The "Butterfly Effect", how just small changes can accumulate with massive effect... the flap of a butterfly's wings might cause a hurricane.
It was the first day of the team running competition among
over one hundred various charities and I felt great about my contribution to
the team, my daily run, which was usually a little over five miles, this day
was 7.5 miles. I felt great almost smug about that contribution. Surely, that
had to be a superior contribution. I
went to our team Facebook page to see how the day was going and it was a flurry
of happy and determined posts of people getting in their miles. Getting in
their miles for our charity Dylan’s
Wings of Change (DWC). Ian Hockley the Executive Director of DWC had lost
his son in the Sandy Hook School shooting and had created programs for school
districts that improve school climate and culture.
Instantly when I looked at our group Facebook page I felt a
breeze and saw that I had to step up my game. I had told Ian that I had been
averaging over 40 miles per week and so could probably get him around 200 miles
for the month, which he seemed happy with. These numbers were the highest I had
ever logged. In the last nine months working from home had allowed me to spend
more time running and not in my car commuting to work. I had maximized my
fitness with the time I had pushed my body to its limits.
I soon found out that sometimes you have to know what your
limits are so that you can exceed and push past them.
That first breeze I felt on day one was the “Butterfly
Effect”. I saw the effort others on the team were putting in and it motivated
me to push a little harder. So the next day I did 8 miles and then on the third
day 8.5 miles. It meant I had to get up earlier and get out the door earlier
but I would do that for the team. A team in which I really only knew one person,
Ian. At the end of day three, I check the team standings to see how we were
doing. There were over hundred teams and each team was comprised of one hundred
runners so one or two strong runners could help but you needed a great effort
by everyone. I had no idea how we would stack up but there on day three we were
in first place!
That first place position I believe started to motivate everyone just a bit more. Everyone’s small increased effort had a larger impact on others. It was the “butterfly effect”. That breeze I had felt on day one, was now a strong gust of wind. Yet I was not running against the wind but it was at my back and the backs of the other runners seemingly lifting our feet to take extra steps for Dylan’s Wing.
I was extremely energized and motivated and wanted to give
more, but how? I only had so much time in the morning and no time at night. Yet I noticed that others were running more
than once a day. I could run a short time on my lunch break. After all, I did
have a treadmill. In all my time of
training for Tough Mudders, Spartan Races, trail races, and ultra-marathons, I
had never really run more than once a day.
I was not sure how my body would react especially since I had increased
my daily run at the same time. Yet with
the “butterfly effect” now pushing me even more I took the plunge and did an
additional 3.3 miles on my treadmill on day five. There was no turning back now
I was going to average over eleven miles a day from here on out.
It was obvious after ten days that I was going to set a
personal record for most miles run in a month, which I did with 345. Yet
despite my tendencies to be self-absorbed, this was about more than me. Others on
the Dylan’s Wing team were also setting personal records and smashing goals.
While the “butterfly effect” was the guiding principle of Dylan’s Wings of
Change, that was more about affecting positive change in our schools and our
youth, not about adults running more.
Yet there is a vital similarity. That is the power of
positivity! Our Facebook page was built on many of the same principles as
Dylan’s Wings used in our schools. It was fun, it was encouraging, it built
connections, and it was a source of positive energy and enthusiasm. It also
built a team.
There were amazing athletes like Michael who did a 200 mile
run, Andy who was averaging over 200 miles a week of running. Please don’t ask me how these feats are done
but they did them. Ka who I believes only eats, sleeps and runs. Whenever she had a free second she went out
and walked or ran. Others such as Kelly, Tee, Robb, Joanna, as well as so many
others were a source of positive energy and they were a lot of fun. Andrew’s posts of his hair made me laugh out loud. There was such energy that getting motivated
to do an extra run or walk was not a chore but a joy. We were running for
Dylan.
I should note it was not just the one hundred runners that
were part of this we actually had three teams though team one was the one that
was expected to log the most miles.
However when team members from team two and three posted about their
extra effort even though they had no shot of winning the prize money, it
motivated me even more. If they could
give for Dylan so could I.
Frankly I could not believe how focused and motivated we all
were. After three weeks we had a pretty
comfortable lead and the only thing that could stop us is if we just eased up
but the opposite happened we all started piling on the miles. Not only were we piling on the miles we were
having a ton of fun sporting our purple clothes in honor of Dylan (Whose
favorite color was purple.) We won the competition going away.
When the competition was over, I have to admit I was a
little sad. I have rarely been so motivated and inspired to give my all than in
this competition and I suspect the others were to. When I signed up for this competition, I was
thinking that I would just do my normal workouts and see how things would
workout. Little did I know that this was a great memorable running experience. While all my miles were logged on solo runs,
I was truly never alone on those journeys.
Everyone on teams 1, 2, and 3 were with me pushing me on.
Yet the biggest lesson from this entire experience is that “Butterfly
Effect” is more powerful than I thought, even virtually. A small word of encouragement in a post, creating
a fun post that brings a smile to ones face, watching others pushing past their
limits, these all start small but their effect is huge. It is something we all should remember that a
small gesture of kindness and encouragement can have an immense impact
especially when many people do it.
Looking back at the competition with other great charities
and able runners who cared as much as we did, I realized that we had an unfair
advantage: we utilized the “Butterfly Effect”!
