Kekulé’s Ouroboros - a dream that resulted in his decoding the ring structure of benzene.
“Go sit on that old Clapham Omnibus. Your tangential tales are good stuff and spice up your whole project. You know, shoes, ships, sealing wax, cabbages and kings…”
Recent message to FitOldDog, from his wise brother, Trevor, prompted by concern that I’m a bit too logical and left brain when it comes to building my business - he’s right, of course.
Hi folks, welcome!
Do you see those businessmen blocking my lane and my enjoyment of my swim?
What an interesting dream I had the other night.
I was just completing a hard swim set (in my dream), and arriving at the end of the pool, I prepared to turn and complete the last 50 yards fast. I had the lane to myself! I turned, and to my dismay the lane was full of middle-aged, slightly over-weight, men in business suits, standing around in the water in groups of three of four, enjoying a chat. I failed to get their attention, and I resisted climbing into the adjacent lane, where there was a lone swimmer. My swim was blocked, or more importantly, the joy of my swim was spoiled.
I then woke up, with this vision still vivid in my mind. In fact, for all my really important dreams, the vision stays in my mind, available for recall at any time.
FitOldDog’s new landing page, where you can read Rosemary’s testimonial - how to combine this success with my experience to create a viable business? That’s my challenge. I spent many hours building the site, and then optimizing the title tags, keywords, meta-descriptions, and the like - all left brain stuff! Click image for link to site.
It’s clear that Kekulé and I have things in common, including wrestling with a puzzle for a long time combined with experiencing vivid, and sometimes insightful, dreams.
I think and feel that my dream about the businessmen blocking my lane was a warning.
I’m working to continue to enjoy my sport, Ironman Triathlons, along with my abdominal aortic stent graft and other issues related to aging, whilst building a business, Old Dogs in Training LLC, around my skills, hopes, dreams and endurance training. This is where the risk comes in - I don’t want to spoil the joy of my Ironman training as I incorporate aspects of it into my business.
The dream was telling me to keep my sport and my business interests separate, at least emotionally.
Clapham Omnibus, much like the one Kekulé was purported to be riding when his daydream of a snake eating it’s own tail led to his establishing the ring structure of benzene.
When I struggle with a training injury or other exercise-related issue, it is easy for it to bleed over into my business ideas. Well, I am trying to help people overcome such problems, one of them being plantar fasciitis. In fact, my greatest success over the last three years has been to help Rosemary overcome the pain of plantar fasciitis in her feet, which prevented her from enjoying a walk. This was due to fallen arches, or flat feet, and now she has reported on Amazon that she is jumping on her trampoline again.
What better reward could I get for my work with my dance teacher, Rebecca, than to hear that we actually helped someone.
However, the plantar fasciitis market is saturated with competitors, many of whom sell products that fail to impress me. But they have huge marketing budgets, and might appears to be right in business. My only way to fight back, and help many more people like Rosemary, is to decode the marketing/sales issue, or choose another business model.
I think that my brother is right - it’s time for me to climb on the Clapham Omnibus, and set my left brain aside for a little while.
By the way, that is also true when you are racing the Ironman. Think as much as you like when you train, but turn it off during a race, and for critical long workouts.
-k @FitOldDog
Important Note: These posts do not provide medical advice. You should always consult your physician before undertaking or significantly modifying an exercise program.
Copyright © 2010 Kevin T. Morgan aka FitOldDog, Old Dogs in Training, LLC.
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