Inspiration one step at a time

Editor's note: Daren Schumaker of Cedar Rapids and Dennis Lee of Walford are attempting to run across Iowa's 99 counties to raise money for the American Heart Association. They've completed 80 counties. This is No. 76. Next: Adams

By Daren Schumaker, community contributor

Effective planners realize, despite their best efforts, they can't control everything.

You can plan a picnic, but you can't control the weather. But you can prepare for it by planning ahead. You should always plan ahead. Remember, it wasn't raining, or even cloudy, when Noah built the ark. In the words of Benjamin Franklin, 'By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

If this is true, and failing to prepare indeed spawns failure, then should the preparation of a plan simply result in success? It should, as long as you remember you can't control the weather.

On April 26, we departed Cedar Rapids at 8 a.m. and headed north on Interstate 380, traveling about an hour before we merged onto Highway 20 and rolled westward. As we passed Webster City and soon headed south to Stratford, it became clear the day was going to be better than the previous day, the day we had planned to run. Unfortunately, our plans were altered by the weather, weather that consisted of a cold rain carried by gusting winds and a less-than-balmy temperature that hovered between 40 and 45 degrees.

Despite our plans, we could not control the weather.

However, we had prepared a contingency plan - to run on Sunday, and we soon found ourselves on the western edge of Stratford on the western edge of Hamilton County. We looked into a 12 to 15 mile per hour wind out of the east-northeast, but there was no cold rain to be seen and the temperatures had climbed to a tolerable level between 50 and 60 degrees. Our route for the day was Highway 175, a route that consisted of seven uneventful miles eastward, one mile north toward Stanhope and another eight miles eastward before we headed north into Jewell. Despite the lack of scenery and a stiff wind in our faces, we were quick to remind each other that it wasn't raining. Things could always be worse.

We followed Highway 175 eastward out of Jewell, up the largest hill of the day, and logged our 20th mile as we entered Ellsworth. Soon we had passed under Interstate 35 and stomped out the last five miles of our journey - passing several giant stacks of oversized cornstalk bales and looping Lincoln Cemetery for good measure. When it was all said and done, we had crossed Hamilton County - our 76th - in 3:57:57 via a 27-mile route and, more importantly, we were dry.

The day's run could have been better, but it could have been worse. Much worse.

Most of us have had enough life experiences to know you can't control everything, including the weather. Something else that is difficult to control is your ability to inspire others. Each time we lace up our shoes to cross a county, we plan to inspire others. If we do or not, is open for debate. One thing is for sure, you can't wait to inspire others - a good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. In fact, the most impactful opportunities to inspire others are not planned at all, and are not always born out of opportunities that are the result of hard work.

Take some time and look around, inspiration isn't hard to find. There are many people in each of our lives who have taken the opportunities they have been presented with, often things that they can't control - such as their health - and have inspired others, whether they know it or not. Life isn't about how you respond the 83 percent of the time when things are going your way. Life is about how you respond, about how you act, the 17 percent of the time when things aren't going your way. You can plan, but you can't control everything. One thing you can control is your attitude and ability to inspire others as we all have opportunities to do so, born from both positive and negative life experiences. Remember, things could always be worse.

When planning for a year, plant corn. When planning for a decade, plant trees. When planning for life, inspire others by your character and actions in the darkest of times. Inspiration is not always about perspiration. Inspiration is about life. If you think this is about you, you're right. You are inspirational. Keep on inspiring, because someone always is watching and learning from your example.

Inspiration through perspiration. Become active or make a donation to Team 99 Counties or the American Heart Association to help fight heart disease today.

l To make a donation or buy a T-shirt, email Dennis Lee at telcoden@yahoo.com