count on me.
When you are a parent—of kids or pets–you have good days and bad days. Great moments and moments that make you cringe. I’ve found, though, that when you deliver a consistent, kind, positive message every single day regardless of whether it is heard or read, that the consistency sticks. As a runner, stacking the days builds a base of fitness that can carry you through a bad running day. As a parent, all of the kind, positive, uplifting notes and comments can offset a bad moment that you wish you could take back–we all have those moments. It’s like the “goodwill bucket theory”. You have a goodwill bucket with everyone and you need to fill it up daily with good because when you have a bad moment it takes some of the goodwill out of that bucket. Fill that bucket daily or it will be empty and if it’s empty it is WAY harder to recover from a rough moment.
So…do I care anymore if the kiddos read the notes I write? No. They are there if they need them and that is what is important. When they need a lift, the notes are there. But…maybe I’ll drop another one of those $100 offers in one next fall to see what happens.
Happy Saturday to you! Get out there, make someone’s day, lace ’em up, and go for a run!
What I Learned While Running 