The Audacity of Thinking Big

The Setup

Last Summer I found myself driving, yet again, from my house in Oxford, MI to a meeting in Cincinnati, OH. This is a routine drive for me and not much changes from trip to trip. If you’re looking for a recommendation on a Starbucks, Chipotle or Panera along the way - I’m your guy.

I typically push through to Bowling Green, OH before taking a break. After reloading on coffee and a stretch of the legs it’s back in the car for a somewhat monotonous three hours or so to Cincy. (Quick aside - If you’re ever making the same trip, do yourself a favor and get off at Exit 142 for a slow-drive through beautiful downton Bluffton. Small town charm at its finest. Keep heading South on the main drag and it will drop you off back on I-75 at Exit 140.)

But on this trip, 12 miles ahead of the Bowling Green exit, I did a double take at the mileage sign which had three lines, Bowling Green 12 - ok, got it; Cincinnati 193 - yup, sounds right; Atlanta 652 - wait, what?!

The Atlanta reference had me puzzled. Had it always been there and for some reason it just stood out to me today? Are there that many people on their way to Atlanta that it’s considered a common enough destination to include on the sign? Seriously, has it always been there?!?

By the time I got to Starbucks 12 miles later I had pretty much chalked it up to being a rational data point, validated by the fact that a government agency had vetted it thoroughly enough to include on a freeway sign, and though nothing more of it.

Until I saw this:

Then I knew the jig was up. Out loud, to myself, in an otherwise empty car, I blurted “TAMPA - ELEVEN HUNDRED AND THREE MILES!” then did what most people don’t really do when they type LOL...I LOL’d.

So, What Gives?

When I got to Cincinnati I did a quick Google search on “Toledo area mileage signs Tampa” and got a link to an article from the Toledo Blade that had the backstory I was looking for. (I’ve got to be honest, I struggled a bit to come up with the search terms that finally returned the Toledo Blade article.)

If you're interested in the nitty-gritty details you can read the article - but here’s the heart of what I was looking for:

“Credit the geography lesson to Chris Waterfield, district traffic engineer at the Ohio Department of Transportation’s district office in Bowling Green, who decided to mix things up a bit — while complying with federal sign guidelines — when he designed new signs five years ago to be erected after I-75’s recent widening south of Perrysburg.

‘This is my attempt at maybe trying to wake you up a little bit, and see something different. I don’t think you need to see the same thing every five miles. I want to make it interesting,’ Mr. Waterfield said.”

I was so happy to see that there was a human being behind these nameless, faceless mileage signs and that he was intentionally trying to wake me up a little bit. Tying the experience I had when I saw these mileage signs back to Chris Waterfield’s specific intent was strangely gratifying and had a big impact on me.

'Strangely' gratifying because I could not figure out why this was having such a lasting impact on me. I thought about it for days and told several people about it.

After having turned this over and over in my head, it came down to this - the audacity of someone having the idea that these signs should exist, then actually taking the actions necessary to make these signs a reality blew me away. It was extremely humbling to see hard evidence of just how big an impact someone can have at scale by taking the right actions, in the right amounts, and at the same time realizing how many opportunities I have missed to do likewise.

My 'Tampa 1103' Moment

So here it goes...

For me, my audacious idea is to qualify for the Boston Marathon. I say audacious because it is literally one of the things I used to use an example of things I could never do, like dunking a basketball, landing a triple-axle or...qualifying for the Boston Marathon.

I've since stopped making the last part of that statement and in the past 8 years I've run 7 marathons - coming within just a few minutes of a Boston qualifying time two years ago. But I have yet to duplicate (or improve upon) that result in the years since. In fact I've gotten considerably slower.

I know the primary issue holding me back, in fact I've known it all along. And until about two months ago I didn't feel motivated to do anything about it. Well, for some reason the switch flipped and now it's game-on.

This picture is me crossing the finish line of the Grand Rapids Marathon last October at right around 4 hours...and 23% body fat. The reason I'm smiling is because I trained for and ran this race so that I could have this experience at the finish line with my son. But despite the smile, I was miserable physically and it was because of my weight. If I am going to qualify for Boston it will be at 12% body fat or less.

That means a goal of cutting my body fat roughly in half between now and June which marks the start of the training season for Fall marathons.

Audacious, perhaps. Like having the audacity to imagine Tampa just over the horizon while driving down the highway in the middle of Ohio. Oh it's there, just up the road a bit. Stay the course and soon your toes will be pressing into the warm, white-sand beaches of Tampa Bay.

I've set the goal in plain sight, for everyone to see -- even you now that you've read this article. Please feel free to check in on me and hold me accountable as the days, weeks and months pass by. I will have an updated body fat reading shortly and will be sure to post for you to see.

If you're on Instagram and want to peak in on the story as it unfolds by all means follow me at matt_weick.

And if you've set an audacious goal for yourself and want to share, I would love to hear all about it!

Matt Weick is an experienced sales professional, novice runner and hack guitar player who is smart enough to know there is still plenty left to learn. Matt started a disk jockey business at 13, accidentally caught a gas station on fire at 16 and sold books door-to-door during college before finally settling into technology sales which continues to be his passion.